Puppy survival thread. Nov. Read this and buy a hamster instead

[WomblingKnobhead]

Or a rabbit, or a goldfish, or a cuddly toy.

At that age I wasn't too concerned about walking to heel, so we let her lead and sniff what she wanted but we did enforce the no pulling. So no moving forward if straining against the harness. Having seen a friend's 6 month old lab we wanted to make sure that pulling wasn't rehearsed. It meant a lot of carefully planned walks where we knew that she'd only have to be on a short lead for a small distance, so we could stop every two steps without it taking forever.

I can't remember how old your pup is @LostFrog but I know our trainer said to only do very short bursts of training walking to heel when first learning, i.e 5 mins

Is there any better way to spend isolation? 🥰🥰🥰

Yes box of chocs missing from the pic and a cup of tea. 😃

@WomblingKnobhead the chocolates would be wasted on me as my taste is completely gone 😭.

Ada is going out with the dog walker on a Monday morning, means it's a slightly gentler start to the week as don't need to walk before work. With the dark mornings she's happy to nap on me whilst I have my coffee.

@tizwozliz 🥰

Oh @LadyCatStark hope you're on the mend soon - good to get it done with before Christmas/ holidays.

Today was a big day for our pup today. She was off lead for a whole walk and (mostly) came back when called, and I also left her at home for the first school run ever she is 5 months old, I'm embarrassed

And it was all... fine. I'm absolutely dreading the teenage year. I feel like I'm just swimming to the surface. I don't want to be dunked under again!

too many todays, but you get my drift....

@Goawayangryman Merli is 6 months and I'm only just leaving him. Chewing has been the main discourager plus we rarely need to so we just haven't.

I made a Christmas cake a couple of months back. I've been feeding with sherry and on Saturday I covered in marzipan and iced it. So proud of my efforts and tonight I planned to finish it off so I was cutting a star stencil and the cake was going to have gold edible spray leaving white stars....lovely I thought. So imagine my face when I turn around from cutting the star shape to see a labrador licking the cake. In fact imagine the scream.

@Goawayangryman lovely positive day for your pup! Hopefully you'll get few months before teenage phase....
@WomblingKnobhead eeek at least he didn't eat it! Just don't tell anyone about the lick.... sure the alcohol will kill off any germs lol

I've just cut the icing off. It's back to marzipan now 😩

@LadyCatStark that is a truly lovely way to spend isolation, though I'm sorry you are ill. Hope you're not feeling too awful.

Do any of you have ideas for enrichment toys/games that last a fairly long time? My puppy really likes his holee roller ball but it takes him about 5 minutes to remove all the strips of cloth and treats that I stuff in there. I've tried other puzzle games but he works them out quickly. Today I made a game for him with some old plastic containers and a few treats. He loved it but again it didn't take long for him to find the treats. And then he was quite enjoying chewing on the containers but I had to take them away from him since I was afraid he'd swallow bits of plastic.

So any ideas for tried and true games that will last longer than 5 minutes? I've looked on the FB canine enrichment group but I haven't found anything there yet (though maybe I need to keep looking).

@certainshepherdpups I sometimes get a biggish cardboard box and then put some kibble inside balls of scrunched up newspaper inside toilet roll tubes with the ends squashed together inside the cardboard box lol also throw in some loose kibble and some in scrunched newspaper and also some decoy empty scrunched newspaper balls... it's a bit time consuming setting it up and bits of newspaper get everywhere but it seems to last longer due to the decoys and several layers to get to the kibble lol

I would like to know the same. Anything too elaborate he just gets bored and gives up and the other things only last 5 minutes. He can do all his puzzle toys, etc.

Thanks @Aria20 that's a great idea. He loves tearing up paper and cardboard but I haven't tried making a "parcel" like that. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

Cardboard sniffy box is fab, if messy!!

FawkesPup has graduated puppy class tonight and got lots of compliments from the instructor/owner of the training firm. Onto KC bronze for him.

He's got a sore shoulder again. I think from stupid puppy play with his mate and possibly too long out walking yesterday and today on pavements. Got his 6 month vet check tomorrow so will get it checked out.

Clear plastic bottle with kibble then crush bottle so that it's pinched shut (or partially)

@GuyFawkesDay - did you actually have to pass an assessment to graduate your puppy class? I think we'd still be in puppy classes if that was the case for us :-)

Had an email from Butternut Box yesterday and apparently they’ve had a major breakdown in their freezer equipment and so are unable to send out orders until mid to late December. We’ve not got enough food left to tide us over until then! Argh! Need to gradually introduce another food over the next week or two so she doesn’t get a tummy ache while we wait for BB to arrive - does anyone have any suggestions of a wet food that is similar in quality that is available in pet shops? What do you feed your pups?

It's expensive but Lily's kitchen might be an option? Sold in supermarkets and pet shops.

I sometimes use that for lickimats/kongs/dry food topping

Argh pup is in the dog house this morning pulled over the Xmas tree while I was unpacking shopping - 2 special baubles we've had a long time, one from Harrods me and DH got our first Xmas we lived together so 14 years old and the other one of ds2's baubles he's had since a baby so 10 years old! Bloody typical.

Oh no @Aria20 you must be gutted 😢.

I doesn’t look like poor Billy will get a walk today as storm Barra is expected to be in full swing by the time DH and DS get home and I’m obviously not allowed out 😭. He’s currently keeping himself entertained by chewing up cardboard and spreading the rags from his holee roller around the house 🙈.

@LadyCatStark I hope she won't do it again as she was very shocked when it all fell down and clattered around her and I shouted no and she ran to her bed with her head down and tail between her legs!

I'm sure Billy will be ok without a walk and if it's not too bad later maybe he can have a quick wander. Are you feeling really rough or not too bad?

@Aria20oh I bet she won’t. We have 2 cabinets under the Tv that open when touched and Billy knocked into one once and it opened on him, he won’t go anywhere near them now and if his toys end up anywhere near them he has to wood at the until we move them away so he can get them 😂

I feel totally fine thanks just a very minor cough and no smell or taste. It’s frustrating really but I’m grateful to not be really poorly. My sister just had it and she was pretty ill with it. Not having any taste hasn’t ruined my appetite though so I’m going to end up being the only person who come so it the other side of Covid fatter than I went in 🙈😂.

@pardonmytits lily's kitchen or forthglade would probably be closest I think? What a nightmare for everyone.

Yes @tizwozliz they had to show the KC puppy skills so walk to heel, sit/lie down/stand on command, stay for 10 seconds, recall past distractions, ummm some handling stuff....can't remember much more!!!