Puppy Survival Thread - as we approach Fireworks night for the first time…

[Riverlee]

Apologies if someone has already started a new thread. Couldn’t see one when I had a quick look.

As it’s a new thread, why don’t we all (re-) introduce ourselves. Ie. Good excuse for more cute puppy pictures!

I have RiverPup, who is now a 15 weeks old black Labrador.

Two pictures of when we first got him, and more recent.

@CockapooMadness I remember my older dog humping a lot, he liked to try and hump me a lot and the breeder seemed to think he was trying to assert his dominance over me. He's a big boy too, so would almost knock me over sometimes. He has totally grown out of it now, and the best advice is to just ignore it if you can. At least it's the soft toy and not you!

@Beginningless hang in there, what's been the issues, maybe we can offer advice?

We took Rowdypup out and about yesterday to a countryside centre. He had a long walk in his pushchair, and then went in some shops and met lots of people. He was absolutely exhausted afterwards and slept for ages!

Yep, Highlandpup enjoys a bit of humping on the edge of his bed of an evening. Can't seem to settle down without it. We're trying to ignore it but it's a little disconcerting!
I agree about the mental burden falling on me rather than DH. I care more about avoiding accidents and I'm more scrupulous about the mopping up and thorough spraying with odour remover which means he can choose to be more relaxed about it. Annoying!

And Rowdypup is so cute!

Nice to know we are not alone. Will keep ignoring it and hopefully he’ll grow out of it. Love the photo of Rowdypup!

@CockapooMadness our pup does this. We've had to remove his bed cushion as after a particularly heavy humping session he couldn't get his tackle back in for 15 mins. We googled it and worried we would have to assist.

Riverpup hasn’t been too bad in the humping department. We’ve had a couple of episodes here and there, but nothing too regular. He’s currently fast asleep on the sofa next to me.

Walks going a lot better now. Cheap Tesco dog hotdog sausages have proved a higher value treat then the expensive and healthier freeze-dried chicken treats I purchased.

On our way back from 3 nights away with some friends and their 6yr old black lab who gamely played with Haku but also showed me how easy this whole malarkey will be once our puppies our dogs! He loved being away and frolicking on new walks and generally behaved himself - although he did have the runs the first day so wasn’t fed very much after that!

when dogs play and they bite each others faces it really unnerves me but we kept a close eye on play at all times and I guess with them both being retrievers they might clamp down but have soft mouths?!

anyway happy new year from our bundle (who is 6months old today!) and his new bezzie

Haku looks lovely, great he had such a good time but less so about the runs. We’ve had a bit more of that the last few weeks and keep having to rein in treats. Do you think he’s fully grown? Interested in how big our retriever is likely to be, he’s about 6wks younger.

Love Rowdy’s pushchair! Bet he gets a lot of love when out in that.

Och I’ve already moaned a fair bit about our pup Rowdy, he barks A LOT for attention and it’s become a habit. It’s cementing. In large part it’s because my kids are young and I can’t give him as much individual attention and training as he needs, I can see that more clearly now. In hindsight I should have waited til they were older, but here we are now. Also greeting others, mouthing us is loads better but he always goes for strangers hands, and broke the skin on an old man the other day, it was awful. Jumping up also needs work. Walking off lead had been going well but I am wary now after that.

Oh and also what I find most annoying (now you have me started, see!) is that it is very difficult to get him to walk along our street when we first leave the house. He plonks and refuses. I think it’s maybe about a few instances of having had to drag him a bit when we really had to get somewhere like the school run, or a child fell and I just had to get him to move. When he was little we just carried him round the corner, as he’s fine once he gets to park, and fine on way home. So I go on each walk not knowing if it will be painful or not, and whether youngest children will start kicking off while I’m trying to go at his pace getting him to walk. Argh! I’m going to get 1-1 training in next few weeks.

Lovely to see all these photos, love the buggy @Rowdythree and gorgeous lab @Citygirlrurallife cannot believe how large they get by 6 months!

Finally got on MN on laptop to share a photo of L, its from a few weeks ago now when she was about 9 weeks, she's a fair bit bigger now at 13 weeks.

Happy New Year everyone! L stayed up with us and fell asleep watching the fireworks. Still lots of mouthing, jumping etc and a bit of a challenge during the Xmas hols with the kids as far less time to do training, currently looking for some puppy classes to start this month. But she is great to walk, AWFUL recall, but as expected with a hound! so very much on a lead still and will be for some time I imagine. But she is so friendly and keen to meet every person and animal and has a lot of fuss made over her as well as everyone asking her breed. We have also had the occasional humping, but pretty. certain she's a she!!

@Beginningless no I think he has a fair bit of growing to do 😬

average pet sizes by breed

Any other pup beginning to moult? We now have a fine layer of black fur everywhere. How we had so much on the stairs, when he never goes on the stairs defeats me.

Yes! My Goldie is moulting. Hoover then turn round to see white fur drifting everywhere. Frantically googling when they are supposed to moult - but think this is her finally getting rid of her fluffy puppy coat. She's 8 months.

Wondering what are your thoughts on neutering? Pup is 5 months old now and I have been wondering whether to get him to done when vet says he is at the age that he can be. I think it's around 6 months with him being small. Not sure whether to or not really as advice online is to get him done, but then other advice is not to until he's been cocking his leg up to wee for at least 3 months and even to leave him be if he's not making a nuisance of himself. Not had to have a pup done before as our last dog was 4 years old when we rescued him and he'd already been done. I'm also wondering if our doggy daycare will say anything about it and can even insist he is done?

Evening all - our pup is hypoallergenic and doesn't moult. Downside is she needs a groom every 4 weeks or so. Its nearly 5.5 weeks since her last one and she's resembling a cross between a nano yeti and Boris Johnson...

@CockapooMadness we will definitely be neutering Coco (who is also small and could have it done around 8 months) - but I think it will be nearer a year as I'd like her to have finished going through the initial throes of adolescence. I suspect at 6 months your pup will also be going through adolescence but your vet is probably best placed to advise.

We’ll be following my best friend (who’s a vet) and our vet’s advice and only neutering if we need to from an extreme behavioural standpoint, which would only be after 18-24months anyway because Haku is a retriever and won’t be fully matured until then. I’m not entirely sure why one would with at least a male dog? Female I can understand the impact on seasons having on your life though I guess but I think some daycares might have something to say about it….

@Citygirlrurallife I was advised by my vet many years ago that an entire male dog is more susceptible to cancer.
Fortunately that Jack Russell made it to 16.
Not sure what we'll do with this boy.
I had my female jack Russell spayed at 6 months.

Our boy is nearly 13 months and we will get him neutered. He is a goldie with a lovely temperament so I see no real rush. I was just going to talk to the vet about it when he has his annual vaccinations.

He also still humps his beds every so often, and used to hump a blanket. I think he does it out of boredom 😂

@Citygirlrurallife we got our Bernese Mountain dog neutered when he was around 2 years old, so he was fully grown and mature. We had a few instances where he'd come into contact with a bitch in season and it sent him a bit doolally and I was terrified he was going to run off or injure someone trying to get to their bitch. Luckily he had no problems after the op and he's his normal lovely self.

Rowdypup is continuing to be great, I can't believe we've only had him for 2 weeks, he's slotted into our life so well, it seems like he's always been here. Toilet training is still a work in progress though, but that's to be expected. The next thing we need to do is start leaving him home alone for short periods. It's quite difficult as there's pretty much always someone at home. But obviously there will be times when we want to go out and leave him.

You’re right @Rowgtfc72 i had heard that actually

@Rowdythree yes exactly, if there end up being behavioural reasons I’d do it too

so glad RowdyPup is settling in. We’d been doing well leaving Haku on his own but I don’t think he’s been by himself the whole Christmas holiday so we need to build it back in again 😬

We’re not very good at leaving RiverPup in the house by himself (in his crate). However, he sleeps quite happily in there during the day, and we ‘re in other parts of the house, so it should be fine.

I'm trying to leave Highlandpup sleeping closed into his crate for at least an hour a day whether we need to leave the house or not, so that when we do need to it won't come as a shock.
DH would happily spend all day with him though, so I have to force DH into another room and more or less pin him down so he'll leave the pup alone

@highlandcoo I need to start doing this with my almost 14 week old Labrador. I'm at home during day but do need to be able to leave him for an hour or so most mornings eventually to do school run, nip to shops etc. At the moment we're working around it as he doesn't like me being away from him but I need to build up to it. Do you close door once he's asleep or put him in awake but ready for a nap with treats etc? (He sleeps in crate fine at night and chooses to go there for naps with door open during day) Thanks

newpupworries I time it after his walk so make sure he’s toileted and tired .. it’s a time he’d normally be asleep either on the kitchen floor or in his crate with door open anyway.
He’s awake when I pop him in, give him a yakker chew or similar, close the door then if I stay in I make sure I’m extremely quiet, maybe working on the laptop or reading so he thinks the house is empty.
Today it was an hour and a half before I heard a peep out of him so that was great. Also some mail arrived but the sound of the letterbox didn’t seem to disturb him either.
A friend who’s had lots of experience also recommended making sure not to go back into the room in response to him making a noise. Wait till he’s quiet, go in and ignore for a little bit, then let him out. So he doesn’t learn that whining gets a response.

We’re at home a lot but there’ll be times when he’s on his own for an hour or two - and eventually I’d like my social life back a bit more - so working up to it gradually ..

Hi all! I haven't posted for a while as My life has been really busy and we have just been bumbling along fine really.

Nugg is now 7 months old and her fur is growing like MAD all of a sudden. @Riverlee definitely lots of moulting here - apparently the rapid hair growth can be a sign of maturing so I also wonder if a season may be on its way as well. Photo of her in August for comparison - she has changed so much!

She is still pretty easy, I have noticed a change in her behaviour over the last 2-3 weeks, much more jumpy and suddenly barky - although seem to have cracked that for now. She is definitely getting naughty 😂so I definitely have a teenager!

She is such a character and great company, not sure what I would have done without my little friend over the last few months.

She is no longer in her crate - she had kennel cough badly at the end of November and I slept downstairs with her as she was so poorly and pacing up and down coughing all night, she just never went back into it, other than while away at Christmas so I am not bothering so now. May revisit - see earlier comment on naughtiness!

She loves cuddles and climbs up onto my lap several times a day while I am working for one! Often falls asleep in my arms and is a TV addict, especially football!? No idea how or why, I found out by mistake!

Hope you are all enjoying your pups and coping well with the newer additions 🙂