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

Hi. It's been a long time since I was last on this thread, but I see some familiar names still posting. AwesomePup isn't really a puppy any more, as he's 13 months now and fully adolescent. We still have good days and bad days with his behaviour, but the good days are beginning more frequent and the bad days are less bad.

He still gets overexcited when he meets other young dogs who want to play, so we haven't tried him back at daycare after he was asked to "take a break". We tend to walk where there aren't many other dogs, and he is getting much better at coming away from dogs who are a bit boring, but when we meet a fun dog I might as well not exist at all. Tbf, he doesn't run up to other dogs at all now, he only plays if they come to us first. Today he found a young pointer who ran and chased with him for a good 20 minutes. I worried that she was actually running away from him, but she kept waiting for him to catch up so she must have been enjoying it as much as he was.

@LadyCatStark I'm glad your Billy didn't eat the chicks, he's a good boy. Mine is not such a good boy. He caught and killed a rabbit this afternoon and I'm very traumatised by that. Which is silly because I feed him bits of rabbit quite regularly, but I'm a bit squeamish about the actual catching of the rabbit. 😢

@mrsfeatherbottom your little lady is gorgeous!! Such a beautiful little thing. The first few weeks are really hard, but then something just clicks and it gets better. For us the hardest thing was being woken up in the night, so if you've got that cracked so soon I'm very envious. The toilet training will come. I've heard lots of people recommend not putting pup on the floor when you come in if she hasn't had a wee outside, so carry her for a little while and then go outside to try again. It's worth a try if that's your current issue.

We have yaks and coffee wood - the yaks are expensive but our pup loves them and doesn’t eat them too quickly. The only problem we find is (he/I/we) keep losing them…

I get them here: www.superpet.co.uk/products/yakers-natural-dog-chew-made-with-himalayan-yak-milk-3-pack-deal?variant=39304439955643 as they seem fairly cheap and it’s free delivery.

Agree that toileting just clicks. We were taking out after sleep play food etc (seemed like every 2 minutes) and he woke in the night too. I think some of the night wakings were definitely just for comfort too. He's a typical velcro spaniel though!
We had a couple of little regressions too so don't worry if it happens. Just when I thought we'd cracked it he started going on the floor again! But we got there in the end and by 20 weeks he was 99% reliable.

I love a SCWT - recognised the terrier snout! TerrorPup started to really get toilet training around 12 or 13 weeks but to be honest her bladder control took a LONG time to get there. She definitely had grasped toilet training but if we weren't able to let her out immediately (and we're talking not having time to get up from the table and cross the room) she would have an accident. This obviously got rarer and a bit better as time went on, then accidents suddenly stopped just after she turned one. I would say up until then it was a couple a week still.

I would definitely recommend trying to have doors shut if you can so it is clearer for your pup. And likewise we didn't do any plan in the garden until after business was complete.

I've just booked an introduction to mantrailing session for next Sunday. I'm really excited. I need to work on AwesomePup being happy to be left in the car for a while. He's ok for a few minutes currently but may well need to stay there for a lot longer while the other dogs have their turn.

@mrsfeatherbottom
That's amazing she's sleeping through already - very jealous! yam pup didnt sleep through reliably until about 11 weeks.. That was the bit I found hardest.

Re Toilet training - are you keeping an eye on her all the time? If we caught Yampup weeing indoors we did the method of lifting her up (the flow stops) and taking her outside to finish. Even when she'd basically already done it.
Also, when she does wee/poo outside we say 'get busy, get busy, get busy' as she's doing it which she now associates with weeing/pooing and we can get her to go on demand which is super helpful.
We also got rid of all rugs which helped discourage her.

Chew News!
Deer Jerky - gave Yampup one and it kept her busy for a good hour and half and she still has hardly made a dent in it

Ooh not heard of deer jerky before, where did you get it?

FawkesPup and I start fun gundog training course end of May! I've heard great things about the trainer (already had the email with no aversives, no training aids like head collars) so am hoping it'll be as good as people tell me. I met one of her graduates yesterday and he was a super pup.

@GuyFawkesDay
They are from Anter Chew - order online. Not cheap.. but well worth the money when you need some garunteed time off!
I also get their Deer/Venison Ears, she loves those but now her adult teeth are in they dont last as long as they used to, still a good 30 mins though

@MsAwesomeDragon I feel your pain on the rabbit. Mac got a blackbird fledgling last week ☹️

@GuyFawkesDay i hope fawkespup enjoys gundog training. Mac really enjoyed it yesterday and did very well on his quartering, retrieving and recall. Heel work not so much and I refuse to start yanking him to teach him so that’s what we can work on away from class.

We are suffering the last week or so with him barking in the garden. We think it’s at birds in the hedges/trees and over the fence (plenty of pheasant and deer around). He then goes barking around the perimeter 🤦🏼‍♀️. Safe to say he’s spending less time outside which is a bit annoying with the warmer weather coming.

Was really looking forward to a good night's sleep in my own bed but we were woken at 1am so she could go out for a poo then a 4am vomit - courtesy of a stuffed animal ear she must have chewed off yesterday evening!

@GuyFawkesDay - did you end up swapping food to essentials? We've been feeding that in Denmark and wondering whether to keep going. She did lose weight when we were away but sometimes there was just too much going on for her to eat and I wasn't doing much training with JR pate :-). If you are and you got the bigger bags what size is the kibble? We only had a 3kg bag with small kibble.

Can I join in? I've been reading the thread for awhile, and it's a comfort to read the shenanigans all your pups get upto. Lovely to realise you are not alone.

We've had our boys for 9 days now, and they have settled in amazingly. Getting a food routine has been tricky, but we're just switched from feeding bowls, to plates - I think they found it difficult to get their little faces into the bowls. They've just learnt to do a little bum shuffle, and spin in circles, when it's feeding time.

I think I'm going to take great comfort in reading this thread 😊

Hello All. Can I join? We have had our Cavapoo puppy a few days now and he's starting to settle in. I've been watching all the training videos I can and waiting for him to be more energetic so we can really get used to it all.😀

@tizwozliz yes we did AND I can get you money off!!! I'll PM you.

He is loving it, I do add some other bits but I genuinely think the steady bloody sugar thing is real. He's been calmer since we switched.

Their treats are top notch too.

We need a pic!

So proud of Billy tonight! He had to sit and wait for at least 2 mins with 22 other dogs. Other dogs are Billy’s weakness but he shocked my by doing it perfectly! He also did the full course at agility for the first time and he only messed up one jump when he saw the trainer who was encouraging him over the A frame and ran to her for hotdogs instead of going over the jump 😂.

That's impressive@LadyCatStark . Well done Billy! AwesomePup's weakness is other dogs as well. He's getting better at resisting running over to play but you can see it's really difficult for him.

Well done to Billy, that’s an amazing achievement!

We’re starting a scent class next week which I think pup will really enjoy as he’s a very avid sniffer.

Struggling with separation here, I can just about manage to go to the loo or run upstairs to get something but anything more than that he gets so distressed…… I try everyday but we’ve not moving forwards at all. I can’t imagine ever being able to leave the house without him!! He happily sleeps in his crate overnight and is so confident out and about, shows no anxiety or nerves about anything. I do absolutely adore him and he’s been so lovely recently but I would like to be able to pop out for half an hour occasionally!

Well done, Billy! I'd like to try agility with my pup, though the nearest classes are quite far away.

He is really such a good pup the vast majority of the time so I know I should be grateful. But last week the day care provider said that he got over excited and took a long time to calm down. They also said his recall has deteriorated. He doesn't need to attend day care, it's really intended to be for his benefit. However, I don't want him in a situation that is too overstimulating for him. So we will take a break for a while and try again. I have been putting down his challenging behaviour to adolescence (he's 10 months old), but I just read something that said well-trained puppies don't usually misbehave in adolescence. And that makes me feel as though I have let him down.

@certainshepherdpups I don’t believe that for a second, 10 months is a nightmare! Billy started to calm down in March when he turned one.

thanks everyone, I’m really proud of him and surprised at how quickly he’s come on, it was only his 3rd class!

Does everyone else's puppy have brief periods where they go absolutely nuts? I'm not talking about zoomies round the garden, I'm talking launching herself at us, jumping on and off furniture. I'm so worried she's going to injure herself. The kids are terrified when she does it - she jumps at our faces with her mouth wide open or jumps and grabs your arm like she's a police dog taking down a criminal! It's scary. It's not aggressive but she's nuts. Help!

My pup was featured in the newspaper in a dogs at polling stations article! Weirdly very proud of him….

So was mine! Luckily they picked the picture where she agreed to pose nicely, and not the first attempt where she looked sweetly into the camera and promptly did a 💩 right next to the sign.

@TerrierOrTerror that made me chuckle! Luckily we had no poos at the polling station!