Puppy Survival Thread - May

[Doje]

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

We have some days when it’s better but then he goes back to wanting to play bitey fighty. DD was sitting on dining chair, minding her own business and he literally ran across the room and launched himself at her arm because he wanted to play with her 🤦‍♀️Luckily she’s very good with him but he is such a menace at times!

Gosh it’s a wonder anyone ever gets second puppies they are such a nightmare !

I was on an earlier puppy thread and it’s reassuring to read others with teenagers now also having arrhhh days. Our pup was one last week, and oh boy she’s been a real pickle at times over the last month. Lots of puppy behaviour coming back that had long finished, then moments of fantastic training a real mixed bag. Walking on lead or harness has been really challenging lots of pulling again but off lead she’s still really good. I’ve had to go back to finding different chew toys again inc. cows hooves 🤮 pizzle stick, indestructible rubber balls, kong feeder wobbler, licki mats are frozen now, and enforced naps in her crate again to cope with trying to work from home. Plus we’ve had the return of evening zoomies again. Which are more scary this time as she’s a lot bigger! Luckily no ankle biting (yet), that finished around 4-5mths as others said. It’s still hard work but then we get really lovely moments with her and we have moved the baby gate to the bottom of the stairs now so she has free reign of downstairs & ignores stuff the kids accidentally leave lying around which a few months ago I couldn’t see happening.

@user1471453601 I think you might be right. I have an 8 month old cocker spaniel (so high energy) and she is only out for about an hour a day, plus potters about the garden in between times. Two long walks plus 4-5 hours outdoors must be exhausting for everyone!

The ankle biting feels like a distant memory to me! It really does pass.

user to help halt the zoomies we’ve tried doing a bit of quiet focused training, sit, lie down, wait commands. That’s helped break the manic bit. Or a licking toy or licki mat which calm her down. Or we just leave the room and give her 1-2mins only and calmly re-enter. Most of the time she then collapses on the sofa asleep like a clockwork toy that’s run out of energy!

@user1471453601 yes I would agree it's over tiredness. That sounds a lot for 10 months! Would he lie down and rest on the allotment? Maybe he just needs another nap in the day to stop him being exhausted or shorter walks? Ours is a WCS and between 9 and 10 months so like a Duracell bunny but that day would really tire him out!

@Turquoisesol She's 13 weeks. Do you think it might be prime ankle biting age? Really hoping it stops. Am waiting for the puppy trainer to get back to me about scheduling a one to one class. Hope she has some good tips!

I went to a horrible puppy class last night that was really badly run and came home super stressed 🙁

Sorry to hear that turquoise, dh and I went to one so badly run we walked out mid session. They didn't seem to know what they were doing and super rude when asked anything and only listened/helped certain people. We found a new one run by lovely people and ddog loved it.

We are all tired this morning, ddog and dpup1 are cuddled up together and dpup2 is entertaining herself with a toy.

We spent the first 20 minutes with trainer telling us a spcheil about how great their methods were. I have a high energy dog and she just couldn’t sit still for that length of time. It was like torture and we felt like the failures of the class 🙁

That does sound bad, 20 mins is a long time in one session to be doing nothing. I'd have been annoyed by that and mine aren't high energy but would play up if we waited that long for instruction.

Thanks for all the teenager solidarity @HappyThursdays @familychallenge @tabulahrasa @Petalpup @happypuppymummy @Doje! Glad to know it's normal and not because we're doing something wrong! That's a good point that most rehoming happens at this age, I hadn't thought about that but has really put it into perspective for me.

So true about the questioning yourself too - one minute I'm questioning if we've tired him out too much, the next minute I'm questioning if we're not doing enough with him.

@Turquoisesol thanks for the book recommendation, will have a look for that and yes I've joined that Facebook page.

@Plantlover23 Sparklepup hates his harness. Fine once he has it on but runs away from us when he sees it. Tried all the tips so no advice sorry!

@Turquoisesol my DH had a similar experience at a “well respected” puppy class. They literally had to just sit there for a whole Hour and be talked at!! He managed 3/5 sessions as it didn’t get much more better. He was more peed off as if the guy had actually said your going to be talked at with minimal practical application allowed in the lesson he wouldn’t have gone at all. He’s going to try a different group next week which said up front the first 20mins we let all puppies play, then 15mins instructions then 15mins practice plus Q&A much more sensible surely! Our teenage pup needs the socialising play bit as it’s been hard getting that in a safe environment. Hope you can find a better class for you.

Triseaswim99 yes I wasn’t impressed at all. I won’t go back. I would have walked out if I wasn’t too embarrassed/polite. Then the socialising bit at the end involved lots of food scattered on the floor for the puppies to eat while they socialised. But that didn’t work either as my pup just got grumpy with the other pups as she wanted all the food to herself

There is no way I could have kept sushipup calm and happy for a 20 minute speil in a strange environment with strange people and dogs around. Sounds so stressful!

Yes I am kind of fuming about it today to be honest and thinking I should have just walked out. Feel bad I put my pup through it 🙁

Don’t feel bad. I’d have done exactly the same - not wanted to make a fuss and then fumed and written and angry email later or the next day 🤦‍♀️

Haha - written an angry email then chickened out of sending it is probably my style !

@Sparkle79 “So true about the questioning yourself too - one minute I'm questioning if we've tired him out too much, the next minute I'm questioning if we're not doing enough with him. ”

^this really resonates with me. When HummusPup is being a pain in the bum (daily at the moment ) - I can never tell whether it’s overtiredness or boredom.

Logically I think it’s almost always overtiredness but my perpetual guilty conscience is always saying boredom! Or I worry we don’t do enough training etc

I really didn’t think I’d still be second guessing myself so much at 7.5 months!!

@Turquoisesol don’t feel too bad there’s absolutely no way we could keep our puppy calm around so many distractions for that long!! At first I was disappointed all our training was over Zoom but actually I think it worked really well as we could actually concentrate and listen, then go away and practise. I think in person would have been much more stressful and we wouldn’t have taken so much on board.

I did hear that some trainers have been so impressed with how zoom training has gone that they are planning to continue it.

Yes we are constantly second guessing it too. My pup is fairly sleepy during the day the. Crazy all evening. Dh has been saying maybe I need to do more with her during the day so we get a peaceful evening. But I am not sure it works like that. If anything I think I almost do too much with her as she is still very young and I do two 20-30 minutes walks most days.

My turn for a crisis of confidence today. Dpup is still having trouble going to sleep. He's fine during the evening until we want to go to sleep and then he whines for hours. He slept 12-12.40am then started whining. I came down to 'sleep' on the sofa last night and he was chomping on his bed and then chewing his coffee wood stick (until I took it from him) for an hour!

Those of you that don't have their pups in their rooms (I think this would solve it, but DH is adamant he wants to keep our room for us) do they just put their pups in their bed and then leave?! Is it possible?! Dpup snoozes on and off from about 7.30pm - is that unusual? I wonder if he's had too much sleep my midnight he gets a second wind.

Any and all advice welcome!!!!

I don't know how old pup is @Doje but Happy also started doing that a month or so ago whereas before then he was sleeping through. He started to wake up and bark in the middle of the night. I think he's suddenly become a lot more aware and alert so is getting disturbed. I don't know if that's the case for @doje pup? If it's whining rather than barking, could he be in pain? Or is it totally alleviated when you turn up?

@HappyThursdays I think we're a month or two behind you - he's 6.5 months, so sounds similar. He quietens down when I come down to him, but he didn't fall asleep quickly, he took an hour or so. He does a chompy thing on his bed which is a self soothing thing I think, which could mean he's still anxious?

My kids slept through the night at 10 weeks, but this puppy has beaten me!!