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

We have gender mix up here too, TerrorPup deliberately has pink/purple harnesses and leads and is still called a boy. Tbf she doesn't help that as she cocks her leg for 90% of wees. She's very happy she's learnt to cock the other leg too now so doesn't have to turn around to water the object of her choosing. She has at least got better with allowed us to quickly wash down her legs as she typically makes a mess of herself.

I also took ages to get used to "good girl" - she's my first dog but family dogs have all been male for the last 15 years so good boy was my go to.

@Blahblahblah40 our first few days with Billy we’re hideous not glorious 😂😂😂

Billy has been spoilt rotten with walks today. He’s had a trip to the beach and a lovely walk with my parents’ spaniels oh and a sneaky ice cream. One of my parents’ dogs used to hate Billy and snapped at him every time but today she decided she loved him 🤷‍♀️. It’s the same with his girlfriend, she used to be petrified of him and now they’re inseparable. Tonight we’re going to try him with a friend’s dog who also didn’t like him when he met him but we think they’ll be ok if we manage them carefully. Poor Billy, he wouldn’t hurt a fly and all the other dogs hate him!

And my now 10 month old lad still wees like a big girly!!!!! No leg cocking here yet. Weirdo

@GuyFawkesDay make the most of it! Mac pees so much while he’s out now he often runs out of wee 🤦🏼‍♀️

Definitely feeling like we have a teenage arsehole today. Probably needing to drop daycare until he is neutered and vets have at least a 2 month wait for the op. Now trying to find walkers and hoping he won’t be too miserable if we have to do that 1 or 2 days a week for a few months ☹️

Is it too early for wine???

Sympathy to all with teenage pups. We currently have a guest and the pup will not leave him alone. It's all due to friendliness and high spirits, but the guest is not really a dog person and he (understandably) doesn't want the pup at his side constantly. All our work on settling seems to have gone right out the window.

He has also become something of a Houdini. When he's home alone we confine him to part of the house with baby gates. Yesterday he managed to evade the gates, though I'm not sure exactly how. He either jumped over or managed to push them aside somehow. When I entered the house he was sitting expectantly at the door, exactly where he should not have been! On the plus side, he hadn't destroyed anything or got into any mischief. So perhaps we can start to trust him to have access to the whole house.

Pup being a nightmare here too at the moment, out the house she's fine but at home she seems to have reverted to how she used to behave at 6 months and at 6 months she was horrible!

Mine has had 2.5 hours offlead exploring woods this afternoon, come home eaten her dinner early and is konked out asleep now.... I swear to god if she's still a barky nightmare tonight I don't know what more I can do with her?!

@Aria20 feel your pain. My wee horror just barked at me on and off for the last hour. When he wasn’t barking he was ignoring my instructions like he had never been taught to ‘sit’ or get ‘down’. Honestly, I played with him, did a bit of training, fed him. Wtf more can I do?!?! My partner HATES a barky dog same as yours. It puts a lot of additional pressure on doesn’t it….

@Blahblahblah40 yes it is added pressure as my DH will roll his eyes do a huge sigh and be like Fing dog barking again! So I'm tense trying to keep her quiet but obviously that's made it worse as she's come to expect her demands to be met immediately!

@Aria20 know exactly what you mean. My partner has zero patience for Blahpup unless he wants cuddles and a sniffy walk.

The dog wants a sniffy walk, not my partner 😂

@Blahblahblah40 haha! Yes mine is happy to give dog a pat and throw ball or do 5 mins crazy play but that's about it. He'll come on family walks at weekend but dog is more likely to play up then as places are busier so she's on lead and it's not that same as my off lead walks at quiet times!

On a plus she's only barked once tonight to go out for toilet and she's slept on her bed so even longer offlead walks later in the day is obviously better for keeping the evening barking at bay but not always doable with school runs!

Yeah, same storm here just a different boat.
I try hard to get him to engage with what I’m doing training wise but he’s just not that interested. Doesn’t help he doesn’t live here so 5 days a week it’s just me, Blahpup and DD. If he was here all the time he would have to engage with it!!

I gave Blahpup a bath tonight as add not here so had a lot of barking and zoomies after. They are ever increasing as he gets a bit older after a bath or wet walk! 😬 must be holding it all in while I’m washing him. Now fast asleep in front of the fire though.

@Blahblahblah40 oh yes always zoomies when wet too! She didn't bark at all last night and this morning she's only barked once to go out to toilet and still seems tired from yesterdays long walk haha!

Here’s hoping for a no barking day! 🤞🏻

We've had some success with leaving pup alone the past few weeks. We've never really had much need to leave alone, and after a few whiny episodes early on haven't really pushed it but I've started trying to leave her and pop out to the shop on the days when the OH isn't working from home.

This morning I left her alone first thing when I dropped OH to the station, she curled up and went back to sleep. Then popped to the shops after she'd come back from the dog walker - didn't even get up out the bed to see me off.

We took Billy to the beach today and I promised DS (who will become a teenager next month and needs bribing) and ice cream. When we got to the (only) cafe, it was only taking cash so I told DS to pop his head into the (also only, it’s a very small place 😂) pub and ask if it was dog friendly. Well, there were probably more dogs than humans in there so we decided to see how he’d get one and he was the best behaved dog in the place 🥰. Here he is hoping for one of DS’s cheesy chips!

We've had a right few weeks of it. The golden gits behaviour hasn't been any worse but I just didn't feel we were making any progress. We got a couple of sessions with a trainer. Said trainer is rather keen on harsher methods and made me really uncomfortable. I had to go alone to the last session as DP still had covid and I felt very pushed into a corner with how she wanted to train Ddoggo, came away really upset and disheartened.

So I have cancelled any further sessions, it's not doing me or her any favours and it's just making us inconsistent because I'm uncomfortable correcting my dog in the ways she advised. Found a Gundog trainer who is an accredited pet Gundog instructor and she has given in a very realistic idea of what we can expect training wise and time wise. Full Gundog training from scratch - 18 months. Including the opportunities to train around game in a controlled way to really nail down control around prey. We're not quite from scratch as the golden git is steady to dummies, retrieves well and has good impulse control in certain environments but we're going to commit to the training 100% and really get it under control (hopefully) 😬

Any advice for nighttime toilet training?!? Gary is crated. Every night he does at least 2 pops in his crate, he's a poop machine! He doesn't ask to go out. He is left at 11 and we're back down at 6.30, he is fed at 7, 11.30, 3.30 and 7.30. He's 11 weeks on sat.

@GuyFawkesDay

And my now 10 month old lad still wees like a big girly!!!!! No leg cocking here yet. Weirdo

My 9 year old springer dog still pees like a girl!

@OrlandointheWilderness I never experienced this but can you set an alarm and try taking him out at night to avoid him having an accident? Are his poos firm? Is he eating too much or something not agreeing with him and that's making him go more often?

His poo is quite soft (mr whippy consistency!) and he's on 200gms a day split between the 4 feeds. I'd put the softness down to the fact it's still soaked. He's fed skinners field and trail puppy.
I'll try an alarm, it will be agony! 😂 he does seem to poo a lot.

Has he had all his jabs yet? If not when you go to the vets get them to check him as they shouldn't be whippy texture. Whilst it's normal for puppies to go 3-5 poo a day as they eat more frequently and have lots of training treats they should be firm enough to pick up easily. If he's going more than 5 poo and they are all soft then maybe need to consider changing his food incase it doesn't agree with him, 200g also sounds a lot for a very young puppy and feeding too much can cause soft poo too but I know feeding guides vary hugely across different brands.

Hey everyone, would love to join! My pup is 9 months old and is like my shadow. Plenty of knobhead moments with him but he brings so much joy!

@OrlandointheWilderness it might be a sensitive stomach thing? My puppy pooped loads at night and was also too soft. We found he was sensitive to wheat and the food wasn't right for him. Took us 3 different brands before we found one he liked and was good for his health/poop! He's now on Nature's Variety.

Worth a vet check too. At one point it got really bad, we think he picked up worms (despite having had all the right treatments) but that is a whole different poop story! The medication cleared it up.

@OrlandointheWilderness I would set alarms to get up for him, it will probably settle down as he is still adjusting to his new home! A breeder also told me that she sends her pups away with some of their tap water as a change in that can upset the pups so could also be that. Aslong as it's not mucusy of blood in it I wouldn't panic!