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.

Aww @hennipenni hennipup is just lovely! I think flat coated retrievers are such beautiful dogs and am surprised I don't see more about.

Taking down notes on these lawn tips as luckypup wees wherever she likes outside and the grass is in a sorry state.

@elm26 Hope you don't have long to wait until meeting baby ❤️

We had a lovely doggy day out at a community carnival, complete with dog show. Luckypup had a blast meeting so many dogs and people, though when the sun really started beating down she looked very sorry for herself and needed shade and tons of water. I think she's a winter dog at heart.

@Riverlee Riverpup is so handsome! Please don't get artificial grass !! Even dead patchy grass has to be better! 😂

Lucky pup is getting so big now, and do I spy two third place rosettes? What did she win those for?

Prettiest bitch and best crossbreed/mutt :) @Riverlee she's so grown up looking now, I didn't enter the puppy round as I didn't think anyone would believe she's still under six months 🙈

@Luckycat1 awww congratulations Luckypup! Looking as gorgeous as ever!

@hennipenni she's beautiful! Love a flat coated, my grandparents use to breed them. Lovely dogs and were on my final 5 shortlist when deciding what breed to get.

Grass, now Orangepup is a bitch and we have no burnt patches at all. She does drink a lot of water, so wonder if that helps? The problem with our grass is the amount of holes from her digging! You have to watch every step or we'll all end up with lots of sprained ankles! We need to fill them up and get some grass seed down.

Orangpio is in full throttle adolescence now. The play biting has reached a new level. I lie on the sofa with my book, she snuggles up next to me, lovely I am going to have a puppy cuddle... no you're not! All over me, mouthing and biting 😬😬 book and tea down! How I long for the day when I can sit quietly and read my book downstairs again! And she has suddenly started pulling on the lead, has not really done that before as far too busy sniffing, now she wants to fly down the road, despite copious amounts of lead walk training. I am getting through a lot of treats right now.

FluffyPup is a lead-puller some of the time, @Orangebadger. But while sniffing! He's nose-to-the-ground and off we gooooooooooooo! 🤦‍♀️🤣 Other days you have lovely walks where he's beside / just in front with a loose lead. 🤷‍♀️

He spent bloody ages looking for the perfect place to poo yesterday morning. 🙄 At least he seems to have dropped the 'must poo on somebody's driveway' habit he had. The amount of dragging him away I've done! 😳 He still loves to sniff around on driveways though. Sigh.

I let him decide on our walk yesterday, lead by his nose. It was hilarious. We completed a most interesting route!

Oh, has everybody signed up to the Biscuit app? You gets points for walking your dog which you can swap for all manner of discount vouchers. I have a link I can PM you and you'll get 50 points for signing up (I don't get anything).

Never heard of Biscuit app, but anything involving biscuits and I’m in. Please message me with the details.

Discovered yesterday that our Drop isn’t failsafe when RiverPup picked up a fish proudly at the beach yesterday. It was huge and he wouldn’t drop it.

I think we'd have a fight to the death to get a fish from FluffyPup! 🙈🤣

I'll PM you now. 😀

@Orangebadger how old is Orangepup? I feel like we're on the cusp pf adolescence behaviour wise, but not sure if at 5 months we're actually there yet. Which I guess means it will get worse! Luckypup has the occasional mad moment when out (usually when I can tell she's absolutley desperate to run but is on the lead, and almost during an evening walk) and jumps up and bites my arm like I'm a fellow bitey-play-fan puppy. She will also pull on the lead, last night so hard I thought it was at risk of snapping.

We completed our puppy training this morning. It was really good, but of course it really comes down to how much I keep up with the training beyond classes. Some days I just want to walk her in a relaxed manner, let her sniff everything, let her pull a little without correction. Other days I'm on it, have her checking in loads, correct all pulls. But I feel a bit weary looking ahead—we're so far away from her being a reliable calm obedient off-lead dog.

*almost always (why no edit!)

She would 100% not drop a fish @Riverlee
In fact, she doesn't really drop anything on command, I've had to manually retrieve many wads of gum from her mouth..

@Riverlee not a chance Orangepup would drop a fish! I always know when she has something animal as she tries so hard to run away with it, other times she will succumb to a treat, actual animal, not a chance will anything trump that!

@Luckycat1 Orangepup is 7 months. Funkily enough when she finished puppy training at 5 months the trainer thought she was at the start of adolescence but I was not so sure. I think it's just her breed. Fauves are notoriously difficult to train, they are pure hunters, so bred to lead the way and find things, not to come back to you 😂 I did know this when we chose the breed! But she's like a different dog at home, but as soon as we are out...Hunter mode comes in to force!

But I do think some dogs start at 5 months, or maybe it develops slowly from there? Orangepup is on another level now though. I can see her scenting has massively increased, which I have heard happens around this time with hounds. Today at the park I let her off the long line at the tail end of the walk, she was getting the lead wrapped around a lady's feet while playing with her dog! So I took it off thinking of was more of a nuisance. And off she went speeding off to another dog who played for a bit then had had enough and just wanted their ball, Orangepup paid no attention to this! But then met a springer and darted off to him! Luckily all very nice and understanding owners who have all been there with their pups! There was no way my whistle and calling sausage was going to lure her back!

Here's a pic of spot the fauve orange pup... nose the the ground but preferable to when she sees other dogs having fun!

@Orangebadger @Riverlee there was a fish on the beach yesterday but I spotted it before Sunpup did and went for full on distraction. This involved me running away leaping about whooping and generally making a complete tit of myself. Worked though, he ran after me and FishGate was avoided! 😂😂 I was pretty chuffed with my quick thinking!!

😂 I need to take you on walks with me and Orangepup!!

@NoWordForFluffy Could I have Biscuit app link too please 😊

I failed slightly at sharing it before. I think it prefers being texted / WhatsApp'd. I shall have a go though!

@Orangebadger would loved to meet you, and everyone in real life,

Discovered today that RiverPup loves watermelon. Went to get something out the fridge and he helped himself to some.

@Riverlee @Orangebadger It would be great to have a puppy meet with people on this thread, but I guess people are in different places, even different countries!!

Lucky Riverpup, there's little better in life than watermelon!

We fiiinally invested in a kong. Had a blissful luckypup free dinner while she extracted frozen cream cheese and salmon paste.

How are the pups reacting to cats in the garden? The neighbourhood hard cat (who stopped hunting in the garden when we got luckypup) has recently taken to sitting on our fence and staring bolshily at luckypup, who then barks her head off at it. She's otherwise silent in the garden, except yesterday she spotted the neighbour through the back gate and her heckles raised and she barked at him 😬 I'm fairly certain he and his wife don't like dogs & she's so people friendly, so I wonder if he did something? Maybe too farfetched and the cat has just kicked-started a guarding instinct 😣 either way, I hurry her in when she barks, and have also tried desensitisation (sitting with luckypup and feeding her treats with the cat on the fence above us - works until I leave). I hope she isn't going to end up being barky outside :(

For a long time, RiverPup didn’t realise that cats were the enemy and generally would ignore them. I think I noticed a change from about five or six months. Now he’s aware of them and tends to give them the Paddington stare and his body is on high alert. I expect he would chase them if he was off lead (or go and say hello?). He doesn’t bark at them. We don’t tend to get cats in the garden.

FluffyPup is a dick head towards cats in that he really wants to say hello and scrabbles towards them. Cats aren't keep on him lunging towards them though. I don't think he wants to attack, but they don't know that. 😳

We have a cat and the breeder has cats so Orangepup thinks cats are fab and just wants to play with them. We have lots of visiting cats and they are so bold with her, it makes me laugh! Last week we had 3 on our shed just looking down at her. She was going bonkers wanting to play while my cat was perched on the fence looking at all the commotion.

In the house, the cat has the run of the upstairs with a stair gate, but we've had to pile chunky books on the bottom step as orange pup could lift the bottom on the gate ( the pull over ones) and squeeze under. The poor cat would never get any rest if Orangepup was allowed upstairs!

Dogs are cunning. RiverPup can get into the downstairs ‘office’ - now used for laundry etc and it’s where his food is stored. Most days he try’s to pinch socks or help himself to food.

He’s also worked out how to open the bin, and can reach surprisingly far down into it, and also the kitchen drawers.

They say peregrine falcons are the fastest animal. I’m not so sure. They obviously have measured the speed of a lab when cheese is taken out of the fridge!

FluffyPup ❤️ ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ cheese! 🤣

So Gizlotpup is stupidly excited and jumps ar everyone we meet. I try to get him to sit but he loses all hearing. Any tips? He’s 19 weeks

One good advice we had was to:explain to the adult that you’re in the process of training your pup, and you want them to sit (that’s the pup, not the adult!), before allowing anyone to stroke them. Usually the adult will stand back, rather than coming forward which helps the process.

Also, if I’m walking along the path, I ‘ll make RiverPup sit before the adult reaches us. Quite often the adult will walk straight pass.