Puppy Survival Thread: Surviving into Summer 2022

[tizwozliz]

Discussion of all things puppy, highlights and pitfalls, good times and bad, successes and failures

Previous thread here

www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_doghouse/4496297-Puppy-Survival-Thread-muddy-footprints-into-Spring-2022

Teenagers also welcome

@mrsfeatherbottom Thank you.

I have a few Photobooks on my lower shelf so think I’ll move those to safety, but may leave the others.

In a weeks time, River Pup will be home.

(was debating whether to refer him as River Pup or Lee Pup, but as he’s a lab, and labs love water, thought River Pup would be more appropriate).

Obligatory photo to follow.

Love all these photos of the new pups! They look so small, even though our pup is only 17weeks so logically not that much older, but all these photos are so little and cute!

Hopefully the puppy blues have passed for those a few pages back. It can be really overwhelming.

Maggie is 17 weeks and doing really well. In the last week or two her behaviour with other dogs on walks has noticeably calmed down - we have her off lead 95% of the time now, only putting her on if another approaching dog is on the lead. If they're off, we can pretty much trust she'll say hello, read the dog's signals and either play happily or come when called.

And she's finally venturing into the actual sea! She was fine in puddles and small bodies of water before, but the waves and sheer size of the sea seemed to overwhelm her.

@NotaFR we’ve got a 12 week cocker, last two were lovely gentle cavaliers. This one’s nickname is Sharkbait! She is so bitey. She keeps/kept snapping at our older dog as ‘play’ whereas our cavalier just wrestled and raced rather than snapped. But…. if we let the older dog growl and snap back, this seems to be putting the pup in her place and she is getting a bit better now. So hang in.

Oh, and also agree that enforced naps are the way to go. Overtired = extra snappy. Just like a toddler.

Hello can I join? Reading back through the thread and honestly it’s got me really nervous but maybe support is a good thing!

we saw our puppy today and will pick him up on 12th September - he’ll be 10 weeks then but we’re not ready yet and he came along quite quickly and we haven’t bought anything or finished reading easy peasy puppy squeezy! Am just nervous of getting it all wrong and I really do want to hopefully end up with a calm, well trained dog at the end of puppy madness!

photos….

@NotaFR my springer pup took a good two months to be calm around our cat, he would constantly try to chase her and I do remember some very fraught moments over it! She did and continues to tell him off but 99% of the time now they ignore each other and happily co-exist (apart from him desperate to eat her poo 🤮). He also ignores other cats on walks now too which is a bonus.

After his horrid illness last week pup is fully better and we’re on holiday. Came away on Friday and so far he’s been a dream, hoping it continues throughout the week!

@DrBlackbird @Autumn101 thank you. That's made me feel a better. I think after a nights sleep as well has helped a bit. One of our other dogs is a cavalier too - she is beyond easy tho we didn't have her from a puppy.

@Foxgloveleaf yep we have a crate and we put her in when she is tired. It seems to be pretty much anytime tho

Checking in! Lovely lovely puppy pics ❤️

Nugget irs extremely snarley and bitey when over tired. Only happened a couple of times but I can other recoiling - happened today and we were visiting family. I could see their faces 😆 literally fell asleep before I'd put on my seatbelt and at home didn't even make it to bed just flopped asleep on the hall floor!

Walking is definitely exhausting her even the permitted short walks for 13 weeks.

I got a cheap calming bed from the range just cos I love them and woahhhh! I replaced the cushiony one in her crate for it - expecting it to be shredded by morning. She's always slept very well but instead of her usual 9ish hours she slept for 13!!!!! Last night! Yes. I was that newborn mum constantly checking the cam in her room 😂

Back home again after 6 days away. Pup pleased to see me, although tbh not visibly more pleased than when I've just been to the shop for an hour!

Came into season whilst I was away, so 3 weeks of lots of loose lead walking practice coming up :-(

@tizwozliz ah bless! Used to feel so sorry for my dogs in season. My last one used to feel proper sorry for herself I wanted to give her a bar of chocolate and a hot water bottle 😆

Seems to affect her very little. Think it's harder for me tbh when her exercise is so restricted!

@tizwozliz glad she was ok without you

Our pup is 12 weeks old and bless her the last two nights have been accident free. She’s getting there! The trick was to remove the puppy pads as it was almost as if having them in the house gave her permission to use them instead of going outside.

@Citygirlrurallife what a gorgeous pup! We have a goldador (half lab, half golden retriever) and she is the best dog ever.

Hi there all, hope you're all getting on ok with your pups. We're doing a good bit better this week, thank god! Just one thing that's puzzling us. He sometimes takes himself into his crate during the day for a wee??!! I don't know what that's about.....Any ideas?

Rubbish 24 hours here, tested positive for covid last night then pup ate the absorbent pad from a packet of meat at lunchtime so a trip to the vets for an emetic to vomit it up. Now feeling very sorry for herself (I'm feeling sorry for myself too!)

@tizwozliz Hope you both feel better soon.

Oh Ada, you daft dog!! FawkesPup has had the pukey jab more than once because he is also a daft dog!!!

Off to vets later in the week as he's itchy and we don't know why. Wave goodbye to loads more £££!!!

We picked up our 13 week old puppy Colin yesterday.

He sleeps in his crate at night, is generally a good boy but we are in the process of house training him.

Apparently it is very rock n roll to shred disposable puppy pee pads.

How are all you new puppy owners doing?

Do yourself a favour and if you can, ditch the training pads. Puppy will get going outside far faster if they only ever go outside with you. Promise!

Colin is such a good name!

Yep, you are right about the puppy pads as Colin just shreds them. Last night he woke us up at 3am for a pee and then again at 6am and was totally dry in between.

That's not bad for his second night.

@Acorncat1 it sounds like he's associating his crate with a place to wee rather than a place to sleep and probably thinks he is doing the right thing! Our pup came to us toilet trained but she still had the learn where the right place to go was in a new house. When she was very small I think I took her out to the garden every hour or half hour and use the command "wee!" then lots of praise so she know she got it right. She was used to going on grass so she got it straight away. We got up in the night and very early morning in the early days to take her out for a toilet break. It was tough but didn't last long and was so worth it for a fully house trained pup! We used the pen solely as a sleeping place and only at night. She wasn't interested in sleeping there in the day. They really really don't like to toilet near where they sleep so maybe his crate is getting the wrong associations for him? Can you gate or pen off areas of your house if you are worried about accidents, then focus on actively training it and maybe accept he is going to get it wrong a few times but at least you have put in some damage limitation. Good luck!

Puppy pads are such a con! Two people gave me their never used puppy pads and I never used them either after our pup shredded the first one.

How's everyone doing? Nugget had her first puppy groom today 🥰 nails clipped and paws trimmed and a wash and blow dry 😅 not keen on dryer but a good girl who took a shine to the groomer's Bernese Mountain Dog 😂

Walking is going well, she's shattered after about 20 mins but it's lovely to be out with a puppy!

Don't jinx me but no indoor accidents yet this week.....!!