Puppy survival thread. Cold nights in the garden ... yeah...no

[MakeMeCleanTheHouse]

The foghorn is sounding frequently and I suspect that's why I'm up enjoying the ambience of a foggy garden at 4am.

Hoping @BaconandAvocado is fast asleep and all the others with wide awake pups.

FawkesPup is sometimes slightly stiff too, but not a very discernable limp, just a bit awkward looking at a trot? This may be explained by his idiotic zoomies on a 10m line resulting in pulling a muscle.

He's normally fine next day or so, as long as I make him take it a little easy and no parking about with his puppy friends.

Hope MacPup is the same. FawkesPup's mate had to have some anti inflammatory meds after he fell off the bed and hurt his shoulder.

PoirotPup limped a couple of times. We checked paws to make sure no grass seeds or obvious cuts/things stuck in paws and watched to make sure not excessive licking of a paw.

We thought maybe we’d overdone walking/running/playing so didn’t go out for a walk for two days then did really short 10 min on lead short and slow sniffy ‘walks’ for two more days until limp had gone. We decided we’d ring vet if it didn’t get better after 3 days but it did.

Just joining this as my puppy spilled my cup of tea. A new level of annoying!

He's still very little @lifestooshortandsoami have faith it will get better. Shredding Amazon parcels is good as it's really tough cardboard, tougher than cereal boxes or toilet roll tubes but they will still be fun, just save all the recycling!! Over tiredness def makes them so much worse.

How old are your children? Mine are 13, 10 & nearly 4. The 10yo struggled the most with the nipping and was a bit scared to play with puppy for quite a while and retreated to his room a lot, my oldest is very tough and has wanted a dog forever so he was happy to work through the nipping and my youngest is very fiesty so she would just shout no at puppy and thankfully she wasn't scared or put off by the nipping and they have a great relationship now pup follows her around waiting for scraps or trying to steal her teddies lol. It is hard trying to train a puppy with young children around though as inevitably they will end up undoing your training by sneaking scraps or treats or letting pup jump up on them or on the sofa or giving the wrong cue words etc or just by being noisy and then pup can't sleep. But it will fall into place as they get older.

Agree overtired in puppies is as bad if not worse than overtired toddlers!

Bitter apple spray on trousers/tops definitely helped make ours think twice.

@lifestooshortandsoami I also have a border collie pup, 11 weeks old today, I feel your pain!

The biting has definitely improved the last few days but I find it does depend on who she is playing with. I for example tell her sharply to leave it if she starts hanging off my clothes and she's started obeying, whereas DH and the kids will try and just distract her with toys which doesn't work as well. I agree the ignoring has not worked AT all as she just drags along behind you with teeth clamped on clothes!

We put her in her crate for a while if she gets too much, just to get her to calm down. She's usually on the go all the time if she's not in her crate, but trying other things too now - licky mat, frozen carrots, which calms her down for a bit but then she's up and at it immediately after!

It gets SO much better once they can go out for walks and gave better chews too. Hang on on there! Ours gives his bits of dead animal far more biting attention now, and he's 18 weeks tomorrow. A few weeks ago I was despairing too. He kept going for DD too.

I agree that it really does get a LOT better once they are allowed out for even short walks. Lickimat and Kong's were our go to at that age, with a smear of cheese spread or peanut butter, or now we put baby food or meat paste on. Better chews are great too.

You will get there, and it will get better. for the meantime though. Dd2 cried every day for the first 3 or 4 weeks because he kept biting her and she couldn't get him off without hurting him (or herself). She absolutely adores him now though, he's her "favourite bestie" apparently. Now that I've done the hard work of training him to settle and be calm, lol. She sits on the sofa and takes the cuddles (he does still nibble her ears, but it's very gentle and tickles rather than hurts, so she's happy that those are kisses).

We had a nice walk today including some off lead time in an enclosed field. There weren’t any other dogs in the field which made me more confident about allowing him to be off the lead. His recall is O.K. but distractions (especially the canine variety) cause him to forget everything he’s learned. Then on the way home he threw up in the car. He doesn’t tend to suffer from motion sickness and normally he loves the car. So hopefully this was a one off.

@lifestooshortandsoami, I’m sorry you’re having a difficult time of it. I think the advice to walk away is often unsuccessful with herding breeds. They will just follow you and nip some more since that’s what their instinct tells them to do. When our current pup jumps up, we now move toward him rather than turning away. For some reason this technique seems to work. I agree with PPs’ ideas about things to chew and making certain he gets enough sleep.

The reality is that some puppies are more mouthy and bitey than others. Our previous dog (also a border collie) never went through a nipping stage at all. Our current pup can be bitey when he’s overtired or overexcited. It sounds like yours might be especially mouthy. And of course he’s very young. It will get better!

Hi all! New here to this thread but we have a 16 week french bulldog (lost our last one at 16 last year so she did very well bless her!!) it's obviously been a while since we've had a pup again and toilet training is a nightmare. He was really good at the start. But as he's got older it's getting worse. I take him out every half hour. He does a large wee. Then comes inside and will wee again after 5/10 minutes (sometimes sooner) what am I doing wrong? He doesn't even drink the amount that comes out. I asked about this last time he was at the vets and they said normal (young pup, smaller bladder) but it's getting worse as he's ageing. He has his last vaccination this week (delayed due to antibiotics and being very unwell) any help would be much appreciated!! (If it matters iur last frenchie was a female)

When they are so young, it feels like the behaviour will last forever or break you.

@slowtik I honestly despaired over FawkesPup's toilet training. He was just the same. Take him out, wee. Great!..... Ten minutes later, big puddle on floor. I thought he'd never get it.

Then it just sort of clicked at 16/17 weeks and he's now 2 weeks post there and no accidents in house apart from when nobody is there to let him out so entirely our fault. Sprats were our magic bullet as he LOVES them and only gets them for successful toilet trip.

Graeme Hall (the dogfather) reckons 4 months is when most dogs just get it with toilet training and anything before that you're more lucky than skilled. Proved entirely right for ours so just keep going and they'll get it. In the meantime 🍷&🍫

@MsAwesomeDragon thank you. She really gave us a fright. Slept for 6 hours and then just sat watching TV (Uunheard of)... Vet thought had probably eaten something unsuitable. By 8,pm she was bouncing round the house and biting everyone again. Happy days :)

Still a bit off food and just having boiled meat or fish but pretty ok.

Apart from... At home she is completely toilet trained. No accidents for probably around 2 weeks. Here, it's like she is 8weeks old again. She tried to poo on the carpet and has done 80% of wees inside. Naively I didn't think it would be so situational. Rethinking going away next week ....

I think it's very common to have backward steps in toileting. FawkesPup has not been super quick to train so I suspect he will definitely have those days/weeks.

I keep channelling my inner Dory and just keep swimming mopping 😆

I'd quite happily clean up some toilet accidents in trade for a full nights sleep right now!

Oh no! I just want to sleep past 5:30am too 😩

Thank you all. It’s reassuring to know we’re not alone in this phase.
Some really useful advice and will get the kids on sorting some more things to keep him distracted like the cardboard boxes etc.
The kids aren’t little - a 10 year old and two 15 year olds - but they’ve never had a dog before so want to build their confidence with him.
My dd (15) is brilliant with our cats and isn’t bothered if they play bite etc but is scared of pup- I’m the other way and hate it if the cats got to bite or scratch me!
Thanks again all, tomorrow is another day and hopefully a more positive one.
It’s good to know it gets easier (eventually!)

Well Stop Pup really showed herself up today. Took her with me to sort out my mum's shopping etc. Turned my back and puppy was sitting on my 85 year old mum's head! Fortunately mums the funny side.

@StopGo that’s hilarious!

Mac pup is limp free this morning! Phew! 😮‍💨 think he must have caught between pads but couldn’t find anything.

Good news Macpup is ok!

FawkesPup needed a wee at 4am. Then a poo a few minutes later.. Seriously, dog? He then twatted about in the garden, wouldn't come in and wouldn't go upstairs (carried him up in the end) or settle in his crate so I think the time has come to settle him downstairs? Little monkey.

We've started playing firework sounds but he's completely unfazed so that's great. Doesn't bat an eyelid. Will keep turning the volume up on them daily now.

Not looking forward to soggy walks today. Off to find my woolly hat!!

Definitely buying a slip lead so night time toileting is v boring

@tizwozliz

I'd quite happily clean up some toilet accidents in trade for a full nights sleep right now!

tizwozliz clearing up a bit of poo and wee in the morning is well worth a full night's sleep!!

Yesterday on the beach Newboy was attacked by a Jack Russell.
I was in shock and shouted at the owner to get him off as he had Newboy pinned down, growling and going to bite him,
The owner was suitably apologetic.
She said he was a rescue and is often grumpy.
She put him on the lead afterwards.....

Newboy was good uninjured but a bit shaken up.
I guess it's all part of the socialisation. Some dogs are nice, some aren't.

@BaconAndAvocado glad newboy is ok. Must have been a bit of a shock. We’ve had grumpy dogs growl/bark on occasion and owners apologise - I always say it will teach him to read dog body language and not always say hello! It has never got as far as that though - you sound fairly calm about it all. Think I’d be in a right state!

@BaconAndAvocado your poor dog. Mine has been growled or barked at by other dogs but like @MrsHerculePoirot not as bad as that. Hopefully he's not scared off by the experience.