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

@Turquoisesol Billy isn’t older but he loves to watch the birds. We have really tall trees behind our house with hundreds of crows and he could sit and watch them for ages! He saw a couple in the field last night and tried to chase them 😂.

Billy took his first trip into a town today. This seems very odd as we used to live in a town but now live rurally and take it for granted. He’s barely walked on a pavement in 4 weeks of walking 😂. He loved it but did find it quite overwhelming and there were lots of different smells, people and other dogs! We need to make sure we take him to towns more often.

This even we nearly had a disaster as his extending lead snapped! He wasn’t even pulling, he just got to the end of it and PING, it snapped. He’d been chewing on it but I thought it was OK. Luckily, we’d only been for a walk around our Cul-de Sac and he just trotted home. It would have been really bad if it had happened earlier and we’d been in town or even if we’d have gone on his normal evening walk to the field. No more extending leads for us then as we’d bought the strongest looking on at Pets At Home!

Oh and I’ve been bitten by 2 horseflies in 2 days 😭.

Thank you both, I wondered how normal behaviour it is to have this fascination with birds. It’s annoying as it’s ruining the peace in our garden we keep having to bring her in.
Sorry to hear challengepup has kennel cough. Hope he feels better soon. That’s a brilliant trick he has ! So clever isn’t it? I reckon they work out that wanting g outside to go to the toilet is the one thing we fee we can’t ignore!
Sounds like a lucky shave there ladycatstark! I had heard they snapped easily but I would t ha e expected that easy- what a shock!

@Turquoisesol yep pup here also very interested in birds, mostly just watches them but in the park the other day a flock of about 15 landed on the grass and that caused her to want to chase over to them!! Also never previously been interested in the neighbours cats but one was on our fence last night and next doors dog started barking at it so then ours started barking at it too... poor cat couldn't jump down into either garden so jumped over the back instead

It’s the barking at the birds in the sky that annoys me

@Turquoisesol it was literally as easy as tearing paper, that’s how it felt anyway!

Billy’s not a barker at all which is lucky or he’d never stop with the amount of birds we have here! We even have a resident woodpecker and a barn owl 🥰.

Hi everyone
I would like to join today too! Been reading some of your adventures of walks and play with the older pups and you seem so far ahead of me (even if it doesn't feel it).

A gorgeous 8 week Lab.
Very vocal and no matter how much we play were not as interesting as the garden so he'll sit and whine/talk.
Anyone else got a puppy with a set of pipes? Any advice how to get through the first night?

Aww he’s lovely @MorningInspiration, yes my top tip is to play special sleep music on Spotify or similar!

@LadyCatStark

Aww he’s lovely *@MorningInspiration*, yes my top tip is to play special sleep music on Spotify or similar!

Amazing thank you LadyCatStark didn't know doggy sleep music was avaliable! I will try anything

@MorningInspiration he's lovely! I still think of my 10 month old as very much a puppy but when I see just baked ones like yours I realise how much he has grown! I am bad on sleep, slept downstairs with mine a few days until it was clear he was not going to settle in the crate and we both moved upstairs and he's never left since!

@Turquoisesol that sounds quite intense! Mine barks at squirrels in the tree and birds on the ground but not in the sky. Is he distractable?

@MrsHerculePoirot sorry about your stings! Challenge pup has chewed his extendable a bit so I might replace it now. I still use short leads for training and roads but I find the extendable so useful for places where I want him to have a bit more range but don't trust the recall yet.

Sorry that was @LadyCatStark not @MrsHerculePoirot !

Here is challenge pup in his stolen seat (cleverly on the only part of the sofa without a cover too 🙄🙄🤣🐶🐾)

Thanks @familychallenge last time I got bitten I got a really nasty infection so hoping that doesn’t happen again!

I’d definitely check it so swap it as I couldn’t believe how easily it broke!

Challenge pup looks sooo comfy on the sofa 🥰.

@LadyCatStark 🤞🤞🤞😀😀😀 good luck!

Yeah he is comfy! It's a new sofa and he loves it (as do I). Much bigger and squishier than the old one. He's allowed on it under close supervision until I am sure he won't chew it!

@familychallenge he looks so snug on that sofa! I think 10 months they are still puppies really (albeit even when they are older, they will always stay our puppies!)

@LadyCatStark horse flies are the worst hope it doesn't turn into anything nasty

Nordpup doesn't seem too interested in the birds at the moment.

@LadyCatStark DH got bitten by a horsefly today too! It's come up with nasty swelling so will be keeping a close eye on it.

I'm quite jealous of all your lovely cuddly sofa dwelling dogs...because of the huge size ours is likely to be it was decided there will be a definite no dogs on sofas rule. We'll see how that pans out when she is quite capable of just climbing up herself...

I finally feel like a real dog owner now as Nordpup had a lovely roll in fox poo this morning

@familychallenge your pup looks like an older version of mine, and your sofa is a similar colour to mine too.

Welcome to all the new people, I love seeing photos of fresh little puppies. AwesomePup is only 13 weeks but he's grown and learned so much in the 5 weeks since we got him hasn't learnt that toes aren't for biting yet though.

@LadyCatStark that sounds like a shock with the lead snapping. We haven't got an extendible lead, and I think we might keep it that way. We've got a short lead for walking on pavements and a long line for when we're on the field and want to give him a bit more freedom.

He chased a load of pigeons yesterday, and it's a good job we had the long line on, because he completely ignored me and was running way too fast for me to actually catch him.

Familychallenge yes she is distractable at times with a ball but then I can’t be constantly throwing a ball whenever we are in the garden. I am hoping she grows out of it. I do a search and find game in the garden with her for treats and this is quite good for distraction too, but I wish she would just chill more- like she used to.

Nordstrom good luck with the no sofa rule ! We were planning to implement this rule and it proved impossible at 12 weeks. So we then banned her from the living room and she is now only in the kitchen. We are planning to reintroduce her to the living room and hoping now she is older and listens more (kind of) that it may work better now, but we will see. I now understand why so few people bother keeping dogs off sofas

@Turquoisesol Nordpup is only allowed in the kitchen and utility at the moment. As we speak she is in there on a rampage and tearing the crap out of her crate cover (she's cross because she had figured out how to climb on top of the crate using the sofa as a leg up 🙈) we have now moved the sofa away...

She's been very out of sorts this evening. I'm wondering if it's the worm/flea tablet she had earlier.

It could well be Nordstrom they must have a lot of chemicals in them

I remember when she first jumped on the sofa, we told her to get down. She just looked at us. I am pretty sure she understood. After asking a few times we used collar/lead to get to her down. Then she would just repeat and you start to think it’s just never going to sink in and be a constant battle. But I suppose it’s just a matter of persevering perhaps.

True! Will be looking into the alternatives for future parasite control.

It's gone all quiet, she must have konked out finally!

@MsAwesomeDragon lol yeah matchy matchy! How funny. He looks very happy too 😀😀

It's interesting the comments- at various times I have limited access to certain rooms or behaviours and in some ways that seems to enhance the interest or value? I shut all the bedroom doors and he scratches at them- when they are open he just goes in, wanders round and comes out again. Everyone who stays here is dog friendly so I think it's a hangover from when I couldn't trust him not to pee on the floor in new rooms. My inclination is to give him access and hope he learns to behave but he does still have some destructive urges! So am a bit torn. I don't want to give him the chance to practice bad behaviour but I also think limiting access makes certain things more appealing!

One other observation - he has been ill this weekend so have kept him in - no walks and no other dogs. I thought he would be manic but he's actually been pretty chill. Has made me wonder if I am over stimulating him in the normal way- I worry about him being bored but actually he needs to learn to relax. We have still done play and a bit of training but I think I've been a bit guilty of thinking I need to entertain him whenever he is awake rather than letting him find his own fun sometimes and relax!

Interesting familychallenge I also worry about overstimulating. It’s a difficult balance to get isn’t it

AwesomePup has complete access to downstairs most of the time. We do have a playpen that he goes into for enforced naps, and he takes himself in there when dd2 has a friend round, lol. He goes in there with a chew (pizzle is his favorite now he's old enough for them) when we have dinner. And then he sleeps in there as well, because obviously he's not old enough to be trusted not to chew everything. We do have a stairgate so he can't go upstairs, mostly because he can't get down safely yet, but also because dd1's bedroom is a puppy death trap

@Turquoisesol yeah it is! I'm just musing because he has been so relaxed on limited activity- usually he struggles to settle unless he is exhausted so the fact that he has been so chill after no activity has made me wonder if I've been overdoing it a bit and he would have learnt to settle better if I did a bit less and let him get a bit bored sometimes 😀😀