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.

Puppy tax! He met our neighbour's fox terrier and had a lovely romp in the garden. Now conked out under my chair as I work in the kitchen, I am terrified of stepping on him as he seems incredibly good at getting right under my feet.

Sleeping is a really tough one. I'm a big fan of doing whatever needs be to get sleep. I was exceedingly lucky in that the first night I had with Fluffpup, I settled beside her with her in her crate. Waited til she went to sleep then went upstairs. Right from the start she slept 11pm to 6am. I have a camera on her crate so could see she didn't whimper or if she did it was for a minute max.
I don't think I could have coped with crying though and would have caved and brought her up with me. Really not sure...
So I do think pup dependant, what works for some won't work for others. Mines a confident wee thing, we have a secure attachment so leaving her and her sleeping isn't an issue. I did make her crate a wonderful place and I still sometimes find myself throwing treats in randomly.
She has the choice of the entire house where to sleep now. 90% of time she'll settle in her crate but last night she choose to sleep 5mm away from my face. It doesn't disturb my sleep at all as when she does I just wear earplugs. It's just me though, I have no significant other!
Good luck, I know how terrible sleep deprivation is, my youngest didn't sleep unless attached to me for ages, I don't know how I existed back then.

Right. Crate tonight and up to bed. Will see how it goes

@Xiaoxiong would you mind sharing your daily routine? We're trying to be consistent but limited by work during day.
6am-up. Pee. Play.
7am -breakfast
7-9am-fucking chaos
9-12pm-crate. Napping
12pm-out for pee and play/eat grass/try to escape next door
1pm-lunch. Outside for pee/poo. Play
130-5pm-napping
5-8pm-fucking chaos. Little napping, not much.
8pm-dinner
8-10pm-play, snuggles. Takes himself off to bed at 10.
10-3ish-sleep
305-6ish sleep
And repeat.
I need to get some control over the chaotic bits

@Losingmymind85 I think we are at an advantage as we have a large enclosed garden and also a field behind so we have more space to run about in the day, but looking at the app (DH and I are using the "Pup to date" app to record stuff so we don't always have to ask have you fed him, when was he last out etc) our routine has settled into:
6.45am up and first wee
7am breakfast
7.30am outside again, 30 min walk/carry round the field - mostly carry!
11am lunch
3pm tea
5pm some kind of socialisation activity - we went and met a horse, had our neighbour's dog round, saw a digger in operation, went to a cafe and held the puppy on our lap etc
7pm dinner
7.30-8.30pm total witching hour, gets the zoomies, lots of playtime and starting to train
9pm take water away
10pm last wee
10.30pm bedtime
3am dream wee
then through to 6.45am

I am managing to work from the kitchen table ok. It helps that DH is a teacher on summer hols so can play, take the puppy out, etc as needed. We're working up to leaving the puppy in the kitchen with the stairgate on for longer periods (ie. 10-15 min stretches) and he is amusing himself with toys and then falling asleep. We are also putting him down for naps so after each meal, we take him out for a wee/play and when we get back half an hour later he goes down for a snooze in his crate if he hasn't already fallen asleep on the floor under my chair.

Welcome to all the new pups and their owners! Started a new job which has been super hectic so not much time to go online. Coco is with our kids and nanny during the day and will start doggy daycare later this year. She turned one today and seems to have enjoyed being made a fuss of

Those early bitey sleep deprived days seem a distant memory. That said she’s definitely a teenage madam with her own mind about everything

@Cocopuff Happy birthday to Coco. My pup was a year old on the 17th August, we’re having a belated birthday party on Sunday with the family coming round. My mum thinks we’re mad but it’s not stopping her from coming round 🤣

@Losingmymind85 hope it went ok last night - standing here in a suddenly very misty and autumnal garden waiting for the puppy to pee as he chews my slippers, thinking of you!

@Xiaoxiong he did 10pm-6am without a peep! I was awake all night (like having a newborn) listening out for him, but he was so settled. When I came down at 6am he was awake but just chilling in the crate. Got a lovely morning welcome!
He can do it, which is reassuring, but we'll see what happens tonight as my partner is doing bedtime. He's my wee shadow so is constantly attached to me (currently snoozing on my lap so he was probably awake for a lot earlier than 6am.
He's had two pees inside this morning, which is really unusual. He's normally so good at heading to the door but it's really cold here this morning and I'm pretty sure he's avoiding going outside unless I force it.
Another but of advice needed. Food has been difficult. Breeder was doing mainly raw, mixed with a bit of kibble. I just can't do raw, so we've been doing warm kibble mixed with puppy sachets (2/3 kibble, 1/3 meat sachet). He's ignoring the kibble and only eating the meat, meaning he's scavenging all day. I was thinking of trying one of the pet food delivery places, particularly the Pure food. I'll go to full meat wet food if I have to but Im hoping someone has recommendations!

Aw coming on here and hearing about all these puppies makes me feel so much better about Steppup. Just keep telling myself this is normal and she will get better.

The sleeping isn’t too bad at the moment she settles into her bed in her playpen and goes to sleep 10-6. Maybe stirs in the night but once she knows we are still there she settles down.

Any advice on attacking feet?? The biting it real now but she seems to have a thing about feet lol

this is Steppup asleep in her water bowl 🙄

The thing with feet is not to react! To them, a moving foot is a game. So if possible, stay still. Make it boring for them. Easier said then done, I know.

@Losingmymind85 our pup came to us on a mixture of kibble and these raw, frozen meaty chunks.
they are made by nature’s menu and are easy to use and she loves them.

@WhippyLongStocking oh I've seen those nuggets snd they look very handy. I can only find places where you have to do bulk orders though. Where do you order yours from? I just want a taster to see if Fluffpup would like it.

Our local pet shop has a freezer with them in and I think Pets at Home stock them as well?

@WhippyLongStocking I never thought of pets at home, doh!!

How old is she? When will it be a distant memory? Florapup’s biting has increased again 😳 Give me hope 🤷‍♀️

@WhippyLongStocking how long does a 1kg bag generally last? We have a very small freezer!

@AnnieSnap shes 1 now. The bitey stage was over when her teething was done (by 5 months) and she really calmed down quickly and she was a total dream for a couple of months before she hit the teenage stage at 9 months. She’s not great at being left on her own though getting better at being left alone (we’ve got her up to an hour 15 mins) and she’s terrible at listening to commands if any other dogs are in the vicinity as she just wants to go play with them. I’m hoping she will get that out of her system abit when she starts doggy daycare.

Good question. It says 14 chunks a day for her weight but she gets 5 in the morning and 5 in the evening with kibble in the day.
I’ll check the number in the bag.

the bags are like a biggish bag of peas or small/medium oven chips in size. We’ve got a small freezer too

@Losingmymind85 Coco was on kibble when she came from the breeder but stank - we moved her to raw and the smell went and now she is mostly raw fed (and still not stinky). Now we sometimes use kibble (wolfworthy which is most akin to raw) for snacks in a toy feeder and she’s fed once a day in the evenings. She can be a fussy madam so we use butternut box food as a topper for her raw and she generally gobbles it up. They come in plastic packets to go in your freezer so easier to deal with and less ick factor than raw food. If travelling we use air dried raw food from innocent hound. It works for her.

@Cocopuff I can’t really complain. Florapup is doing really well with the other stuff. She is a velcro type dog, so recall is perfect (I know I’m tempting fate) and will do training exercises with all kinds of distractions around her because she loves to focus on me.

She is 4-1/2-months. Her biting settled 6 weeks or so ago, but is back with a vengeance. I know she’s teething poor love, but it hurts and is relentless at certain times. We go on holiday in early September. Based on your experience, maybe we’ll return to a settled Florapup with a full mouth of adult teeth 🙏

It’s International Dog day today!

The biting and the snapping.
Im not joking when I say it's relentless. If he's awake, he's trying to bite. Distraction works for all of 30 seconds then he's back to nipping.
He's started twirling round to bite when he's being picked up. When I have to stop him hurting himself/jumping off a wall , twisting round and biting.
Ive started using the crate as doggy jail. Probably not best practice but at least I get a minute respite from the biting..
It's been such a long, long week. Deep in regret stages. Just want a few hours of no biting

@Losingmymind85 what breed is your pup? How old? Some are a lot more mouthy than others. Ours was very very mouthy but maybe less so than what you are describing. It's really tough and for me the biting was the worst! Ours is a hound? Almost 11 months, it has got better but yesterday was a bad day for biting again!

Does pup have lots of chew toys? Chew treat, we mostly use yak bars as they last so long. Do you have lots of tug games that you can play with her? This was one way we redirected from biting, but we needed to devote a10 min tug game in order for that to work.

Since her walks have been longer it's got better as I think she's more worn out. But when she was younger with limited walk times, I think she often was either bored or over tired. They were both triggers for nipping.