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.

@mogernator I'm glad you're feeling a bit better today and the breeder was lovely. Can I ask how you approached it? We're also now in the position where we might need to have that chat with the breeder.

After the incident with snarling and snapping at the other puppy yday I took her out to see some dogs at a safe distance. She was very shaky just being outside tbh so anything on top was too much. She saw some dogs and growled, a man ran past and she growled, barked and lunged. You can't engage in training a terrified dog, so that's out the window for now.

She's just the cuddliest girl and we all love her. But I don't know how I'll manage an energetic dog that can't be in public. I'd need my own farm. With time things could get better, but if they don't she'll be harder to rehome when she's older. I'm waiting to hear back from a trainer specific to her breed who deals with reactivity.

Feeling broken today

@BleakGarden that's so hard to manage. The advice I've read is to work out the distance she's reactive at, then go back 5 metres. Even if you have to start a football pitch distance away. Then whenever she sees a trigger, mark it (yes, or a click) and treat. When she starts looking at you when she sees the trigger, mark and treat that. Then move forward.

It might help? But it's a huge difference to how you expected things to be, so a chat with the breeder might help and get you some advice.

I hope the trainer can help @BleakGarden. My last dog became very reactive, especially to men walking towards us. Actually particularly older men dressed in green! We worked with a behaviourist and improved her slightly. She had loads of other issues, and I didn’t have the time (the kids were much younger, I’d just got divorced). We rehomed her through the breeder at age 2. She went to a couple who were dog trainers and she is so happy. We get regular updates and pictures.

Am I allowed to post a small win?
Just managed half the walk with Feelypup walking to heel. This is a vast improvement on our usual…. I was considering renting her out to a mushing team to earn her keep 😬

That’s only taken 9 months of ownership 🤦‍♀️ she’ll probably throw up some sort of snaffled faecal material on my rug now to return to the status quo…

That's great @feelingalittlehorse ! We'll all hit adolescence soon enough... Not sure I'm looking forward to it!

DD2 donated a pillow to our pup and she is loving it.

Thanks @Lougle yes we weren't that far away. That's really helpful. I'll try again further away. It was going ok until the jogger appeared. But also she was shaking as soon as she got out of the car, even though we were completely alone at that point. She was at threshold then so I should have just taken her home.

@FoxRedPuppy thank you. I feel bad for considering rehoming already, but at the moment she's telling me that she's scared to leave the house. But we have to do that, maybe she'd have better quality of life somewhere where she's not expected to be sociable.

@feelingalittlehorse that's great! 🥳

Glad you're feeling a bit better. Don't beat yourself up about how you feel, these small animals have a huge effect on our lives and lifestyle. I've likened it to a juggernaut coming through our lives. It's a huge change to lifestyle and takes a lot to get used to.

I'm feeling resentful tonight. I've cleaned downstairs and mopped the floor even though it's Friday night and I'd rather be lying on my sofa drinking wine and eating crisps because it's the best time to do it as he's out of the house with my son's girlfriend! Have mopped the floor and prepared myself a glass of wine to take upstairs while the floor dries so I can scroll in peace 🍷

I had quite a nice day with pup, she had her jabs this morning and then all day I have worked and she has sat at my feet. It’s been more like our normal routine as dh abc the dc went out all day.
after work, I took her out very briefly for a little walk down the street. I know we shouldn’t really but she’d been very good and we just went for a sniff about in the street. I need to read up on walking and training I think to know what to work on.

we taught her something as well, using a towel on the floor and the command ‘place’, she got it really quickly and we folded the towel so eventually she was sitting on a 30x30 cm square on the command. She is really quite smart when treats are involved. I could be a few metres away and she will return to the towel on the command. We‘ll practice some more tomorrow. However, also see picture below of dog, 3 available comfy beds and sleeping on the hard wooden floor. 🤦‍♀️

hope everyone has a Good weekend.

I have a little win also. RiverPup has for the second time in two days, snuggled next to me on the sofa. Usually I get the bum end. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had the head end, (and most since he’s been neutered in September). He usually puts his head on the arm.

Spoke to soon, he’s just turned around.

Oh @BleakGarden that sounds really tough. Poor puppy being that scared. I wonder if something happened to her before she came to you. Years ago we had a litter of kittens and one was just inexplicably terrified of so many things, and as far as I knew there was no obvious reason for it, but I always wondered if maybe she had ended up out of the nest one night or something. I hope you can figure out what is best for both you and puppy. Fingers crossed a bit more distance will have a good result.

Well done @feelingalittlehorse! I love that dogs can keep on learning :) I have to confess I've never taught heel. Unluckypup is such a slow sniffy walker that it's never seemed necessary, though if she's near certain fields she can go off lead she starts really dragging me towards them. Is heel different to loose lead walking? As in, does the dog actually stick close to your heel?

Aww @Riverlee yay for snuggles! Unluckypup is pretty aloof, she very much likes to be near me, but with a radius of clear space 😅 so I'm always delighted when she rests her head on me.

@cockapup not sure if anyone has already said this, but worth finding out what injections your pup is having through the breeder, and making sure your vet offers the same. We were lucky it all worked out soon but I think some dogs end up having to have extra and waiting ages and ages to get out and about.

@BleakGarden I know some puppies can go through fear/ reactive phases and so I think all you can do is keep working positively and take things slowly. It must be very difficult and stressful for you and I’m sending virtual wine and cake.
@Unluckycat1 I try and get her walking next to me, so her shoulder is level with my leg. It’s actually been a complete nightmare, as I have another dog on a lead and so being towed along on one side, and the other stopping to sniff and pee has just been such hard work. It has been my fault entirely, I am lucky to have the space to have them off lead a lot but it meant that lead walking fell by the wayside.

🤣🤣🤣🤣 getting a bum deal there, @Riverlee

Mine used to lunge forward and bark at people and dogs. She never snarled, or tried to bite, she was just anxious. It sounds like your little one is just anxious too. Anyway I’ve largely got on top of it. She still does it very occasionally. Despite being a huge Weimaraner, she’s still only 6-month-old. What I did was anticipate the behaviour before the reaction, whip out tasty treats. Ask her to sit and slowly feed them to her, telling her she was a good girl until the person/dog had passed. She is very good orientated and chewing and barking don’t work together! Because she’s gorgeous, some would stop and admire her. I’d tell them she was a puppy in training and ask them to give her a treat. This allowed her to learn that people are generally nice. It all worked really well, so she’d see someone approaching, look and me and sit, anticipating treats. Sometimes she goes to jump up at people now because she reckons they have treats for her. They are just learning about the world in these early months. I’d suggest finding calm, reliable dogs to introduce her to (training classes are one place). Handled well, they will get past it. Your little one has had a fright, but slowly and steadily, she’ll get there.

@ilovesushi we are organising the first jabs locally and our breeder will reimburse the cost. So we will avoid the problem of vaccine incompatibility

We lost our two old boys on Saturday and this little landshark joined us yesterday evening. Bring on the chaos today!

Sorry for your loss @TheSproutOfWrath

That is one cute face! Boy or girl? And how old?

I was going to start a new thread but thought there is probably lots of advice in here - I hope it's ok to join!

We have a nearly 11 week old lab pup. Not our first time and things are going well so far despite being a bit sleep deprived...!

He's obsessed with pizzle sticks (I have to pretend to myself I don't know what they actually are 🤮) They are a lifesaver for when he's in full on biting/chewing mode. Question is - what other natural animal chews can he have at his age does anyone know?

Puppy tax below...

@Labtastic what a beauty! Do you have a just for pets near you? They sell loads of natural chewies, my (human) boys were fascinated as it’s like the most macabre sweet shop, with rabbit ears and pig snouts and all sorts. The staff are really knowledgeable. You can also get a piece of deer antler (can get from Amazon) which is my lab puppy’s favourite to gnaw on.

Thank you! We think he's very handsome 🥰

We do have a farm shop nearby which has a similar sounding pick and mix of furry cows ears, lamb horns, rabbit legs, goose feet etc (it's a nightmare for my vegetarian daughter! And they're all in closed bins so you don't get to see the full horror until you open the lids 🤣) You're absolutely right - I should go and ask them which are suitable for puppies. I've ordered some yak sticks too.

Be careful though, I bought some cow thorax for my girl, suitable for puppies, but she just got so exited she gulped the whole thing in one piece and I had a very nervous few days until I felt sure it had digested.

I defrosted her a Turkey heart yesterday, a little treat for her - but someone who shall remain nameless Elvis the 15 yr old Tom cat stole it and enjoyed it!

Thanks @AnnieSnap and everyone else for your advice and support. I've been reading it all and I'm feeling a lot calmer this morning. It's fair to say that I was off my head yesterday, I considered a valium but wine did the trick. I've contacted a trainer and I've already had a conversation with a vet behaviourist. We are going to back off leaving the house for a little bit, she's telling me she doesn't want to do it. Yes she has shown some aggressive behaviour but she's small and I've got time to work on it before she's a big dog.

I'm loving all the photos and wins! Welcome @Labtastic and @TheSproutOfWrath

I am losing the will to live. No improvement in toileting in 4 weeks and he's now barking even when with us. I assume for attention?

@Labtastic - lots of things suitable from 12 weeks (and we rounded up a bit with our pup when she was that age!) - lamb braids, goats ears, beef tails, Ostrich Bone. JR products do a puppy pack.

@FoxRedPuppy - a trip away with our first at 4 months ish made us realise that pup would sleep straight through if in the same room, we said we'd keep her with us to catch up on some sleep and then train her to be back downstairs but that never happened! Didn't even try with this one so ended up a lot less sleep deprived.

Grace is too snuggly at times, if I ever sit down she's in my lap, no matter how inconvenient. Older one favours just draping a paw and using as a head rest.

I can't give any tips on toilet training, both ours got it very quickly but I think it's much easier in the summer time.