Puppy Survival Thread - for old and new pups

[Riverlee]

Thought I’d start a new thread as the old one is at its limit, for new and older pups.

please come and share your tales of success, woes, concerns and questions, and of course, photographs.

@Lougle Yes it was the chemical castration. We went for 6 months so that we could see what he would be like with it and then if he's ok go ahead with the op. We'll see how the next few weeks go. Just been round to the neighbours to apologise for the increase in barking as he's now doing it at people going past with dogs and when someone knocks at the door, neither of which used to bother him before. Luckily she said she can't hear him, we're a semi so it must be well insulated!

He could be going through a fear stage, mixed with the hormonal changes. I hope he settles soon.

We've had a day off training today. We did a little bit first thing this morning but DD2 and I are both feeling unwell, so we've just given her the food in a Kong Wobbler or star puzzle toy.

@Hiddendoor hope you work something out. I’m already dreading next weekend a bit. My dc are with their dad, which basically means I will be stuck in the house for the whole weekend! DP and I usually go for long walks, pubs etc. I’m not good at staying at home!

Could you get a dog buggy? People sell them really cheaply on Facebook. Ours was £20. Hazel has done two 1 hour sessions walking behind DD2 as she did horseriding, a 2-hour trip to Costa coffee, a trip to the local town market, and 2 one hour trips to coffee shops in our village. The buggy has a short-ish strap with a clip on it so you can secure her to the buggy by the collar. There are mesh windows so she can see out/we can see her. It has front, back and top zip openings. You'd probably need to 'buggy train' her - just short sessions of giving treats/kibble in the buggy. Tbh Hazel has been absolutely fine, but some dogs hate them.

I have a puppy sling, but he doesn’t seem to like it much. He’s small and light enough to be carried.

ill have a look at pushchairs.

@Hiddendoor - our older pup was never really left alone until well over 6 months. Once she was a bit older it just came naturally. There does seem to be a school of thought that if you don't start training from young they'll never learn to be alone but that wasn't our experience at all.

I've been reading the food posts with interest, we're doing 75g x 4 but she's gotten a bit ribby. She gained 1kg last week and is now 7.5kg at 11 weeks. She's definitely too lean for a puppy now, I'll put it up to 90g per feed.

DH and 2 DCs have gone to see grandparents, I'm at home with middle DC who is revising for mock GCSEs (i.e has a good excuse not to watch the puppy for too long) so I'm stuck in the house doing solo puppy duties! Poor old gardendog isn't going to get a proper walk until they're back. Still over a week until the pup is fully vaccinated, feels like an eternity.

She slept through her socialisation trip to a cafe

Aww @BleakGarden what breed is she?

We're giving Hazel 4x80g. She put on 1kg last week and is now 6.6kg. She always seems starving but she is a Labrador, so I'm being mindful that her job is to seem starving.

I’ll never forget the look of absolute desolate desperation when we dropped from 4 feeds to three, and then the ultimate insult of three to two 🤣🤣🤣

You’d have thought I never fed her at all 😬😬

Also had the added insult that the older two also had their rations split as per the puppy- so everyone got “the same”.

There was mutiny in the house when 1pm rolled up and no bowls appeared. Mutiny I say.

Both of ours are still on 3 meals a day. Older one wouldn't much care when she was fed, younger one wil have more to say about dropping a midday meal. Their meals were out of sync for a while when Grace was little and she was never happy about not having food at midday, despite having food at 11 and 3!

Had a couple more accidents in the house the last few days. Just wee. But I’m annoyed with myself. Last dogs I had were all toilet trained within a week. But they were girls- does that make a difference?

I know I’m being unrealistic. And I don’t even care that much as I have hard floors all downstairs!

@BleakGarden Thats one contented pup!

We slowly reduced the food by increasing morning and evening, and reducing lunch time feed gradually.

@FoxRedPuppy we are two weeks in and poos are all outside but she’s having multiple accidents with pee each day. She does most of her pees outside but I reckon 2-4 are in the house still. My older dog cracked it within a few days so I’m a bit surprised but I can see slow and steady progress. Fingers crossed we’ll get there soon.

I hadn’t even thought about how we drop the 4th meal, she is so food driven I think we’ll have mutiny on our hands too!

I know it’s totally within the normal spectrum. I think I’ve just been lucky in past. Also at least one accident was because I was distracted and couldn’t get him outside.

maggie is much more content on 3 meals compared to 2, glad I took that advice.

she’s had a great day today. A sniffy walk on the front driveway, then managed 2.5 hours in her crate in an ‘empty’ house- dd upstairs listening but as far as dog aware, no one in. She then had a lovely hour out in the garden with me, emptying all the old pots and clearing away dead tomato plants and all sorts of other stinky, wet and muddy jobs. We then gave her a little bath, which she didn’t love but didn’t seem to hate either, and now she smells beautiful! All that absolutely wore her out and she’s snoozed all afternoon by the oven with a roast chicken inside, which I reckon is a pretty excellent Labrador day.

@FoxRedPuppy it's really normal to have had the accident and really normal to feel frustrated.

Hazel peed in the house yesterday because we mistook her whining for separation anxiety and thought we'd wait a few minutes to see if she stopped. Well, she did stop - because she had emptied her bladder which was why she was whining 🙈

Back at the vets tomorrow for second jabs.

@thenewaveragebear1983 ah lovely! Did you put her in the bath or shower? I really need to give her a bath, but she's so wriggly I might have to wait for DH to come back first. Her big ears dangle in her soaked kibble while she eats and baby wipes aren't helping get rid of the meat smell!

Good luck @Lougle we've got second jabs on Tuesday. I can't wait for more freedom!

She has cracked whistle recall and whistle sit in the last few days, it's a huge help that she looks to see what my older dog is doing, it makes the process much faster. I learnt the hard way from her that I really have to nail recall now because in 6 months time her prey drive will be going against me

I did her in the bath, just an inch of water in the bottom. Made the mistake of removing her collar and then had to wrestle a slippery otter. But she was good.

we need to work on recall. Maggie will do come with me and will recall, but usually only if there’s a decent biscuit in the offering

Damn I'm jealous of the second vaccinations, Mabel's isn't until a week next Monday, so 3 weeks ish until freedom!

Would paying a professional trainer help do you think with potty training? And face biting/lunging at my face with claws and teeth? Just pondering I suppose, she's only 10 weeks, I know she's just a baby, I'm just feeling a bit low. If one more 'dog person' gives me advice on what I 'should be doing' despite me already doing what they're telling me to do. Apparently puppies don't just refuse to toilet outside, it's me doing something wrong 😡. Oh and I should stop reading stuff on the internet apparently

@Pineapplemonkey My mum's dog refuses to toilet outside, she's not a fan of the cold and wet and would happily just go on the nice warm carpet thanks... so she has to be persuaded to go outside! Getting a good trainer into the house is always beneficial I think. We did with our last pup when I was really struggling with the biting, she was going for faces and shredded so many of my clothes. She did it when she was overstimulated, I needed a trainer to come in and point that out and help me come up with a plan. They're all so different, for her it was more sleep and withdrawing attention when the biting got too much. Diverting her with toys made it worse.

@Pineapplemonkey . It's always worth getting a good trainer in. Doesn't matter what it's for. They didn't actually say anything I didn't know to me but more importantly they did reinforce what I was doing right, which sounds ridiculous but gave me a much needed confidence boost at a time where I was still very down about everything. Also helped getting in a good routine of saying what could be an issue once you are out more - for my goldie it was impulse control as she's super friendly. So as well as starting with sit stay come leave I did a wait as well which is my most used command I think.
It's also very easy for me to say as I'm past it but a large glass of wine at night does help with feeling down about accidents/biting/chewing/ whatever nonsense pup had been up to everyday.
It's also nonsense when people say they have potty trained in 48 hours it takes a lot longer than you think.

The lunging at the face gets boring quickly. I managed to get my lip bite the other morning, more sliced open really and Jesus the amount of blood made me feel sickly. This is just a stage and it will pass but I won't be sorry to move on to the next stage!

If fox pup launches at my face, I stand up and turn away (he’s so small, it only happens when I’m sitting or lying down). Then after a pause re-engage with a toy. Of if it’s likely he’s overstimulated then I get some sniffy and low level for him to do- snuffle May, find it game. Sniffing is calming for them.

My border terrier gets completely overexcited at sniffing, I had to wrestle the snuffle mat out of his mouth before 🙈