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.

@567and I know exactly what you mean about people sucking their teeth, and delighting in telling you how hard life will be!! I've had it many times in reference to my cocker spaniel. That isn't the experience of my friends who have CSs though, and I do think there is a fog owning contingent who just love to 'know it all'.

I try to ignore!!! It's just like all the helpful baby related comments 🙄 'make sure you get plenty of sleep before baby comes! Ha ha!'

🙄🙄😂

Dog owning, not fog 😂

@opalescent - we do specific loose lead training at home, and it was part of our puppy class but the reality is at this age they're probably not going to manage it for any length of time. So I cheat and make sure our walks are in places she can be mostly off lead. Then we normally do some loose lead practice at the end when she's a bit tired!

Ada just gets told she's gorgeous by pretty much everyone on walks. It's actually not helpful as we're trying to teach her that not everyone wants to say hello!

@opalescent I had one lady who was cooing over pup with a smile on her face and saying ‘I’m not going to tell your mum what a nightmare you are going to be!’ . All I can say is that he seems pretty similar to everyone else’s pups at the minute, so I’m going to stay in denial and hope for the best!

Ps, I just love cocker spaniels and part of me was hoping for a pure cocker, but we fell in love at first sight with our little pup so the deal was done!

@opalescent mine is the same, he's basically zooming left to right and back again, run, stop run stop. Repeat!

Did notice this morning far less pulling on our short leaf morning trot. I tend to let him go on the long line in the afternoon as we do some training and I left him have a good sniff stop him eating rabbit poo and a potter too. As soon as he walks nicely he gets lots of good/good boy so I'm hoping it sinks in. He's starting to sit by doors/gates too now, and I haven't trained this? Maybe cocker gun dog instinct to sit by owner's feet is there and I think we just need to tap into it?

But yes, mine is part working and my friend with a pure show type keeps telling me mine is higher energy. Which he is, but he's also learned far more, far quickly than her has so there's benefits!

DH had to leave FawkesPup at home this morning to do school run cos I took the car seat clip by mistake in my car.....got back and he had gone to the loo outside and was fast asleep. Little toad!!!

@GuyFawkesDay that sounds like great progress! Is that the first time he's been left? I'm having to leave opalpup x 2 today, do to school runs 😨 only for 30 mins each time, but am a bit worried about making her anxious.

Primula on a licki mat has been helpful though!!

Can anyone recommend a pet camera that links in with your phone? Sorry if this has already been covered

We have a Little Elf one from Amazon, about £30 I think - it was easy to set up and has been pretty handy so far

We jut bought this one from Argos

www.argos.co.uk/product/4667999

It's a bit freaky in night vision mode though

Hi everyone. I've had a hazy memory that I used to come down when pup moaned at night and comfort him through the gate. Think this stopped cos husband was staying up later than me and letting him out. So I think I've worked out that is why we are now in the total refusal to sleep in crate situation we are in!!!

Through the crate not gate

So will start doing that again. Its going to be tough but I need to crack it.
He got lots of attention on the school run this morning!

Confession time @cheeseisthebest I had to tough it out with FawkesPup at 5am cos basically he wanted to come up and sleep on the bed with me. Cos I let him whilst DH was away 🙈

Though now I know he's playing on my softness a bit with the whining I think I will get tougher.

Mac pup brought me a present! 😂

The bloody toad then hopped all the way from the back door to Mac’s crate to hide 🤦🏼‍♀️. Do I win a grossest gift award? I reckon there is more to come with this one…

@TheBigMacDougal gah!! not sure I’d know how to deal with that if it didn’t hop out of its own accord!!

My dad’s cats regularly bring in shrews and mice that are still alive and they have to chase them round the house to get them out and to safety!

I have been wondering if we use the crate too much for naps and need to wean him off it somehow. He has started taking himself in there sometimes for a nap, or having them on his blanket next to me, but he doesn’t seem to have long before spaniel FOMO kicks in. Hopefully that gets better as he gets older.

We start puppy classes on Wednesday and they don’t allow the puppies to have a mass play, it’s all about focus on their handler/person. So listening to Mac pups frustrated barking for an hour will be fun 😬😬😬

@567and I’m fairly unfussed by most stuff, so scooped him up and relocated him to the jungle at the bottom of the garden. If it was half dead/in bits that would have been far worse! Hopefully Mac pup won’t find another one for a while.

Sandwichpup was a nightmare last night, our worse night with him. He eventually settled at 11:30pm, took him outside lots of time for a wee and he promptly came in and had an accident on the carpet. He was super bitey, claming his teeth on any areas of my body!!

First time that we wondered if we had done the right thing in getting a puppy

I'm still feeling cross after last nights piss/shit fest, not least because I had to spend £30 at the dry cleaners for the duvet.

SIGH.

Need reminding why I love them!

Hello all. Sorry for those who’ve been having a rough time.

Spudpup has been going from one extreme to another recently - he’s either great or dreadful! He weed on the kitchen floor after being left alone in there while I gave DS a bath and was apparently a little bugger yesterday generally while I was out at my course. However, on walks he’s cracking - we even managed some off lead heel work today. I was so proud (he did then leap all over a couple who cooed over him though )

He has been complaining about how boring I am while I tried to study once we got back, and now could probably do with a nap, only there’s a buzzy fly that he keeps chasing around the room… I’ve taken a break from studying for now, I’ll do some more when DH gets home. Spudpup survived his first home alone moment while I did the school run this morning - his second is coming up, bless him! Fortunately it doesn’t take me long.

Very funny this morning - spudpup was in the kitchen and DS in the living room with the gate closed. I was upstairs getting dressed. I heard a very stern ‘NO Spudpup. Naughty dog. DEAD!’ and came down - Spudpup had grabbed a leaflet off the kitchen shelf, and DS had strode into the kitchen and confiscated it. ‘I gave him a hard stare’ he told me, as the leaflet sat unmolested on the mantelpiece, and Spudpup sat behind the baby gate looking a bit bemused

@opalescent I have a little elf one from Amazon I got it for less than £20 on a deal and it's been well worth it.

@TheBigMacDougal eek I didn't used to think I was bothered by frogs/toads until I had one hopping around my kitchen once and I was too scared to catch it! Spiders are my biggest phobia though if pup starts bring them in god knows how ill cope!

FawkesPup was trying (failing) to catch butterflies yesterday

@opalescent I think loose lead walking is a work in progress for a long time. We used to drive to a grassy area/woods/wherever and then just use the longline rather than try to do walks on pavement or from house to somewhere. It means pup could just run about a bit or sniff freely. I did loose lead training first at home then outside for just a few mins at a time but tried to do a hit every day as he got older.

I've not tried loose lead walking today.
Oh I am finding it hard, in a similar way to how I found babies hard but love my kids to bits!