Puppy Survival Thread - May

[Doje]

Starting May off! If someone could link I'd appreciate it....

Can I mark my place? 2 more sleeps and our puppy comes home! I’ve posted a couple of comments in other threads but not been about much, it’s suddenly feeling very real! I’m so nervous. Excited, but I want to be w good dog owner! 😬

Halti’s tighten round their face, as in they’re designed to do that to give an adversity effect to stop pulling.

You get headcollars that don’t tighten, just sit there - but I can tell you from experience that controlling a dog’s head doesn’t actually control where it looks. You just end up wrestling.

We've just got back from the vet, having AwesomePup's first jabs. He did brilliantly, sitting calmly on my knee in the waiting room, then lay down and let the vet do her thing. A steady stream of treats worked well to keep him helped keep him distracted. The only time he looked a bit worried was when an older lab puppy came and baked at him excitedly. AwesomePup pretty much tried to climb over my shoulder to get further away.

Tabularasa that’s interesting about the head collar and I am kind of glad to hear. I wasn’t sure if it worth getting her used to one when she is young or not but sounds like I won’t bother

We actually had a bit of a revelation the other day with putting her lead on. If I stood over her and tried to grab collar to put lead on she was duck away and not let me. It was very frustrating and I found myself almost chasing her. Then I found if I sat on a chair she would happily come and sit next to me and let me put the lead on!

@Turquoisesol

Tabularasa that’s interesting about the head collar and I am kind of glad to hear. I wasn’t sure if it worth getting her used to one when she is young or not but sounds like I won’t bother

I wouldn’t bother... headcollars can be useful for specific things, but they don’t replace training.

My last dog wore one, double ended lead, one end in the head collar, one on his harness combined with a muzzle - so I had his entire front end controlled because he was 40kg of dog and stranger hating Rottie, not a chance I could have controlled where he looked though, lol... would have been a lot easier if that worked. He knew look at me, but obviously it’s a different story when they’re over threshold.

@Plantlover23 we had terrible trouble keeping pugpup off the sofa, he was so sleepy from when I collected him at tea time till about 3pm then next day. He staggered over to me from his pen and promptly jumped onto the sofa! I just tried to limit it as much as possible. For the 3rd day he seemed so normal then was more irritable on day 4 and 5, after that he was fine but I was told no off lead for well over 2 weeks for him. He never goes far off lead anyway as is so clingy so I don't think it would have been an issue for him.

We had a few toileting issues with him for the first couple of weeks, not sure why but he wee'd in the house a couple of times and also on our bed when half asleep. All seems fine now though.

He is definitely marking less and not trying to bite and hump my feet anymore. He is not really calmer, he is still barking a lot, he gets so anxious every time anyone leaves (whether he knows them or not), it is frustrating and embarassing. He really panics and its so sad to see.

@PugInTheHouse you’re giving me optimism thank you!! The sofa is definitely my biggest problem, I had her on lead in the house most of Tuesday after she got home and yesterday but after this morning she was starting to get so frustrated it didn’t feel fair Which has just meant it’s ultimately impossible to stop her with the sofa. I’ve taken the cushions off and put them on the floor so it’s less of a height at least. She seems so normal and mostly herself today that she’s just behaving as she normally does which is making it really difficult all round!

Billy went out for his first walk today and loved it. He loved meeting other dogs with their owners’ permission and people and was most offended when 2 men walked past without stroking him 😂.

Guys, is it unrealistic to go to a barbeque with a 4 month old puppy? Do you think it is manageable or is it crazy to even try? Does anyone have any tips?

@Turquoisesol how many people will be there? We had a BBQ with another family in our garden and Billy loved it (especially the sausages 😉) I think the main thing to think about when visiting someone else’s house is where can he go to sleep/ have some time out?

There will be about 10 people in total. Yes not sure where she would sleep I guess car would be too hot.

I would take HightidePup but I know I wouldn’t really be able to socialise or relax properly as she would be on the constant hunt for food to steal and would need watching like hawk even on lead. But she a classic food obsessed Labrador. She’s also 4 months and went to a garden gathering the other day and did settle at times, but not for long so did get over tired and bitey. I think it was so much stimulation she couldn’t switch off.

I am kind of thinking even if it’s a bit of a disaster it’s good to do these things? So they can get used to them and learn how to behave eventually? Or maybe she is just too young and we should leave it a few months

We had people round for a barbeque the other day including another dog and small children. Our pup knew the dog already and they were great together and even went and flopped under a lounger close to each other.
The small child was harder to manage as she kept shrieking when the dog came near and waving her hands around, which of course looked to pup like the makings of a great game. I found that incredibly stressful keeping them apart. I kept having to pop her back on the lead which was a pain but I didn't want to risk the child getting nipped.
If I did it again, I would set some clear ground rules for the kids to help them understand what does and doesn't work with puppies. Obviously as host I could get away with it.

Ok. Children are all over age 10 so that helps. But even then they can still be a little Over enthusiastic I find. Ideally I kind of want everyone to pretty much ignore puppy, but obviously that’s unrealistic!

@Turquoisesol I've just PMed you the details of our trainer after your post on the other thread. I really recommend getting in touch with her, we've done her puppy class, advanced class, and just completed a class to get our lockdown puppies used to the non-lockdown world. She has great insights on questions like yours and it's so useful to be able to run these things past a professional. We're in a slightly different situation to you as when my pup was 4 months old we were in total lockdown so we're having to get her used to these situations at an older age. How many public places/group gatherings has your pup been to? I mean like beer gardens, restaurants etc rather than parks? Does she have a strong 'settle' command? Is she likely to eat any dropped food? Or worse, try to steal food?

We've had to start slowly and build up, so we took her to a beer garden for an hour but purely as a training exercise. We ordered Cokes, took loads of treats, sat far away from everyone and just tried to get her used to the environment. That first time we could not have gone to socialise or enjoy ourselves - the focus had to be on her 100% of the time. Depends on the dog though cos one of the dogs in the class was very chilled and could sit next to the table and sleep from day 1. Mine's just a nosy nutcase so it depends what your dog is like too. Personally I probably wouldn't take him to a barbecue yet if you're wanting to enjoy yourself. If you're wanting to go just to see how he gets on with the knowledge you might have to leave after 10 minutes (I've been there), then maybe it's worth a try.

Thanks ashmts your trainer looks great. We ha ent done much time out at restaurants etc yet. We actually just tried that at a coffee shop today and it worked fairly well. She was tied to the table though so couldn’t get up to mischief and had a long walk before so she did mostly settle while I had my cake. I think I need to keep doing lots of these things and practising with her

Morning. Apparently I now start my day at 5:30am . AwesomePup got up needing a wee at 4, then took ages to settle again, then woke me up at 5:30 needing a poo and breakfast. So now, at a time I rarely see on a Saturday, I've already had quite a full morning and it's time to settle down to watch TV while puppy naps.

🤣🤣🤣 welcome to puppy parenting @MsAwesomeDragon!

DH and I joke that our time together is now 5.30-7.30 in the morning as opposed to evenings due to older children not going to bed at 7 and puppy getting up early!

I’m holding onto the fact it’s summer, light and telling myself it will be better by winter 🤣

There is hope for mornings! Plantpup has got to the stage where she mostly sleeps when I sleep (apart from our little post-spay medication side effects blip) We both got up at 9am today! Not sure if it’s an age thing or a routine thing as this is how weekends normally go but there is hope!

Thanks @Plantlover23 that is good to hear!

@Plantlover23

There is hope for mornings! Plantpup has got to the stage where she mostly sleeps when I sleep (apart from our little post-spay medication side effects blip) We both got up at 9am today! Not sure if it’s an age thing or a routine thing as this is how weekends normally go but there is hope!

That's great!! I'm NOT a morning person so this week of before 6am starts have killed me, especially since I'm on holiday from work so would normally stay in bed til about 10 now my kids are older. I think I could cope with 6am, but 5:30am still feels like the middle of the night 😩

A bloody magpie just came into the garden and stole PoirotPup’s yaks milk chew… and it was a fairly new one!!!! PoirotPup just very confused as to where it is and started digging where he’d left it 🤣🤦‍♀️ Despite having watched!!!

I feel your pain with the early starts. I am questioning why I got a dog just at an age when my kids now allow me to have a lie in bed! 15 more years of early starts for us now!