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 🤬😡😭.

Poor anxious pups! FawkesPup is getting better (slowly) but he is definitely my shadow.

He's ENORMOUS for a cocker. 18kg. Huge. Not remotely fat, he's skinny as, just a big boi!!!!

Same here, really skinny but just so long. DH says he's like a draught excluder!!

@CovoidOfAllHumanity he is the absolute spit of my friend's dog. 2 year old Rommy rescue. She is brilliant, so lovely around the house, but man- and leash reactive. And funny with food.

We are back from a 'holiday'. So far trips away have been uneventful. Not this one. Dog refused food, didn't pee for 13 frigging hours at one point, and cried every time I went to the loo. She is fine to be left for 4 hours at home. Never ever has my own bed felt so good as it did last night....

Strength to those in the early pup days. It is brutal. It gets better

We are going away with dog this week, first time.
So envious you can leave your dog for 4 hours, how on earth can I get there, can't even leave him for a minute!
He can 13 hours without a wee though, likes a lie in!

I genuinely don't know, cheese. It's not anything i have done at all beyond the normal 'flitting' type stuff and shutting doors behind me and then reappearing. She is not a cuddly dog, that's the downside, and I bet yours is :) she is a breed aberration, mine.

Plus, it is entirely situation-specific. Smugly, I thought we could go to the cinema on holidays, out for meals. No. Every time I went to the loo in our holiday cottage, she howled like a banshee.

Mine actually isn't cuddly! He's just started to snuggle next to us a bit more but normally jumps off and sleeps om the floor, despite having several lovely beds!
I'm not sure if it's a breed specific thing?

@cheeseisthebest @SirChenjins feel the pain for both of you. Blahpup exactly the same. Just hoping that at 15 weeks he will eventually grow out of it. He is better than he was even just a couple of weeks ago in that I can now get a shower without moaning, but still cries as soon as the shower is off and I can’t leave him in another room for longer than the 10 minutes it takes for him to polish off his lickimat, or without lickimat just a couple of minutes. He has been going to my parents for a couple of hours once a week and I’m wondering if that has made a difference in that I’m not with him 24/7. Am seriously considering puppy day care once or twice a month to see if that helps him gain some independence too by seeing other doggies do it if that makes sense? I don’t think it’s separation anxiety as such because he sleeps happily in his bed all night, (does yours sleep separately?) but he definitely doesn’t like his bed during the day. Even if he randomly settles down to sleep in his bed as soon as you move he is up and following. Seems all cocker breeds just have serious FOMO.

It's funny, because Ada was never really a velcro pup and will often stay sleeping in the kitchen whilst we are elsewhere, happily will go to sleep when we have visitors etc. but we never cracked her sleeping on her own overnight. Yet many of the velcro pups sleep happily all night on their own.

I am on a trainer/behaviour subscription thingie and trainer on there recommended we use the baby gates to create barriers so FawkesPup can see me but not get to me. Then he will definitely get used to me not being accessible all the time. It's definitely helping, slowly. So sometimes I will gate off the study which is off our kitchen diner whilst I work. He tends to just sleep on the floor by the gate. Today I had my first howl free shower!!!

Our house is cold so we can't do stairgates have to have doors shut.
However he sleeps in my sons bedroom at night (he's 10) and there's a stairgate on his room. Cheesepup often sleeps right by the gate rather than in his bed but he sleeps beautifully all night. Usually about half 10 until half 7. Not a peep.

@GuyFawkesDay This is exactly what I’ve done too. A howl free shower feels amazing doesn’t it! Pitt he can’t do it the rest of the time! 😂

@tizwozliz isn’t that funny… I don’t know which I’d rather tbh! There’s definitely something to be said for a full nights sleep for everyone’s sanity, but gosh I’d love to even be able to go out to the log shed without the sharp barking and whining noise rattling through my brain every time! 🤯🥴😵‍💫 I’m even getting withdrawals from going to the supermarket. I HATE the supermarket. 😂

I'm back home after a few days away on a work trip. I think the pup was happy to see me, though he tends to greet everyone with wild enthusiasm! I was definitely happy to see him.

@Blahblahblah40 - ChenPup sleeps in a crate in our room and settles really quickly, although I know this is not helping. It's difficult to know where to put him though, as DD is a nurse and leaves very early in the morning for her shifts - if we have him in the downstairs area on on the upstairs landing he'll wake early with her leaving and then wake DH, DS (who's still at school) and I up at stupid o'clock, so we have him in our room to minimise the disruption. The plan is to move him to the spare room - but we need to work up to that (and DH needs to clear it of his crap!).

He does spend time at my other DS's and his GF's place, and is being looked after today by my DD's boyfriend's family as we're all working, plus he's got his weekly dog walker now so it's not as if he's never with other people - he's just completely obsessed with me and it's a bit suffocating. The idea that we might ever be able to leave him for a few hours seems very far away at the moment

Oh I’m totally with you @SirChenjins as Blahpup is exactly the same. I feel exactly the same as you, suffocating is the perfect way to describe it. He will stay with other people but if I’m there he follows me and sits quite literally at my feet. It reminds me so much of when DC was a tiny toot and had to be on me 24/7. I did the move to sleeping elsewhere within days of him being in the house and he just took to it straight away as he was never in the bedroom with the breeder. I think juggling it with dealing with DC makes it all double the work as you can’t watch/help both at once. Something has to give and unfortunately for Blahpup it means him being out in his room if DC needs me. Which I then get mum guilt about as well.

Mine is Velcro pup during the day but nights are ok - he’s in the kitchen in his crate and goes in happily and will go a good 7 hours before needing a loo break. He does go into it to sleep in the day but regularly checks I’m still nearby, if I dare to go upstairs he will instantly wake and cry. He’s only 12 weeks though so I’m hoping this will get easier! He is ok if the DC are with him but only for about 15/20 minutes but it’s at least long enough for me to have a shower and get dressed quickly.

Glad to hear the nipping starts to calm down soon, I’m wearing all my oldest mankiest clothes as so many have holes in from him now! I have bought some yak chews now he’s a bit bigger and that really helped yesterday, kept him away from nipping us for a good 20/30 minutes. He had a full on crazy hour first thing in the morning and again about 5/6pm - from Wednesday he’s allowed out so we’re planning to walk him then to try abd get some of the craziness out!

@Autumn101 that’s good progress though! I’m off to the shop today to obtain some long lasting chews for him as well as his food. Hoping that will help me get some quiet time if I need to get things done like DC bedtime etc.

I also have a velcro pup. Trainer advised than I create separation moments, as I work from home, like after the school run he goes into his crate for a sleep in the other room with the door shut, as he was literally stuck to me and shrieking when I went upstairs for a moment.

It’s been slow, but it’s getting better, we actually left him for 1.5 hrs in his crate on Saturday and popped to the shops (he had been walked and done dog training so he was pooped) but it was fab to be dog free for a bit.

He is nearly 6 months, so it has been a long haul. I couldn’t leave him in his crate for a minute with the door shut at first!

I was recommended to join this thread to help prepare me for months of puppy labrador choas 🤣😊 I'm collecting our boy in 13 days and I cannot for the life of me contain my excitement!

Buckle up for the bumpy ride of puppyhood, @Mrsbmama. 🐾 I think several people on the thread have labs (not me, mine is an Aussie).

I am exhausted today because the pup woke us at 1:30 a.m. needing to go out. Took him out, he really did need a poo, so we thought all was well and we all went back to bed. But half an hour later he was whining again so DH took him out again. And he pooed once more, a bit of a loose poo. After that he slept through with no more disturbances. I guess his tummy must have been bothering him, poor pup. But I had a hard time getting back to sleep.

I know we’ve been very lucky because he began sleeping through early on. He hasn’t woken in the night in months. I really hope this was just a blip due to a dodgy tummy and that he sleeps well tonight.

@certainshepherdpups thank you for the welcome! 😊 sorry you guys had an unsettled night and I hope tonight is better for you all. How old is your pup? I have zero expectations for the whole lack of sleep stuff, my kids seem to like to wake me up still so I'm already there and expecting to be exhausted for a while whilst he settles in 😆

Welcome @Mrsbmama - here's to fun times ahead!!

@Stretchandsnap - did he whine and cry when you created these separation moments, and if so, how did you handle that? And did you put him in another room or just behind a stair gate/pen/etc? I think I'm going to have to get tough with ChenPup, it's getting to the ridiculous stage.

@SirChenjins thank you for the welcome 😊

My pup is a big boy, 8 months old now. He’s really a delight most of the time. If you have young children you are definitely prepared for the sleepless nights and general chaos of puppyhood @Mrsbmama! This thread is a really nice and supportive space for questions, experiences, and commiserations. Oh, and be sure to post a picture of your pup when he comes home! 🐶

@Mrsbmama - remember to take lots of photos in between the tears , they go from this to this so quickly

Welcome to the new puppy owners.🐕 Had to rereg as Chrome has crashed on my phone.

Jessie is already officially a walkies addict. Chose a windy weekend for her first forays out, but we luckily live next to a decent-sized park (with a river full of bark-at-able ducks).

She fortunately isn't so attached to me that she cannot be left with DH or DC (any mug who can throw balls and knows where the treats are kept will do) but she can't be left alone at all yet. I did go upstairs while she was sleeping and came back to a bleary-eyed pup at the bottom of the stairs, clearly a bit perturbed but not whining or howling, so hopefully she will get a bit more independent. That sounds really tough on you, SirChen, esp as he is so fixated on you and you alone.