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.

@BigBundleOfFluff that's very reassuring, you start to wonder if you've just got the world's most annoying dog.

I just weighed her and she now weighs 8 kg 🤦‍♀️ she was 4.5 on the 11th October

@BleakGarden wow! What breed is your dog? 2kg gain is amazing.

We need a username, breed, age and weight list, I think! I keep forgetting who has which dog and how old they are.

Hazel was 7.6kg on Saturday.

@Lougle she's a german shorthaired pointer, I think her mum was about 25kg so not massive... but they never sit still so need a lot of food

Wow @thenewaveragebear1983 almost doubled in 3 weeks!

@BleakGarden I know and now I feel a bit guilty for getting cross with her today when clearly the poor animal was starving properly and not just Labrador “starving” as she should have been having about 100g more food than I’ve been giving her. No wonder she’s been trying to eat us!

I just tried that impulse game, she got it so quickly! Then we did ‘wait’ and she got that too. I’m going to get the kids to try it with her because it will help her to be gentle and take biscuits nicely I think. She’s not exactly brain of Britain though- I put a biscuit under a paper cup and she destroyed the cup but the biscuit was still on the floor 🤦‍♀️

Well done @thenewaveragebear1983 it's so satisfying when you see their cogs turning, isn't it? It's amazing how quickly you can build it up, too. Hazel knows the difference between 'leave it' and 'wait' and when she has to leave the food, she actually pushes herself further back on her bum and stoically looks away from it 🤣

A kg a week is not unusual for some labs up until they're about 6 months. Think Grace was averaging about 700g a week. She was 19.2 kg last time I weighed her and she's not quite 7 months.

when she has to leave the food, she actually pushes herself further back on her bum and stoically looks away from it

I know exactly the move you mean!

@Lougle my next things to work on are ‘off’ as she is now getting big enough to get on furniture. any tips for that one?

I also like the impulse control things and I want the kids and dh to do it with her too. plus I need to revisit some of the things we were doing, like sitting on a towel when coming in from the garden for a paw wipe. We’ve all gotten a bit sloppy and inconsistent.

in all honestly I’ve had something of an epiphany this week. The reality has hit me, she’s a big lovely but bitey dog and I could see how easily she could be unpleasant and unmanageable so it’s made me realise how much we need to work to get her to stay lovely.

Thanks for the tips team, we actually stopped crating him overnight and am sleeping nearby because he was waking the kids when we first put him to bed. I'm now thinking that was a mistake. We also used to get a few poos outside so I could really treat and reinforce but now he only goes inside when I'm distracted. Even though he basically lives outside with me.

As @userxx says I've also been focusing on the negative and not the positives!
Positives are sleeping through the night consistently
Responding to basic training really well
Eating well
Taking treats well
mostly weeing outside.....

The one big negative for me is the biting. He gets aggressive too and hates being told off (eg to get off the sofa)

He's been a little bit calmer this week with only me in the house (although I've had lots of help!) so we need to concentrate on that when my son is back. And we can build on the puppy training sessions with another 5 weeks to go.

My son is back home tomorrow and I will be so relieved!! I'm knackered (full of cold too so that doesn't help) and just sitting here with a glass of wine as it's been a very trying evening!!

@thenewaveragebear1983 Ideally you should always train the dog to do what you do want them to do, rather than telling them what you don't want them to do and leaving them to figure it out for themselves. So you want him off the sofa, but what is it that you want him to do then? If you just want him off the sofa, I think I would have a few treats in your pocket and throw one on the floor every time you want him to get off. But if you want him to do something specific like go to a bed, you'd train him to get in the bed first, then practice sending him to bed on the floor, then once you have the command word in, use it when he's on the sofa.

Hazel didn't get the memo about trying to stay up longer in the evening. She decided to go to sleep in her crate at 6:30pm. DH says she went for wees and a poo at 8:50pm, so now I have the dilemma of 'to wake or not to wake' later.

@Lougle she does already do ‘in your bed’ so we can work with that then I guess.

maggie has also took herself off to her crate. We left the door open for a while, then closed it at 9.30. l have adjusted her food times etc after the clocks change, but she does seem to be still on old time

Thank you so much for posting this. It prompted me to look at the food pack again as my pup has seemed extremely ravenous the last couple of days. And yes, I was underfeeding her! Its "expected weight of adult dog" and NOT current weight as I'd thought. She's been having 100g less than she should! I feel awful. Thankfully only a day and a half.

@Dogdaywoes golden Labrador, 18 weeks, 10.5kg

RiverPup is almost 16 months and has always gone to sleep in the evening around 6.30, and even earlier (and later). At first we woke him around 9pm and enticed him outside to do a wee. Now we don’t bother. (Does anyone else hate the American term ‘potty’.).

@Dogdaywoes golden Labrador, 18 weeks, 10.5kg
@Lougle chocolate Labrador, 13 weeks, 7.6kg

@Riverlee that's encouraging. I think I'll try and get some sleep in case she wakes in the night.

RiverPup - black lab, 16 months (almost), 28 kg

And photo for good measure.

@Dogdaywoes woes golden Labrador, 18 weeks, 10.5kg
@Lougle chocolate Labrador, 13 weeks, 7.6kg
@Riverlee black Labrador, 16 months, 28kh

Fluffpup. Golden retriever. 18 months. 30kg.
Here she is, happiest sleeping.

FluffyPup, fox red Labrador, 12 months. No idea on weight, he won't be picked up to be weighed. 24-25kg, probably!

Dogdaywoes woes golden Labrador, 18 weeks, 10.5kg
Lougle chocolate Labrador, 13 weeks, 7.6kg
Riverlee black Labrador, 16 months, 28kh
BigBundleofFluff Golden retriever, 18 months, 30kg
NoWordForFluffy, fox red Labrador, 12 months, 24-25kg ish

I've taken out the tags so you don't all keep getting emails. If anyone else wants to add themselves, just copy and paste the list, then put your details at the end.