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

I have no idea, she told me 15 mins includes play at home

I'd be ignoring that advice personally. Even for things like the park, I'd go for longer, and have 15 mins of play and 10 mins of practicing calm and watching the world go by. I'd just be wary of how warm it is right now.

At home I'd only limit play if needing some enforced naptime or not knowing when to stop with your other dog.

@tizwozliz even with larger breeds given the potential hip problems? He's not doing anything too crazy at home as he's only playing with our little pug so he's not overdoing it but she seemed really concerned about the fact they played throughout the day. It was all quite odd. Would you do 2 x 15 min walks a day?

They are good at stopping, I enforce it if he struggles to stop, the pug is very good at telling when it's enough also so never too long at a time. He is very good at resting even if there's a lot going on at home.

Yes, even with larger breeds. The '5 minute rule' says 5 minutes per month of age twice a day. But that's not something with a lot of evidence behind it. It's a good general guideline and avoids people marching pups round the pavements for too long and encourages people to think about tiring brains out not just legs but we were never hugely rigid with it.

Caveat - my research was all relating to labradors, I'd assume your breed had a similar risk profile. I think giant breeds perhaps need slightly different treatment.

Thanks @tizwozliz I thought it was twice a day also, I did say this to her and she said no it's once including any play at home. I definitely want to do more with him. Yes I think the risk profile is similar, he isn't a giant breed but likely to be top end of large, 45-50kg. Obviously we need to do a bit on pavements for loose lead walking etc but mostly will be on long line at the park.

That does seem very strict to be honest Pug - I don’t know how you could limit a puppy to 15 minutes a day, playing at home included!!

My vet told me to take the 5 minutes per month with a pinch of salt - her advice was half an hour twice a day leading up to an hour twice a day maximum after 6 months. Also to not include playtime as they can self limit that. However that’s for a springer so probably at the upper end of exercise needs.

Really glad he’s settling in so well

Thanks Autumn, it does see OTT doesn't it. We do training etc at home so he's not bored/itching to get out at all but he just seems to love it so much,and obviously the more he is out the more we can train him with good etiquette.

Pup is testing my patience right now, we've done so many training classes and practice but even an off lead sit outside the house is challenging at the moment!

The golden git is doing well with the Gundog trainer. We've gone right back to basics, retaught loose lead, heel etc so I've been feeling a bit disheartened that at 2 we are having to re-do stuff I should've gotten right when she was a puppy. It's hard but she is a much calmer dog and she looks to me now, not everyone/everything else!

@abeanbaked that's sounds interesting. I am doing a gundog class with FawkesPup soon and am hoping we get more focus from him too.

We have glimmers of a sensible dog but then the teenage idiot antics are never far away either.

I am booking him for castration over summer holidays I think. He'll be 14 months and is confident personality so I don't think it'll mess him up too much.

I think I'm going to book AwesomePup in for castration over the summer holiday too. He'll be about 18 months by then which is pretty much fully grown for a lab (although I think his brain will still take a few more months to catch up to the fact he's supposed to be an adult).

AwesomePup was a complete knob yesterday morning when he was off lead. He ran over to a female dog on the other side of the field (rather a long way from me, so it took me a bit to get over there to catch him), and he wouldn't leave her alone at all. He wouldn't recall, he ignored her be clear "go away" signals, etc. Her owner was (quite rightly) annoyed with him and with me. It was humiliating. He's back on his long training lead until we get his recall around other dogs back. He had been doing so well recently, I thought we'd sorted it, but not yesterday. We still need to work on loose lead walking as well, which was another thing that was doing ok until this past week.

@MsAwesomeDragon - we've just been to training and our trainer said things like loose lead walking often get worse just before it really clicks so fingers crossed for you

@MsAwesomeDragon was the dog on heat? How old is he now? Mine is 15 months and still occasionally decides another dog is far more interesting and bolts off it's so embarrassing! I now constantly leave her lead on so I can stamp on it quickly and grab her back if needed!

Been a while but just wanted to report that Yampup has upped her scavenging game as picnic season reason take hold.
She eaten about 5 banana skins, a dead bird, a mushroom (i got it out) and about 15 lolly sticks..
She completely ignores me as soon as she is onto something gross and even my box of sprats waved about in her face wont het her to drop it.
We're at a point where we dont feel we can let her off lead.
Bloody Labradors!

@Yamyam13 oh dear, mine is generally too fussy to eat random scraps.... apart from a manky left over kebab and chips discarded in a bush the other day - she stank of burger sauce! Can you feed her before the walk so she is full or is she never too full for scraps lol?!

I had to abandon a walk yesterday as mine wouldn’t stop eating the sheep poo 🙄🙄 he is exceptionally greedy but luckily a bit of sausage has tempted him away from most things so far…….

There's too much wildlife around at the moment making walks stressful! A deer, pheasants and two hares this morning.

Fortunately I don't have scavenging to contend with as well.

We had a very nice day yesterday. We took a mini road trip to an area that the pup had never been to before. He had some nice off-lead romping and then a walk through a fairly big town. He was a bit frightened of some large (and loud) buses and pulled on the lead a bit, but otherwise he took the busy town in his stride. Then we stopped at a pub and he behaved angelically. I had been nervous about taking him to the pub (I had visions of him being disruptive and unable to settle) but DH convinced me it would be fine and he was right for once.

Here's my sweet boy.

Yampup just vomited up her lunch.. i knew i'd seen her chowing down on some
kind of pooh on this mornings walk

Mine is partial to horse poo and grass maltesers aka rabbit poo.

Muntjac deer in the field this afternoon, fortunately FawkesPup didn't see it. I just saw a head poking out of the beans by the hedge. Hares and pheasants too but lots of chicken and ball chucking did the trick. Until next time 🫣

He's gorgeous @certainshepherdpups

Here's FawkesPup looking huge

Luckily mine have not eaten poo outside but they both try to get in the cat litter tray. So disgusting!!

I just wondered when people switched from 3 to 2 meals a day, I have a 1.5 year old dog on 2 meals and 15 week pup on 3 meals, pup is over 15 kg so not small.

@PugInTheHouse as mine is a fussy eater she tends to still have a lick mat at lunch time even at 15 months. Officially we went down to two "meals" at about 7 months I think but it's always a job to get her to finish the meal...

@Aria20 finishing food is definitely not an issue for my two lol! Wolfpup can now steal food off the kitchen worktop so we need to watch out for him and ensure we put everything away.

We usually give them a lickimat so we can eat in peace in the evening, wolfpup has not only eaten the peanut butter he has also eaten the lickimat itself!!

I'm just not sure what the reason for 3 meals is, I wonder if its to do with bloat?

We still feed 3 meals at 1 year. I don't see any reason to cut down to 2 tbh. It breaks the day up nicely. She has no concept of when meal times are so it's not an issue for us to feed her at 12pm or 2pm or whenever. She sometimes doesn't finish her food as it is so I'm not sure she'd want bigger less frequent meals either.

Four and then three meals when they're young is just down to stomach size I think. They might not be able to physically eat what they need to in two sittings.

Haha about eating the mat too lol!

Thanks @tizwozliz our pug knows exactly when dinner time is, he comes and does a weird silent bark at me when it's nearly time, then if I don't get up he jumps up onto the sofa and stares at me, then starts tapping me our new pup doesn't seem fussed, I have forgotten at 12/1ish several times and remembered about 2/3pm and he will eat it but definitely isn't looking for it. I think I just did everything by the book before with our 1st dog so went to 2 meals when it was suggested.

I will stick to 3 for now just in case as he is only young still.