Puppy Survival Thread: muddy footprints into Spring 2022

[tizwozliz]

Discussion of all things puppy...

Previous thread here

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/4451767-Puppy-Survival-Thread-surviving-into-2022

Teenagers also welcome

She's gorgeous!!!

Here's my arsehole hound sweet puppy helping me with DIY

@GuyFawkesDay he's lovely. Unfortunately my confidence is so low and she is so disengaged from me when she is off lead that she hasn't been off for a while. We have acres of land and she thinks it is all her playground to sniff and hunt and chase. 🤦🏼‍♀️ the beach is a good place to take her for a zoom though as she doesn't particularly care for other dogs!

I hear you I don't trust his lordship after this week's antics. He's back on the long line til I feel more confident he will sodding listen and do as he's told!!!
Spaniels do have such busy brains and noses they get easily distracted

@GuyFawkesDay I met a chocolate version of your boy yesterday he was called toblerone lol he had exact same tuft of hair on his head!

@abeanbaked she is beautiful!

Awww @Aria20 the spaniel tufts are amazing aren't they 😂.

Was brave this morning and did a training walk. A lot of stopping when he pulled. Ended up with a harness and one lead and a slip lead round his neck too. Big help, walked across the field with sheep in like a pro so I let him off in the safe field and his recall was impeccable and we did some obedience work on there too. Then I took him to the café for a sausage and a coffee for me and he walked home like a little lamb (sausage bribery!) So better.

I have now bathed the stinky beast with my newly cured soap and he smells lush. New business venture calls!

@GuyFawkesDay I have the 7 month old chocolate version of your boy. Mine is also turning into a teenage arse with the attention span of a gnat. Solidarity with you. It's a good job they're cute.

@Cockerdileteeth he's not called toblerone is he?!

@Aria20 ha ha, no he's not the one you met!

Hi all. I haven't been on for a while but I'm back.
Since I was last on the puppy support threads, AwesomePup has been asked to take a break from doggy daycare. He was getting overexcited in his play with the other dogs and not paying attention when they told him to go away. So he's been at home all the time with dd1, who is not working because she's ill.
We've been working hard at regaining some calmness from him, but he's nearly 1, so full on adolescence. He's quite calm in the house, and mostly calm enough on walks, it's when he sees another dog that the adolescent arsehole comes out. He just wants to play, and I get that, but other dogs don't appreciate the way he plays. He jumps on them and tries to hump them, which is obviously not fun for them. So he's on lead as soon as we spot another dog. He was very sweet and gentle when we met a 12 week old puppy though, as if he realised he might break her if he was too rough.

Just checking in again as we've had our cavapoo puppy for two days now. He's sleeping through the night in his crate - can't believe our luck to be honest! Will watch this thread with interest though as I'm sure we haven't cracked it just yet.

MsAwesomeDragon
You've just so accurately described Newboy, our 8 month old Lab!
So calm at home but when with other dogs he goes crazy and yep, the humping 😱

Enjoy the sleep Salty! Some puppies do just sleep well so hopefully you’ll be lucky 🤞

Had a great day yesterday, weather was gorgeous and we met my parents with their lovely old retriever who was so patient. Managed to let him off lead with her too as he just stayed glued to her and she is great at recall! Walking on the lead was so so much better after a proper run. I’ve booked a secure local field for most days this week so I can let him run off the energy - I really don’t think I’ll get him waking nicely until he gets the chance to get it all out first!

So much easier with this nicer weather too isn’t it??

Bloody disaster this morning. I was trying out golden girls new slip lead and re-training her heel work. We went into the field to let a car past as she likes to lunge at cars, went to re-adjust her lead and she just slipped it over her head and away. She just wanted to zoom, didn't go after the car just had a good old run about. New trainer has said that her desire to be free is so heightened because I've kept her on her lead for so long now. It's a vicious cycle and so hard to break when you don't trust them.

@abeanbaked isn’t it difficult?
My 14 month old rescue puppy has very selective recall and I rarely let her off the longline. At what point do I brave it? In an enclosed field she largely ignores me because everything is so more interesting, I daren’t let her off on normal walks so just what do you do? I have had a one to one trainer and the little wotsit performs perfectly indoors or the garden but in an open space it’s just not consistent enough for me to be confident in her coming back.
Risk it?
Any advice very welcome 🙏

@YanTanTetheraPetheraPimp what breed? Golden girl used to have full run of the area, we have a farm so I walked her in a mixed of enclosed and open fields, through the woods etc. I've had two trainers and one said I had given her too much freedom, the other said I have now given her not enough as I stopped letting her off when she began chasing wildlife and venturing too far. It's very hard. Personally I have found that positive only training with food can't be applied to every environment. Outside is just too much fun for our girl. With hindsight, I would've found a good Gundog trainer (certainly not one that is really hard on them) from the get go and set more boundaries.

[quote YanTanTetheraPetheraPimp]@abeanbaked isn’t it difficult?
My 14 month old rescue puppy has very selective recall and I rarely let her off the longline. At what point do I brave it? In an enclosed field she largely ignores me because everything is so more interesting, I daren’t let her off on normal walks so just what do you do? I have had a one to one trainer and the little wotsit performs perfectly indoors or the garden but in an open space it’s just not consistent enough for me to be confident in her coming back.
Risk it?
Any advice very welcome 🙏[/quote]
Why not risk it in the enclosed field? She won’t come back to you at first so let her run for a while. Then begin to call her and give a high-value reward each and every single time she comes.
Also reward her at home every time she comes. But increase the value of the reward when you’re out. Eg dog biscuit at home, chicken when you’re out.

And repeat repeat repeat.
It’ll take weeks but hopefully (and as she matures) you’ll end up with a dog you can walk off-lead. Just don’t start her training in an open area with bikes/cars!

I agree but I think I'm going to get the gundog trainer in anyway.

FawkesPup basically has absolutely not impulse control outside the house. He hits threshold and got RIGHT over into prize prat territory

@GuyFawkesDay impulse control is relatively easy to teach in set up situations I found. Our dickhead beautiful baby will sit and wait if food falls on the ground, if you run around in circles round her she won't break her sit and stay, she will do an automatic sit if you throw out a dummy or a ball etc. We just cannot put this into practice in a real life situation. Yet anyway. I'm told she's still young but I really haven't slacked on the training, I'm out every morning, afternoon and evening just now with her and have done so for a long time. Sometimes I do when the baby naps too. Hoping it all falls into place soon!

Oh @GuyFawkesDay sounds like you’re having an absolute mare this last week. Blahpup was back at the breeder this weekend who’s husband is a gun dog trainer and even he commented how terrible Blahpup’s recall was 😂 as is his brother who they kept!! (He’s not impressed)
Have you done focus exercises in your puppy classes? “Watch” etc? Maybe take it right back to basics in the garden and stop walks altogether. Not ideal for you but better that than getting stressed out!

Having said that. All training for blahpup went out the window on Friday onwards due to a family crisis so I thought our walk this lunchtime would be horrendous. Surprisingly he was engaged and happy and loving trotting along in the sunshine with me. He will probably be a nippy nightmare tonight!

I spoke to someone on Facebook who has converted his retriever from deer chaser to working dog with amazing control and I really envy the relationship he has with his dog. He advised me that he agreed both positive only and harsh trainers are too extreme either way. Somewhere in the middle is good. And he also told me to buy a book called 'the pet Gundog' by Lez Graham.

About right I’d say….

Just got our weekly embarassment training session out the way. Only 3 more sessions to go :-)

I've had to wait in for deliveries today that still haven't turned up and dog was very good and slept until 2 and but since then she just accidentally bit my finger during an over excited game of tug and I shouted owww and she was very scared! She's not caught me with teeth in a long time!