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

Btw, I’m not meaning to sound the voice of doom 😏 but just wanting to give heads up.

Hi all, one week in and we’re all exhausted and grumpy with each other at times. I think it’s having to constantly watch him all the time, and trying to keep him entertained. Like toddlers, your dressing gown belt is much more exciting then the millions of dog toys he has.

I’ve read Easy Peasey but not sure River Pup has got the memo. Distraction doesn’t seem to work that well for him.

Hes been a bit bite-y the last couple of days. Any tips?

currently asleep, so like having a baby, about to grab forty winks myself.

@Autumn101 sorry to hear about your pup’s paw. Hope it heals quickly. I’m already dreading the post spay, stillness enforcement, impossible!

@Riverlee same here. Illness in the house, plus tired from long work hours and school means everyone os struggling to not be grumpy about the puppy chewing/accidents. She vomited and had an upset stomach yesterday, but is fine today. She had new treats so maybe it was those.

Thanks for the advice @DrBlackbird - will stealthily remove box when Des the Demon snoozing!
@Autumn101 - sorry re paw. It’s bad enough without that.
It is nice to know that others are going through similarly tough times. I am knackered from getting up in the night and from being constantly on alert to stop him eating leaves, twigs, slugs or chewing things😵. If he’s not supposed to eat it he will try!

Anyway on a different note - while he’s snoozing I am sorting out the minefield of insurance. ( don’t worry he’s got 4 weeks petplan from the rescue!).

I know I want lifetime cover from a good company and am considering petplan & vetsure. Petplan more expensive but vetsure used by vets. Which is better …and if I get prt plan what cover do I get???

think my brain has had it from lack of sleep!!

Everyone I know seem to use Tesco or Petplan.

@TheStirrer i think our pups are related! I’ve a lab - what have you got?

I’ve put toys out, but these are ignored in favour of cobwebs!

I use Many Pets for insurance - they’ve been great recently and paid out very quickly for our couple of expensive vet visits!

@TheStirrer we used pet plan the first year but they put our premium up loads and I hadn't claimed at all. Many Pets seem quite reasonable. I went with Purely Pets in the end as similar level cover to many pets but cheaper. I haven't claimed though so can't comment on how good they are/not.

The witching hour seems to have reemerged here. I'm hoping it's just season related. Thought we were past all this silliness.

@Riverlee - no not related - he’s a cocker spaniel and he is capable of ingesting his kibble in about 10 seconds and always starving! Hence he thinks anything is worth trying to see if it is edible….
He is lovely (when he is asleep …..)

@tizwozliz - yes we also have a witching hour here where frankly Delightful Des morphs into Demon Des. It’s normally at 6ish post kibble and post snooze and usually when I am trying to cook. I had to get hubby to take him out into garden as trying to cook whilst having my Jean leg tugged on and slipper chewed was just not going to work. He then spent went nuts at the garden broom when hubby was trying to brush up all the leaves and twigs he wanted to eat 🙈

For those of you who have done petplan what level did you do for? Having never had a dog I have no idea what to go for. Do I just go for the middle one and hope he doesn’t polish off to too many slugs etc 🤣

Ada's 15months @TheStirrer - I'd hoped our witching hour days were behind us!

@tizwozliz …. Don’t tell me that 😵😵😵

we hesitated about insurance plans and after reading trust pilot reviews they all looked as equally bad for jacking up premiums annually despite no claims.

In the end we went with petplan just because we use it for our other dogs and there’s never been hassle with payments. This time though I’ve gone from £4k to £7k coverage because vet fees are increasing.

The whole thing is a rip though. Vets can charge whatever they want disconnected from cost and the pet insurance market is unregulated Wild West.

I was told that premiums go up because vet’s advancement in treatment is more costly now. This is a ridiculous statement because what the vets charge has nothing to do with my insurance coverage. Petplan pays x amount and that’s that. Anything over that amount, I pay! Nothing to do with the insurer. 🙄

Pup is feeling sorry for himself today. Overnight he managed to get his bandage off and pull out one of the stitches so now he has the cone of shame…….. thankfully it didn’t need restitching and is healing well. Everyday feels like a week at the moment trying to keep him calm and not jumping, so far we’re failing spectacularly 😂😂

Agree on the crazy vet fees - in a month we’ve had a sickness bug and the cut paw and have paid out more than £2.5k to the vet!!

Whoop I can finally properly join the group - brought Haku home today, 10weeks old and 9.5kg already! All toileting outside so far, DD got over excited teaching him sit and his name and got through a full bag of treats already 🙄

wish me luck for tonight - obligatory photo attached

@Autumn101those sorrowful eyes! Poor pup, I hope he recovers quickly.

@Citygirlrurallifehe's gorgeous! Crossing my fingers for you that tonight is peaceful.

Haku is gorgeous - those eyes!

Cute puppies!

We are with Many Pets and they were fab when we had an expensive visit.

Drove alongside Graeme Hall (the dog father) today. He lives nearby. I wanted to wind the window down and ask him if he could help me with my irritating as #£@! teenage spaniel. Since FawkesPup's balls came off we seem to be returning to periods of the worst of the annoying behaviour and I am properly fed up with it!

Good job he's cute.

Loving the pics although poor pup @Autumn101 he doesn't look impressed, hope he's soon on the mend

Nugget has been very tired these last few days, eating masses too so wonder if it's a growth spurt! She does seem huge and heavy suddenly!

As for insurance I need to check what I ended up getting! I just know it's LV as I used a free video consult last week when she got stung on her nose but nobody has mentioned them so now I'm a bit 😳

Hope your puppy is feeling a little less sorry for himself @Autumn101

ugh I really don’t want to go through the boringness of insurance searching!

we had a first reasonable night - he went to bed at around 10pm and then DH crashed around and woke him up and we lost all sense of what our bedtime plan was 😂 so I put up the blow up mattress and went to bed in the sitting room. He wandered around and eventually went to sleep, woke up whining at 3am so I let him out, he did a wee and we went back to sleep again until about 6:15

going to focus on crate training today and put him to bed properly with the puppy pen around the crate if he’s not ready to have it shut

I guess also this week just work on reflex to name and sit in a variety of proofed situations? And get him out and about as much as possible…

@Citygirlrurallife thats good for a first night!

Ours was terrible, he would only settle eating his cone on my lap so I feel like I slept about 20 minutes 😴😴 😂

Not eating wearing 🙄🙄

DH just had another notice from Petplan and our 8 turning 9 year old Cavie is costing us £960 a year 😳😬 It went from £820 last year to £960 this year….!

The whole reason we went with them originally was the ‘promise’ the premiums did not go up based on claims. No, they don’t, they just jack them up regardless.

On the puppy front, our 14 week cocker just will not stop attacking our 8 yr old. It starts as play but seems to escalate quickly and one or the other ends up yelping in pain. Our other puppy was never like this. They used to play so nicely together ☹️ Any advice or suggestions from anyone in similar situation?

@Citygirlrurallife Sounds not a bad first night.

We’ve settled into a routine of sorts with River Pup, whereby he sleeps for 1-2 1/2 hours, then awake for similar length of time. Nighttime is a bit hit or miss. He goes down about 7ish, then wakes for wee around 9-10pm, and then during the night.

we can get him in the crate during the day to sleep, less easy during the night. Need to work on him being in there awake, rather than just for sleep.