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.

@Labtastic mine too. She has been at doggy day care all day, lovely time with two other dogs, all tired and well stimulated when she got home. 7-9 absolutely horrible, nippy, bitey, jumping on everything! Definitely the witching hour!

I've heard about the evening crazies. I'm lucky in that Hazel has dinner at 17:30 and then after wees and poos she tends to settle herself in her crate by about 18:15. She wakes between 22:00-23:30 for another toilet trip, but apart from that goes through to 06:00. I'd rather she stayed up a little later in the evening and went through to 07:00, but it's not bad.

That’s good @Lougle . Freddie has previously been quite calm in the evening, snuggling in sofa until bedtime. But the last couple of nights we’ve had some zoomies.

They have to burn energy at some point in the day - I guess it's picking your poison!

This sounds like the dream! LabPup likes to eat at 5.30pm, then sleep the deepest sleep possible for 90 minutes to prepare himself for 2 hours of 80mph running and biting before crashing out again. He sleeps 11pm-6.30am in the crate but would very much like to stretch that a bit more! 😴

I think Hazel is still poorly 😥 She woke up just now, vomiting again. I was a bit worried that she hadn't pooed since first thing yesterday morning, but she has done a poo now. At least that rules out a complete blockage. I've settled her back in her crate and I'll have to phone the vets first thing in the morning.

Sorry to hear Hazel is poorly still. Its such a worry isn't it. Good luck with the vet.

Charlie was very excitable at puppy class last night. He then threw up all over me on the way home. I thought it was possibly over-excitement but on closer inspection he's thrown up a rather large chew 😱. I've no idea how he even swallowed it in the first place 😳

Sorry to hear Hazel is still poorly - hope she's better soon.

The witching hour is a thing!! Chimipup had to go in his crate at 5.30 as I had a Teams meeting at 6 and he was good as gold. However when he came out he was totally wired and looking for trouble (although his mum had just got home and that probably stirred him up)!! We put him to bed at 8.30 and he zonked straight out and is still asleep now (not unusual though). I've found they need a routine and lots of sleep - routine has been out of the window the last few days!!

The zoomies! I remember them so well. Our pup had them every evening for a few weeks on and off - they do go away! I have loads of ripped clothing and my arms are still marked. Some evenings ( luckily summer)we just let her out in the garden to do her thing, running round and round like a crazy thing. I would sometimes take the flirt pole and play with her as this does tire them . I thought that phase would never end - until it did and the next phase came along!

I think I need to give him treats when he toilets outside. I did a bit to start with but was just giving lots of excited praise. Mostly because know you need to give the treat immediately for it to have the connection and when I’m already carrying him out, I didn’t have hands for treats! Or remember to pick them up!

I need to work out some sort of system to take treat outside when we go. I don’t always carry him now, so maybe it will be easier.

Hurdle of the day- I need to take my son to the dr. Not sure what to do with pup at this time!

We still get the zoomies! Fluffpups are running round in circles. Not so often now - when she's super excited or when she's had a lazy day. I used to call it the mad half hour and just left her to it.
It's only recently I've stopped carrying a handful of treats in my pocket. For us, the timing of dispensing the treats was important as Fluffpup is not the brightest spark. Even now when I say "good girl Fluffpup!" she looks round for a treat - it's a bit of roulette now/ jackpot approach I take but I suspect we will be treat motivated forever. She doesn't have the work ethic of a lab.

We definitely get the witching hour too, but luckily that's where my older dog comes in and they crash about like idiots after dinner. I try to get them to go outside but now it's dark they're usually in the kitchen... when pup is full grown it's going to be a tornado of dog.

Pup got a bit wet on a walk this morning. She's wearing a fleece and sleeping under a blanket now and still shaking! She is very sensitive bless her.

I'm waiting to hear back from dog's trust about training, we've got our usual puppy school tonight and another school booked in at the local doggy daycare. I am trying to maximise controlled exposure to other dogs now as she is still hiding and shaking when we see unfamiliar dogs. She growled and barked and two lovely docile standard poodles in the vet waiting room last night. The vet agreed that it's unusual at 3 months, think we'll revisit it at the next appointment and look for a local behaviourist. The one I'm emailing at the mo is overseas! Also still working on her not screaming the house down when she can't see me. I am trying not to let it get me down.

Wins are her recall is great, she's almost there with toilet training, sleeping through the night, she's fine in the car, she's sociable with people!

Good luck with the GP appointment @FoxRedPuppy I'd have to leave my girl in the car.. she'll sit quietly in the car when I'm not in it... but won't settle for a second in the crate if I'm not there.

So I'm going to attempt to add in some walks, just up and down the very quiet road outside.

Routine wise, where do I fit walks- before or after breakfast/lunch/dinner?

We do ours in the morning between breakfast and lunch, so she's not ravenous but will take treats! She's not deep chested yet but she will be when she's grown... so I don't do walks immediately after a meal because of the risk of bloat in deep chested dogs.

Just had a chat with a lovely person from dog's trust. We are getting referred to their behavioural team

I know lots of of people swear by routine but honestly, one of the best things we've done with our two is avoiding having a strict routine. It means they don't pester for walks or meals. Only time we avoid is straight after meals. Sometimes we'll have a walk an hour after breakfast, in the summer we might go before breakfast to avoid the heat, other times we won't go until just before their lunch.

Oh yes, definitely no to making a routine in terms of what the dog can expect. I think having a routine to make sure that puppies are getting enough rest and food at sensible times is important though.

The other thing I read about walks is to vary your route so that the dog doesn't think they can lead the way.

Bitey wee land shark is a complete pyscho. We are thinking of changing his name to Norman 🤣 The yak chews settled him for a whole ten minutes. Roll on next week and vaccine day. Cannot wait to get him out in the field and burn off some energy. Whoever thought getting a cocker was a good idea 🙈

We’ve done a couple of walks today, and the whole process is getting easier. The addition of some scraps of roast chicken is definitely helping. She’s allowing me to put the harness on without attacking me or it, and then when walking I’ve been working on everything we see a car/person/bike we stop and sit and have some chicken. She’s now starting to look to me when she sees something (not every time, maybe 1 in 5) and actually listening to me when we’re out. She really is very trainable as she’s so incredibly greedy.

Oh he's very sweet though!!

Regarding walks, you should never take them for a walk straight after they’ve eaten, due to the possibility of bloat. Leave 30-60 minutes.

https://www.bluecross.org.uk/advice/dog/health-and-injuries/bloat-in-dog

I did not know this 😨

@thenewaveragebear1983 that's really great progress!

I took Hazel to the vet this morning because she was sick twice in the early morning (04:30 & 06:15). She seemed a bit subdued, too. But he got her quite excited and she hungrily ate some food he offered her (and then charged me for!). He wanted me to take a box of wet food trays that would be gentle on her stomach. £3 per tray and 3 trays per day. I declined. She's been eating her normal kibble today and seems ok.

Wow! Bit cheeky. Glad she's on the mend now.

I had a Standard Poodle who suffered bloat and gastric torsion (when the stomach twists and cuts off the blood supply to major organs). Fortunately, I recognised the symptoms from something I’d read years before, phoned the out of hours vet near midnight on a Saturday night, and rushed her down. The Vet asked if I wanted them to try operating, saying she may not survive the anaesthetic, if she did, she may not survive the surgery and if she got through that, she may still not make it! Thankfully, she did well, coming home after 3 days in the Veterinary hospital and made a full recovery.

She hadn’t been walked, but walking a dog within one hour of a meal does increase the risk. Dogs at highest risk are those with a deep chest like Weimaraner, Standard Poodles, Labradors, Pointers, German Shepherds etc.