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.

Mine isn't having as many walks as yours but he does get to run around our garden and field. I am also finding he can now go a lot longer without needing the toilet which helps!

@TerrierOrTerror I blame you entirely for the fact I've taught FawkesPup "boop" today 🤣

DH is home with our pup and find he sleeps a fair bit of the morning. I take him for a 10 minute potter into the park first at 6:15, then he does the school run (5mins there 5 back) with DH and DD and then he kips for a fair while. He gets a Kong or chew about 11am. I think he's more of a PITA after lunch for DH before the second school run.

I do a training session in the park late afternoon once I'm home.....so not a "walk" (unless you count the 30yds there and sniffy wandering in the park). I just practice recall/stay/walking next to me for a bit then home for dinner. So he definitely gets 20 minutes "walking" on pavements and a bit of grass too.

Interesting- those of you taking on the school run, are you actually allowed to take your dogs on school site? I'd love to take opalpup but assumed I wouldn't be allowed!

I get Billy up at 7am as DS has to get the school bus at 7:45 😖. He has a wee, breakfast, poo, training session and chews my empty Actimel bottle (and spills bits everywhere!) until 8:30. He likes to have the TV on as he chews and if it isn’t, he’ll look from the remote to me to the TV to tell me to turn it on! 😂

At 8:30 he goes into his crate so I can go for a run, quick shower and get ready to start work at 9:30.

He gets up at 9:30 and sits on his comfy chair eating a frozen Kong, potters about going in and out of the house and garden, comes over for strokes and chews his toys or bones.

At 10:45 I have a bit of a break to play with him in the garden.

At lunch time we go for a walk to the pet shop to buy chews or just practise loose lead walking if we already have chews, do another training session and I have lunch but he’s decided he no longer needs lunch.

In the afternoon he’ll have another frozen Kong, do a bit of pottering and flop down to sleep.

At 3pm he goes in his crate for a nap while I go and pick DS up from school which is an hour round trip.

He loves playing with DS when he gets home from school and then we go for a walk/ run in the fields/ marsh or beach for about 50 mins (only 5 mins max on lead, road walking).

Then I make tea while Billy eats his tea and then he has a lickimat in his crate with suitable bits from our tea on while we eat ours.

He usually naps in his crate from 7-8:30 then gets up and come in the living room with us. Right now he’s lying on his bed chewing a pork roll chew.

He goes for a wee, drink and bed at 10pm and repeat the next day…

@guyfawkesday aside from being our favourite party trick it's actually pretty useful for getting her attention on us. I mean, I could have used the cue word "touch" but "boop" makes it far more fun...

Only issue is we taught it with a thumbs up hand signal (she boops the thumb). Gave my OH a thumbs up outside a shop the other day, next thing I know the dog is leaping up to boop me...

Hahaha, love your dog jumping to boop!!

We can't take dog on school site but DD is yr4 and walks in with friends and knows to look at the gate for us with the dog as she can see us through the railings by the playground. So don't have to leave the dog, which is good as his main aim on life is to excitedly greet everyone and everything on all possible occasions!!

Someday I WAH and the pattern today was I walk him at about 7.45 then straight into office. He sleeps a lot of the morning. I take him out to the garden but tbh he's fairly dopey. Afternoon more difficult and he was barky and bitey today so had a chew.

Evenings we always have a wander and he chases dog and wears himself out.

This is his seat belt..used for 2 weeks....

@567and, I feel your pain. Elmpup had a couple of accidents today, despite liking being outside in the rain. We think it's a combination of teething/us not paying close enough attention to her when eating at the kitchen table.

I took the dog right into school today, first time I've been in the building for 18 months. It's a tiny village school though so very relaxed.

I haven't posted for a few days and you fell off my threads I'm on!!!

AwesomePup gets up at 6:15 pretty much every day. I am out for our first walk of the day by 6:30, otherwise he whines because he needs a poo and doesn't like to go in the garden any more. I have to say we probably do walk him a bit far tbh, but it's almost all on grass and him mooching about sniffing things. We generally walk about 1-1.5 miles in the mornings (which we could do in 30 minutes if we didn't keep stopping, but usually takes 40-45 minutes). Then he has breakfast, we (DH, dd2 and I) leave for school/work and he's left with dd1. Apparently he sleeps pretty much all morning, then DD does some training or plays some games with him, like fetch, tug, throwing treats for him to catch, blowing bubbles (his favourite). Then after his lunch he goes back to sleep til we come home and he climbs all over us giving us kisses (he loves licking ears). I walk him again in the evenings about 7, practising recall and loose lead walking. Supper is about 9pm, then bed about 10.

We haven't got many tricks, but he's pretty good at the basics even in new places now (he's 5.5 months). So sit, down, stay are almost perfect, recall to his name is good unless there's another dog or delicious things to eat too close to him, recall to the whistle is a work in progress but coming along nicely. He's got good manners with most things, doesn't jump up on people unless we invite him to jump, sits and waits for permission to eat, etc. He has started counter surfing in the kitchen though, which is something we need to work on. I'm really pleased with how he's coming along.

He was at daycare today. Apparently he didn't realise how big he is, which I took to mean he was playing a bit tough with smaller dogs. I was wrong. Apparently the smaller dogs were getting in his face and he kept running away instead of telling them not to. By mid morning he'd sussed things out and was giving as good as he got, mainly by sitting on any pup that was annoying him, lol (the daycare owners did stress they would have intervened if there was any danger of him hurting any of them). They sent me photos of him sleeping in a pile of 4 lab puppies, so they must like each other when they aren't knocking each other over and sitting on each other.

Lol @MsAwesomeDragon I need to sort daycare. Keep meaning to then forgetting

We haven't mastered not greeting everyone. Dog is a complete pia when doorbell goes so I think this needs to be a complete project involving both. I have holiday in a bit and might make it a training goal

@MsAwesomeDragon that's sweet they all slept in a pile together. I swear they know their own breed as mine gets especially excited if we see another like her.

Does anyone's dog have a dislike of any other breeds yet? Mine is not keen on french bulldogs/pugs/chihuahuas all the ones we've met seem very aggressive and growly/barky even from a distance and the ones that have said hello to her she backs away from them, think it's their snorting that she doesn't like!

Pup has been sneezing a bit this morning, and yesterday so going to call the vets this morning. Hopefully it's just a cold but want to make sure she hasn't got something stuck up her nose...a friend's dog got a grass seed stuck up his nose £400 vet bill!!

Omg worst night ever. I was up and down all night from 12.30 to 5, eventually we both crashed at 5. Planning a busy day today, clearly I'm not doing enough with him!

Gutting cos he was sleeping through brilliantly last week. I'm stumped again.

cheeseisthebest sorry to hear that.

Newboy probably had his best night yet (out of his 11 with us! Seems longer)
He went to bed at 11, up at 2:45 for a wee then up at 6:15 for another wee.
I got myself up from the sofa and he went back to sleep for about an hour.
I feel faintly human this morning 😀

He was much more active yesterday evening so maybe this is the way to go.

cheeseisthebest
Just read your second post,
Yep, I guess it's all about phases in these early days......

Yes. Feeling today like I'm quite rubbish at this.

cheeseisthebest don't be daft!
It's bloody hard work this puppy rearing malarkey.
It's going to be up and down for some time I think and that's no reflection on you!
Sending a big, probably smelly dog smell, hug 😊

@cheeseisthebest Sorry to hear you had a rough night. Ours wasn't good either up at 12 and 4 and then wide awake at 6. So tired! And sleeping does seem to have gone backwards. As does toilet training. Everything feels very hard at the moment!

@cheeseisthebest feeling rubbish at this too. My pup is such a pain in the butt when she's tired, and still won't happily be crated for naps. I got so cross with her tear arsing around this morning and just PUT her in the crate and closed it up, which I know is the wrong thing to do. She whined and barked for about 10 minutes and I waited till she settled and was quiet before letting her out. All I've probably achieved is to make her worried about the crate.

I really can't work with her here there and everywhere. Should I bite the bullet and endure daytime crating even if she's upset at first?

I have done so much positive work around the crate, and im running out of motivation

I was feeling dead smug about Anouk... but she's started weeing on the floor again when I close the door behind me. This is not a dog who likes separation even for a few seconds. Aargh. Going to have to work hard on that.

Also up at 630 here. But I've been taking a hard line on the crate/ pen - it's into the pen at night and ignore the crying and whining. I work FT from home so I can't function with really disturbed nights and nor do I want her at the foot of my bed! I have wondered though whether this will just make her worse and more anxious... hm. It doesn't seem to just be me she wants, any warm human will do.

And the biting and nipping. Driving me mad, covered in scratches. I've been watching Cesar Millan to try and decide how to tackle it. Basically it seems like I need to really be the boss of her and stop with the nicey-nicey/ ignoring/ turning away (which does not work). So now it's a firm hiss and pushing her off.

Step away from Caeser Milan! He’s shit to the point of being abusive. He really is a dreadful, awful trainer using outdated and debunked methods. Please, please don’t use them. And I’m not fluffy, but he truly is appalling.

Victoria Stilwell is a much better celeb trainer to follow. 👍

Turning away from Spudpup wasn’t always enough, so I would walk out of the room and shut the door in his face behind me. Wait for thirty seconds, then go back in. That worked for us.