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.

Cheese that sounds good. I also think that them going off to explore is a really good sign. Shows they are gaining confidence.

@Lifeishitsometimes In your own words 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 so that is essentially forcing her to be in there, whether you physically put her in or lure her. Between that and the pushing (and referring to your tiny puppy as 'wilful'), I don't think I've got the wrong idea. I really think you need some input from a force-free trainer.

I've been through the separation training and now have a happy, well-adjusted dog who can be left for 4 hours if needed (and who is also crate-trained). She needed constant company for the first few weeks. I appreciate that they need to be left, and it needs to be worked on, but your 10 week old puppy is getting so distressed by being shut out of the room that she's weeing. Honestly I think you're setting yourself up for more problems in the future by forcing it when she's so young.

Anyway. I don't mean to get at anyone so I'll leave it at that.

The person who is giving me advice is extremely knowledgeable about this breed because she trains assistance dogs to the highest standard and has done for the best part of 20 years. She laughed at me when I asked if I should go in when pup was whinging in the run for five minutes.

I repeat, she isn't so distressed she is howling for hours. She is crying for 5 minutes max before conking out and sleeping very happily. Playing, enjoying company, doing training the rest of the time.

And the weeing, I have now realised, is because she can smell wee on the ground where she went before and I wasn't removing all of the smell with the cleaner I was using. Bio washing liquid, and some extra vigilance, seems to have sorted that out.

Puppies can be wilful. Of course they can! To draw a parallel, I have two children. One is exceptionally wilful and persistent and was right from the get go and certainly by 26 weeks old when we started on solids. The other much, much, less so. My pup is much less wilful than one I have cared for in the past, but not as placid as another one I looked after before that. It's just a character description - some humans, and puppies, are more wilful and persistent than others. By saying that, I don't think I'm showing disregard for her needs or a lack of respect for her.

Anyway, let's leave it there and get back to talking happy talk about our lovely pups :)

@tizwozliz yes we laid it flat on floor first and got him to walk along it like that. Then put it on one step outside so really just a little incline and did the same. Then on two steps in the garden etc. He’s happier going up than down.

I agree with @ashmts who speaks a lot of sense. We’ve now got a 7 month old pup who is an absolute delight - can be left with zero distress in the house for a few hours and is a soppy, happy, gentle loving family dog.

opalescent I also have (many) times when I don't feel like a calm dog mum.
Having to navigate sleepless nights, sorting DCs for school and football training, making packed lunches and dinners, keeping house (abs myself!) clean and washed, doing washing and drying...............
It all adds up!!!!
I need a glass of wine 🍷

Argh, amazon coerced me into spending more money on the dog after telling me the raised outdoor dog bed I'd been looking at had 23% off.

Need some advice please Puppy People.....
Newboy is 10 weeks so I might be jumping the gun here but when I do a bit of lead walking around the garden he continually turns his head to bite the lead.
If I used a harness, I don't think he'd be able to do that.
Would a harness be a better idea?
Out and about I see a mixture on local dogs.
Anyone got any thoughts?

I use a treat in my other hand and make sure she knows it's there before we go round the garden. If she makes it to the end of the garden she gets the treat. If she eats the lead, we stop and don't start again till I've got her attention back. But I'm sure there are millions of ways of doing this. And I tried this method in the past with a cocker and it worked not one little bit !

So glad to Ted that I am not the only one feeling I could be calmer at times!

Bella is testing a bit now. She has phases of trying to nip and chews anything she can get hold of. Setting well in her own, and I am finding that setting the alarm for 3am and 6am has resolved the toileting overnight issues. She is now happily going out at those times and settles quite quickly after the 3am toilet run. She has had her vaccinations this morning, which was a bit stressful as she still hates the car. She whines the whole time. We have been trying to take her in short trips when one of us can sit so she can see us, but I had to go alone this morning.

@BaconAndAvocado - a harness won't solve the problem, I'm not sure how it could? Pup will still be able to bite the lead if that's what he wants. Perfectly normal behaviour at 10 weeks though. Their capacity for walking nicely on the lead is extremely limited at this age.

Lifeisshitsometimes that's a good idea but I realise I'm probably getting ahead of myself!

tizwozliz in my very inexperienced dog-rearing mind I was thinking the lead was too far away for the dog to get to it! Obviously not.

Being at home with Newboy 24/7 I keep trying to think of ways to help him/train him.
I probably need to relax a bit.

I'm quite reassured to hear they need constant company for the first few weeks as that's what we did.

A harness might be a good idea for other reasons, but I wouldn't rush to get one until he's a bit bigger. I think walking (attempting to walk!) In the garden is good practice even if you feel you've achieved nothing just so they get the feel of collar and lead. Lead walking is never going to be fun for puppies though so I'd look at training games that are more fun. We did a lot of find it games at that age.

@BaconAndAvocado

Need some advice please Puppy People..... Newboy is 10 weeks so I might be jumping the gun here but when I do a bit of lead walking around the garden he continually turns his head to bite the lead. If I used a harness, I don't think he'd be able to do that. Would a harness be a better idea? Out and about I see a mixture on local dogs. Anyone got any thoughts?

Is it biting as in chewing? Or carrying it? My pup just likes to carry his lead in his mouth at times for some reason... So I hold the handle, he loosely holds the lead in his mouth - he isn't chewing it, but is just carrying it.

@BaconAndAvocado

opalescent I also have (many) times when I don't feel like a calm dog mum. Having to navigate sleepless nights, sorting DCs for school and football training, making packed lunches and dinners, keeping house (abs myself!) clean and washed, doing washing and drying............... It all adds up!!!! I need a glass of wine 🍷

Thanks @BaconAndAvocado I really appreciate that, and agree wholeheartedly. With two young primary age children and a stressful job, it has hit me hard! I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I have a GP consultation tomorrow, to discuss possible meds. I think having opalpup has triggered some quite difficult feelings that I had buried after having PND after both babies.

I honestly didn't see that coming, though maybe I should have!

Oh no that is not nice Opal :( I had PND with mine too and I wouldn't want it again over puppy. I had admit it had crossed my mind before getting her. Hope the GP can help.

And I do sympathise. It's like trying to keep a million balls in the air at once and any change in dynamics is bound to cause upset.

@Lifeishitsometimes thank you, hopefully it will get better quickly, with puppyhood being such a condensed version of babyhood! I'm just noticing a lot of familiar feelings popping up ☹️

opalescent sending you lots of sympathy, hope your GP gets you sorted.
Feeling this way is extremely common.
I know now I will never get a puppy again.

@BaconAndAvocado same 😂 it's a relief to hear others say it though.
Going to try and focus all my energy on making my relationship with opalpup as good as possible, and make sure my family pull their weight!

@BaconAndAvocado don’t stress too much, Billy was like that in the garden but he was fine when he could go out into the big wide world, that was far more interesting than his lead or his boring garden!

Billy was a little monkey just now on his lunch time walk! I was going in to do some pavement/ road training (we live rurally and only one side of our roads have pavements but which side it is swaps and changes regularly 🤨) but when we went to cross the road, he sat down and refused to move despite coaxing with Primula! Anyway it was futile as every time I tried to get him to move, another car came and I had to give up so we walked on a bit further and I thought to myself, “I wonder where he’ll take me if I just follow him?” Anyway he took me straight to the field and had a lovely time 😂 running about and meeting another black lab called Billy! He’s definitely a country dog!

We had a pretty bad morning walk today. Some 10/10 walking on the streets with great loose lead and focus on me. All went out of the window when we got up to the woods. She wanted go greet everybody and everything today, I'm fairly sure had an ant crossed her path she'd have planted herself down to say hi. Even behaviour like trying to say hi to random people passing (which she hasn't done for ages). And getting her to move if she'd seen another dog nearly impossible, though she came away perfectly after a quick sniff. Utterly frustrating.

I feel even more disheartened as I contacted a trainer for some help on the greeting other dogs a few days ago and just got their response, which is very judgemental and assumes I'd followed the socialisation approach of introducing her to lots of dogs. Which we didn't, we knew her focus on other dogs was high from the very beginning and weve always carefully monitored any interactions we do allow. Never mind!

Feel for you there @TerrierOrTerror - at the moment I can't envisage Ada ever ignoring other dogs. The distance she'll go to try and say hello has increased massively so think she'll have to go back on the longline for now.

opalescent definitely get the family to pull their weight!

Had to sort out a rota for the kids (13 and 14) to look after Newboy whilst I do my home tutoring.
Only 4 hours a week so 2 hours each.
Had to do some firm reminding of who wanted the puppy to begin with ........🤬

@opalescent hope you feel better and get some support from your GP. I know what you mean about bringing back up those feelings.

@BaconAndAvocado we started by having the kibble for a meal and walking around the garden and feeding when pup was following us, then fed when pup was walking by our side, then added in harness and lead (I’ve never used the lead on his collar) but let the lead trail on floor then held lead and did same thing. When really good in garden I moved to front path/driveway but soon realised I need much higher value treats out there! Don’t know if taking it back a step without lead might help you for now?