Puppy Survival Thread - May

[Doje]

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

At about 7 months both girls suddenly started to wake up and bark in the night do we had to go back down and resettle them. It took a few weeks but then they slept fine again. I think like toddlers they go through stages.

@Doje I'm sure someone else was experiencing similar, it might have been towards the end of the last thread. A few of us recognised that they have a sort of sweet spot for bedtime and as you say if they've had too much sleep they get a second wind. (May actually have been you that was having the issue?) Can you try adjusting your routine so he is awake a bit later in the evenings? Or even go to bed a bit earlier and read/watch TV upstairs? I know it's a pest though if you're not ready for bed. Ours starts to snooze from about half 8 so a bit later, and we tend to go up to bed about 11 and leave her. It definitely is possible to leave them to sleep, she gets woken up for last wee and when she comes in she runs into her crate. You can actually see the relief cos she's so tired and ready for bed. The only other thing I could think of is doing more through the day to make him more tired, but depending on the dog that could backfire

We had our 'coming out of lockdown' Zoom training last night and I have to say, pup smashed it. She was so impressive. Let's see if she can actually manage to focus outside though, that's the real challenge. It's always easy in the house.

@ashmts, yeah I think that was me on the other thread. 🙈 It got a little better, but then worse in the last week. The problem is that DH goes to bed much later than me, and it feels mean making him go to bed much earlier. But then he's not the one up at 1am, so perhaps I need to be more insistent. My gut tells me he needs to go to bed earlier, so just need to trust that instinct I think.

Well done to you and your pup on the training catch up! It's nice when you can be so proud of them, isn't it!

@Doje Oh 100% be mean, either DH tries going to bed earlier or he gets up with the dog when it barks. It's only fair. It's probably just a phase too and will be temporary, we went through a week or so of something similar and she just got over it all of a sudden.

So nice! Her doggy daycare owner is doing the class too as he has a one year old dog and sometimes she can be a wee ratbag at daycare I think (not his words! He is very kind when talking about her challenges) so it was nice that he got to see how good she can be. We'll get there.

@Doje yes like @GooodMythicalMorning we had to keep going down except it took Happy 2 seconds to figure out that if he rushed past us quickly, because we were so tired in the middle of the night, he could get up to our room without us realising! so we left the door open for a few nights but he got over excited going back and forth between our room and downstairs. Then it suddenly stopped. But he did do it again last week! Weirdly he only does it at my place (in town) and not at all at dp's (in the countryside) but mine is far far noisier. Next time he is here, I think I'm going to leave the radio on quiet! Like you say, sleep training kids feels like a doddle compared to this!

Happy had his training today and he managed to sit outside on his own with the sheep and not react to them. It's such a leap forward for us! We have to practise more sitting and not reacting to the surroundings outside for the next few weeks.

@ashmts great news on the training !

Happythursdays do you have a collie? I am intrigued why you needed to sit and not react to sheep?

@HappyThursdays Thanks, you too! That's very impressive. How are you training him to not react? Is it like a settle?

@Turquoisesol dp lives very very rurally (i'm in London) and he is surrounded by farms. It's pretty critical that Happy can learn to be completely obedient on command outside. The trainer herself lives on a farm (she trains working cockers for them to work) and has sheep and also trains falconry dogs so Happy is going through the working dog training but we're doing at a slower pace. One of the tests is that they can sit outside and not be distracted (he's not there yet at all but he's getting there!). 3 weeks ago, he wasn't managing it well inside but it's extraordinary how much more progress we've made with a breed focused trainer. His first lot of training pre lockdown was a disaster (in a hall with other dogs) and we gave up after 2 sessions as he wasn't learning anything and was just distracting everyone else so it's a relief we've found someone he clicks with. I was honestly starting to think we had an untrainable dog!

@ashmts yes exactly like a settle but he just never managed that properly when he was younger so it's like starting all over again from scratch with that

Makes such a difference when you get the right trainer

Can I join you please? Slightly anxious excitement sitting drinking my coffee. Fore setting off to pick up puppy fir the first time.

I've been lurking for ages and know it's going to be tough.

Looking forward to joining in.

@palindromeam good luck picking up the new puppy!

@HappyThursdays really interesting about the training. We were going to be doing outside training just our family and the trainer (and pup of course!), which I was really looking forwards to. But because of restrictions easing training will be in the village hall now. Feels like a totally different kettle of fish and am a bit apprehensive about it. Excited too, but outside with her focussing entirely on us would have been great.

@HappyThursdays Mine was exactly the same, she was pretty quick at picking up training that involved doing something (e.g. hand targets, recall) but absolutely useless at anything that involved staying still, so duration sits or settles. She's definitely improving as she gets a bit older. I found it so annoying when people talked about other puppies being 'well-behaved' or 'so well-trained' just because they flopped down and didn't run about. Mine isn't naughty or untrained, she's just excitable. Finding the right trainer makes such a difference, we have our last face to face training session today and it's been pretty rubbish (we're only going cos it's paid for) but the Zoom trainer has been fantastic.

@ilovesushi Is it still private training or will it be group now? I'm sure you could find a one to one trainer if that's what you want. I wouldn't actually worry about it being indoors, it's usually easier to practise the behaviour indoors first and then take it outside to increase distractions once pup has got the idea. My experience has been that classes are good but most progress comes from homework and practising over and over and over in different places.

@palindromeam How exciting! What kind of puppy are you getting? Good luck

@palindromeam Don't forget the pic - it's the joining fee

He's home. Aussie labradoodle.

Oh he's beautiful! We also have an Aussie - he's 12 weeks now, and such a lovely pup.

Just jumping into this new thread, have fallen behind! Weepup is almost 6 months now. Our garden is done now so the toilet training relapse seems to have sorted itself thankfully! What does everyone do with their pups when working at home? We still have ours in a playpen but I’m wondering if we should ditch it now and just see what happens...I fear she may run riot though!

Oh my @palindromeam so cute!!

@WeeM we just confine him to the room we're working in (take turns working downstairs). As long as he has a couple of walks he's generally ok mooching about.

I'm a bit addicted to buying dog beds so he has a few scattered about to choose from!

@palindromeam oh so sweet that face, I hope he settles in well.
@WeeM our one year old just hangs out in the room we are working in. We have moved the baby gate to the stairs now so I have to remember to shut the other downstairs doors if she’s in a fisty zoomie mood.
She normally prefers to be near me or DH but occasionally will wander off to watch the street out the front window from the sofa. We still use her crate for day time downtime or long zoom work calls with a kong if needed.

@WeeM we give Dpup free roam of the kitchen, hallway and landing. I work in the kitchen, but DH is upstairs in the office. He basically wanders between the sunny spots! He likes the stairs in the morning, hallway about noon, and kitchen for the afternoon! 😁

Welcome @palindromeam!

Just took PoirotPup out and bumped into friends with their dog and ended up being out for over an hour. It’s soft ground but totally got the guilt that I’ve ruined his legs for life as it was too long for him... 🤦‍♀️ He obvs had the time of his life and is now fast asleep...

@palindromeam Thank you. He's beautiful - such lovely colouring

@WeeM I work in the kitchen extension all day and sushipup generally sleeps most of the time in the same room. She has various cushions and vets beds placed around and she flops on those. I do a little bit of training with her in the garden at lunchtime. Sometimes she goes out and has a potter in the garden on her own. She is fine daytime but can get bitey and OTT in the evening.