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

[quote ilovesushi]@Jloco how's it going with the cats? We have two cats plus a nearly six month old lab. We reward her with treats and lots of praise for leaving the cats alone. It is mainly working and they can all be in the garden together now without bothering each other. She is still fascinated by them and I think would like to be friends but the cats are not up for it.[/quote]
Thanks for asking; I’d optimistically say that things are getting about 0.5% better each day… (probably jinxed it now). The puppy now leaves the cat alone whenever there’s treats involved, before there was no separating them at all even with treats. She’ll also walk past him sometimes and come back when we call her fairly often. When the treats run out though, so does her patience (that is when we separate them!). They can also both be in the same room when they’re asleep now, which is improvement too. I’m hopefully that maybe one day they can coexist, but I think it’ll be a long time yet.

I’ve also discovered that the little pup absolutely loves her cooling mat. I’d tidied it away once the weather cooled down but the poor thing had been quite restless at night so I tried it just to see and she flopped straight on it and pretty much stayed there all night! I feel mean for taking it off her now but it’s back safely in her possession. They are funny things

Also, she is allowed out tomorrow! And typically has developed an aversion to her harness She’d been fine with it until now, but I guess maybe she’s grown and it feels small to her going over her head. I’ll have to invest it one that clicks round rather than over the head!

@Aria20 Grannypup is recvering from her spaying at the moment - she is just over one. We were going to spay her after her first season but weirdly she had a second heat four months after her first (3 weeks before her date for spaying.
So we had to wait until now. We nearly went for a laparoscopic spay but it wasn't local and we decided against it and I'm so pleased we did. When the vet operated he found she had multiple cysts in her womb (Cystic endometrial hyperplasia) which would have massively increased the risk of pyrexia - its unlikely this would have been picked up without the operation as early symptoms are so unspecific and vague.
She's recovering well now but she did get an infection and has been on antibiotics. Fairly easy to manage while she was not feeling well but harder this week when she feels great but is still limited in what she is allowed to do

BridgePup wasn't crazy about the driving rain yesterday (and neither was I!) so I think that led to more accidents. He was so good in the day when I had to work though.

We've bought a playpen which has made my life 100x easier in the mornings with DD. I just use it when she's around, he has free rein of the downstairs otherwise.

I can't wait to take him for walks - sounds like everyone had lots of fun at the beach! We've been on daily socialisation walks carrying him, which he's really taken to. Plus it wears him out...

@SpreadHummusNotHate ah we are all carpet except kitchen and bathroom so I'll just have to hope it's not too much mess!

@grannycake oh poor thing with the cysts, did they have any idea what caused them or if they were harmful? Glad they found them though and hopefully all will be well for her now! My vet also doesn't do the key hole spay so I'd have to go elsewhere but I read for small/medium normal spay is fine so I was planning to stick to that.

@Aria20 No idea - it apparently does happen but it can be too late when it's discovered as there are no signs. The risk is if one or more of the cysts become malignant and cause pyrexia which has a high rate of death. Hence it's encouraged to spay bitches if you're not planning on breeding. It's two weeks since her op today and she is now back to normal (even allowing for the infection) - it's surprising how quickly they heal and bounce back

Other half has gone into the office today for the first time in over a year. Not sure whether pup will notice. We waved him off at the tram stop, lots of new sights and smells, trams a bit scary. Exhausting so she's now asleep on my lap whilst I watch the diving. Might try leaving her in the empty house for 5/10 mins today if I can work out how to monitor

First day of puppy school for Spudpup today! He’s in a bit of a little devil mood so this should be interesting

Good luck @Spudlet
FawkesPup is doing well other than he insists on sleeping on me. Which is kinda lovely (til he farts 🤢) but not healthy. Got a snuggle puppy coming today and will give him today's t-shirt too and hopefully he will settle next to me instead of being a natty spaniel scarf/accessory.

Good news is I think he's started to understand "toilet" means outside to go. Getting there. For 8 weeks he's doing great.

We are going for a carry walk round the village in a bit and I'll take him to the behaviour guy with the shop tomorrow to chat about food some more. His tummy has settled down in that no more runs but dear god, his poo and farts STINK. So am wondering if his tummy is a bit sensitive.

Good luck with puppy school @Spudlet. I'm sure spudpup will be a little star.

@tizwozliz leaving pup for a little while is a good idea. It's best to get them used to it relatively early to avoid separation anxiety. We didn't do much of that with AwesomePup because dd1 was left in charge during the day and she didn't feel confident leaving him. Now in the holidays we're all at home but if both dds are upstairs being quiet I do make an effort to leave him alone. He's pretty happy for about an hour, which I think is ok for his age.

Good luck with puppy class @Spudlet

We have our second class today, trying some different treats this time. Last week was all stuff she can do beautifully at home in the garden but add in other puppies and people and everything else was far more interesting than treats. Laughing at the suggestion in our homework that we could use a toy as a reward instead of food.

@tizwozliz we can now use a toy as a reward at home, but not out in public, or at puppy classes. I've had to improve the quality of the treats we take to puppy class too, as he will work for anything at home but there he needs chicken and hot dogs lol. I bet he'd prefer sprats actually, but I can't cope with them and vegetarian DD thinks they're really, really awful.

We've been transitioning AwesomePup food from chudleys kibble to a raw complete, and I'm pleased to announce that his farts are less stinky and less frequent now. He's now got his own drawer in the freezer for his food, kongs and lickimat.

We got away with training with kibble whilst pup was young but no chance now. Outside she spits it out

I’ve started using the JR Pet Products pate - 100% meat, no nasties and pup goes crazy for it. Really easy to chop up and store too - I was using chicken but find that it crumbles in your pocket whereas this is a bit more solid!

Good luck @Spudlet mine is being a devil today too, maybe something in the air today?!

@MsAwesomeDragon I am going to move FawkesPup onto a raw type thing. Hopefully that'll help. I'll move him slowly in a few weeks once he's properly settled in. I'm thinking either Eden or Wolfworthy right now. Both rate 92% on allaboutdogfood so far better than the Royal Canin stuff he's on. And no cereal either.

I've just bought a load of the JR pate, we've got one of each flavour to try and figure out which ones he likes best. Glad to hear they're easy to chop up. How do you store them once they're chopped? In the freezer?

It's the JR pate we have - the salmon was popular, trying the chicken tonight. We only bought the 80 g to try and they're fine in the fridge for 3 days. If we buy bigger packs we'll chop and put in the freezer. It's complete food so feel less anxious about stuffing her full of it. Some of the other treats say limited to 5 per day.

I often chop up a whole 400g pack then leave enough in the fridge for a couple of days and freeze the rest. Defrosts really quickly, doesn’t go soggy/soft. Pup seems to like all of them - only one I don’t really like is the rabbit, it’s a bit sticky whereas the others are firm. It also grates really well - sometimes I do that and mix with a bit of yoghurt for a kong/lickimat

Same as @tizwozliz I’m happier giving this as a high value treat rather than sausages or cheese

Oh I'm going to try this pate stuff. I used someone's suggestion of the little jars of sandwich paste on a licki mat today, beef flavour, she loved it but had a bit of a loose tummy after

The JR pates are much loved by bingo pup - they were recommended by the puppy trainer. I bet the biggest ones and chop them up and freeze in reusable treat pots to grab ready for training/walks and they defrost in your hand by the time you're feeding. Arden Grange liver pate is HIGHLY valued by our pup and great on the stick on the shower/patio door likcimat to get him used to being washed and dried. Got drenched on a walk yesterday and the liver pate lickimat on the door meant his ruff and tumble drying towel coat was slipped on for its first use easily!

(Though, yes, I am one of those owner's now spending a fortune on pup products - we do just use old towels normally but the drying coat is for the beach so he can sit in it in car on way home and hopefully fall asleep in it and not be tempted to trash or more likely hump an old towel all the way home )

The drying coats are amazing, I have a relative with working gundogs and she swears by them for exhausted wet dogs after shoots.

I'm going to try the pate too I think. If it's complete then it makes total sense.

I like the idea of raw but I don't have freezer space and am a bit unsure about the cleaning and health risks so trying to find the right food for dog but with the ease for me too and that sounds great.

The shop I've been going to sells natural dog stuff, the treats I've got are salmon and sweet potato. And that's it. So I am ok with using them. He has sprats and other whole meat treats too. I'll try the pate for food and treats though sounds ideal. Thank you!!

Glad I'm not the only one without a mumsnet husband 🙄🙄 though I'll be fair he does his share of nappies/ cooking/ cleaning

We've had a good few days with ratbag, though the biting and chewing have definitely intensified this week. We have a corner sofa and she's discovered that she cam hide in the middle of it and its tricky to get to her! Was fishing more contraband out last night with a coat hanger 😂😂

She hates the rain and wind so has had to be gently booted out the door to stop her weeing indoors. Love it when they have those crazy 15 mins. My son loves playing bubbles with her and running up and down the garden which exhausts both of them

FawkesPup is having lovely doggy dreams now. He was woofing in his sleep and little legs going. So cute.

Then he farts in his sleep....

@Aria20 Billy loves the little jars of salmon paste. I had a little taste (before Billy 😂) and the salmon actually started ok but the beef and chicken are rank!

AwesomePup also enjoys the little jars of paste on his lickimat. His favourite is the crab one, with salmon coming in a close second. But nothing will surpass goats cheese on his lickimat, which is luckily a lot less smelly than the crab or salmon. We give him a lickimat in the car so it keeps him quiet for the first little while, so a non smelly option was required.

Any tips for stopping hair biting. Wolfpup just had me by the ponytail and was trying to pull my hair off. Not the first time but if I'd been on my own this time it could have been quite nasty