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 🤬😡😭.

Any tips for working at home with a maniac puppy? Current plan is a good walk pre work and at lunch.

@SirChenjins yes definite progress which is exciting however he was fast aslee for half an hour and DC dropped something on the stairs and he woke up. 😭

@onemoredayplease I find mental stimulation tires my pup out more than anything else. So lots of mini training sessions throughout the day (use daily food allowance). This tends to buy me about an hour.

crate when on calls and I need to focus (I built this time up but max half an hour when little) and take outside every hour/ hour & a half. kong/ lick Matt with sardines& yoghurt frozen and popular here too.
It really does get better. If pup is pooping lots over night I’d be tempted to bring forward the last meal of the day so if your feeding at 8 bring forward to 7?

And I can promise you aren’t alone in how you are feeling

Thank you. I will try all of those. I'm on induction for 6 weeks so my day is pretty fixed. Luckily my daughter is a shift worker so around for half of each day. We start formal puppy training on Weds so I'm hanging on for that.

Leave a puppy pad out if you won’t be able to get up as and when they need to go. it’s def easier when your busy as pup learns someone sat down = boring so might as well sleep

When I switch my laptop on my dpup goes to bed because she knows I’m no fun now.

Have some distractions to hand like yak bars, split antlers and a kong with something yummy in the freezer than if gets a bit much distract with one of those and carry on. Much easier to have something to hand when inevitably pup becomes a pain at crucial part of call as they like to do.

Bonus when they are cute and disrupt the call I find quickly popping them on camera to a chorus of oos and ahhhs distracts people

It's true, they learn amazingly quickly what your physical cues mean. Mine knows that it's game over when I get in the bath. Don't underestimate the power of doing nothing with your dog when your attention needs to be elsewhere. They don't need a stream of entertainment..they need to learn that sometimes it's quiet time.

Regarding the being over social.... Another thing I've found really very helpful is, actually, avoiding areas and times when I know there will be loads of dogs. I think it can be a self-reinforcing behaviour that they basically practice over and over again: "this is what happens when I meet other dogs" sort of thing. Fewer practice opportunities, easentially. If they walk on by another dog on lead, massive ridiculous amounts of praise and animation, so you kind of capture that behaviour.

Having said that I do think that playing with other dogs is vital and natural and should be allowed when you choose to allow it.

It's still hard though. You have my sympathy.

My pup is very social and would love to play with every dog he meets. When he was about 4 or 5 months old, someone with an extremely well-behaved dog said ours could say hello if he wanted. I think she regretted it since my pup sort of leaped on her dog's head in his excitement. Fortunately, he has learned better manners since then!

Having other dogs to play with has definitely helped. He has regular opportunities to play with his puppy pals which seems to channel that energy and drive. So when we are on a walk he can now walk past other dogs or sit and wait until they pass. I try not to get too close to other dogs in these situations, though. If we're in close proximity sometimes his natural urge to greet and play with another dog can cause him to lose his mind briefly.

I think the key to ignoring dogs is consistency and also them just growing up. We very nearly got kicked out of puppy classes (fairly sure we would have been had our area not gone into Tier 4 lockdown so they moved online anyway!) because TerrorPup could not concentrate around other dogs and just flipped out. Then the original daycare we used didn't help the situation (my biggest regret on the whole puppy journey!). We are consistent each and every walk, we try to prevent other dogs from greeting without our dog checking in (i.e. I will shout at other owners to recall their dog). But equally she has just grown up and matured.

One thing that really helped us was observing dogs from a distance. We would sit on a bench and treat her watching dogs play (originally 500 yards away or more). We'd sit in our car boot and watch dogs.

Today we actually went to a group class again and she did ok. I would not say she is where I want her to be as she can still fixate on dogs approaching and will then lunge, but this is getting rare.

We have the insane urge to greet puppy still at 9 months. And he is huge so can come across threatening.

Nothing will get his attention when he has spotted another dog. I have tried high value treats and trying to block his view but it doesn't work at all and this is even at 100m away. Today we were on top of a bridge and he still thought he might have a chance with a dog passing underneath!
His latest tactic is to lie down when he spots other dogs approaching and refuse to move at all. This looks quite sweet and calm until he lunges at the last minute. Still it does give people a chance to give us a wide berth.

Our trainer advised to allow a 3 second sniff and then to move on quickly rather than not to allow anything at all to avoid frustration. He goes to puppy class where he isn't allowed to meet and greet and he whines and howls his way through that. He can do all the exercises very easily and will concentrate on those but any down time he starts to pull and whinge.

I suspect DH (and me to a lesser degree) have not helped this because we do allow him to play with other dogs off lead if their owners are agreeable. This is his absolute holy grail. He loves it if he can find a dog who wants to chase and roll about and he does play nicely, take turns etc. It tires him out and then he sleeps for ages which is very nice if working from home. I am very conflicted because some people say you should never allow this but it does make him so very happy and nothing else does really. He is a very doggy dog. He likes digging and chewing stuff up and chasing about with other dogs. He does not like balls or fetch or cuddling on sofas.

We walk him twice a day but he would really like a lunch time walk too I think. We try to play games in the garden but it only lasts 5 mins and he gives up. There are no places in any of the daycare centres we contacted and most of the group dog walkers either have no space or don't want him because he is not neutered and has dodgy recall. We have managed to get him an individual walker 2 days a week for an additional lunchtime walk so that might help. Or it might not.
I am mostly hoping he will grow out of it and become less obsessed.

Ooh @TerrierOrTerror that gives me hope. And a good strategy. We will watch from a distance and incrementally approach a bit closer each time. I'm definitely going to be at 250m at the moment

I have never tried the watching from a bench tactic. Could certainly give that a go. I will try anything at this point.

And @CovoidOfAllHumanity... Do we have the same dog?! Mine will not behave at the KC bronze class at all. We may get a sit if lucky. To make matters worse it is held in a horse ring thing that has copious horse poo scattered all around. It's a bit like trying to persuade an alcoholic to ignore the booze at a free bar 🤦‍♀️

That sounds about right

He will do the exercises quite nicely for sausages but in between when the lady is explaining what's next he keeps up a constant level of whinging with occasional barking which must piss everyone else off.
Other peoples dogs sit at their feet looking up at them whereas mine is straining at the end of the lead barking at the other dogs. It is really quite embarrassing.

Oh let me assure you, mine does not even do the exercises most of the time. She is busy pulling my daughter across the arena toward whatever dog or horse shit is nearest....

Ours I am hoping to go to this week is on a horse arena. FawkesPup dives for the horse poop left in bags for people to take on our field walk. This is going to be.... interesting!

dS has covid though so I may not be able to go. Will have to play it by ear.

I've invested in some kit to make my own dog soap! It's relatively easy and I am hoping it'll be less bulky than liquids. Will try and make the holy grail that is fox sh!t neutralising soap 🤣

@CovoidOfAllHumanity lol at your dog thinking they could play with the dog under the bridge! Mine quite often does the laying down thing and people have said "oh what a well behaved calm dog" and I'm like "no she's just waiting ready to pounce" like a lion stalking it's prey! They really are funny characters!

Restless night, she couldn't settle and kept getting up and scratching. Just seemed to need a cuddle. Started puppy howling for the loo at 2am. Checked the moon, fully expecting to see a full one, but only waxing crescent. She's sparko now of course that we need to get going!

I was not ready for this twelve-week sleep regression!

@Goawayangryman

And *@CovoidOfAllHumanity*... Do we have the same dog?! Mine will not behave at the KC bronze class at all. We may get a sit if lucky. To make matters worse it is held in a horse ring thing that has copious horse poo scattered all around. It's a bit like trying to persuade an alcoholic to ignore the booze at a free bar 🤦‍♀️

I’m so glad more me isn’t the only one who would do this! We walk a trail locally that’s also used by horse riders - ChenPup has to be dragged past the piles of poo otherwise he’s right in there for a three course plus wine. It’s disgusting to watch.

We’ve booked a dog walker once a week and a friend has put me in touch with a couple of people she knows locally who also have cockapoo pups so we’re meeting at a dog field next Monday and hopefully - if CP doesn’t put them off too much with his shenanigans - for regular meet ups. Fingers crossed this will calm him down as we can’t really afford to move

Same here - I was super smug about puppy sleeping through the night but now I’ve got egg on my face (and bags under my eyes) as he was up at 4am the last two nights to go out to the loo and then whined i til I got up again at 6. Aaggghh!

My last dog and I left training classes “by mutual agreement” (thrown out). Dog was the loveliest dog ever but he just could not cope with the classes, and whilst all the other dogs and owners were dinxing round the room weaving in and out of gates and cones, my dog just lapped the village hall at 90 mph whilst I despaired.

Sticking my fingers in my ears about the sleep!! Last two nights we’ve had 6/7 hours unbroken sleep and I feel like a whole new person!

@Autumn101

Sticking my fingers in my ears about the sleep!! Last two nights we’ve had 6/7 hours unbroken sleep and I feel like a whole new person!

Full night last night here too. 10:30 to 6:30. Actually thought someone had come and swapped my dog without me realising because he spent last night being the most chilled pup ever. Even spent the evening and this morning not just following me around everywhere, taking himself off to his bed etc. I’m not holding my breath though, reckon he will be back to his terror ways pretty soon!

Feeling sorry for pup today. Just put a jacket on and she got so excited as thought we were going out. I'm racking my brains trying to think if there is somewhere relatively safe to take her for an on lead walk at lunchtime. But she's prob at peak attractiveness right now.

Controversial, but I always have walked bitches in heat. The local dogs will still smell her through the garden fence, after all, so it's not as though you're really containing her smell. If you're vigilant, it's OK. Somewhere where dogs must be on lead and where people respect the rule, if such place exists where you live!

Somewhere where dogs must be on lead and where people respect the rule, if such place exists where you live!

Yes, this is the issue. Not many places I know of locally where dogs need to be on lead, which are also relatively quiet.