Puppy Survival Thread - May

[Doje]

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

Oh that sounds really difficult @MrsHerculePoirot. Your poor son. I found it stressful today, it’s not easy. When we saw them last week the dogs were outside and the older one went in and we distracted our pup with play and she didn’t take long to settle down and leave the older dog alone. But today due to rain and restrictions lifting in Wales the dogs were inside and hightide pup was relentless. We tried to put the older dog in another room but she got sad and started to bark so I put pup on the lead and tried to do training with her. Took ages but she eventually calmed down with the older dog out of sight. By as soon as I let the lead go she was off to hunt her down again!. I’m just not sure why she is not responding to being told off by the older dog. She’s had some vigorous barking and air snapping thrown her way but she doesn’t let up. She obviously needs to learn some manner but not sure how to teach her!

@Plantlover23 The recovery from spaying was nowhere near as bad as I had anticipated. The first couple of days are easy cos they're quite dozy from the anaesthetic. Mine had an upset tummy so was getting scrambled egg for a few days. Once her tummy settled and we could give her treats and puzzle toys it got easier again. I've got a few Nina Ottoson toys so she got breakfast in one of them or a snuffle mat and Kongs or snack snakes to get her through the day. She seemed to feel her normal self quite quickly so it was challenging to stop her bouncing about. The short sniffy walks did help more than I expected. You'll be fine, the thought is worse than the reality. I was amazed how well she coped without her normal exercise.

@ashmts thats helped put my mind at rest too. hoping our bouncy girl is ok after.

Oh and I realise btw that not barking at my DP is not a normal puppy issue, rofl.

But in case anyone missed it in the previous threads - he’s a rescue who I got 8 weeks ago at 5 months having never lived in a house and I was aware he’d have extra issues on top of puppy ones and was prepared for those...but he has more than I was led to believe - the big one being a very extreme fear of men.

So it’s been a very hard long 8 weeks and while they’re only tiny steps forward it feels bigger because at last it feels like maybe he might actually get past it.

Which is why I’m going, woohoo at such little things, lol

@RedLem0ns we've had a mixed experience with toilet training, wish we'd never used pads because of the mixed messaging. Thought we'd cracked it then at about 5 months it took a step back. I started using a toilet & food tracking app at that point Puppy Potty log which predicts when your puppy is likely to need to go. We found it quite useful, thankfully at 7 months Legopup is back to going outside only - phew!

@RedLem0ns pugpup uses a bell at the back door, he uses it to go out to play in the garden also but I can usually tell the difference as he will do it over and over again if he desperately needs the toilet. I don't mind if he rings it to go out to play, it's quite nice that he can let us know that also. He started using the bell at about 15 weeks I think.

We have lots going on in the house so it is really handy.

We had exactly the same experience as you @legosnowqueen we had no choice but to use pads but we didn't really transistion him properly, we thought as he was so good at taking himself to the pad we had at the back door we'd be able to just put it outside and within a few goes he'd just go outside. Weirdly he did it for poos straight away but we just went backwards with wees. We used the potty log app also which was helpful esp at recognising where the worst times were but just going back to basics by putting him out all the time as well as reducing to 2 meals a day was what worked. I think we were sorted by about 24/25 weeks in the end.

@tabulahrasa woohoo for not barking at dp! I can imagine how much of a victory this must feel like!

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I’ve downloaded the puppy potty app so will give that a go. I thought he was quite reliably going every two hours but he peed inside today about 20 mins earlier than anticipated so I think it will be worthwhile keeping an eye on his water intake too.

I might try a bell. Both because he doesn’t make a peep to let us know he needs to go out (even if he did there’s no guarantee we’d hear with all the noise from the DC) and also because it sounds so cute!

it took quite a long time to train Happy (toilet wise) but he did eventually click. Just to give people hope, and what I had completely forgotten about dogs, is that you can think everything you are doing is making no difference whatsoever and then one day, it's like it just clicks and they start doing exactly what you've been training the whole time. So if any of you are feeling despondent, don't give up because the consistency of what you're doing will eventually make a difference!

@celestebellman some of them really don't like the rain. I remember me and @PugInTheHouse standing in the rain under an umbrella trying to wait for our pups to do wees in the depths of winter lol! Happy still doesn't like the blowing wind though he'll never turn down a walk in the rain. In fact, it's sometimes the best time to train him as it takes the edge off his excitement! One thing to look out for if they don't like the rain is the noise the cars make when it's wet if you're in a busy area. That sometimes freaks them out a bit if they aren't that happy with the rain already!

Can I ask advice on what you do when you have to leave your puppy? I solo parent when my DH works away every other week so I find it hard not to leave the puppy
Sometimes. Today I had to leave in her crate for 30 mins as I had my vaccine and then another half an hour while I did stories. I’ve left her before but she has been tired and slept fine but today both times she was wide awake. Just discovered she did a wee in her crate. Both times I put her in she had only just been so I wonder if it was more of a stress wee??

Not sure what else I can do? If I leave her free she chews things she shouldn’t and if I leave her in the garden I worry about her get stolen or herself into trouble. I thought they really didn’t like going where they sleep so it suggests to me a stress wee. As she has done the same on the floor when I’ve popped into the garden and left her in the house. Other times she seems totally chilled and she’s not one to follow me at all times so not classic separation anxiety. Any advice?

I haven’t had to leave our pup yet but I’m building up to it by leaving to room every so often throughout the day- sometimes just for a minute, sometimes longer. I keep it casual and don’t make a fuss when I reappear.

He’s starting to just let me off with it rather than being hyper-alert about me flitting in and out, so I think we’re on the right track.

He’s also finally figured out the point of kongs so I’m hoping that’ll buy me some more time in the coming days! I think it’s just desensitising them to it day by day really.

Appreciate that’s not always possible when you have to go somewhere for a period of time but I think you could still be working away on getting him used to you leaving all the while?

There's lots of games you can play to build up their confidence to be left. I think ultimately start slowly and spend time flitting and playing games, leaving and coming straight back etc.

I can't talk, we haven't left Georgiepup yet, we've arranged our lives around him which isn't great either. He goes to doggy daycare once a week which gives us a little freedom.

Did any of you guys have sleep regression around 5 months? He was reliably going around 10-6 since 12 weeks and recently till 7/7.30, but in the last week or so he's in random nights waking us up in the middle of the night for toilet.

Yes we did. I think the toilet thing can be either they've woken up because they need a wee, or more likely at that age, they need a wee because they've woken up.

We changed his sleep situation at 5.5 months. We stopped using the crate as he just got too big. Considered getting a bigger one but trialled him out of it and it worked well. He enjoys stretching out and moving around to find a cool spot.

Just catching up! Not been on for ages as I think I'm having a second wave of the puppy blues. Is that a thing? Feel totally overwhelmed by all that we still need to train him on, and a bit like a failure when it comes to puppy parenting. He reduced me to tears at the park today because he kept attacking the lead. I keep wondering if we made a mistake and he'd be happier on a farm where he can herd because that was what he was bred for and I feel so guilty for depriving him of sheep.

@Sparkle79 I think it totally is- maybe the point where we realise it's a marathon not a sprint?! I read that the teenage years are when most puppies get rehomed so you are definitely not alone! I confess the realisation that as the world reopens I will have to make plans for me and my pup to live in it, which is a bit of a change! I also suspect adolescence and the fact that you see behaviour regressions at this point play a big part. I'm sure your dog is happy with you and your family, he's just a bratty teenager who wants to do his own thing! I still think it's a bit like parenting- if you are worried if you are doing it right you are probably half way there!

yes I agree @Sparkle79 and as @familychallenge says, this is when dogs are at most risk of being rehomed. I can see why! We can't let Happy off lead at all at the moment and last night, I took him out for a last wee and a wheelchair v suddenly came out of a doorway and clattered in front of him and almost caught his foot and he absolutely howled and he is a (normally) v confident puppy. He then would not walk home as he was shaking so much and when we got back, he cried and cried and shook for ages and would not stop barking every time he heard a leaf pass the window and then would not go to bed! These teenage years are hard and they are bigger and as you say, people are definitely judging you more because they are bigger dogs and no longer sweet puppies. There is so much to try and get right and so many 'bad' things that can go wrong, it can feel overwhelming.

@Sparkle79 have you tried a breed specific trainer? One thing that has made a huge difference is going to a working cocker specific trainer as she's seen it all before. It was actually v comforting!

@Sparkle79

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/4235097-Please-somebody-tell-me-that-puppy-s-grow-out-of-playing-tug-of-war-with-lead

And teenage puppies are equally as horrible as tiny ones, just in a different way.

Mine was a brat yesterday and I don’t think it’s coincidence that he also started trying to cock his leg.

Though the nearly over balancing as he lifted his leg and stretched it out as far as he could like some sort of weird yoga pose was almost amusing enough to forget how horrible he was all day.

@Sparkle79. Lots of good advice in the lead thread @tabulahrasa linked above. I’m sure it’s just teenage angst

Petal is being a pain digging on walks. She can’t resist a mole hill and there are hundreds. Sometimes I can distract or recall but once she gets going she doesn’t stop until dragged away. Yesterday I called her, she looked and then carried on digging so I walked on a bit and hid behind a bush. She looked up again, saw I’d gone and just went back to her hole! Little madam.

@tabulahrasa its so funny when they first start cocking their leg and are all unbalanced, pugpup used to cock his leg so far up he was completely stretched out sideways so would pee straight forwards. He still does it quite dramatically now Do you know why they start cocking their leg to wee? Just seems such an odd thing to do. Very occasionally he will still squat if he wants to mark a piece of grass.

@PugInTheHouse I think they're meant to spray the wee to mark so they can aim a bit more if they cock a leg lol. Londonpup now 5 months still not cocked a leg though...

Thanks @LondonPupMum it's weird how their brains tell them they want to do that though, pugpup does love to mark everything, peoples legs, bags and every single lamp post on a walk!

@PugInTheHouse the pug who lives next door is exactly the same I was walking down to the garden last week and he saw me, started barking then marked his owners clothes horse

@LondonPupMum I think they are trying to make up for their size haha!