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 couldn't tell if the dog was on heat. She's an older dog, 10 years old, and her owner seemed very responsible so I can't imagine he'd have been walking her off lead at prime dog walking time in a relatively popular field if she was on heat. But then, I've been told older dogs may not give the same visual signs of heat but do give the same pheromones off, so it's possible. It's still hugely embarrassing that my 14 month old intact male wouldn't come back to me and wouldn't listen to a word I said. He's back on his training lead so I can stop him running off.

@MsAwesomeDragon similar age to mine then, I guess they are still teenagers. I have a run of a few good days and think wow maybe she's calmed down/matured and then I relax a bit and trust her again and bam she does something silly!

She's started trying to bury/hide things in the garden - she's still not allowed out there unsupervised due to digging in the past but she can go from happily playing with a toy one minute to quickly trying to dig to bury it the next! I'm like ah ah and she stops, it's sweet really that she's trying to bury her treasure and instinct for her so she doesn't understand why I'm not letting her bury stuff lol but we are moving house next week and don't want her wrecking the new garden!

When we were in Denmark Ada buried chews in the garden, it's odd because she never does it at home. I kept telling her we were leaving in a few days so no point saving for later!

We're away at a wedding tomorrow, so pup has two nights at the boarders as we're travelling this evening. She practically dragged me down the street to their house when we got out the car so her last visit must have been ok!

@tizwozliz that's great she was happy to go. Mine is going for first overnight at boarders next week on the day we move and the next night as well as we will have a lot to do and I may even ask if they can keep her a few extra days if space and she settles fine so we can get on with some redecorating etc! Hopefully she won't dig up their garden

Billy does the same! It’s amazing that they know which house to go to but I guess it’s the smell. We randomly saw his home boarder at the beach the other day and was so excited that she missed him so much she’d come to visit him 😂.

Went to our first puppy agility session today, was amazing!! He really really loved it and got the hang of some of the activities so quickly - definitely one to carry on with

I think Ada would love agility, she did everything bar the see saw when we found some agility equipment to have a go on. I'm not so keen though!

All went well with her boarding, she got complimented on her fantastic recall. I was a bit unsure how her recall would be with another person, but seems it was fine.

After not shedding much at all for the first year of her life she's started leaving a bit more hair about the place, although still not that much by lab standards I think. Going to have to up my cleaning game.

We are currently thinking about switching up TerrorPups food, her pickiness is getting worse and she just doesn't have the body condition to be skipping meals.

We've been trying Eden which she seemed to enjoy, although we thought 💩 were a little softer than normal.

Any other recommendations to try? We'd prefer dry (we do a lot of training with meals, plus she has historically turned her nose up at wet and raw refused to eat at all). I like the idea of being able to switch up flavours. And it also needs to be grain free as otherwise she tends to do impressive projectile pukes.

Touch wood Ada is eating well right now, I haven't had to throw away food in at least a fortnight! We've just placed an order with Essentials which she seemed to get on with ok in Denmark. They have four different flavours I think in the range we're getting.

I can't say how tasty it is compared to others, Ada doesn't consider kibble any sort of training reward so she won't choose one over another and she still always has it mixed with complementary food.

Fish4dogs might be another option if you haven't tried that already.

We've switched over from the food the breeder was feeding her to Werewolf, which is a local company to us (NI). She hasn't got a massive appetite and prefers it dry to wet. If you try to use it for training, though, she looks at you with disgust.

Thought I'd check back in.. haven't posted for a good few months. I hope everyone and their pups are doing well?
SPup will be 1 next month, but is still very much a puppy. He is the biggest goofball and makes me laugh constantly. He's learnt to swim now (hurrah!)
I have an op at the end of the week and will be on strict bed rest for 1week.. I'm not sure how that's going to go. Any tips to keep him occupied?
Enjoy the picture of him playing with one of the chickens 🤣

FawkesPup has relented in this fussiness and scoffing his essential foods without protest again. Relieved. Though his 💩 hasn't been as good as on Eden, but he shiiiines. People ask me what I put on his coat, but it's just the food and weekly salmon oil!

First puppy last night for our pup - she seemed to enjoy it - DH said she was just dying to play with the other pups. The trainer said she had very good manners (with the other dogs) and we all have homework to do!

We use WCF lakes heritage, which has 4 flavours in the range. In most of the country it would be delivery only, except up here in Cumbria where we have the shops (there are shops in other nearby areas but I don't think they're nationwide).
Awesomepup isn't that keen on the salmon one, but he adores the beef one and the pork one. Poo is nicely solid.

@MsAwesomeDragon I think they're also selling it under other brands. Fenrir have recently "launched" a dog food and I am 99.9% sure it's the WCF premier range food as the flavours and ingredients are identical and it's in the black bag!

FawkesPup has iffy poop on essential. I'm not convinced yet. I'm going to try cold pressed with him.

Not been on here for a while - hope everyone is well! Indy is growing fast, can't quite believe he's 5 month and a typical goldie.

Anyone else find it super stressful when your daily routine is messed with?! Most days me and the pup have a nice routine that means we have some nice walks, cuddles, and most importantly naps around the same time each day, but my parents come on a Weds to look after my youngest and it completely messes with our routine (because they're too interesting for him). It's always been this way since we had him, but it stresses me out every blinkin week! I need to find some inner peace with this but I'm struggling to!!

I thought this thread has finished, it’s gone all quiet! DH and DS have gone out and I’m supposed to be cleaning up so that I don’t have to over the bank holiday weekend but look… I think I’m gonna be trapped here for a while (and no, he’s absolutely not allowed on the sofa!) excuse the legs!

@Suzbug yes it’s a pain when they’re little and they get over tired!

We’ve finally managed to get Billy to ditch his crate for good this week (this has been done by turning a blind eye to the fact that he is sleeping in the living room, most probably on that sofa he’s not allowed on!).

We keep talking about getting Ada to sleep downstairs again, at the moment she's still on our bed which definitely wasn't the plan this time last year!

@tizwozliz i would love to let Billy in our bed. I had to get up early today to take DH and DS to the port and I was so tempted to take Billy back to bed with me and cuddle up with my book!

He embarrassed the hell out of me tonight at gun dog training by running off with a dummy and skipping out of my way every time I tried to catch him. So he’s in the bad books (and he knows it so he’s been trying to crawl 😂).

Ada is still on a longline at gundog training for that reason. She can't be trusted around dummies! She'll go steal other people's if she gets the chance so she stays on the longline so I can reel her in.

Mac is also on a long line at gun dog training. And everywhere else! 😂 I could do with a shorter one as I went for 15m but it’s so cumbersome and most of the time now it’s trailing. One of the trainer at class said just cut a meter off every other month and work back that way.

He turned one this week but we’re away on holiday and my parents are looking after him. Apparently he’s doing a good job of tiring out their golden retriever!

Puppy has just turned 6 months old, gone so fast!

He’s mostly delightful - great recall, lovely and calm in the evenings now and so much fun. Waking nicely on a lead is still a challenge as he gets so excited but some days are better than others!

We are making slow but steady progress at leaving him, I can now pop out for 20/30 minutes and he’s ok with that. Also he’s happy to be on a different floor to me at home now and not quite the constant shadow he was.

I do feel like this is the calm before the storm of hormones and teenage behaviour so I’m enjoying it while I can 😂

What a gorgeous spangle @Autumn101

FawkesPup is 1 next week too. He started fun gundog last week and we are now using a clicker to train and so far have had surprisingly good results. He's taken to it well.

On the other hand, he's started not wanting to go in his crate at night but then whines when we leave him out of it 🙄 so in a bit of a quandary. I do get him in there in the end and he's been sleeping til gone 7am so hurrah as I was close to breaking with the early wakes.

Have moved his food onto cold pressed as his tummy never really settled on the Essential Foods. Tried to move him gradually but he picks the news stuff out and leaves the old so looking forward to a few days of gummy tummy whilst that works out. Joy!!!

He's a sweetheart though. So loving, and sweet....& utterly bonkers at the same time.

I think I may need to join you please, I am almost hallucinating with tiredness after our first night with our new pup, Lily Pickle. She's gorgeous and worth every second of broken sleep though. Fingers crossed she settles better tonight as she seems to have really found her feet and confidence over the course of today.

Oops, posted too soon. Here she is looking like butter wouldn't melt.