Puppy survival thread September and the pups just want to eat all the leaves!

[cheeseisthebest]

Omg I never start ongoing threads like this!
Back to school for my lot tomorrow. Taken pup for an evening walk tonight, desperately trying to tire him out! He's struggled to nap today as felt too hot.

Pup has big sharp dog teeth now instead of puppy teeth!

@Lifeishitsometimes Welcome! I love your pup's name

@567and I'm in the Midlands too. Can I ask about the classes / gun dog training you found? Im struggling to find anything close to me.

@opalescent How did it go?

Pup is 13 weeks now but we're still struggling with nights. Most night she is waking every 2 hours for play or toilet. I was very close to just going to bed and letting her cry it out the other night.

@MightyMeerkat @567and I'd also like to know about the classes as I'm Midlands (Warwickshire) too!!

FawkesPup slept all night. In his crate. 10:30-5, then wee/poo and back to bed til 6:45. That's twice now. Flipping heck.

14 weeks tomorrow. Can head onto farmland and water areas too from Tuesday, yippee!!! Time to start venturing to more places to play.

@LadyCatStark I'd come over the hills and join you but we have a scentwork class today. I love a gun dog show.

567 I've found two teeth I think in total over the past few weeks so he's swallowed most

We had drama this morning as I got wolfpup to walk downstairs as he's getting too heavy for me to lug around. He got halfway down beautifully then I let go of his collar and he disappeared back upstairs and wouldn't come back down. Lots of the sort of daft behaviour and barking and bouncing around that we sometimes get when trying to put the harness on

@GuyFawkesDay My plonker is barking at his own reflection in the patio doors again. Fool

We have one of those too! This is our solution right now.

Our next course of classes start today, we've switched trainers and I'm a bit nervous that in a new place Ada will be a bit loopy and the trainer will say she needs to go back to puppy class!

When does the nipping stop! Its driving us all crazy!

@GuyFawkesDay @MightyMeerkat I’ve just sent you both a PM with the dog training details. 😊

A pic to remind myself I do love him!
Currently ripping a cardboard box to Pieces!

@MorningInspiration we found PoirotPup just wanted to move around at night so we started by leaving the door unlatched and allowed him to come out and sleep on the floor/sofa when he wanted. Don’t know if you can do that?

@cheeseisthebest I can’t remember when the nipping stops but it definitely does. I think it was less at 4 months and gone by 5. Any mouthing now is rare, gentle and he has lost his puppy teeth!

@tizwozliz I started a different class this week. PoirotPup could not cope - it was awful. We’ve got a plan but it really shook me as he’s always been fine before. I ended up in tears. He was clearly overwhelmed/excited/anxious and if I tried to give him food (like high stuff he usually loves) he was moving his head away to watch and try and get to everyone else 😱

@cheeseisthebest so lovely! He looks like butter wouldn’t melt!

Hmm @MrsHerculePoirot OH offered to take pup alone to puppy class whilst I go and grab a coffee (I need to drive them there). Maybe I should take him up on it...

Oh no mrshercule that sounds stressful.
He is 15 weeks now and nipping been awful this morning. Going for our hands, ankles, upper arms, thighs, we ignore and distract. He does give up eventually. But then comes back for more!

@MightyMeerkat your nightimes sound very difficult. Have they been better and got worse or just never improved. Crated?

Well- I woke up and opalpup was in her usual place on the landing 😂.
DH had decided to go off piste and put her in her downstairs crate (which she has never slept in overnight), with the door open.
She wandered around a bit and cried at the bottom of the stairs, so we abandoned ship and put her in her upstairs crate. Going to try actually moving her upstairs crate to the bottom of the stairs tonight.
On the upside, she slept until 7am this morning 😱. I'm sure it's exhaustion from our Friday night puppy classes.

@MightyMeerkat absolutely no judgement here if you ended up going for it. Every two hours is extremely tough 😨

@opalescent - i think the night after our first ever 7pm puppy class was still the longest time Ada's ever slept for. It was one advantage of the Friday night class, Saturday morning lie ins. Now we're sacrificing our Saturday's but I really wanted outdoor classes.

We've got sample food this morning - Millies Wolfheart - which I think we're going to try to transition to in a couple of weeks after our holiday. Slight negative is the kibble is too big to fit in her puzzle feeder.

Feeling exhausted!
I had to return Newboy 10 times at one stage to his crate last night.

Of course he's slumbering on my toes now.

He's also gone back to weeing in the house more....

DH is giving me a well earned night off tonight so I can get a full night's sleep. To say I can't wait is a HUGE understatement 😂

@opalescent and @MakeMeCleanTheHouse Thank you. It is tough. I've had a couple of good sleeps where I think she was just knackered so slept longer. And things had started to improve but I think the combination of me going back to the office and pup going to doggy daycare has upset the routine again. Unfortunately she won't stay in the crate and becomes very distressed if I close the door. She sleeps in the play pen now but bangs on the bars to wake me up when she wants out! We're going on our first walk today - a couple of days early - to see if that will tire her out.

Walks will make a difference! We went out on a walk mad play session with his bestie in the park last night for half an hour and he was so tired last night 😆

Still weeing in the house. I'm buying a different cleaner and trying good old bio washing powder in really hot water to mop today. He can go outside, he just can't be arsed. Upping the treat stakes to sausage for going outside. Might motivate him!!

That's good to hear @GuyFawkesDay Annoyingly she's napping loads this morning. I wish I could nap when she does.

The toilet training continues to be hit and miss here too. I'm using the enzyme cleaner but I'm not sure it's that effective really.

MightyMeerkat Newboy hates it when I shut the crate door too!
It always stays open.

Yes, can't wait till I can take him out in just under 3 weeks time.

We didn't have time to wear him out last night with exercise and I think that didn't help. Lots of bombing about planned for this evening, hopefully then we can watch the tennis too 😂

I don't agree with everything at Fenrir dog training but his adage that a tired dog is a happy dog is very true.

Had a lovely park pootle with him, lots more stay/recall practice and rewarding sitting in front of me focused and walking alongside (on 5m line). He's sniffed the badger tracks, eaten rabbit poo and generally had a jolly good time so is now comatose on the wooden floor.

What made a difference to nightimes (I think)...

Moving to 3 not 4 meals and feeding much earlier. Last meal 6pm which meant poo and wee earlier. This stopped the 2.30am wake up.

Calm days so he wasn't overtired

Busy evening so he was tired (yes I know.....see above but I think sleeping well in the day helped him sleep well at night.)

We started going out a LOT at about 10 weeks in the wheelchair, this excitement exhausted him in the evening. We then came home and had calm times until bed.

Crate: I was gently persistent. Never kept him in whining but as soon as he relaxed and flopped after let out I steered him back in with lots of cuddly toys, food, praise etc. He need returning about 8 times first time I did this...,then 6 then 4 then 2.... regularly and now no issues.

Next week he will probably have me up all night to teach me a lesson for sounding like I have this sorted 😀

We had a disaster ours attempt at getting Bella used to the yesterday. I took all the advice I could find. I made sure we went hours after she had eaten and that I had given her lots of opportunity to wee etc beforehand. Carried her to car. She Disney like the crate, but I reassured her as we drove off and she wined a bit. By the time I got to the top of our road she had pooped, and by the time I turned round and drove hone she had trodden in it and got it up her legs. I then had to carry her into the garden, getting covered myself, and give her another bath. I am leaving the next attempt at the car to my DH!

Otherwise, we had a bad day for wee'ing on the floor yesterday, but today has been better. She is settling in her crate, but with the crate door open and the pen door shut. Last night she did 11.30-5.15, but had wee'd and pooped in her puppy pad when we came down. Does anyone have any ideas for how we should manage this overnight? Should we be setting an alarm to get up and let her out earlier? My fear is that we'll never settle her again. Or, as she gets bigger, will she naturally need to go less at night. I saw that someone had made their last feed earlier, so may progressively try that, but she is only 9 weeks.

MakeMeCleanTheHouse
I'm going to try your tip of giving the last meal earlier so poo/wee will be earlier.