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

Aww, look at Maggie. So cute! Her cuddly zebra is bigger than she is.

We never set alarms at night, just waited until the pup stirred and took him out then. We were extremely lucky. He slept until about 5:00 for the first couple of weeks and after that he has been fine until 7:00 or later.

Some of the litter are already in their forever homes and apparently only stirred at 5am. Fingers crossed!

Oh bless her, she's adorable!!!

I've been out all day and FawkesPup has driven DH mad.

Poor dog can't cope if I am out in the evenings, he's not naughty but he can't settle and is really hard work 🫣

Can I ask about food? Dpup is now 5 months and has never been mad about her food. We gradually switched her from the kibble the breeder had her on to another kibble which she seemed to like at the beginning but now seems less fussed. Some days she hardly eats at all even if we wet the kibble and add grated carrot and a squeeze of primula.

DH was out yesterday and bought a small can of wet food and mixed a little in to her kibble and she wolfed it down! When I was a kid, I'm sure most dogs just ate canned food. Is kibble superior or cheaper or trendier?

Our lab went off her kibble at about 6 months. We tried a few different brands and she seemed to prefer the dark meat based kibble - game or beef - but then she went off those. We tried her on wet food and she absolutely loved it! We don't always stick to the same food and her stomach seems fine if we switch it. I'm not sure of how dry and wet vary in health terms, but wet always seems a bit less processed to me. You can look up the nutritional rating of your dog food on this website. www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/the-dog-food-directory

Our puppy arrived with a bag of Purina. I'm weaning her off it by mixing it with Gentle - really highly rated on the website mentioned above. You can check the nutritional value of wet dog food on that site too.

Our plan is to feed kibble with a little meat through it for tastiness - a bit shredded roast chicken, or tuna/sardines, or a little bit minced beef.

Wet food is definitely more expensive. For example when we were feeding dry food Millie's Wolfheart worked out about 1.50 a day, if we'd fed their tins it would have been about 6 quid a day. And we'd have needed a lot of space to store it all.

We now feed a mix of good quality kibble and various complimentary foods on top. E.g. forthglade 90%, fish4dogs tuna flakes, egg, a bit of meat and/or veg from our dinner if suitable.

Yampup has always been on kibble and loves it... but she loves everything. But we do soak her kibble - maybe worth trying if they like wet food over dry as another option

Yeah, we've tried it dry, wet, with stuff mixed in. Just not fussed.

We had SUCH a good night. This was only her second night with us, and she's only nine weeks today.

She dozed at my feet throughout the evening, going out to the garden every hour or so. At 10pm, went out for a final wee.

I slept on a mattress in the living room but she slept in her bed. I had to remind her twice, but she slept there all night no bother.

At 5am I woke up, so she woke up and got all excited. We went to the garden - a wee and a poo. 10m play and she's back in her bed, fast asleep.

What a dream. We've only had two accidents total since she arrived on Sat at 12pm.

Hoping the good night's are continuing @FuckingHateRats

We've survived a year as of today. Even duckie although he's missing an eye

She's brilliant! Last night she slept from 8.30pm-8am, with a wee break at 4.30am which she woke us for.

No accidents at all in the last 36h... Is she just the easiest nine week old puppy in the world, or is it about to get much worse and hit us in the face?! 😂

@FuckingHateRats that's great, long May it continue!

So, dpup is 5 months and we have a family dinner to attend tonight. We will be gone from about 6:15 to 9, I guess. The plan had been to drop pup at my mum's as we've never left her that long and it's a time when she's normally active. (We don't leave her much but have done for 1.5-2 hours a couple of times but in the morning when she normally just naps.

Anyway, my mum isn't well (probably Covid) so now I don't know what to do. Do you think she'd be okay for that long in her crate? We could leave a frozen kong and her yakker and Dog TV on the tv .

What would you do?

Ours would have been fine left that long at that age. Give dinner earlier and ensure enough time to walk and toilet before you go sure will be fine.

Thanks. I just feel bad. It doesn't help that she has suspected kennel cough (although the little decker has hardly coughed since we made the vet appointment) so we're not meant to walk her for 5 days so can't even take her on a big walk to tire her out.

FawkesPup is having another teenage tw@t week.

Attention barking, mouthing and being a PITA to go out for walks when it's too fricking hot to do so. I mean we are lucky that we have an acre or two on the doorstep with shady patches but even so!

He's driving me potty at the moment with it, he is barking for me when I am outside or leave the house for a few minutes, just like a little puppy.

I think it's a secondary fear period? Need to read up but sheesh, he's hard bloody work at the moment.

Hope all the pups are doing well. Here's the Knobhead in question looking for all intents and purposes like a well behaved dog

Fingers crossed this phase is over soon for Fawkespup 🤞we actually talked about fear periods in training class yesterday and trainer said normally lasts a few weeks.

We seem to have come out the other side of our first bout of teenage idiot - recall is back, no more barking in the car etc which I am relieved about. Enjoying the calm before we inevitably get another one!

Trying to find places locally involving water for walks for the next week. As I’m sure lots of the pups do mine doesn’t seem to realise it’s crazy hot and still wants to run at 100mph for hours on end……….

Can I join? We got our first puppy yesterday a little boy Maltipoo. He seems to be settling well so far. We have managed all wees outside but both poos have been inside so we need to get better on the poop ques.
Pictures for cute tax hopeful they work!😀

aww maltipoos are fab!

We got our first puppy a week ago so we're in a very similar place.

Maggie has found herself in the last 24h... Much more vocal and energetic. She's playing with the kids by jumping up and nipping using her mouth. We're doing a sharp 'no' and then distracting her - is this the right way forward?

We've been out early and had a dip in the brook on the way round (we live near a race course so fantastic off lead walking!) So he's had an hour on there early doors and three dips so kept nice and cool. Then found his bezzie mate and ran round like a loon with him for half an hour.

He'd better sleep today!!!! I mean his recall is now superb, recalls off his friends to me, he's fab, but the velcro dog neediness is hard work.

I keep going out for 5 minutes in the evening to water a neighbour's pots whilst they're away and I can hear him barking for me 🫣

We've had a lazy morning. Tiring afternoon yesterday as I made Ada tow me round the swimming pool! A bit warm for a walk now so just chilling in the garden.

I say chilling, I'm lying in the hammock whilst the dog removes my hat everytime I put it on, tries to steal my book etc.

@FuckingHateRats Wolfpup was the same with toileting and sleep from the day we got him at 9 weeks and still is amazing. Unfortunately he is a PITA at the moment. Trouble is he is 25kg and only just 5 months so we have difficulties with him that we didn't have with pugpup.

He can open doors and has pulled the stair gate out. We have an open plan kitchen/diner so have now blocked kitchen off as he can reach everywhere on kitchen side. He is a pain on the lead but off lead generally good. We are off on holiday Friday and our trainer is staying with the dogs for the week so it will be interesting to see how they are after she's worked with them.

Here he is thinking he is a human ...

@PugInTheHouse oh my gosh he's a big boy! That's great a trainer is having them fingers crossed you come back to angel dogs haha

Haven’t checked in for a while, so it’s lovely to see all of the cute new pups and glad to see everyone else is well (despite some pup twattery!)

Took our cocker pup up to watch a cricket match an hour and a half away from home earlier today, and we got there and there was a huge sign saying no dogs 😫. Decided to take him to a local country park which had a huge lake dogs could swim in and although he disgraced himself once swimming after ducks he was pretty good and had a nice play with a pointer and cockapoo.

Eventually managed to wangle him in to the cricket match after many promises that he wouldn’t poo everywhere and wouldn’t bite any children - and he was ace! Sat brilliantly under the table in the shade watching and having cuddles with various people - one woman even commented on how well he’d behaved (if only she could see him at home!!) and he’s now passed out asleep at home.

We’re off on our first holiday tomorrow to the Broads - but nervous about his love of water but he’ll have a doggy life jacket and we are hoping to take him paddle boarding and canoeing! It’s supposed to be hot but I’m thinking lots of swimming and sitting on a cool coat etc.