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.

@Equimum Fair enough. I can only speak from our experience and from what I've read. Worth bearing in mind that in a few weeks it'll be too cold to leave the door open all day.

@GuyFawkesDay Goodness, that sounds tough. What was actually agreed before you got pup? Is he your dog or a joint dog? Getting a dog is one of those decisions the whole household really does have to be on board with, I was desperate for our dog and I still found it really difficult.

What is it with these pups waking at 515am... Same here. Back to bed for all of about an hour. I've started going to bed at 930! First trip out out today. The verdict from our pup. People yes. Yes please. Other dogs. Also yes. Trolleys and HGVs and wheelchairs, nope. Bit of counter-conditioning needed there I think.

I've cannibalised my son's curtains for the dog's sleeping room tonight in hopes she will be fooled by the dark.

We agreed as I've given up my weekends do he can play/coach sport for 20 years and he WFH he would look after dog. So walk, feed. He's had an insanely busy and stressful period at work and seems to have his priorities all wrong. Therefore I am making a point and conversation will be had about making a bit more time for pup will make everyone's lives easier. He does like the dog and loves how happy he's making us all, and wants to go out for nice long walks with him (we have a lovely cafe about 15/20 minutes walk away he'd love to drop off DD at school, walk there and potter back with a takeaway coffee) or go running with him but FawkesPup still way too little for that far.

He does recognise it's just temporary, the biting, twatting about and weeing on the floor will stop, it's just bloody hard work in the meantime!

@MightyMeerkat we use a pet liner in the rear seats of the car, with a seatbelt clip.

@GuyFawkesDay I hope you can get your DH on board more with looking after pup. I decided to look after all the training along with DD as DH was very inconsistent in his approach and it was causing confusion. He tried to use a clicker but clicked at the wrong times and then wouldn't praise or treat or do it so long after there was no way the dog could relate it back to the original behaviour. Really frustrating! I had to say to him that either we all trained the same way or he needed to back off. He backed off on the training as he wasn't doing much anyway. He is good at getting up in the morning to let pup out and he takes for her morning walk so he pulls his weight in other ways.

@GuyFawkesDay ‘D’Hs are knobheads! I thought we were making some progress as Billy is calming down and seems to have got the measure of DH and keeps bringing him toys to play with so that DH has to interact with him. But then he just came into the kitchen, looked around and said, “The house is looking really scruffy since we got a dog isn’t it?” No the kitchen is looking slightly scruffy because I cleaned it throughly this morning and then DH and DS made their lunch (which is actually surprising on itself) and left all of their pots on the side on top of the dishwasher without even contemplating putting them inside. He does absolutely nothing to help around the house and I’m doing extra cleaning, hoovering and mopping to make sure the house doesn’t get ‘scruffy’ because of the dog 🤬.

I had a lovely night's sleep in my own bed and slept from 10 till 8.
DH was on doggie duty and got a lot less 😂

We're trying the Tough Love approach tonight, wish me luck.

Going to put Newboy to bed at 11 then both of us go up to bed. Going to use a baby monitor and see what happens.....

@LadyCatStark it's one thing I can't moan about as he does tidy, takes smallest to school and walks FawkesPup when I'm at work, makes packed lunches and does some of the after school activity runs. He's just been mad busy at work and so we have hardly seen him but the fact the kids have noticed might just make him change a bit.

He does no training because he has no clue how to, and tbh I am very tempted to send him to puppy class with the dog as he needs it more than me??!!

FawkesPup very tired now. We've done a long walk (it's actually no further than his every day wall but just in slow dribs) to see some of the village scarecrows, stopped at the pub for a drink and a chill out. Dog charmed lots of kids. Pootle back again. But it's taken an hour, not 15 minutes and all the people, pub and wall has done him in!

Best of luck @BaconAndAvocado. It might take a few nights but you have to stay strong and it will all be over soon. And @GuyFawkesDay I hope your DH bucks his ideas up a bit. I'm on my own and get to decide the training method etc and don't have to feel that simmering bloody resentment that I did when the kids were little. I swear it's sometimes easier to only have yourself to rely on.

Spudpup ate a dead mouse today! We’ve been doing ever so well with ‘drop it’ training but apparently a dead mouse was just too wonderful to give up, even for primula🤮

He has also been to the pub for the first time, where he was the subject of much admiration 😊 All I can say is, they didn’t know about the mouse incident…

@BaconAndAvocado good luck!

I'm still wondering how to go about "the big move". Think the camp bed will have to come out for a few days....need the big crate back, then I'll tackle it

Ooh Yum. A dead mouse. Good bit of natural protein, cartilage and bone. I bought some hairy rabbit ears today. We have pet rabbits but I'm hoping pup can apreciate the difference

Thanks all.
I don't mind whimpering, I'll ignore that. Just hope we don't get full in crying!!
This reminds me of controlled crying when the DCs were babies!

Fingers crossed that the noise doesn't go on for too long. Best of luck. And I'm sure you'll have it cracked soon.

@Lifeishitsometimes

Fingers crossed that the noise doesn't go on for too long. Best of luck. And I'm sure you'll have it cracked soon.

Thank you, I really hope so. I'm just too old for broken nights!

Steel yourself. I feel the same. I've done it twice with babies, I have no desire to do it again with the furry one. Short term pain for long term gain... Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Short term pain for long term gain
Exactly this 🤞🏻

I don't want to give advice but something my assistance dog trainer friend said helped... Don't think of them as babies. Your babies. They aren't. They are dogs and they learn differently, and are wired differently. I was never a fan of controlled crying for babies. But I do think there is a tendency to humanise puppies.
Anyway , good luck with it!

Yes ashmts I had thought that. I'm hoping she'll still head to the back door. We are usually with her or closes by most of the time, so hoping it won't be too disruptive, but who knows!

Good luck BaconAndAvocado.

OMG Spudlet that sounds horrific!

Loving hearing all these stories of pups out exploring. I cannot wait until we get to take Bella out later this week.

FawkesPup had a nice lick of the remains of a pigeon in the park this morning. He was on his long line, I saw the feathers about 25m away and didn't realise the rest was where it was. Grim.

I’m going to disagree here about letting puppies cry it out. Most trainers following the modern training suggest not allowing small puppies to cry it out. I recognise there is a difference between leaving a small whine/noise for a few minutes compared to full on just ignoring though. The trainers I’ve worked with absolutely do not recommend ignoring a crying puppy alone at night. Yes it’s bloody hard having reduced sleep, and obviously everyone makes their own choices - but just wanted to give an opposing view as it most certainly isn’t the opinion of every trainer that it is the best thing to do.

To be fair, Spuddog was an incorrigible carrion eater - his best effort was the decaying rabbit’s head he found and crunched up, with the ears sticking out of either side of his mouth. It looked like the rabbit from Donnie Dario! Now that really was 🤮

However, for some reason I was hoping Spudpup might be a bit more refined 😂

@Spudlet eww a mouse I don't think I could deal with that!

Pup ate a dead fly earlier and tried to catch a daddy long legs to eat but so far nothing else. She's friendly with neighbouring cats, wants to play with them. She also play bows to goats and sheep. She barked at the rabbits in the glass pens in pets at home though so not sure if she wanted to eat or play with them! She chases squirrels and flocks of birds but is wary of geese after being hissed at!

No, I do agree that it isn't good to let them cry for ages. I do. But 5 to 10 minutes.... I think it's probably fine. You have to look at it in the round. No-one is well served by the humans being so short tempered and sleep deprived they can't positively interact with their pet whilst they are awake. The evidence on human babies and controlled crying is crap to be honest and mum dogs are far less tolerant with puppies than humans are. I do understand that they are pack animals and prefer a pile of other pups but sometimes that just isn't practical.