Puppy survival thread. Oct/Nov fireworks!

[sandwiches77]

New thread...

Merlin was dreadful for chewing when younger but has stopped. I suspect he could easily start again. I think long walks are key. Last week I had one lovely 6am walk in pouring rain and the dark. The beach is pretty open and light but if I was in fields or woods I doubt I'd go

Hello, can I join? Picking up a setter puppy on Tuesday. I've got food and insurance sorted. Any recommendations for puppy toys?

@WomblingKnobhead I’ll give it a try. I hate winter! We can’t go on the beach in the dark as it was the location of the famous cockle picking disaster if you remember that (and it must be coming up for 20 years ago now 😵😵😵). I’d rather avoid the fields in the dark and we’re so rural that our pavements only go down one side of the road and that side changes often and they often just randomly run out, so our options for walks in the dark are very limited. My 11am appointment at work cancelled so I came home and took Billy to the pet shop and bought him a buffalo horn which seemed like the closest thing to a wall 😂 and he’s been chewing it ever since! It bloody stinks though, it passed the sniff test in the shop but Billy’s chewing must have activated it 🤢.

@LadyCatStark our buffalo horn doesn't smell? Did you get the empty one or one that has a filling? Ours is empty so I can put stuff in it if I want.

It is hard fitting in another walk now it's getting dark early, we tend to have a good 45 mins in morning after school run and she'll sleep most of the day but she's not ready for another walk before I pick kids up from school and the little one is usually too tired to go for a decent walk after school so it tends to be 15/20 min pavement walk around the block whereas she used to get a good play in the park at 7pm when little one was in bed! I'm dreading when it's icy or snowy out and too dangerous to walk either due to me slipping or pups paws getting frozen or covered in grit!

@casinoroyale4ever you can't join until you've posted a pic of your pup. 😉 My pup enjoyed this one a lot and we had the balls on ropes, a couple of cuddlies (now totally annihilated) and antlers for chewing, Kings never a success for us. The lickimatt was limited success as well.

BBC news has a story about a dog walker who got totally stuck in mud then surrounded by cows. Sounds like a horror movie

@casinoroyale4ever - plant pots and plastic bottles were considered far superior to any toys we bought. Ada is too stupid to work out the Kong gyro so just barked at it, or picked it up and chewed it! Kong wobbler also got barked at. Soft toys she likes the Kong knots toys

@Aria20 what do you put in the buffalo horn? Pup has got one but I've never thought to fill it.

@Returnoftheowl well my pup is a weirdo so doesn't like to eat out of her nice ceramic bowl so I mix her kibble and wet food in the bowl but then scoop it into the buffalo horn and she'll happily eat it! Obv means I have to keep refilling it though as they aren't massive... I guess you could put anything in it really whatever you'd put in a kong. She is happy just chewing the horn when it's empty too though, it's been her favourite so far and it's still going, she has managed to sharpen it into quite a weapon now though lol

Aria20 you are same as us. Good 45-1hr walk in morning. Chills out the rest of the day and perks up just before kids get home. Then it’s trying to fit in a walk before it gets dark which isn’t easy. I sometimes think I should just take her with me to pick kids up from school but that seems frought with potential issues. So many kids in one place without any care about how to approach dogs. I don’t like to chance taking her

Also worrying about potential slipping in the winter when she pulls. Will have to get grips to attach to trainers hopefully that will help

@casinoroyale4ever, welcome to the thread! As for toys, I would recommend buying an assortment of (hopefully relatively inexpensive) toys at first. Then you can figure out which ones he likes and which ones he ignores. My puppy loves rope toys and anything with stuffing he can pull out or otherwise destroy. Kongs are a hit because they can be stuffed with tasty things though he also enjoys playing with the empty ones. We have a holee roller ball that he adores. His other favourite toy is a Spiderman figure which is actually a child's toy that he appropriated (with no objections from the child concerned!).

@Aria20 it’s empty but it smells like… cows… maybe it’ll settle down once it’s been chewed a bit 🙏.

@casinoroyale4ever welcome to the thread. Billy’s favourite toyed were/ are the Nylabone keys mentioned above (still a favourite), a frisbee (now destroyed), a monkey teddy from Pets at home (also destroyed), a ball with spiky bits on (lost), a ball that you put kibble in and it comes out as he rolls it around (still a favourite), a courdouroy (sp?) and rope snake from Pets at Home (still going strong), a large holee roller stuffed with old bits of Tshirt (new and the best thing ever), a kong (now onto a bigger size).

Plastic bottles as also a favourite thing here too! In fact if you’re drinking from one, he’ll nudge you to hurry up so he can have it 😂.

When he was a baby, he used to wear his frisbee like a necklace feels nostalgic.

Talking of toys has anyone else started their puppy Christmas shopping? (Serious question!)

Picture of tiny Billy wearing his frisbee 🥰.

@LadyCatStark I think Billy is just behind PoirotPup in the adolescence front. PoirotPup had never really chewed anything he shouldn’t and then out of the blue ate my fitness tracker, something from air dried clay my youngest made at school and a chuckit.

Before that he started being more needy - seeming more hungry, more interested in food when we ate, started sometimes jumping up to counter or table. Started jumping on us and mouthing if wanted to play RIGHT NOW and being much more vocal in general.

We retrained a down/settle when we eat and have a constant stream of tiny kibble for the job. I’ve tried to get everyone to be consistent about going out of the room/behind a gate when he jumps or mouths.

He’s needed more exercise, more mini bouts of training, more enrichment and brain work and sniffing opportunities.

@LadyCatStark so cute, we had that frisbee too.... didn't even last the day!

FawkesPup has had a skirting board nibble so far but the bitter apple spray helped.....so far.

Morning walks I leave til 7am now, I am ready for work and have everything done, take him out for 20 minutes round the park next to house and a couple of village blocks. Then he does x2 school runs with DH and I do a other 20-30 minutes training walk with him in field/park after school. Will be pitch black at 7am again soon so I am making the most of the sunrise whilst it's here for a week or so more. Rural here too so it's pavement in the village itself (lit) or pitch black to choose from 😩

Definitely needing more exercise now! Won't be long before I can do the lovely canalside 5km or over the fields further with him on longer evenings and DH will be walking him 40minutes to the local coffee stop soon too. It's a dog friendly spot too so good all round.

Thanks for the toy recs - my last puppy was 2005 so toys have moved on! I will post a photo Tuesday - so excited!!

LadyCatStark Billy looks like a carbon copy of Newboy!
How old is he?

We seem to have seamlessly moved from irritating puppyhood to irritating adolescence. He's such a nightmare in the evenings, all he wants is me and to jump all over me, biting! Absolutely nothing else will do. Just put him for some time out in the kitchen, he's just barking and barking. I don't think it's the right thing to do but at my wits end

@BaconAndAvocado, he’s 7 months now but he doesn’t look like that anymore, he looks like a big man dog now 😂. My mum once saw a meeting of black labs and asked me how on Earth we tell them apart! Billy has a tiny white line of fur on his chest which I love because his kennel club name is Moonbeam Flash and he has his own moonbeam flash on his chest 🥰.

FawkesPup is a bitey toad and is getting argumentative? Barks at us, sometimes opens his mouth but whilst play bowing too. He caught DS earlier with his teeth so I put him in the humungacrate downstairs as he seemed rather hyperactive which normally means he needs a sleep....& He crashed out in there. First time ever! So now I know he can sleep in there I'm going to cosy it up for him, buy a proper cover and hopefully it'll be his "spot" to chill.

Still undecided about booking him in for neutering op.

An interesting encounter with an older pup today. My boy usually wants to play with any dog, regardless of size or age. And even though the pup we met really wanted to play with mine, he was a bit scared and uncertain. I don't want him to be scared, of course, but I wonder if that means he is starting to understand a bit more about interacting with other dogs? The other pup was 8 months old and looked like a giant next to mine (who is almost 5 months old and quite a hefty fellow).

@bargelights our trainer said that big dogs can be quite intimidated by even bigger dogs as they are not used to seeing dogs that are bigger than them 😂.

LadyCatStark he's a beauty!
Newboy is a chocolate and also has the white stripe on his chest.
Our breeder said it's a genetic throwback and quite rare.

Yep, Newboy is going to be a big beast too I think.
He's had a rapid weight gain recently (not past 2 days when he's been surviving on measly portions of chicken and rice) and his paws are huge.
Love your boy's KC name. Newboy's isn't as exciting: Harpitt's True Spirit.

Hyperactive that's the word! I could have cried over the past hour and half. Climbing all over me biting and nipping then finally calms but jumps off me to go to sleep. So I don't even get the nice bit of a sleepy cuddle!