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

@MrsWhites keep puppy on whatever breeder had been using for a good few weeks once they're home. Just a small bag will do.

Treats wise use kibble if you can. Weight out daily allowance and then split into meals, and take some for training. Tiny pieces of chicken, cocktail sausages or cheese work for high value treats too.

Thank you, I bought a bag of the food today, thought continuity is best at first rather than looking to change straight away.

Thank you for the advice, I hadn’t thought of weighing food out and keeping some aside for treats!

Hopefully your pup won’t be like mine.

She won’t eat kibble at all and rejects 80% of treats. Iv had to give so many to my parents as she has no interest in them.

Most cockers are right gannets so I think you won't have much trouble 🤣

Welcome @MrsWhites ice been told now by trainers and the vets you can’t over feed a puppy so I wouldn’t worry, I feel like mine eats all day long but hes bang on healthy weight for his breed and you can feel his ribs (in a healthy way!) under his massively furry coat

had two much better nights in a row - I think because the room was much darker as we forgot to leave a small light on in the kitchen we usually leave - so you do def learn as you go along what your puppy needs and wants. Ours wanted to be in. Big crate with no cover and no bed and now cleverly in the dark in order to sleep well!

has anyone gone away with their dog yet? Half term is coming up and I’m going a bit stir crazy especially as now it looks like DH is going to be away (we both supposed to have booked it off work!) so vaguely contemplating taking puppy and the kids away but not sure how that works in terms of nights? Maybe it’s too early….

So we're picking up our pup on Sunday! We already have DDog (aged 7) so like to think we know what we're doing but I'm getting nervous! Lots of people want to come and visit her but am I right in keeping it quiet and calm for a few days? Our house is usually noisy and full of people so maybe we should get her used to that as soon as possible?!
Photo from when she was 5 weeks old

Please please be gentle with me. I cannot stop crying and I know I am not thinking clearly. Our lab puppy has only been with us for a week but I just cannot cope with the biting. Every time he is awake he will just jump and bite. He bites our sleeves, legs and any other part of our bodies. This morning when I took him out into the garden he suddenly ran to me, jumped up and bit my inner thigh.None of the advice seems to work. If I scream ouch, he will take no notice of that. I live in an open plan kitchen/living room/hallway and so there is nowhere to put a baby gate to cordon off some area and put him there safely so that he knows if he bites we will not play. The only way I can stop him is to put him in his crate but that’s not the advice I have seen. He has all kinds of different toys but he will not chew on them. When we try to play with him and are holding a toy he will bite our fingers or wrists instead. He already understands sit and so I try to distract him from biting by asking him to sit and reward him when he does but he obviously doesn’t sit for long and wants to mouth again few seconds later. I feel like such a failure as he tends to go for my child the most and I feel like I cannot protect them and so have asked them last night to stay upstairs rather than sit in the lounge and be constantly attacked. Any advice on this would be much appreciated.

@Citygirlrurallife we first went away when ours was about 4.5 months and have done 5 trips since - he was great! We took his crate and he slept well as so much stimulation being somewhere new and new walks he was knackered. I did put a jumper of mine in his crate in case he was a bit unsettled

@vestedinterests that sounds really hard to deal with, no wonder you are upset.

I haven’t picked up our pup yet but I’ve read lots of things about ignoring the puppy when they bite, so turn your back on them for a minute, then engage again, if you have to do this more than once each time, take yourself into another room away from puppy so that they start to make a connection that they get ignored and playtime stops if they bite. Like I say I haven’t got our puppy yet so I don’t know if this works but it’s something to try perhaps?

@vestedinterests that sounds really hard. Our pup is 5m and can still be quite teethy when playing.

Firstly, is your puppy getting enough sleep? If not, enforced naps are the way forward. We didn't use a crate at any point but we made her settle down in her bed and nap. This has improved her over-excitedness a lot.

We are still teaching a stop command, which is when we hold up our hand and say stop a really firm voice. Then we turn our bodies away, keep our hands tucked away and do not engage at all. It's slow work but we are seeing results with the Stop command. Teach the kids the same thing - we found our kids would shriek and flail about and the pup would be even more encouraged to jump and snap.

Thanks@MrsWhites. I am following this advice but it doesn't work as if I turn or start walking away he will just follow me and jump on my leg, slipper, other side of my body if that makes sense. What's difficult is that he is either sleeping or biting and it's constant. I use bitter apple spray on furniture and slippers but he doesn't seem to mind the smell of it. If I walk out of the room, the minute I am back he will jump up and bite. I feel bad as the minute I lock the front door I feel such a relief that I don't have to be with him and also feel bad as I do want to play with him but can't seem to engage him to play with his toys.

Have you tried rewarding calm behaviour? Whenever pup is playing calmly, not jumping up, generally being settled, I'd reward the behaviour you want to see with whatever training treats you're using.

Sorry@FuckingHateRats - my reply was to you, yes, I try to distract him with the sit command and always reward when he sits, I also give him treats when he is in his crate to associate it with something positive but if he doesn't jump on me he is either chewing the furniture, rug, slippers etc. I also give him furry bunny ears as a distraction as it takes him a while to finish one and he doesn't bite anyone or anything else while he is busy with a rabbit ear

Have you tried actual chews for dogs? Something like a chicken foot or chew sticks that pups can have?

Just to clarify what you said, do you try to get her to sit using the command when she's being all jumpy/bitey? I might be totally wrong but I would try to keep the actual training for when she is calm and focused, not hyper, at least at this stage.

Have you tried any other training? I found our pup really responsive to training at that young age and it totally knackered her out. Working on her recall in the garden, lie down, roll over, sit and stay - training will mentally tire her out but also give your time in the house more structure and less opportunity for destructive play. And you might find that she sleeps in better bursts/quality too.

I may be way off - although we've grown up with dogs, our pup is my first as an adult so may be talking shite!

Yes, he has nylon bone for puppies and chew sticks (but he is not interested in these) as well as various other toys. Just to clarify, he already knows what sit means and so I use it as a distraction when he is jumping although that may not be the right thing to do. I will try teaching him more commands but I just feel like there is never a right time to do it as he is either overexcited and keeps jumping nd biting or he is asleep

@vestedinterests we have a 12 week old lab too and he can be very bitey. I also find it very hard to deal with. We had a couple of sessions with a really good trainer (who trains guide dogs) and he and he said that it is completely normal. He said we need to have loads of toys around the house so that when it happens we can grab one and try and get him to latch on to it. He suggested we hold toy as he bites on to it (hands either side of jaw) and gently move from side to side. Then firmly lock hands down and dog should naturally release. We then say thank you and start the process again. Basically we need to turn it into a game but the dog learns that he can only do it with toys and not human limbs! Also as previous posters have said, lots of reward for good behaviour so pots of treats in every room and reward whenever dog is not jumping/ biting. It's so tiring though and I have been in tears several times this week with holes in clothes etc. X

Thank you @peacypops, I will try that and I see how we get on

@vestedinterests i feel your pain. We also have a lab puppy, and the first week or so were Hard.

Are you over stimulating him? Try not to give him lots of toys, but maybe a chew toy and a cuddly toy. Also, rotate them so they don’t get bored.

We find yak bars are good for our lab pup.

We’ve learnt that when River Pup becomes a snappy crocodile, he’s over tired. We put him in the crate. He may whine for a while, and then usually will settle.

Some pups respond more to an ‘ouch’ sound, as it gets them excited. Another approach if he jumps up is too push him down and look away and act bored. He’ll then hopefully learn that you’re not tolerating the behaviour.

Dogs Behaving badly is worth watching on channel 5.

it does get easier as everyone settles.

Thank you @Riverlee, I think we may overstimulate him and he always has all his toys out so it may be an idea to limit them and rotate. The issue with jumping up is that if I push him down and ignore, turn the other way, don't make eye contact or start walking away he thinks we are playing a game and jumps up even higher and bites harder.

What’s everyone’s pups fav treats?

Hollypup seems to be really fussy and turns her nose up at a lot of treats.

Before we picked her up and I went a bit mad and bought a load in pets at home and she won’t eat any 😂

She won’t eat any of the Wagg puppy’s ones, Tails cold pressed duck or good dog treats, milky bones, any biscuit type treats, any of those flat strip ones.
She doesn’t like the Banana, peanut butter and oat biscuits I made her either😅
I bought some dog cheese ball type thing she also rejected.
She doesn’t liked those little dried fish either.

She will nibble on the dental ones but no real love for them.

She’s only really likes the B&m dog ‘Crisp’, ox liver treats, dried chicken and dog ice cream..
I also dehydrate chicken liver for her and break it up as treats too.

Are there any other treats I can try that people can recommend? That are more meat based I guess.. getting a bit fed up of buying treats for her to turn her nose up at them although my parents dog is loving it 😂

At a recent dog show, we brought some JR Pate. You cut it up into treat size pieces. River Pup seems to like it.

I only just seen this and I’m no expert but what Iv done is when I take her out I put her paws on the doorbell, so it went off, gave her a treat and then took her out.

When I seen her waiting by the back door I opened it and put her paws on the door bell, great and let her in.

Tonight is our last night of freedom for some years now, we pick up puppy at 330pm tomorrow.
Any tips for the first night please. His crates in the kitchen covered with a blanket and he's arriving with a blanket smelling of mum which I can wrap in a warm hot water bottle. Anything else please?
20 years ago I just chucked our new puppy in with our existing dog, turned out the light and all was well!

@HollyJollyXmas57 our puppy will eat anything but his FAVOURITE treats are cubes of cheese and cold cooked chicken, and loves to chomp on a cucumber straight out of the fridge! Might be worth trying basic food cos I know how expensive those treats get

our local butcher gave DH a free bone for Haku when he went to buy some beef - he gnawed he j it for hours this evening but was left with very bloody paws and reeking of lamb 🤢

Today is the day, picking him up this afternoon, excited but nervous too. Everything seems like such a minefield - insurance, vet plans, food!

Speaking of vet plans, do any of you use the vets4pets complete care plan for your pup? He’s already had both vaccinations but is due flea and working again in 10 days, looking online the subscription services are around £8-£10 a month but the vets4pets plan is £15 and includes weight and health checks, nurse consultations and booster and kennel cough vacs at 12 months so swaying towards thinking this is better value. Plus the reassurance of weight and health checks might be nice in the first year.

We have already registered with the local vets4pets, they came highly recommended by friends of ours.