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 are mid Bronze at the moment. Impulse control is FawkesPup's weak spot!

@sandwiches77 he normally does about 1.5hrs in total, so he does 20 minutes first thing, then a big off lead 1hr, and then another off lead but just in the park chasing. 2hrs is more than normal. He's done that today including a few hours at a friend's with their dog and on a walk with them too and he's exhausted now!!!

@Aria20 he's massive! Mum was a big show cocker and dad wasn't small either, considering he was working cocker. Vet confirmed his condition is perfect, exactly right shape and fat levels.....just a big lad!

Thanks we have our first Bronze class this morning. Really want to crack his recall with distractions, jumping up and biting his lead. Crossing fingers

Good luck @sandwiches77 we enjoyed the classes it definitely helped there were only 5 of us in the class!

those classes sound amazing.

Now I am become Death, destroyer of daffodils.

I can report back later

@ABitBesotted last year when ours was little she pulled the heads off all the flowers and ate all the raspberries and strawberries!

Oh no! I am not houseproud at all but the garden is another matter.😭

These classes sound fantastic - I wish we had them here (although I suspect ChenPup would struggle to get out of bronze).

I had him in our room last night as DD was up at 5am for her hospital shift and wakes him in the kitchen. Imagine my delight waking up to a bit of a whiff and diarrhoea all over my pale carpet. Remind me why we got a pup again? 💩🙈🤢

Sandwichpup got on okay ish. They started off with sat, lay and stay but attached hand signals to each of these. We have to build up to sandwichpup doing one of these commands without using the spoken word command

We did walking to heal around the other dogs in the class, sandwichpup was a good boy for that. We then did food bowl manners where the dog has to stay sitting until the bowl is down, failed with that one

It's been a glorious spring day here. We've been for a walk, pup went for a swim then coffee and cake 🍰 Bought some expensive chews in the NT cafe as I'd forgotten to bring anything and pup turned her nose up at them.

Still being a fussy pants at meal times too. Really thought we'd cracked the winning combination as have had a month or so of her being excited for mealtimes.

What is it with this odd teenage fussy phase?

I'm being mean and have now cut lunch down to a stuffed hoof/horn and refuse to change his food but I have put some wet on it. That will be reduced until he isn't getting any.

ChenPup is the same. He used to leap up at me as I was putting out each meal - doesn’t do that anymore - and has gone from 4 meals to 2 each day. He’s got really fussy too, turns his nose up at most of his own food but tries to snaffle anything we’re eating.

Major achievement here today - met friends for lunch in a pub and pups was generally great, had a snooze then a chew and most of all didn’t wee or poop on the floor 😂

@tizwozliz we finally found a food my fuss pot actually eats!!! Akela Suffolk duck kibble and I've been putting some akela duck and turkey wet food mixed in - she actually licks the bowl clean which never happens! She also enjoyed eating the dry kibble in snuffle mat which she also didn't before with Millie's! I'm not sure cost wise how much more a day it is a 1.5kg bag is £10 and I'm on my second of those so will buy a bigger bag next but given her history I didn't want to buy a big until I was sure....I'm just glad she's eating!

After our debacle a couple of weeks ago the pup has been on the lead or the long line most of the time. We had a gorgeous walk in the woods and he was generally very well behaved. However, he got a bit over excited crossing a stream and the clip on the long line broke! I had visions of an escape through the woods with me chasing after him and bleating his name Fenton style. Fortunately, he came right back. Whew.

We really thought we'd cracked it with Millies and a bit of forthglade 90% mixed in. We have some Acana at the moment as we were testing it out as it's a brand we can get abroad when we go away at Easter which so far she is eating more readily.

I have a 1.5kg bag of Canagan Country Game that we've barely touched if it's any good to anyone as I hate to throw it away!

Hi everyone, sorry I haven’t posted in a while, it’s been a busy few weeks! Billy has decided today is the day to start losing his winter coat 😭 if only the robot vacuum cleaner came with a setting to just follow him around!

Glad to see that the going fussy over food is also a teenage thing as I have been worried at how dramatically Ddog behaviour changed.
When we got him at 6 months he was crazy for food, would snaffle whatever treats were on offer and work for them and wolfed his dinner in seconds.
Now at 10 months he has started not being bothered to get his breakfast and leaving some of it and he is very selective over treats and chews and will really only work for chicken or sausage. Commercial dog treats he often just refuses to take at all. We go out with the treat pouch but he has zero interest in being food rewarded when out walking and very little at home.
It is very problematic as it leaves me with not many options to get him to listen to me
The only thing he figured he needed me for at all on our walk today was to open the gates. That's the only eye contact I got. Otherwise he was on his own mission sniffing and running about (on long line as he would never come back for me)
I am resigned to hoping he grows out of it
We do work on training many times a day at home and in the house or in the garden he will do sit, lie down, stay, come, leave it, nose touch etc but out and about there's just no chance even with no other dogs around at all.

Our pup has been fussy from the day we brought her home, it's not a teenage thing for her. We just had a brief respite from it last month.

My pup will eat absolutely anything except for tinned dogfood or kibble (five types tried).

Found the new thread! Been a hard weekend, so feeling very disheartened. Blahpup being very needy and following me around again after a respite for a couple weeks and also up twice a night. Had him at 1-2-1 classes where leader told me I was doing everything training wise the right way, just have to plug away at it. Finding proper time is proving very difficult though... Also said I have to push myself and leave him in the house for a short time so he gets used to not being with me. Just worry about what I will come home to!!

Anyone else feel very stressed and like everything seems to be a problem around the 4-5 month mark? Or is it just me?

@tizwozliz same here. Blahpup won’t eat unless the food is not in a bowl and would always take human food over doggy. This morning he ate his kibble in the garden…

Sorry you didn’t have the easier weekend Blah - fingers crossed the training starts to kick in soon!

I’m a few weeks behind you but I definitely get a bit despondent some days, it feels like a never ending climb and some days is two steps forward and three steps back…….

Mine is an eating machine, he even ate his worming and flea treatment tablets as if they were some delicious treat 🙄😂