Puppy survival thread. Oct/Nov fireworks!

[sandwiches77]

New thread...

They can't choke on the Kong itself if it's the right size, so if you use small stuff in it or grated it should be ok?

FawkesPup has had an anti-inflammatory jab at the vet. And 5 days of antibiotics. He's got a high temperature so there's something going on but vet thinks probably viral but just being cautious as he's only small.

Oh dear poor pup maybe my vet is really lax then!!

@tizwozliz

Might just be noseblind but Ada doesn't seem to smell much at all. A slight smell if she's damp but that's it. She's never had a bath

That's Blaze too. He doesn't seem to smell unless he's wet. Never had a bath. But he does get a liberal coating of baby powder every Tuesday at daycare, because that's the best way to get all the wet sand off him before he's allowed back inside after playing in their sandpit, lol.

Or maybe your pup is just big enough that the vet isn't so concerned @Aria20.

We leave Blaze with a frozen Kong every time we leave him alone. We only ever fill it with paste or baby food so there's nothing big for him to choke on, he has to lick it out.

We have lift off! Kibble eaten without wet stuff accompanying it! Really hoping he’s starting to feel better. Reckon he’s got nearly a 0.5-1kg to stack back on!

Tell you what the anti-inflammatory has really perked him up. He's back to being a right pain in the arse again 😩😊

I think if it was just snot they'd have left him but he was over 39 degrees so vet thought it best to cover bases. £60 down now!

He did snot up something disgusting earlier so I wonder if there might have been something stuck up there.

Hi All, hope everyone is doing well.

Has anyone had their puppy sleep overnight elsewhere yet?

Opalpup is 19 weeks, and sleeps beautifully on her crate at night. We are going away next weekend to a non-dog friendly place, and she is booked to stay 2 nights with a lovely lady who does doggy daycare. I feel really nervous! Is it likely to mess up her routine? Will she settle for the lady?

I feel the same as when my children first stayed away 😂

No but we are sending ours to my cousin when we do, he will have 5 playmates and forget all about us!!!! Sounds like opalpup is very ready for it xx

@opalescent mine stayed with my sister in law for 9 days when we went on holiday she was 6.5 months old. She barked a lot when we left and a lot that first night and had a few wee accidents as SIL was missing her signals and she didn't know where to go but she did settle and SIL pretty much followed our routine with walks, meal times and bedtime. The only thing when we came back was she'd started pulling on the lead and wanted to greet every dog on walks!

She's also stayed in our own home with my brother overnight when we went to a wedding and she was ok but was apparently looking out the window and barking at the door waiting for us to come back!

Im just so jealous of your puppy sleeping beautifully in her crate!

And me! Mine does sleep, but not all night and clearly doesn't love his crate either.

I'm sorry guys, that was tactless and I didn't think before posting. I am waiting every day for her to become a crate refuser. If it's any consolation, she bites the crap out of me every evening and is hell on a lead!

Billy is coming away with us for his first night away from home next week. I’m hoping that he’ll sleep out of his crate in the hotel room with us but if not, he can go in his car crate. There’s not as much room in it as his proper crate though so I don’t think he’d be comfortable all night.

Haha @opalescent not at all! We all know each of us had our own struggles with our pups along this journey, and should celebrate their successes too....no apologies necessary xx

Those of you with labs, what bed have you got? We've currently got a donut bed from B&M, it was cheap and cheerful and we bought the largest size. He's growing out of it, and he's started chewing it as well, so he needs a bigger and tougher bed. Anyone got any recommendations? If I'm going to spend much money on a bed for him it needs to be close to indestructible though as he destroys soft toys in minutes and is looking like that's the next mission with his bed 🤦

My pup inherited every other dog bed we have ever owned. Currently sleeping on a pillow!

Thus far, Ada's not really a bed chewer or toy destroyer so not sure my recommendations are going to be of use. Her raised bed is supposedly chew proof but it's not really been tested.

@MsAwesomeDragon I feel your pain. Mine destroys soft toys too but they are her favourite. She also chewed the last proper bed so she's now just using her fleece crate mat which I've had to sew in two places as she had a chew on that too!! I'm going to wait until she's a bit more mature before spending on a proper bed as I don't want it destroyed!

We know a family with 5 working labs, they have a wooden platform bed in the entrance hall with blankets and fleeces and they all sleep on that.

Hard bed and blankets might be the way to go til they grow out of shredding beds I reckon. FawkesPup is on TKMAXX cheapo beds for exactly that reason. He's chewed holes in the covers and humps the so I reckon bed shredding isn't far away!

PoirotPup has only started chewing a bit recently - mostly ears/legs off some of his toys. We have a George Barclay sofa bed for him - it’s massive and I don’t think he’s going to grow much bigger so wonder if we should have gone size smaller. He mostly sleeps on the sofa and chairs though so very expensive for the time he sleeps on it 🤣🤣 hoping when we move home he’ll like it as it will be familiar? My kids sometimes use it to sit on when they’re playing on the games console on the tv 🤣🤣🤣

RE overnight, we tried her usual daycare lady and she would not settle at all. However she's stayed with my parents for 9 nights and has been fine - it's not ideal as it's a six hour round trip and their older dog isn't overly amused. We need to either try again with the daycare lady or find an alternative closer, cas occasionally we want a couple of nights away and can't really add a trip to my parents onto that.

We’ve got this bed as recommended by a friend. www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/ferplast-siesta-deluxe-4-medium-dog-bed-grey comes in lots of sizes, but we’ve got the medium for now. I also bought the cushion for it but he likes that in his crate so I just put blankets in the bed which makes it easy to change and wash them.

Hope all the poorly pups are feeling better soon.

Had the misfortune to run into an awful dog walker the other day. She had 10 dogs all off the lead, jumping up at people and other dogs, and they made a beeline for our pup. Loads descended on him, two were jumping up me so I was trying to get them off and one of the others growled and must have done something as pup yelped and tried to wriggle away from them. Instinct kicked in and I picked him up as she didn’t recall any of the dogs and she then lectured me that I had done completely the wrong thing and that they would have been fine. I said one had growled and hurt him but she wasn’t having any of it and called me a ‘bloody lock-down dog owner’!! 😂 So that was nice!

@LadyCatStark - Ada thought all her dreams had come true when she got to sleep in the same room as us on holiday!

Since she's had kennel cough though she won't settle in her crate at all, even if it's in the same room. It's a good workout carrying 19kg of lab down the stairs every morning!

Not sure what our next steps will be, for now I'm enjoying uninterrupted sleep but one of the reasons I wanted her to be happy settling in her crate was if we ever have to leave her anywhere.

@tizwozliz that is what I’m afraid of a bit! I don’t want Billy to sleep with us at home as our bedroom is on the third floor and it’s nice to have the upstairs not smelling of dog 😂.

@MsAwesomeDragon Billy now has a raised bed with a blanket on. He doesn’t really chew it as it’s the pulling the stuffing out that he likes. It’s only the Amazon basics one but it does the job and if he does chew through the fabric, you can buy a replacement for a tenner.

MsAwesomeDragon
Our Lab, 16 weeks, has 2 beds. One in the crate and one in the kitchen area.
One is from Asda of the fleecy variety which he hasn't decided he wants to eat, yet.
The other is from Pets@Home abs is sturdier with hard sides.
He spends time in both tbh.