Puppy survival thread part 2

[Orangebadger]

Thought I would start another thread for all those puppy owners.

@Riverlee
@Unluckycat1
@Sunflowers765
@BigBundleOfFluff
@Cocopuff

Will have to look back to tag others as cannot remember all names.

Last feed is too late but we're doing as told and very inexperienced.
Off to vets for vaccination tonight. Pup HATES the car.
Any and all advice welcome!!

@AnnieSnap thank you - your mention of the food might need to be "extra tasty" made me add a little bit of puppy crack aka liver paste from Arden grange to Xiaopup's 11am meal and he demolished it!! So I'm going to try again with his 3pm tea and see if it works again. We're feeding Markus Muhle Black Angus Junior as that's what he was weaned onto, it didn't even occur to me that we might need to switch to something tastier.

@Losingmymind85 we did in the bedroom for the first night only and I think we were waking him up as much as he was waking us. The last two nights we've shut him in his crate in the kitchen with all his comfort bits and pieces (blanket that smells like mum, DH's t-shirt, heartbeat thing) and go to our bedroom and set the timer. If he cries for more than 10 minutes and it is getting increasingly hysterical (as opposed to sleepily tailing off) then we wait for a break in the crying, then go in and resettle, then out of the kitchen again and repeat. It's basically the "pick up put down" sleep training method we used a decade ago with our DCs!! So far he's been crying for about 6-7 minutes before settling to sleep on his own which is like torture and feels like forever, but then it's a quiet night after that. We did warn our neighbours in advance...helps that he's cute!

You loathe barking? What breed do you have ? My old boy lasted till 14.5 and loved a good bark even at that age.

FluffyPup barely barks. He's great in that respect.

Had an 'Oh shit!' moment in our walk this morning. I clearly hadn't clipped the lead on properly, and it released him and he shot off! 😱 Thankfully he came to his name and 'Treats!'. Bit of an unwelcome recall test!

Fluffpup never barks, it's not usual in her breed and she never needs to anyway.
Must admit, on the rare occasion she does and i know it's perfectly natural, I hate it! Always gives me a fright.

RiverPup barks on waking, at the garden broom, at the hoover, at the pressure wash, when he hears other dogs, when he’s bothered by something etc. Once it was quite sweet because we met an elderly black lab on the beach once, and RiverPup was barking away, obviously talking to this other lab, who blatantly ignored the young upstart. Not sure what RiverPup was saying,

Steppup slept all night last night yay!! Omg I so needed the sleep. Still a biting monster this morning but quickly forgiven when she gave us her first bark, super cute.

Shes on Royal canin puppy kibble but just introduced some raw food and her poops are like Great Danes (she’s a 9wk old cocker spaniel) is this normal?? Poops are normal Am I feeling her too much? I’m giving her less than recommended because obviously she’s on the kibble still too. So much poop lol

@Steppingintome Florapup poops a ridiculous amount too. I think (hope) it’s the quantity of food. She is 4 months old now and I have just dropped the 4th meal. Fingers crossed she produces less when we’re down to 2!

Pup had a stressful day yesterday (car, which he hates then his vaccinations) so was off his food a bit and sleepy.
Slept ok in his crate and is starting to take himself to it. Did 1030-330, out for wee then back asleep til 530.
What would folk recommend re:crate. We're currently taking turns sleeping on the couch which he's in his crate, door shut but not locked, so he can push himself out if he wants to
How do we start to get back to bed and him ok with being alone? Thinking try locking the door tonight while I'm on couch and doing that for a few nights before trying to get upstairs?
He's made a lot of progress with his crate so don't want to set him back by doing things too quickly

Not just mine then lol. She did three big poops in an hour this morning before I left her with DH and went to work. Like I said normal consistency just huge lol

😂🤣 I think it’s the quantity of food we have to get into them while they’re growing!

Face of an angel 😇 teeth of the devil 😈

@tizwozliz It does get better!

Solid poos are good. Softer poos can be a sign of over feeding, as the food hasn’t digested properly.

Mine does one solid poo first thing, then a softer, but not really soft poo, on his walks.

Oh my god, the biting.
It is relentless. If he's awake, he's biting.
We're distracting with toys, walking away etc but he can leap and snap.
We've got a series mood of regret and blues today. We know it'll get better but we underestimated just how bitey he'd be.
Tried cold carrot, frozen dental chews, cold tea towel with knots. He's destroyed about 4 toys already-prey drive is kicking in (whippet).
6-9am and 6-9pm are crazy

I've fallen off the thread again 🙈 so many new puppies! Welcome all, keep the pics coming 😁 I can't offer much small puppy advice as I feel like I had a small puppy for 5 minutes. It was intense and I was sleep deprived, but she grew up so fast 😭 take even more pictures than you already are is my best tip!

I don't like barking either as unluckypup has a very loud, deep bark that she only uses in the garden when she sees a squirrel or cat or hears the dog two doors down—thankfully we both shush them or take them in when they bark so it's not constant but I cringe thinking how far her voice must be travelling. Except for the first time yesterday she barked at the front door. I was getting a food shop in quite late and the delivery man was unloading. I think I'm ok with her barking at strangers lurking outside after dark sounding scarier than she actually is.

Nearly 9 months old here. She's always been 100% with commands at home if i have a tasty treat. Now she visibly stops and thinks whether she actually wants to perform 😭 'middle' is down to about a 20% success rate!

Oh, I didn't like the easy squeasy puppy book either! Not in-depth enough on the actually training parts, too much banter, not great if you aren't using a crate. I am glad we've broadly moved towards a positive training approach though. Saw a women smack her dog round the head hard enough to make it cry out in pain the other day. It did stop looking at the sheep afterwards so I guess it worked, but I'd rather my dog didn't associate me with pain and violence :( (not suggesting anyone would do that on here! I mention it because it was shocking, but I think in the not so distant past wouldn't have been)

Snap 😬 plus the sitting position of a quirky person 😲
@Losingmymind85 I feel you, I’m hanging onto the belief that this too shall pass 🤕

Luckily all her adult incisors are through now so less of the needle baby teeth. To be fair to her, she's not all that bitey, it's just when she has her moments she likes to nip at my inner thigh. Older pup only ever went for full on wrist chomps which are easier to handle!

@Losingmymind85 I think you will need to try closing the crate door tonight and going to bed - if he knows you're close he might just cry and cry knowing you're right there and it's harder to resist a yelling baby when you're right next to him than upstairs with the door closed. I hope he will learn to self-soothe after a while and learn that you're coming back. Hard to stiffen your spine while they're crying but the alternative is that you're going to be sleeping on the sofa for the next 10 years...or the dog will be on your bed with you (which is fine, if that's what you want!)

It's just like sleep training a toddler...which I hated, but Xiaopup has got the hang of it much more easily than my DCs ever did, thank goodness!!

@Xiaoxiong he's only been home a week tomorrow. Our plan was to give it til next weekend but do you reckon it would be worse?

Longest week of my life

I don't know - I think if he has that many nights with you he will be even more upset when you then move him. I'm following the Pippa Mattinson Happy Puppy Handbook method and had the first night in our bedroom and none of us got any sleep - day 2 he went in the kitchen in his crate, he never cried more than 6-7 mins before settling and by day 4 he didn't cry at all! We are leaving the extractor hood light on for him at night, and he has DH's t-shirt, a Teddy with mum's smell and a heartbeat comfort toy in his crate with him.

We got him last Sunday and he's doing 11pm-6.30am in his crate without crying now, with a wee break at 3am.

This is what we're doing and so far it seems to have worked

First night I did worry so much about him but DH is made of sterner stuff and closed all the doors so we couldn't hear him. And now he is sleeping pretty well.

Starpup is doing so well at night with a few accidents in the day, mainly if DH forgets to let him out every hour or so. We had our second puppy training yesterday and learnt to sit, down, stand and heel. The biting is insane though. He's destroyed two cushions and has started taking out the stuffing of one of the sofa cushions.

But at least he's cute.