Puppy Survival Thread - August

[MrsHerculePoirot]

Discussion of things puppy!

Old thread here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/4281840-Puppy-Survival-Thread-June-July?pg=1

Hiccuping is quite normal I think. AwesomePup did it fairly frequently for the first few weeks, then it's gradually lessening, no idea why.

We had puppy class today. He was an absolute nightmare. Managed to escape his harness, jump all over all the other puppies while playing (they were not supposed to be playing🤦), he wasn't quite humping them but close. He did excel at leave and drop, but was rubbish at loose lead walking (because it's in a small field with 4 other dogs, and it's at a kennels so there are loads of other dogs barking and crying), and I wasn't planning on dropping his lead to attempt recall in that sort of distracting environment.

O. M. G.

I did not cry. But I was close!

How’s Wolfpup now?

Wow @Spudlet that's brilliant!!! I'm envious of the fab loose lead walking going on there as well. AwesomePup is not good at that yet, but that's my focus for this week!! We've pretty much cracked the car, he traveled 20 minutes each way to puppy class with no treats dropped on him and no whining!!!

We're lucky that pup is great in the car, this is our next challenge :-)

Thank you @tizwozliz Panacur this week. Hopefully covered.

@MsAwesomeDragon and @Spudlet how old did you start loose lead walking and pup training? I feel overwhelmed at just making it through the day but guess I need to plan for this

Hahaha, the loose lead bit was a total fluke, I’m not going to lie But I started from day one with that. Spudpup does go off lead a lot - at this age they won’t go far generally, you’re their security blanket. Then when he is on the lead, I try to aim for loose lead as much as we can - not always successfully, but I don’t want him rehearsing that behaviour of pulling on the lead any more than I can help. My DM’s shoulder was permanently buggered thanks to our old Labrador pulling like a train - I want to avoid that if I can!

@MsAwesomeDragon That’s fab about the car, well done Awesomepup!

We started training in the house/garden from day 1, never too early to do small bits, plus it uses their brains and tires them out. We went to our first puppy class at 11.5 weeks, 2 days after second vaccinations.

Yay @Spudlet !! Fantastic

@tizwozliz I don't even know what that is, lol. I assume it's a traveling trailer, but does it trail behind a bike? It almost looks like a buggy, so maybe children in the front of the trailer and dog in the back?

@MakeMeCleanTheHouse we were quite late starting the loose lead walking at about 14 weeks ish. We wanted to get recall going quickly so most of his first walks were just on the field behind our house on the long lead. I see lots of advice on training videos about starting loose lead walking around the house and garden with a meal quite early on.

DH and I are discovering that we have a bit of a clash in ideas for training. DH is very much about showing the dog who is boss (he does do a lot of affection as well as rewards but doesn't believe in "bribing" the puppy to behave), while I would prefer to train in a more fun way with games and rewards.

at this age they won’t go far generally, you’re their security blanket.

Ada didn't get this memo! She'll stick close by if there's no other people or dogs about, I have no faith she'd do the same if there was someone to greet. She'll run the 15m to the end of her long line if she sees people/dogs.

It's a bike trailer @MsAwesomeDragon. Meant for kids but we're hopefully going to use it as a doggy trailer - picked up cheap on eBay so no great loss if we can't train her to settle in it. We have a bike path that leads to a country park so hoping to be able to extend our outings a bit.

@tizwozliz ‘Generally’ is an excellent get out of jail free card with these statements

I do have my long line ready for when Spudpup gets a bit braver mind you! But we’re lucky that we have lots of quiet places for practice.

I need to work on being the most exciting thing in her life. She's very secure with me but I'm quite far down the list in term of exciting things, even if I have sardines in my hands. She'll happily trot out the front door to see the postman but she won't do the same if I'm at the front door.

Hello all,

Long time lurker but thought I would finally say hello. We have a 6 month lab/springer cross, aka springador also known as a Twatador.
Very smart, also dopey and has the grace of a hippopotamus.
She is amazing .

I do love that all teenage dogs get rude names.

We know of three know respectively as Twatdog, Knobhead and Dickhead dog. Knobhead answers to Nobby as well 😂

@Spudlet super impressed by the loose lead walking! We mainly go off lead (rural area) but I know we need to focus more on good lead walking. It just feels more fun for everyone to have a lovely ramble.

Over excitement around other dogs about is getting better for us. Two days in a row she has happily trotted past other dogs on a walk! I think their owners must have thought we were nuts as we all burst out with "OMG! OMG! Did you see that! Walked straight past! Good girl! Good girl!" I think it helped that we were out as a family and she saw us as a more fun proposition.

Recall from play with other dogs is still rubbish. My mum came around with her dog so we could practice in the garden and it was a disaster. We followed the first exercise in the Total Recall book, but it was a complete fail for us. Once they got playing that was it. I didn't want to repeat as I felt like we would be cementing the wrong behaviour. I probably need to so the earlier exercises in a more systematic way. We just dived straight in.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what worming/ flea/ tick tablets/ frequency is better? Am more used to cats and it is a very different approach - ie you wait to deal with an issue should it ever crop up. Obviously want to keep pup safe but am concerned about health aspect of constant dosing.

Hello @Twatador! She looks gorgeous! Love her little legs! She looks like one of those Hercule portraits if you've ever seen those.

Twatador is gorgeous

@ilovesushi we aim to flea them once a month in summer but often forget and have never had an issue. Worming is all year round monthly but also a bit hit and miss if I'm honest.

My vet did tell me that worming wasn't required unless dogs scavenge, hunt or eat raw food

Twatador is lovely!

We have just got back from a nice trip to the garden centre. Spudpup was ace - I think he was still a bit tired from this morning, when we were out for a while, although we were only meandering slowly and had a coffee break in the middle. We probably did do a bit more than recommended though, although I think as a one off on soft ground we’ll probably be ok. In any case though he was as good as gold in the garden centre beyond straining to say hello to a few people - but once he got over the initial excitement of all the people, he was fine. Walked on a mostly loose leash and did some lovely sits and downs while DS and DH looked at things. I was very proud of him.

He’s totally lulling me into in a false sense of security before the teenage arsehole phase hits….

Checking in.

BellaPup is 10 months old and 35kgs of awesome bounciness.

Twatador is gorgeous, love the white splodge on her ear.

@ilovesushi that’s our problem too, too much time running about in fields and on the beach and not enough on lead!

Mind you, how could we have it any other way when he’s having this much fun?? It’s been raining all day but we took the chance during a break on the rain to pop to the next seaside village. When we got there the sand was covered in puddles so I said to DS that we’d just have a wander down the prom. Billy wasn’t having any of that though, he was going to the beach 😂 he’s such a little beach bum 🥰.

H sleeps on our bed and always has. He's a mini poodle but small, only 6kg. We've had B in a crate next to our bed from day 1 and she takes herself off in there when we go up at night.

@LadyCatStark that looks very Lytham?