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

@Riverlee no idea! She's just a crossbreed, I don't go in for the funny names . dDog1 is a JRT / Pug / Border / A N Other

Hello, can I join in too please. We are getting our 8 week cockapoo pup on Friday and I am very anxious and nervous about it and the responsibility it will bring. I have a couple of questions, first if there is anyone else on here with cats, how did you stop your pup from chasing them?

I am going to pop a lead on for outside toileting as we have just had a problem with chaffers so half the grass has had to be dug up to try and get rid off them, but I was wondering if you just put lead straight onto collar or if you have to train this first? I feel like a right numpty sometimes with what I want to know, but last time I had a pup years and years ago he was just left to get it on with it from what I remember and we never had any trouble. I tend to overthink things so that I have a coping mechanism ready if things go wrong. I've no doubt you'll be seeing loads of me 😏

@CockapooMadness we picked our pup up Sat. We had to guess at harness size and harness him up to put him in his car seat. Puppy books say build up gradually to this but he was absolutely fine.
Don't forget a pic of pup when you get them😁

Popping back to say to new pup owners to hang in there. Our ‘new’ addition is now 17 weeks and is maturing beautifully. She is so much calmer and not jumping up and far less bitey. It’s been a tiring two months but feels like we’re getting there. Though she’s grown so much and is past the super sweet baby puppy stage.

I've been awol too! Busy time, added to by a puppy!

Nugget is now 19 weeks and still a really good pup. Still getting her used to telling me
She wants to go outside - if I close the door to room we spend most of the day in, she whines at the door, never ever pees in here, otherwise if the back door is open as it is now it's colder, she will pee on kitchen floor if I miss the signs/ timings. I need to step
Up!

As for bedtimes, she tends to be exhausted by 7pmish, curls up with me and so I put her in her crate after one last toilet trip and then she sleeps for around 11 hours.

She's pretty good at recall, sometimes distracted when lots of equally as excited dogs around, but "watch" works well most of the time she comes straight back. LOVES chasing birds on the playing field, runs so fast she looks like she will take off!

Only issue remains to be the lead - when excited or tired i guess - snapping and biting. She really does turn nasty with it and it's very unpleasant. Puppy trainer advised running my hand down the lead quickly and bumping her nose to shock her - she usually lets go but sits and barks to tell me off! Then carries on.

I'm told she will grow out of it...it's certainly not every single walk now, just most!

I am dog sitting a 2 year old cocker for a week who is extremely needy, greedy and barky, absolutely lovely dog but showing me what I need to try and ensure mine doesn't do as she gets older!! They're playing and walking really well together tho, Nugget is just desperate to be her best friend ❤️😂

I was going to add a recent pic, but the app isn't showing me any recent photos!? But she's 8.6kg now, can't believe how much she's grown, but still very much a puppy.

@Riverlee we have only had him 4 days so I know it’s super early days but he is just so much hard work! I knew puppies would be hard work but this is constant if he’s not in his crate then he is jumping up, he’s absolutely obsessed with getting on the sofa but there has to be somewhere that DS can have a break from him so whilst he’s so jumpy I’m determined not to let him on there.

He has a crate in the living room where he sleeps all night but doesn’t tend to go in there much during the day so I have just bought him another dog bed to see if when he feels like he has somewhere comfortable where he can still see us that deters the obsession with the sofa.

I feel so awful on the kids because they wanted him so much but I just feel like he has taken over my life, my home was my safe space as I suffer a lot with health anxiety and I feel like he’s taken over and taken that space away from me.

I’m so happy for you all who are having a lovely time with your new pets and thank you all your encouraging words, I’m sorry I’m dragging the tone of the thread down, I never expected to feel like this about him.

In a less depressing, feeling sorry for myself post, can I ask how much your pup eats/ate at 11-12 weeks?

The Harrington puppy food says he should have between 300-400 grams a day but I put 80g out three times a day and he only eats about half of it!

Had a chicken stick last night and has had a touch of blood in his poo twice since and has done about 7 poos since so I’m wondering if they haven’t agreed with him.

@MrsWhites I have now had my pup for 10 days and know exactly how you feel. I also have the exact same problem with him jumping on the sofa, me taking him down only for him to jump on it again. Yesterday he must have tried at least 10-12 times. It is very tiring. However, I am on this thread everyday and I know it will get better x

@MrsWhites you're not dragging the tone of the thread down. You're talking about the reality of puppy owning.
Diesel still isn't sleeping at night, is still chewing the furniture, still has very sharp teeth and is still peeing in my house. It's hard work.
He's only just 7 weeks old and only known us 4 days. I didn't expect any different and coming from having a blind elderly incontinent jack Russell they are bloody hard work. Dh and dd look shell shocked. I think they expected this cute well behaved bundle that doesn't pee or bite or steal your warm seat and knaw your arm( yes I'm looking at you right now puppy laid next to me with all your toys chewing my leg)
It does get better. I promise.
Must go. He's savaging the kitchen rug.

Sorry you are having a rough time. I can’t help with that as I actually let mine lay on the sofa but she ain’t a jumpy puppy and just lays down ok it.

My pup is 17 weeks at the moment but at 11-12 weeks she only ate a tiny amount. She doesn’t eat dry and still won’t despite my persistence but she was probably only eating 1 x 120g of raw wet food in the entire day and sometimes not all of that.

I weigh mine on the kitchen scales in a bowl🤣 and she’s gaining weight so not worried. She’s 1.7kg now and was 1kg when I got her.

Food quantities really vary depending on the brand, so it's hard to compare. 300g sounds like a huge amount for a cocker spaniel to me but that's what Harrington's feeding guide seems to suggest. Is that what the breeder was feeding?

Thank you all for the kind posts. We’ve just been for a walk and he got further than he did yesterday. Came back and the bitey couch jumping started again straight away so he’s back in time out/enforced nap time.

We moved his bowl to near his crate for lunch time and he’s eaten it all for the first time so I think it’s a little bit of FOMO when his bowl was in a different room to us all!

I don’t know why he is so determined to go on, he’s going to end up hurting himself trying! It’s a nightmare isn’t it, 10-12 times would be brilliant, I have to get him down 10 times every 10 minutes I would say, it’s absolutely incessant!

Sorry that was in reply to @vestedinterests

@MrsWhites, the sofa has a chair next to it on one end, coffee table in the middle and a washing basket on the other hand so he can't get on it when no one else is sitting on it iyswim. So we only really have that problem in the evening when we want to just sit there and watch some netflix. He does not yet understand the word off, he must think it's completely normal that he jumps on it, we take him down and so he has to jump on it again. I am going to give him so treats tonight each time I help him off the sofa and see how that works

Ours is allowed on the sofa if he behaves. He has to be lifted on at the minute and we worry about him falling off.
He's removed when we eat( he has his own bed in the front room as well as his crate in the kitchen).
He was removed from the sofa earlier and put in his bed with a chew toy as he sunk his teeth in my arm and left a mark.
I'm not telling him off for inappropriate behaviour I just remove him with a no thank you and pit him in his bed with a chew toy. Sometimes takes a couple of goes.

I don’t have anything that I can block my living room sofas off with, might have to bring some dining room chairs in if all else fails. I’ve laid the back cushions down on the dining room sofa so it’s too high for him and that seems to have done the trick in there, isn’t working in the living room though because it’s scatter back so he just pulls at the cushions if I do that.

I’m going to do the same as @vestedinterests tonight and try to reward staying in his bed by giving some treats when he isn’t jumping. Hardly enough time between jumps to do it though.

DH was away last night so I think some of my upset is having to deal with it by myself, actually can’t wait for him to come home tonight!

Another thing I thought of - zoomies! My room downstairs is just not big enough to run round and round in and letting him outside to run around isn’t possible either due to the grass being dug up because of the chaffers and it’ll be dark anyway. What do you do when this happens, just let them get on with it or pop them in a crate so they can’t?

I am thinking of doing a last feed around 6.00pm with maybe a licky mat or kong later on to try and create a calming evening routine but am worried that this will make him want to make him poo too much during the night. Is there anyone who has tried this and how did it go?

Ours was wanting a night time poo and was waking a lot. we used to feed him between 5-6pm. Advice we were given was to make the last feed slightly smaller and bring it forward, so now we usually feed him 4.30-5.30pm. Also remove the water bowl from his crate.

He usually goes after his meal, then is asleep by 6.30-7pm. He wakes around 8.30pm where we ensure he does another poo before going back to sleep. Sometimes he’ll go straight back to bed, other times he’s up for half an hour so, usually living in the rug and gnawing something.

afternoon everyone!

is there a sticky of what stuff to get when? We’re going to choose our pup on Friday (or have him choose us..) and I’d welcome some advice on what I’ll need and when. He won’t be coming with us until about the end of November

im worried about how to bring him home first and foremost, and what I’ll need in the early days

im assuming on car journeys in the early stages he can have a car seat with a harness and then when he’s bigger can go to the boot - is that possible?

where is the best source of advice?

Basics include-

dog bowls (we have a water one outside and inside)
dog food (ask breeder for advice)
crate/bed
bedding plus spares
dog toys - get a few to rotate
chew toys/food
car safety lead
treats
Disinfectant spray that masks wee/poo odours
bitter apple spray - to spray on furniture
collar
lead
identity tag for collar

i’m sure others can add to this list, - things I missed off, plus things they bought and didn’t need.

Get all your washing and ironing, cleaning, odd jobs, batch food cooked etc done prior to pup arriving because they enter like a whirlwind - it’s like having a new born child and toddler on speed all rolled into one.

Easy Peasey Puppy Squeezy is a simple book on puppy training. There’s also one by Pippa M (?) which is popular. I also like the Mcann videos on YouTube, and Dogs Behaving badly on channel 5.

Re nighttime’s Haku gets a Kong/lucky mat and lots of Training treats all evening long to be honest, he usually doesn’t poo though for about 12hrs then shits all day long 😆

we went into London on the train yesterday and the outing exhausted him so much he slept through dinner time so I had to give him more food than usual in the later evening (8ish) and he did in fact need to go out for a poo at 2am

I’m finding much like with my Dc when they were babies, getting out of the house is so exciting and exhausting that he is much better behaved in the evenings - not even for major exercise necessarily but seeing new things and people seems to do the trick.

we’re going to start working on recall next I think - he’s settling into a lovely puppy who is remarkably chilled when out and about (see above comment!) and getting much better about jumping up and very rarely grabs clothes any more - for context he’s 14 weeks and we’ve had him almost a month. However not sleeping through still, I need to figure out whether I just go upstairs to bed rather than continue on the sofa in the next room, because I wake at every sound and probably go to him much sooner than I need to.

@TwinkleChristmas your post about weighing made me laugh - my 14week old weighed in at 14.5kg last week!!!

I second @Riverlee rr east peasy puppy squeezy and the pippa books - read BEFORE you get the puppy!

we didn’t get a lead or collar or harness until just before we were able to take him out properly as he was growing so quickly there wasn’t any point. Our breeder told us to have him on someone’s lap in the back seat for the drive home (2.5hrs) and honestly since then we’ve just popped him in the boot, with a dog cover and a big towel or blanket. We’ve put up a cage across the head rests of the back seats because he kept putting his paws up. He wasn’t keen on the boot at first but after the first few very short journeys now he loves it and I’ve driven up to an hour with him in there - I think because he knows he gets to go somewhere exciting!

We were still feeding 4 times a day until 4 months so last food was 8pm but she stopped waking most nights for toileting well before then. The first time we had a lay in and didn't feed breakfast at 6:30/7 ish she got hunger pukes and left me feeling mega guilty!

Definitely buy easy peasey puppy squeeze.

Pup came home in the box type car seat. He needed a harness on which he wasn't bothered by. We put a puppy pad and blanket in but I had to take my fleece off and put that in with him as well as he was rolling about a bit.

Things we discovered were plenty of treats and you can never have too many chew toys. Or blankets.

Also watch out for second jabs. No vet in our area does the same one as the vet the breeder used.

I've taken the first week off work as well so puppy has some continuity of people as dh works shifts and dd is at school.