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.

Leif is a 13 week old samoyed pup. His likes are shredding paper, trying to make friends with the cats (they are unimpressed) and playing with his big (little) brother Ddog.

Biting is currently getting less, but having read your posts I am starting to fear the 4 month mark! Socialising is going well, yesterday we took him for one of his walks down the high street and he was highly interested, much admired but forgot to pee the entire time. So that when I picked him up to put him in the car he pee'd straight down my coat! Just as well he's adorable.

Not a bad first night with Benji slept by our bed on the floor with a bit of pacing up and down but no accidents. Fingers crossed for tonight. I’m struggling with toilet training at the minute. He goes out at regular intervals every 20-30 minutes and after he’s eaten. Sometimes he’ll do something and sometimes he won’t as he’s far more interested with eating the leaves and grass. I’m out in the garden for about 5 minutes before bringing him back in if he hasn’t done anything. So far we’ve had one wee and one poo inside but it seems to be without any warning. He’ll just get up and do his business without any sniffing round etc. Any ideas? Loving all the puppy photos!

Sunpup took about 3 days to learn that weeing outside meant chicken treats! So when he goes down the garden he heads straight to the wee place and does it! But ... he also wees inside! The only way he doesn't is if I set an alarm and take him out every 45 minutes! He's just started to walk towards the back door and then I take him out. He's nearly 10 weeks. He's learnt outside is good but not yet that inside is a no no.
Everyone says ignore inside, but we also ignore loads of other behaviour like walking about for example and obviously he still does that!! So just vigilance I think is the only way.

We haven’t had a great day, pup bit DS on the hand so we’ve had tears.

He’s not been too bad with the nipping so this was a bit of a shock from him 😢

We’ve had lots of nibbling today which we try and substitute for something else and have noticed Benji gets extra bitey when he’s tired but he won’t sleep. He’s had nowhere near enough the 18-20 hours he’s supposed to have. Is there any way you can enforce naps? We tried putting him in the crate with the door open but he won’t stay and whines when you close the door. We left him for 10 mins but he was still at it so opened the door again when he was quiet for a couple of seconds as don’t want him to think of it as a bad place to be. Help!

I’m not an expert but Is your house fairly busy?
Iv noticed mine naps a lot better when everyone is just chilling (watching tv, sat down reading etc) she will come and lay on the sofa and just doze as no one is moving around, playing, eating or if I’m working from home and the kids are at school!

If there’s a lot of movement she finds it harder so a couple of times Iv took myself into another room with her that’s quieter and put a blanket near me and she’s fallen asleep.

Or Iv left her in a room with a stair gate on the door so she’s in it by herself but can see me so still feels safe. After 5 mins of standing by the gate she just walks over to the sofa and falls asleep even if I’m making noise.

Iv never made her go in her crate for a nap. She only goes in it at night.

No puppies here but lots of dogs 😆 we've never had any issues with any of them and fireworks. We had them all from puppies and used to just take them outside and play with them while ignoring the fireworks completely. They are just completely unconcerned now. May not work for everyone but worked well for all of ours and feel so sorry for people dealing with panicked, stressed dogs at this time of year. 😔

We think RiverPup is going through a particularly bad teething stage at the moment. Dh has given him these and it does seem to calm him slightly.

@CockapooMadness We put RiverPup in the crate when he gets to snappy crocodile stage. Sometimes I sit in the same room, and we usually put soothing music on. We found after a while, he fell into a routine.

Another lesson we learnt that we were over stimulating him. We reduced the toys to a cuddly, chew toy and bedtime bear, and that helped.

Diesel yesterday. He's 10 weeks this Sunday and gets his 2nd jab on Monday. He is an absolute bitey little sod at the minute. He does play rough but will sit nicely next to you then just launch at your face.
He also goes from full on shark to sound asleep in seconds.
Still has the odd accident in the house but never on my watch as I'm the only one who encourages him to go out. He has started waiting by the back door now.
At least he sleeps at night now. That makes such a difference.

So after a good day with toilet training yesterday its all gone tits up today. Wee accidents all day inside despite being took out outside pup then comes back inside and almost straight away has wee on the carpet. When we go outside he eats grass and leaves and a stone today which resulted in a call to the vet to see what they recommend. So got to watch out for signs it not passing through properly and check poo when he goes to see if it's in it. And its not even 3.00pm yet 🙄Also puppy blues set in last night on Day 2. Is this all normal?

Following on from my previous post, I'm thinking of getting a piddle patch to put away from the main area of grass closer to the outside door with the hope that there's less to chew on. Anyone used one of these and was it any good?

@CockapooMadness is there anyway you could fence off part of your garden until he learns not to eat stones and grass?
I have a concrete patch fenced off but still have to check it for leaves, stones and slugs.

I think the time has come to buy the pup a food chew instead of the millions of toys he ignores.
I've heard about antlers and something about yaks? He's the size of a rabbit and they all look big and scary. What's good with your pup?

Our pup has puffed chicken feet and rabbits ears but they don’t last long. He has a coffee wood stick which is great for chewing, he’s had it almost a week and hardly a mark on it, go to b&m though if you have one, much cheaper. His favourites though are deer skin and buffalo tail, the tail has lasted 2 weeks so far and the skin a week.

Definitely recommend going to a raw/natural pet store if you have one near you! Pup doesn’t eat raw but he has all natural treats/chews.

I've never had a dog scared of fireworks so cannot imagine what it's like. I desensitised mine to bangs as we have gas guns and shooting near my house. A top tip I would say is turn the TV up and start desensitising your dog. I hate fireworks and even where I live with livestock there's always an idiot let's them off. A few year ago a horse had to be put down due to fireworks. Go to the vets get some sedatives. If you can go out up on the moors or somewhere quiet it might help. However it's not just one night of fireworks now is it.

Thanks for that @MrsWhites . It all sounds a bit gruesome but he needs to chew something other than my furniture.

Mine is 12 and not a pup 😂 but when we got him we made as much noise as possible, tv, washing machine, vacuum, door bell, I played sounds on my phone, babies crying, played music, clanged pots, then played the noise of fireworks, right up to letting them off in his presence.

We have done this with all 3 pups. None have been afraid of fireworks. I can walk my Lab on 5th Nov at night time, he’s not phased. He’s had fire crackers thrown at him by some little darlings, again not bothered.

Obviously you don’t have much time, but I would make more noise than usual. Walk them well in the day, or go to the beach, get some chew toys, kongs, lick mats, make a den- just chairs and blankets will do. Do not overly fuss them, but be accessible. Act as if everything is fine, it’s normal. Turn the tv up.

If they’re petrified I’ve heard vets will prescribe Xanax. There’s CBD oil, calm diffusers, vests, ear defenders.

Good luck. Despite col I think it’ll be bad this year.

Is it normal for a pup to be fairly nervous when out for a walk? She’s 4 and a half months now.

She seems to be scared of everything, windy, shadows, leafs moving, cars driving too close to the curb, huge gates that go into parks and woodland, dark small entrances (I live near woodland and a lot of fields so to get from one to the other I may have to go through small entrances/paths).

She stops a lot while on walks when the above happens. I thought she would of got used to a lot of the above by now as she has 2 x 20 min walks a day but she’s still so nervous and a lot of the time she doesn’t even want to go out for a walk. She pulls back to go straight inside…

Wondering what I’m doing wrong? She starts puppy classes this weekend so will be asking there too.

Mine loves pig/cow ears, pizzle sticks, chicken feet

Sunpup is not too bitey generally as long as you distract with something else to gnaw on but today randomly lunged at my neck with his little crocodile teeth. I look like I've got a hickey 🤣🤣

@HollyPuppy I think it is quite natural to be nervous. I always take treats with me. If RiverPup looks scared, I try to reassure him, sit him down, give him a treat, then sit and watch the scary event. We had a dustbin lorry outside our house - tThe noise, flashing lights, man in high-viz was all very scary. However, we sat and watched, and after a few minutes he let the dustbin man stroke him.

@Sunflowers765 Rjverpup has been lunging recently? How old us SunPup now? RiverPup is 16 weeks.

Why is my jumper more desirable than Mousey, Bear, Crocodile, Kong bone toy, coffee wood stick etc to chew?

@Riverlee Sunpup is just 10 weeks. He has bitey periods when excited but he's mostly ok. He is very contrite if he puts his teeth in me or my clothes and I say ak ak and glare at him! I'm hoping he will learn before he gets big! My previous DPup never put her teeth on me, but she was AbsoluteAngelPup. SunPup is going to be a little more challenging i think!

Just been to pets at home. Apparently pup can't have antlers or coffee wood sticks till he's six months. I looked at the chicken feet (they had claws!) and trachea stuffed with venison. Couldn't bring myself to buy any of them so asked the lady at the counter who said at 10 weeks the chicken flavoured nylabones were good or a rope tug toy soaked in water and put in the freezer.
Yes we have the lunging.

There were fireworks going off near us the other night in the garden. Pup not fussed in the slightest.