Puppy Survival Thread - June/July

[MrsHerculePoirot]

Discussion of all things puppy...

Old thread here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/4234193-puppy-survival-thread-may?msgid=108567452

Smell= lots of fresh air and a home carpet cleaner with odour neutralise

Travelers agree drive to walk and watch pup like a hawk

Drive to walk, or just don’t walk for now. Don’t know if you know anyone nearby you could walk with. We had a very high profile dog theft near us during the first lockdown - which has meant I’ve never walked PoirotPup alone other than literally up and down my road. I know I’m probably very paranoid but I’d rather just play in garden or make lots of sniffy enrichment games or something!

Definitely drive to walk. We've had a big traveller group stop nearby recently. Spates of Irish guys trying intimidation of dog walkers and attempts to snatch dogs.

Flipping heck, I thought I was good running 5k never mind a marathon 😂.

Billy has been a bit of a PITA for the past few days. He was a nightmare at puppy training last night and half way through decided he was going home 🙈. DH’s very expensive sunglasses fell on the floor and Billy scratched the lenses by trying to steal them off to chew (not really his fault as they were in the floor but still gutting!), then when we were playing fetch he jumped up at me and scratched my leg from the top of my (short) shorts right down to my knee 😭. I’m sure there’s other things but I’ve tried to block them out!

@Spudlet Mine isn't for a while - it's next year's London Marathon. It seemed too good an opportunity to turn down as I know some people wait for years for a place.

Yes, it's so hard for kids with ASD to adjust. DS is going into Year 11, and it's still challenging. He did come for a walk with pup and me earlier, which went very well, so that's progress. He's getting more used to her as she's somewhat calmer now - she's five months.

Thanks @Spudlet that's good advice. It's easy to forget as they get older that you still need to keep repeating and training!

Stupid question alert

I'm planning lots of socialisation trips with FawkesPup once he's here. I've got a Kenyan kikoy that I can make a sling with and carry him.

However....um....how do you do the whole toileting thing during these trips? Dog obvs, not me 🤣

Good to read how everyone is getting on.

Nordpup had a crazy busy day yesterday visiting local villages and towns. On the one hand it was lovely that she got to meet so many dogs and people, but it was a bit much I think. It's impossible to ask her to behave calmly greeting people when every few steps somebody swoops down/stops to chat or ask to stroke her! Going to have a quieter one today I think.

Ds was an absolute nightmare out and about...refusing to get out of the car and walk with us with puppy on a lead. We basically had to spilt into 2 groups when walking around. Strangely he has been more willing to be brave inside when she isn't on a lead. Agreeing to come and stroke her and sitting in the living room with her when she's resting. He gets hysterical if we are out walking though.

Guy the trick is don't be out too long. Also line the bag with a wee pad (human not dog so there's no enticing pee-here smell).

Nord would ds choose another lead for her if you took him to a pet shop? Might that help if there's something about the lead or lead walking that is concerning to him

Hello all! We are a few days in. Pink pup will happily do his business in the garden but will also go to the toilet on the carpet. Has completely gone off puppy pads, ignores them completely. Is that normal? He was using them a lot on the first day. Many thanks!

@GinPink

Hello all! We are a few days in. Pink pup will happily do his business in the garden but will also go to the toilet on the carpet. Has completely gone off puppy pads, ignores them completely. Is that normal? He was using them a lot on the first day. Many thanks!

I think maybe you should ditch the puppy pads altogether. Focus on him going in the garden and give loads of praise.

You will have accidents in the house too (maybe for quite some time) but just calmly clean them up and don’t draw attention to them.

It will get less frequent in the house, but it is so draining to be constantly cleaning up accidents!

Good luck

Thanks @Babana123

Spudpup has definitely got the bounce to get on the sofa now. We lured him off with treats last night but of course it didn’t take long before he realised that this was an excellent game. So we have taken his bed out of the car and put it into the living room, and encouraged him to settle there. He managed this once he’d come through the witching hour last night, and today we did a behaviour shaping session with the clicker to get him onto it. DS was in the room and did very well at not panicking when Spudpup got onto the sofa with him - just occasional heart rending cries of ‘Spudpuuuuuuuup!’ as his toes were sniffed. And Spudpup seemed to get the idea that the bed is the place to be for the sweeties - he’s a clever little pup. He’s now asleep on the kitchen floor again (a bed is available!) while DS and I chill out in front of CBeebies.

Hoping all the sweeties won’t send his tummy mad - I used some of his usual food, but also some hotdog sausage and some dried chicken fillet cut up very small. It’s a lot of rich food for a puppy, but it’s a good motivator… 🤷‍♀️ We’re off to the vets for a weigh in and some wormer later, so I’ll ask them about condition scoring him and how much food he should be getting. I’m pretty good with adult dogs but I’m not so sure about puppies. The last thing I want to do is over feed him, that would be terrible for his joints.

Second lot of jabs done today, I'm not sure she even noticed to be honest!

Hoping all the sweeties won’t send his tummy mad - I used some of his usual food, but also some hotdog sausage and some dried chicken fillet cut up very small. It’s a lot of rich food for a puppy, but it’s a good motivator…

We're using some of her daily kibble allowance for treats but sometimes it's just not interesting enough! But it's difficult to know how much to reduce kibble by if using some e.g. chicken for training. She's growing and changing shape so fast it's difficult to judge by eye. We're weighing weekly at the moment and she's been putting on around 800-900g a week which seems about right so hopefully I'm balancing treats and kibble ok.

Good to hear what everyone is up to. Sushipup has grown and her new hobby is putting front paws on the kitchen counters and trying to grab everything and anything with her mouth to run off with it to the garden. Am trying to nip it in the bud but not having much success.

Also struggling with her over excitement at meeting other dogs when out and about. I really want to enjoy more off lead walking but she can spot dogs through the trees from a distance and just takes off and is hard to get back. Her playing is very over the top and high energy. She doesn't seem able to dial it down. When no other dogs are about her recall is great, but the moment there is another dog about it's like she can't hear us. There is a gun dog trainer local to us who I would like to book in with but it's not cheap!

Have you tried a long line attached to a harness? That way she can have some freedom but you still have some control. It’s hard when they get set on something, I know.

Spudpup is back from the vets! He’s put on 1.5kg in a week and a half, but the vet nurse said that’s perfect. He’s had a pedicure and a wormer and was very good for both, then lots of snuggles. Then we worked out that he’s far enough past his second jabs to go on the floor, so he had a little explore of the waiting room and walked back to the car on his own four paws! And he wasn’t quite so overwrought in the car - plenty of whimpering, but a lot less yodelling… I had Classic FM on tbh to drown him out a little

But yay, we can start to go for little walks! I think once we can start going to fun places, he’ll start to like the car a bit more 🤞

DW and DS are going on holiday for 4 days soon and I'm staying home with the pups. I am dreading it, they seem to be tag teaming throughout the night at the moment and B is waking around 1 and 5 before being up for 7 for the day. DW usually does the middle of the night wake ups!

Also worried about walking them both. H is usually on a long retractable and B is on a normal short lead. But I don't know if I can manage that so may need to have both on short leads. But H has never learnt how to walk nicely on a lead, he darts from left to right which is such a pain. In puppy classes they showed us how to train good lead walking with treats, but as he doesn't eat treats it hasn't been possible.

Also really struggling with the car. They sit on the back seats (clipped in to their harnesses). H just lays down and chills, he's great in the car. But B HATES it so far and cries and cries. H snuggles into her but she still cries. Have also tried having her on the front seat, but she still cries so much. Makes it hard to drive anywhere and I don't know how to make it better for her.

AwesomePup is in the boot of the car when we go out. He's clipped in with the harness as well. We're starting to crack it with the car I think, but he can still only cope with about 5 mins in the car before he starts crying. We are doing a couple of very short journeys a day, often to the local woods which are very exciting for a puppy. I stick the radio on for him as well, which seems to help.

Wolfpup has eaten his car seat belt
He's also eaten a veritable smorgasbord of goose shit and rabbit poop.

I haven't been on this thread for a while - Puppypup is 11 months now and has really settled down. I would never have believed five months ago that I can wfh and he will just snooze next to me for most of it. Or that i can still be in bed at 9 am and he will be snoozing at the end of it. For everyone struggling with sleepless nights, toilet training and biting - those days are a very distant memory now for us although was v hard work going through it. We're now in full adolescence though and puppypup is back on the long line as his recall is not reliable yet when other dogs want to play.

Nice to see a couple of familiar faces from the autumn threads still here. @HappyThursdays the grass seed incident sounds awful! Grass seeds are something I never thought about and now I am obsessed. Puppypup also had an accident around three months ago now which left him in a cone for 10 days and it definitely set everything back including leaving him alone . He's back to normal now with everything except being left so we need to restart that again.

@Spudlet that's interesting about continuing training to two years. Puppypup is a bright little thing and we are still working on some stuff with him - I don't think I appreciated at first the situational nature of them understanding a command and having to practice over and over in different settings and with different distractions

@MeredithMae we only cracked the car by getting a booster seat which meant Puppypup could see out of the window. That made all the difference re him being happy in the car. He's now ok to sit on a seat with just a harness.

@Puppypuppypuppy can you recommend one please? There's loads on amazon!