Puppy Survival Thread: surviving into 2022

[LadyCatStark]

The other thread is full and I can’t see a new one! Hope it’s OK to start one. I’m actually barely surviving puppyhood, actually teenagerhood, this week 🤬😡😭.

@littlepeas poor pup you can buy treats that are supposed to help with car sickness. Where is the pup in the car? Ours is in a crate in boot and we never had an issue but I know some dogs prefer to face forward so would be better on some sort of booster seat in the car.

@littlepeas - can pup see out the window? I think that makes a difference to some. No other advice sorry, thankfully we never had any issues with car sickness.

He sat on my lap all the way home from the breeders (2.5 hour journey) and was sick about an hour and a half in (I caught it in my hand!) - he'd been asleep and then was just lying down on my lap. Tried him initially in a largish crate in the boot (with back seats down so he could interact with the dc) and that was a disaster. Then got a much smaller crate and put him in the front seat and wedged it in place by putting the seat forward - still sick! I don't think he can see out of the window in it. I am reluctant to try using a seatbelt/harness set up, because obviously that means the sick goes all over the car, rather than being confined to the crate.

Not moaning too much as it is the only issue we're having - he has been good as gold otherwise - but I do really need him to go in the car!

Can you get a car seat hammock and try the harness option, ours is waterproof so would mean no sick on the car seats? I think you can pick them up fairly cheaply. We started off with that as pup liked to see us when she was little and she couldn't from the boot

Just googling!

This sort of thing

www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-rear-car-seat-dog-hammock/p/0507670

Thank you!

My puppy suffered from carsickness for the first few weeks we had him, but he grew out of it quite quickly. Facing forward definitely helped, as did cracking open a window for him (not as appealing in January, I'm sure!). We just put down a lot of old towels to protect the car. Fortunately he loves the car, so a few weeks of motion sickness do not seem to have given him any negative associations.

On another note, my pup had his second day at day care yesterday. He was so happy to go in, he obviously really loves his time there. Last week he had a bit of a dodgy tummy afterwards, but so far he seems fine today (fingers crossed).

We have a ferplast travel crate. Floor is double layered. Top later has holes in to drain anything. Always handy 🤣🤣🤣

Friend had two labs, the older one always cleaned up after the younger one when he was travel sick

Hi everyone, just wanted to say that the puppy chew bones we got were an absolutely life saver. I've had the first evening of peace in a while. Highly recommend

Hi everyone, not been on here for a while. Frogdog is 4 1/2 months old now. Pretty sure it should be getting easier by now but it doesn’t feel like it! Lots going on as a family at the moment and starting to really resent the emotional load of having a puppy when I need to be prioritising the kids/DM.

If anyone has any tips on stopping pup counter surfing I am listening. It is CONSTANT, whether there is food up there or not. We are doing mat training but as soon as my back is turned he is off it and up again.

Have yet to find a long lasting chew that doesn’t cost ££££! Bought a No Hide salmon roll that lasted an hour and it cost £8!!! Recommendations please!

@LostFrog I think Mac pup started trying to counter surf around the same age. We didn’t do anything ground breaking, told him off, made sure stuff was out of reach. He gave up but then did have a try again around 7 months which was more annoying as he was bigger. At the same time he started jumping up at us and on to the chairs and sofa. I think it’s mostly boundary testing and they revisit things as they go. Quite annoying.

For chews I get packs of lamb braids or beef tails. They used to keep him chewing for a good while. With his adult teeth the only thing that’s lasting a good while is a hoof our trainer gave us. It stinks though 🤢

Nice to see so many new pups come along! Mac pup is 8 months tomorrow, feels like it’s whizzing by and he is getting more dog like… between bouts of teenage arseholery 😂

We found being strict on never, ever giving her food from the counter really helped TerrorPups counter surfing, although she wasn't a bad offender. We have a lot of treat bags so treats always came from those. If she was up she'd be distracted and called away from the room before getting a treat. We also did a lot of work on staying calm whilst we cooked, so initially she was on a lead with one of us settling her on a blanket whilst the other cooked. Gradually slowed down how quickly she got rewarded for this. We also gradually worked up to both of us being in the kitchen (her blanket was just outside the kitchen, tiny house problems). Now she rarely has any interest in going in the kitchen, and if we're cooking she might come glance at us then take herself off to the sofa. To be fair because our kitchen is so small it's been easy to restrict her access so she doesn't practice counter surfing, had the kitchen been where she spent most of her time I think she would have been a nightmare!

When we eat at night until she is super sleepy she gets a chew. Has done from the age of 10 weeks. Gets completely ignored if she approaches the table, and she rarely does. When we get plates out to serve up she runs to her bed by the table for her chew.

Good idea to have an evening chew while the family is having tea. I'll steal that.

Jess managed the whole night without an accident. And last night she had salmon, broccoli (!) and egg, which were leftovers. Predictably, she is turning up her collie nose at her dog food now.

Who else is researching recipes for homemade dog food? My mother used to make the dogs a glorious stew of rice, carrots, mince, potatoes and so on.

Where has my puppy gone?

Coping admirably with the limited exercise during her season so far. I treated her to an antler this morning, she threw it around the garden for a bit but doesn't seem interested beyond that initial excitement.

We did a delayed secret Santa in the week with my family in Australia. Ada got a gnawt a rock which seems a success so far. We've got a couple of Kong kibble dispensing toys and she mostly just barks at them so wasn't sure if this would be the same.

On counter surfing we're just trying to make sure there's nothing up there worth stealing. She's pretty good at dinner times, occasionally if we're having something that she thinks is particularly exciting, e.g. roast chicken, she'll have a speculative bark/whine but gives up and goes settles down somewhere else pretty quickly. She won't leave me alone if I have toast or an apple though, entirely my fault as I share, but she sits and waits politely so I can live with that (and she'll only do it to me)

I'm sure I only added one photo!

@tizwozliz wow! She's so shiny (and gorgeous ☺️)Do you give her any supplements?

What a lovely labby. (If I could post pics I would totally be flooding the fred too.)

Oh she’s gorgeous! @tizwozliz

Oh my goodness @tizwozliz, the middle picture in particular is like looking at Billy! I bet they’d love to meet and play!

@LostFrog, Billy was a nightmare for counter surfing probably at a similar age. We were tearing our hair out trying to get him to stop, then he just… stopped one day. Now he won’t jump up even if there’s tempting food right there.

@LBF2020 - no supplements, occasionally we might have some fish4dogs treats that I think have something but nothing on a regular basis. She's such a fussy bum she gets quite a varied diet though. Part of the reason we went for a pup from this litter was her parents were also so shiny

We had some balloons blow into the garden earlier, she had good fun popping them.