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'm really lucky I found an online spaniel specialist behaviour/trainer who just happens to be local to us. She recommended Clicker Gundog school to us and it's been fab.

Any other spaniel parents it's called the Spaniel Inner Circle. We have weekly zooms with specialists, there's a library of help and training videos and we have access to A community forum to pick the trainer's brains!

Sounds fantastic, I’ll take a look 👍

I think pup is doing well it’s just a bit of a blip due to the teenager phase but it’s hard to not question everything or worry you aren’t doing it right some days isn’t it?!

Oh god yes. Just when I think hurray, he's growing up and being less of a prat we have a week of bitey, silly irritating oversized puppydom again. Then go back to being sensible.

Booked him in for his 🌰🌰 off in August. He will be 14 months old so vet thinks sensible age for neutering as he's is physically mature. He's been taking way more of an interest in lady dogs and lots of marking recently too 🫣

Are you east or West Sussex?

We are in East Sussex and went to Adele at www.watchdogstraining.com - I cannot recommend her enough. Force free methods (reward based with treats). She's a lovely lady too.

Further east is www.roytangundogs.com/about/ a friend goes there and really rates it. Again it's reward based training.

Not posted in ages but lovely to hear what everyone and their pups are up to! So glad it's not just me still struggling with distracting my dog from other dogs. I definitely have the bounciest friendliest dog in the world. I generally slip her lead on if I see another dog but I think I should give her more opportunity to practice coming away with me. I just know we'll have some hits and some misses.

@GenderCriticalTrumpets what a gorgeous pup! So pretty! Those first weeks are exhausting. I swear I was more tired with my puppy than my children as newborns. Take loads of photos. I felt I never had a free hand spare and was too knackered. I still feel a bit like that TBH!

Right on the border so both of those locations would work for us, thank you!!

I need to find some more swimming spots I think for these warm evenings.

Welcome @GenderCriticalTrumpets - do you drive? How does pup travel in the car? I did trips to the pet shop (pup in trolley) and various other places to observe the world when pup was small before jabs. As much for my benefit as pup's to get out the house.

Ahh @tizwozliz that's a good idea! Might take him for a look later to see if it tires him out a bit. Mind you he's done nothing but sleep all day!

Billy has been in all day sleeping so we’re off paddle boarding tonight to tire him out and cheer us up a bit!

That sounds great @LadyCatStark - I've been investigating options for places where pup and I can swim together but it's not easy to find.

My pup highly recommends swimming as a fun activity on hot days.

@GenderCriticalTrumpets gorgeous puppy!
@certainshepherdpups wow great swimming - mine isn't a fan of getting all the way in - she'll dip her paws but that's it... the look of horror on her face when she chased a ball into a lake not realising the depth and was fully soaked haha!

Thanks everyone! He has been so, so tired today he has slept all day. Guess we are not going to have a decent stretch of sleep we've been getting again tonight!

@tizwozliz we had the most fun we’ve had in sooo long! Billy was hilarious, DS decided he wanted to swim for a bit and every time he splashed or put his head under, Billy thought he was drowning and launched himself off the paddle board to “rescue” him and tow him back to the board 😂. Bless him, he’s so good at keeping us safe!

That sounds so much fun @LadyCatStark .

I took AwesomePup down to the river this morning, which was nice. Then he found a cow pat and rolled in it, very enthusiastically!!! He was covered, literally head to toe, in cow 💩. I tried getting him back in the river but he wouldn't go all the way in so we had to walk home with his harness and his head/neck still stinking. He met another dog he wanted to play with and I couldn't grab hold of him without grabbing a handful of poo 🤮. He needed a full shower before I could go to work. Not his finest hour, but he really did enjoy himself (until I put him in the dreaded shower)

Took pup out for a swim this evening as she was a bit restless. Would be more fun if pup would learn to give something up if she wants it thrown again!

Love the swimming pups!

Mine had his first proper swim this week too, only paddled previously. He absolutely loved it! Was a total nightmare on the lead afterwards as he was so overexcited but it was worth it

FawkesPup and I use the most beautiful dog walking meadow with lovely safe swimming spots as they sit on slow flowing meanders.

We went on Tuesday, enjoyed the shade and the cool water

We also now are proper swimming in the river with some confidence.

Finally got FawkesPup's tummy really settled and happy on a food which has been an irritation since he decided he didn't want Eden any more. Little sod! Anyhow, he's happy and so am I, and it's cheaper so winning a little!

The ducks and geese always come over to say hello at our local swimming spot so we normally get some steadiness practice in as well as swimming practice

How lovely @tizwozliz we spotted a heron upstream on Tuesday but no ducks.

FawkesPup failed to be steady around the bullocks in the next field. They are apparently sent from the bowels of hell and very scary indeed, and yet he is utterly fascinated by them!

What was interesting was that despite the heat (we were there 10:30-11:30 so it was 23C) he wasn't even panting. The walk/ play/swim in shade rotation kept him cool and happy for the hour.

Trying to decide whether to go to dogfest at the weekend. I'd ruled it out as being too expensive but just got a voucher for half price tickets. Might just be one long exercise in Ada management though...

We decided FawkesPup would be mad and pull like a train and be a PITA all day so gave it a miss. He's still way too overexcitable

Lovely to see all the swimming pups. @Aria20 I have been a bit surprised by how much my pup loves to swim. He took to it right away and especially adores retrieving balls (as in the picture). My last dog was like yours, not a fan of water at all!

@LadyCatStark my pup is also quite concerned about our safety in the water and frequently tries to rescue us!

@Autumn101 would Haywards Heath area be any good for you? Rose Setten is near there and does positive reward-based gundog training www.companiondogsolutions.co.uk/about