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

[WomblingKnobhead]

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

I'm really nervous letting FawkesPup off lead as he totally ignored me if there's anything more exciting to do or see.

I need to go back to basics with him as his recall was going great but it's gone backwards

@BiteyShark DH was walking him and didn’t have a whistle. He recalls to either the whistle or voice, but agree whistle would have been better. DH said he waited in the same spot for 10 minutes and he didn’t return… he was in another part of the woods when DH found him and he didn’t come straight to him. Said it was my voice on the phone that he came over to (pup was busy still sniffing around 🤦🏼‍♀️).

@LostFrog he trotted home (on the lead!) like he’d been out for a 30 minute mooch but was then definitely tired and looked sheepish at home.

@Goawayangryman think a GPS is a very sensible idea. We’d talked about one just to see how far he goes on a walk as he must do 3x the distance we do with his looping around and back and forth.

I never go out without a whistle and have even turned back to go and get it. Mine is a WCS so another hunting dog

Oh my god 2 hours you must have been so worried.
Took mine off the lead yesterday and he ran cos was a female dog behind us, fortunately my son (10 and terrified of losing him!) Ran and got him and the people with the other dog helped too.

I'm doing a one off recall workshop with my puppy class this month. Will share what I learn!

I think we've made a lot of progress recently, evenings are much better and currently he's happily fast asleep downstairs on his own. He used to hate being downstairs on his own.

@TheBigMacDougal great thinking about calling for your pup over the phone! So glad your DH was able to track him down.

What is about deer that triggers their chase instinct? Our doggo has almost zero prey instinct - very respectful to the cats, walks calmly past cows, horses, donkeys, highland cattle, but she would chase deer if given half a chance. We always pop her back on the lead if we spy any and have only been caught out once when she clocked one before us and dashed off into woodland after it.

I now have far more sympathy for the "Fenton!!!!!" Guy

Adolescence is a difficult stage, right now pup is behaving really well, and has not done anything to suggest I can't trust her but I still find it nerve wracking to trust that she'll do the right thing.

I think my real worry is how far he must have gone in an area he doesn’t know, rather than the chase, if that makes sense. I wouldn’t expect him not to give it a go, just that he went beyond where we could/would come straight back is scary.

Gives me the kick up the bum to start gun dog training and directing his hunt instinct if nothing else. And more time on the lead!

DH has never been pups biggest fan but has been brilliant. This morning on our walk he encouraged me to let him off in the safer bits and we both practised recalling him. He managed to fall in a stream 🙄, but other than our 4yr old screaming his head off for most of the walk it was uneventful for the dog at least 🤷🏼‍♀️

What a scary experience that must have been @TheBigMacDougal. They do seem to reach an age when recall goes out the window and they realise that running around on their own is a lot of fun. Teenagers!

My puppy has never seen deer though I imagine he would react the same way. We sometimes pass by a field of sheep and I can see the gleam in his eye. How he would love to be in the field with them! He’s a herding breed so I guess it makes sense that he’s drawn to sheep.

That’s sounds very scary @TheBigMacDougal! Billy is such a wuss I hope he wouldn’t run far. Yesterday he popped under a hedge into the next field and cried like a baby when he couldn’t get back to me 😂 I honestly thought he was stuck in the hedge so I ran round to where I could get through and he was just sitting there crying. He ran back to me like I’d been missing for months!

That sounds very scary @TheBigMacDougal. I'm glad you got him back. You must have been frantic!! AwesomePup has never seen a deer, and has only ever chased pigeons the length of a football field. I am considering a GPS though, and you've just made that a more urgent thought for me.

I fancy doing some gundog training with AwesomePup (I can't find who mentioned it earlier). I think we need something to help channel all his energy and hunting drive. His current obsession is big sticks though. We have a collection of about 10 large sticks (small branches?) In our back garden now. He finds one ever time we go out for a walk, and carries it for ages to bring it home with us. He really does like to have something in his mouth all the time.

How scary @TheBigMacDougal, I'm glad pup is back safe. If it's any consolation our old, doddery border collie wants to chase deer. She ignores sheep, cattle and the chickens and duck which free range in our garden. But deer! No chance!
I do agree that doing some active hunting of find the ball/dummy would help. I remember reading somewhere about having a content dog. The idea was to find your dogs drive and then find a way for them to be able to use that drive in a controlled manner. As (breed dependent) they have a compulsion to do/try to do these things regardless. I.e hunt, track and chase and by offering hunt for dummy, mantrailing, lure coursing or whatever the dog likes to do, he will feel fulfilled and be less likely to
go off on his own adventures After writing that down it does seem kind of obvious but it is something which I have tried to remember in the past.
That being said we have also been struggling with recall. I went back through my videos of SPup and realised that his recall was a lot better when he was younger. He is coming up to 7 months so I wonder if we are getting to the adolescence stage now? I have spent today doing lots of practice.

Yep, we are exactly the same, doing loads of practice on the long line to the whistle. It's all great unless there's a distraction!

FawkesPup loves "find it" sniffy games and retrieval so I think a gundog class and a dummy or two will be our next call.

He's learned a release command (off you go!), and I'm now practicing "wait" whilst I throw the ball before releasing him to find it as he seems to have lost a lot of impulse control? Anyone else finding the same?

Hamsters are shit pets. They sleep all day and chew the bars all night.

I have 3 rabbits and they take up a lot of time and space. They are totally adorable but they live in one room devoted to them (no hutches please, they are insufficient space wise). Vet bills for neutering and jabs plus endless hay need to be budgeted for. Luckily we've had no illness yet. They do use a litter box but their blankets need washing twice a week and keeping their environment clean is time consuming although they are very clean themselves.

Please don't advocate rabbits as easy pets.

Hamsters do not chew bars all night if correctly care for. Neither are rabbits necessarily easy pets.

But you have missed the point entirely. This thread is about the headbanging comedy and camaraderie of raising a puppy.

Having had all three pets amongst other ones, I can heartily agree hamsters and rabbits are definitely easier than puppies.

Our hamster doesn't cause anywhere near as much work, trouble or mess as the puppy. She's lovely and quiet, and doesn't chew the bars at all because she's in a large enough cage with plenty of enriching toys. The Guinea pigs (not rabbits because I know I don't have the proper amount of space for rabbits) are much easier than the dog as well, I just need to feed them a couple of times a day, clean them out once a week and attempt to groom the long haired one (she doesn't like it, I often take her to get the vet nurse to do it). They're all great pets, but the dog is definitely more demanding, especially when he's being a teenage arsehole.

Been working on 'stay' today which I'd completely neglected and sushipup was pretty good at it. She is utterly bored as torn claw/ paw means she can't go out until she has the all clear from the vet tomorrow. Next step will be to see if she can stay while I throw a ball for her. Generally just seeing the ball in my hand means she takes her chances and heads in a likely direction before I've even thrown it.

Another one here who would love to give gundog training a bash. I've also been reading up on training as a search and rescue volunteer with your dog and it looks amazing! Too much of a commitment to fit in around work, but I can dream!

@MsAwesomeDragon - we do gundog training but Ada is not a natural retriever at all, she's never been particularly interested in carrying things. She's just started to get a bit more interested in a ball but even that is hit and miss in certain environments. We're about to start a grade 1 course but I right now I can't see us continuing beyond that. She'll always find things that you've thrown/hidden but it's 50/50 as to whether she'll bother to bring them back.

Ada is pretty bold which is why I get quite anxious about her being off lead and how far she wanders (not actually that far but we do a lot of woodland walks where she can easily disappear out of sight whilst being quite close) Having said that, she's always very aware of where we are, and when we were on holiday last week she was always checking that all four of us were still around on the walks. So I like to think she wouldn't run off. I have called her off from chasing a deer before but she was quite a bit younger then.

@tizwozliz that's what AwesomePup does as well. He loves finding things, running after them, carrying them in his mouth, etc. Giving them to his person is not his main priority though, he just wants to parade around with his prize (favourite thing at the minute is a squeaky ball he found abandoned in the woods). Plastic bottles littered around the football field, children's footballs , big sticks (the bigger the better, a whole tree would be the best). He's not bothered what it is that he's carrying, as long as he's carrying something.

@MsAwesomeDragon mine loves to carry a whole branch too 
@TheBigMacDougal that must have been very scary. Recall is improving again here at nearly 11 months but not reliable enough to be offlead in new or busy places.

Well impressed with the video vet consult, she was fab.

I think I’ve decided to have to cancel Billy’s agility trial next week 😭. It starts at 8pm and he puts himself to bed at 9:05 on the dot so he’ll be a wreck by then! I’m pretty sure he’ll just want to play with the other dogs too and might distract them and embarrass me. There’s only a few spaces so I feel like we’re setting ourselves up to fail. But then I feel bad for not taking him as I know he’d love it if we could get past the assessment!

@LadyCatStark is there an alternative day/time session? We had similar with silver classes that were 7.45-8.45 it was ok in the end just a bit of a later night that night as we didn't get home til 9.30 but she was so tired it was just out for a quick wee, little handful of kibble and then bed. The gold class is even later so I've put it off for now until the evenings get lighter again!

I wouldn't mind trying agility as FawkesPup loves a jump and had a go at weaving poles etc but there's nothing near.

Agree evening classes can be too late for young dogs. Ours gets very sleepy by 9pm too