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.

Sorry just saw you mentioned lab.... I read too much into your name!!

@BigBundleOfFluff Pookiedoodlepuppy is the name of a song my son loved when he was young , you can hear it online .

@pookiedoodlepuppy gorgeous pup! Love the tongue.

Just read through that off lead thread. I imagine it depends on the individual dog as to how much they will stick by your side as a pup. Orangepup was and remains a fearless high energy puppy. Never would she have chosen to stay by me with the whole world out there. One poster said lead walks should be very short and you should carry it drive to the place where they then run free! Would love to see all the labs/ greyhounds and giant breeds been carried around here to the park! 🙄🤣

Welcome @pookiedoodlepuppy . Pookie pup is lovely and that's a great photo.

Just read the lead thread. Can’t remember RiverPup following me around like a shadow. On the plus side, that means we don’t have separation anxiety, but he’s crate trained (so not to wreck the house), so I’m obviously a poor owner (according to posts on that thread). He would definitely bolt.

@Orangebadger We were told not to encourage them to automatically say hello to every dog. If I remember rightly, you want it so that you’re the centre of attention. If you allow them to say hello to every dog automatically, then in a park situation, when off lead, they would rather go and play with the other dog then be with you, which would affect recall. When in walks etc, you can let them say hello, but when you say so. So get them to sit first, and then then give the comand to say hello. Don’t say ‘ok’ (or whatever the command is) with every dog. This also helps to reduce them jumping up etc.

See,I know the theory. Just have trouble putting it into practice.

Theres quite a few labs on here now.

@Riverlee yes I have read this in the dog training Facebook group. I do do this to a point with Orangepup as in I don't let her go up to every single dog we see and manage to distract her with treats, if anything just to curb her enthusiasm a bit. She's much better now with people and will pass them by unless they say hello to her. But with dogs nope! But that last part where she is meant to check in with me before going off to play! Now that's tough as even with her on a long line rolled up short, so she's right next to me, it's hard to get her attention. Must try harder!

Fluffpup is now a big bold 1 year old!! ( I get to stay on this thread though as she's still a puppy at heart!)

Welcome @pookiedoodlepuppy your pup is gorgeous!

Happy birthday to Fluffpup!! What a smiley beauty <3
Whenever I ask fellow owners what age they stop being puppies I get told '2', so absolutely stay @BigBundleOfFluff !
Also, I love 'secure attachment' as a description for our pups :)

@Riverlee @Orangebadger I read the don't let them say hi to every dog advice too and have tried to follow it, but it doesn't seem to have quelled her absolute obsession with other dogs – she whines, wags, fixates, pulls on the lead if they start running. Also tried to follow the me being the most exciting thing there, no matter what I do, I am most definitely not even vaguely the most exciting thing when we're out, I'm lucky to get a quick glance 😂

Happy birthday Fluff! Gorgeous photos, and yes, please stay……

@BigBundleOfFluff happy 1st birthday fluffpup 🎂🎈🎈defo still a pup! have to say I am very impressed you still have plants on the floor!

@Unluckycat1 me too, I am certainly the most uninteresting thing out there when there are dogs around! Other times I am only remotely exciting when I call sausages!

@Orangebadger Good spot. Not only plants, but a low table with items on them.

She's got a solid 100% leave it. They are safe!

But she's not interested anyway. I restricted her access to the kitchen, dining room and conservatory at the start - for around 6 months actually. There was literally NOTHING left on the floor at the start, then as she started getting a more secure leave it things got back to normal.
She has a basket of toys that's hers but apart from the odd bit of food thievery she's awesome. (in the house)

I love my plants! Have hundreds. And they are all having babies right now too.

Aw happy birthday fluffpup 🎂
Have just been trying to catch up a bit!
Re the off lead stuff - we've booked a secure space this weekend in lieu of puppy training as it isn't on this week to get in a bit of off lead time but that'll be our first time. Will be interesting to see what Breakfastpup' are all is like! He does ok in class but this will be a nice open field.
Have also been looking into Dudley labs as our pup has lighter features - any lab experts on here? I'm not sure he is true Dudley due to his nose not being that pink but would be interesting to hear other thoughts on this. He does also come from a mixed line of labs - so chocolate, black - not just yellow.
He's been a bit poorly this week with conjunctivitis but already seems better with the drops we got from the vets.

Belated happy birthday to Fluffpup! And welcome @pookiedoodlepuppy!

interesting chat re dogs off lead - coco (when not on season) is let off lead in safe places we know only. Lots of dog napping has happened in our area of London, so for this reason I prefer her on a line where I can keep an eye on her. Her recall is also only intermittent so definitely safest to keep her on a line till that is down pat

I’ve not heard of a Dudley lab before. Everyday is a school day.

I was wondering what your puppies sleep is like? Do they have routine naps or sleep when they want? Our 8 month Cockapup still has the same naps now that he did a few months back which amount to about 15 hours including night sleep. For the first time last night he whined in his crate (he has all his sleep in his crate) about half an hour after we’d gone to bed and because it was such a shock we didn’t know what to do for the best but conscious that next door might hear him as we’re a semi, we decided to move him into our bedroom still in the crate and he slept through as usual. If he does it again tonight our plan is to move him into our sons (21 yr old) bedroom and let him sleep in there. It got me to thinking though that maybe as he’s getting older he doesn’t need as much sleep during the day. At the moment he has 3 lots of 2 hour naps during the day and then the rest is at night when we sleep. When he sleeps during the day he’ll happily go into his crate when he’s told it’s nap time and sleep for 2 hours until we get him up again. Have any of your pups suddenly started whining at night when normally they just sleep through? What did you do to resolve it?

@CockapooMadness it might be the teenage rebellion?! Orange pup is coming up to 7 months and her sleep has certainly changed this last month. She's a bit different though, she now will not nap in her crate about 90% of the time. I am happy to her to snooze where she chooses and she does, however this is on ideal when the kids are not at school, the crate was much better so I still try to encourage that.

At bedtime we always use to put her to bed at 9 and she would settle and sleep in her crate. Now she snoozes next to me while I am reading then I pop her in her crate when I head to bed, so later, say 10/11 and she's fine. I know Orangepup seems to need less sleep compared to a few months ago but I also think this is a bit of a teenage thing!

RiverPup hasn’t changed that much. He has a cycle of being awake for 2-3 hours, then sleeps for approximately 2 hours, then is awake, then sleeps etc. during the day. It’s perhaps less rigid than before and can vary how long he’s asleep for. We generally put him in crate (so we can get on with things undisturbed). He rarely will just plonk himself down and have a (we know his tiredness signs now).

in evening, will usually be tired by 6.30, and we’ll wake him around 8.30 Tom do do a late wee. He’ll then come a cuddle next to us on the sofa, and nap, or want to play for an hour.

Good excuse for a napping dog photo.

@Orangebadger I think Cockapup is definitely in the teenage phase, more vocal, more doing things he knows he shouldn't be, not doing as he's told straight away, he's a shitty git which I often call him and which he thinks is one of his names 😂The next night after he howled (it's a cute little wolf howl during the day but not so much at night!) he did it again as soon as I'd gone upstairs to bed so we moved him onto the landing outside ours and DS bedroom door and he slept through. Last night we just put the crate upstairs straight away and he went in and slept through so hopefully that's it for now and he's happy there.

@Riverlee What a cute photo, he looks so chilled. I think they still need quite a lot of sleep so will keep what we're doing for a bit longer. He does love his crate and will lie on his back in it and make noises in his sleep 😍

We're also having trouble with his meals. He used to love his kibble which he's been on since we got him from the breeder but now will not eat it all. He's on Royal Canin mini puppy and I'm in the middle of changing him to Forthglade but he doesn't seem keen, not sure if it's the size and the texture or if he doesn't like the flavour as he has a funny stomach with chicken so we got the duck one. Don't know whether to just keep persisting and change to this new one, I keep thinking (hoping) that if he's hungry enough he'll eat it or whether to try a different one, maybe the Royal Canin medium puppy as the mini is only for puppies up to 10kg which he is now. I've heard that Hill's Science is a popular one too, I wish you could get sampler bags as I've got visions of having a line of opened kibble bags that he's tried and doesn't like.

@CockapooMadness Millie's wolf heart do sample bag sizes for between £5-7. It's what fluffpup is on. Rated highly on all about dog food and best of all transformed fluffpups poo to neat little sausages, easy to pick up. We mix in a little forthglade or butchers.

We were advised to change RiverPup onto adult food to ‘calm him down’ as adult food as less protein in it. However, We’d just brought a huge sack of puppy food.

Someone else told us about Burns assistance dog food which is supposed to be more calming so we do 50:50. However, after trying with a smaller pack, just brought a large sack and then I read reviews saying it’s quality had gone down hill after a manufacturer change!

More poo talk, his first one straight after getting up tends to be more solid. However, his next one which he does on his walk after breakfast an hour or two later can be soft. I guess he hasn’t digested it properly, and it’s almost like a stress poo.

I sent a message to Mille's wolf heart and have a couple of sample bags coming that they recommended. In the meantime I've got him on James Wellbeloved which isn't great but better than the Royal Canin that he was on and at least he's eating again.

@Riverlee He used to have a poo as soon as he got up and this was solid and then like yours did another one on his walk after breakfast which was a bit softer. He now just does a wee as soon as he's up and then waits for his walk before he has his first one. He generally does one middle of the day and then the last one before we go to bed.

It's been a while since I checked in on this thread. It was my mental life line when we first had our puppy! Hopefully the fact that I don't read it so much anymore is a sign things are going well. My pupper is 11 months and feels like more of a grown up dog now than a puppy. Life has definitely got easier. I have enjoyed catching up on all the pup shenanigans on here!

Anyway, I just popped on to say that I have been reading the AIBU threads as they are usually quite fun/interesting but in the last few weeks I've definitely picked up on a lot of anti-dog threads on there. I literally had no idea there were so many people out there who don't like dogs/dog owners. When I am out and about with my dog I've now got a bit paranoid that people hate us even though I am always conscious to make sure we don't bother anyone 😂Has anyone else picked up on a similar theme or have I just imagined it?

@Isthislife you know I was going to come on here to say the same thing. Some really vile, vindictive keyboard warriors on those threads and HUGE GENERALISATIONS! And lots of anti dog threads recently too I also had no idea so many people hated dogs and us owners, but tbh I doubt MN is truly reflective of society. At the end of the day those with a passionate hatred are going to be the ones that feel strongly enough to write something rather than those who just like dogs but would not own one, or those who are indifferent, they would not really be bothered to contribute. I have pitched in to a couple of threads to defend good responsible owners that do exist!

I am very aware though of people's reactions to Orangepup. I now give her a treat as a distraction when we walk past people to try and curb her enthusiasm for saying hello to everyone! But the people who love dogs, I think you can tell especially when you're walking a puppy as they want to say hello. I know I do!

If it were true in real life what they say on the threads: I'd not be able to open my gate because of the mountains of poo, I'd not be able to walk to get milk without 30 dogs jumping up on me and I wouldn't be able to hear my music because of the barking.
Not once has any of that happened. I'd love to be mugged by dogs for treats.
I did have a negative reaction once while out walking with fluffpup as a tiny puppy. She was behaving and walking on my right with my eldest on the left. An older gent passed us on my daughters side - half the footpath was available to him so we were not impinging on him at all. He muttered "worse than children". I immediately just said loudly - did you pay extra for your cravat to be in purple? Yes - he was that type and my daughter did the loudest most obnoxious snort of laughter. His goldfish look back at us was priceless and I'm still laughing at the memory of it.