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.

Awww bless her!!

FawkesPup has been rocking the flappy eared spaniel in the wind look today. He's just proudly trotted in with his ostrich bone and plonked it in his bed ready for a busy evening of chomping 😆

This evening we have all totally ignored the barking, jumping and wanting to be nipped. And no one has been nipped!!!!!
He barked a lot for our attention but then gave up.
Hope we and pup can keep it up.

I’ve ordered Billy a holee ball, he loves to pull the stuffing out of his crate mat 🙄.

Does anyone else’s pup try to clean their ears for them? Billy makes sure he gives all of our ears a daily clean 🤷‍♀️.

@LadyCatStark yes pup does both those things.
@cheeseisthebest glad you had a calmer evening!

@LadyCatStark regular ear cleaning and facials here. If you're really unlucky you get a full french kiss 🤢

[quote GuyFawkesDay]@LadyCatStark regular ear cleaning and facials here. If you're really unlucky you get a full french kiss 🤢[/quote]
This is us too. He loves to sit and lick ears and hair, with a gentle nibble at times too.

I found DH sharing cheese with pup last night. As in DH put some sticking out of his mouth then bent down to let pup take it from him!!!! It was like watching that scene with the spaghetti in lady and the tramp. I was shocked!!!!! He says it's "bonding"

An entire night on the sofa for me last night. Separation anxiety sucks.
MrsAD that's hilarious!

Manic day yesterday and no chance to catch up. Pups eyes recovered. He's become averse to going for a walk, ? Wind rain or laziness. I've literally had to coax him inch by inch to walk.

Terrier regularly licks near my tonsils as she's so damn quick and sneaks in when I'm relaxed or laughing 🤢 Pup cleans my ears and has nearly added an extra piercing...

@MsAwesomeDragon love it! I don't think I'd go that far with the bonding myself

Pup has been a real challenge the past few days. DH away with work so I have had the kids, pup, cats and cat sitting for friends to deal with. Means pup probably hasn't had the attention she needs so she is now becoming extra bitey and has now grown enough to jump on the sofas. We always said we wouldn't allow her on the sofas as it is the kids and cats space but don't quite know how to deal with that when she's so excited to see the kids she's up in their faces before we can blink. Any suggestions? She's already upset my 6 yo as she scratched her with her claws trying to get up to her.

In better news she had her second lot of vaccinations yesterday so in 2 weeks time we can go for our first walk! Can't wait!

I'm definitely not going that far with the bonding!! This is a dog who samples every cow pat in a field of he can get away with it. His face is not getting anywhere near my mouth if I can help it, I'm certainly not encouraging it!!!

Glad it’s not just is that get an ear clean. Billy loves to chew on my hair too. I often wear a messy bun and he pops the whole thing in his mouth 😂. Poor DH has quite the bald patch and Billy tries to lick it better. DH is really self conscious about it so could do without the attention.

He also has to pick one of his toys up before he can say hello to us. It can be anything, usually the nearest one but if he can’t find anything, he’ll run off, find something and then come back and say hello 🤷‍♀️.

Pup has spent the last two nights in bed with us, not what I intended at all but have been under the weather the last week and desperately need the sleep. Will reevaluate our options once we've caught up on some rest

Mac pup has had a dodgy tummy. H are hardly anything Monday, yesterday I made him rice and egg which he had for each meal with a bit of kibble. This morning he has eaten the rice and egg and dodged kibble… will he now be spoilt and wanting the rice and egg?!?!

*he had hardly…

@TheBigMacDougal don't worry they all prefer human food over kibble. Mine will wolf down a bowl of rice and meat/fish if given the choice but with kibble it has to either be well mixed with wet food or in a puzzle feeder/snuffle mat - she won't eat boring plain kibble in a bowl!

Mine is exactly the same with kibble. Which makes me wonder if feeding kibble is the best. I really want to move on to raw or proper food, but it's so expensive and ... single income household....

Sorry about sickness @TheBigMacDougal. Mine had that at the weekend and it was grim. Chicken and sweet potato was gobbled up on day 3 though. Hope MacPup is feeling better soon.

I mix in a teaspoon of cheese spread with the kibble. Sometimes grated cheese or carrot.

Otherwise, Newboy isn't very keen.

Just been on a walk to the park and I had to do hardly any dragging/carrying to chivvy him along.
I'm hoping he's finally getting the idea of a "walk" 😂

Hmmm. We’ve never had trouble with just kibble 🤷🏼‍♀️. The only things I’ve ever added were a handful of blueberries or some chopped carrot and that isn’t every day. He still seems to have loose/no poo so thinking it hasn’t passed yet.

Hopefully it sorts itself out soon. Otherwise will give the vets a call tomorrow to see if we do anything different. I don’t think he’s old enough to have it starved out as they normally recommend withholding food for 12-24hrs.

My puppy does not have very discriminating tastes. He loves his kibble. We can use it for training treats and he is delighted.

Mine loves his kibble too. But then again he's just a total gannet.

Sleep is doing my nut in. Wondering if he's hungry, hence the 4:30am/5am wake up. Going to split his dinner in 2 and bulk out with veg and see if he sleeps through

We were picky about Kibble until she was 11 months. Had an upset tummy (projectile vomiting, it was quite impressive!) so was "starved" for 24 hours, then built back up gradually. By the time she was back on just kibble a week later she couldn't get enough and she's loved it ever since. But before it could take her ages to eat a meal, and only ever by hand/training/toys/scatter feed...

Will be weaning Newboy of his current kibble from the breeders when it eventually runs out as it's too expensive for us long term.
Still got 1.5 huge bags left.

Which dried food do people recommend?
Budget wise, mid range.

When you're looking at it, check the feeding guides as mid range can work out more. So we feed Eden (£55/12kg on Jurassic Bark) but FawkesPup gets 140gm a day, whereas on Royal Canin it's twice that quantity so ends up working out more.

We switched to Millie's Wolfheart about a month ago - it works out about £1.20 a day and should remain around that into adulthood now.

We also use millies wolf heart but smaller breed so works out even cheaper like 70p a day but I do buy separate wet food.

@GuyFawkesDay do you use Eden semi moist? I was thinking of trying that but can't seem to get hold of any small bags to try it and don't want to buy a huge bag!