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.

Damp towel is a really good idea. I think I’ll do that this evening. DD said she can’t find the cool mat so will have to purchase one if the heat continues, although saying rain in Thursday so might not need it for a bit after these couple of hot days.

@LadyCatStark surely the answer is to burn the whistle?!?!? 🤣

Cooling mat out here too - so warm!

@GuyFawkesDay I taught down using the DTAS guide - so sat in a room with a book and as soon as he laid down said “down” and threw a treat/kibble across the room so he had to get up and get it. Then repeat, repeat, repeat… he got it really quickly. Then after we added the hand signal. They suggest doing it in the smallest room in the house and to be prepared to be there some time. I did it for about 30 minutes I think first time. Don’t know if that helps - I couldn’t work out how to do it holding the treat for ages 🤣🤣🤣

I used to do it when he was getting a bit annoying - it allowed me to read my book and tired him out!

@MsAwesomeDragon that tyre filled with sand looks like the sort of messy fun my pup would love too 

@GuyFawkesDay those pupsicles sound great too wish I was as creative.

It's currently 23 degrees where pups crate is so not super hot. Will see what temp it is later to see if it warrants putting her cool mat in. As someone who runs cold I find it difficult to judge. It's partly why I want to be able to leave her in the hallway so she has the option to move about. She whines at the stairgate when we've tried that thus far.

I'd definitely burn the whistle too. There is no way I could ever put that in my mouth again.

Ah but I’m strangely attached my my whistle! It makes me feel like I know what I’m doing 😂.

Pup almost caught a squirrel this evening... It just made it up a tree in time much to her disappointment! She was looking at me like make it come back

@LadyCatStark

Ah but I’m strangely attached my my whistle! It makes me feel like I know what I’m doing 😂.

Amazon is your friend here…. 🤣

@LadyCatStark - making mental note to take care of whistle.

@MsAwesomeDragon - Elmpup's crèche has one of those, apparently she preferred the tunnel.

Poor warm pups this evening! Elmpup has been a real Terri, despite having the sprinkler on to play with and us trying to keep her inside in the cool. She threw a tantrum on the way back from her walk, laying on the grass and refusing to get up. A couple with a pram and a small dog which was yapping away came into the park and said to their dog 'look at that well behaved dog'. I had to explain she was actually having a tantrum and NOT being well behaved at all!

She's now crashed out on the vinyl floor in the dining room - even the cool bed is too warm.

Have spent all day researching dog flaps for the back door and have gone ahead and ordered one. I'm so glad we'll finally be able to shut the door when it's cold instead of getting up and down 20 times to let in/out a dog!

Which dog flap did you got for @MeredithMae? We’re thinking of one for the back door.

Where is this heat you all speak of? Breezy cool here. I walked him tonight in jumper and body warmer

I've nearly done the whistle poo dip 💩 🤮

Work occupying far more time than Is healthy 😞

Speaking of whistles those who use them... do you call their name then whistle or whistle first then call their name? I have a whistle but not used it.

I started by associating the whistle with him running towards me. So I always call him and only whistle when he's running. I plan to establish that link solidly once he's allowed out properly before using it as main recall.

Up in the night twice and as I didn't sleep well anyway think a long day at work is going to be grim

@MakeMeCleanTheHouse that's a really good idea, I'm going to try it.

Elmpup has settled into a pattern of barking fairly quietly for 5-10 minutes when she's out to bed at night, then settling down to sleep through to 6.30. It feels as though it's been years since I had such an undisturbed night, though it's actually on been since mid-July.

At first I whistled, always the same number of whistles, then called ‘Billy here’ as he already knew here. TBH he really took notice of the whistle straight away. Now, especially if he’s far away, I can just use the whistle but I still call “here” sometimes so he doesn’t forget it incase I forget the whistle (or it falls in poo of course).

Yep, name and recall command first, then whistle signal (4 pips for me) as he is coming, repeated as he continues to come. And a huge fuss when he makes it of course!

I have also started teaching a sit to whistle in the same way - the sit command and one long whistle blast as he does it. In time this will be a stop whistle that can stop him mid-chase - but it starts off with a simple sit.

We have ok ish recall and quite good sitting now. Starting puppy classes in 2 weeks.
Had better night the last 2 nights. I lay next to his crate while he settled and then he slept through. I'm still knackered but going to stick with that.

Does anyone have an outdoor dog bed/outdoor space for their pups. Ada loves to sit outside and birdwatch and smell the air and she's rapidly getting too big for the cushion she's got out there at the moment. And thinking about when it gets colder, if she would be happy to sit outside the back patio doors rather than at the patio door with it open that would be great!

We're going backwards with the sleeping, several wake ups the past couple of nights where she needs reassurance. Sometimes it's enough if she hears us get up, and once she sees us that's enough we don't need to hang about but I'd prefer not to get up at all! We've tried having the radio on but it doesn't seem to have made a difference.

Yes my pup just loves to be outside. I so wish he could wander out there on his own. We are joined to the field that just isn't secure. I might need to invest in some chicken wire!

@Spudlet so you are planning to use the sit/long whistle as like an "emergency stop" when you are out? Sounds like a good idea.

I haven't used the whistle yet as we are doing the kennel club good citizen awards and are now onto silver and you can't obv use a whistle in class so needed her to recall without it but I'm thinking as she's getting older and we are going into woods more, a whistle would be a good idea incase she can't hear me calling! I don't want a bunch of dogs bounding towards me though haha!

What age did you puppies start their classes?
Cheesepup will be 17 weeks. I couldn't get him in any sooner.

We started a couple of days after second jabs, but Ada was by far the youngest there, there were at least a couple of pups that were 6 months plus. The classes were very basic but provided a useful training space to practice with distractions. If we'd not been able to start until 17 weeks I'd have tried to see if we could have started at the next level (we basically did watch, sit, down, recall and some heel work).

Re: the talk about teaching down, a lot of the pups in our class seemed to really struggle with down. We haven't mastered it, Ada will do it on a hand signal with no food lure since about 10 weeks, we haven't managed to link the command at all though

Oh, despite that she was still best in class at down though!