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.

Any other Working Cocker owners on here? I've had Cavaliers for the last 20 years and Sproutpup is a whole new level of puppy!!!

He is absolutely bonkers. It's the biting frenzy he works himself up into which is worst bit. My husband has had a stroke so is confined to a chair at the moment so it's all down to me. He's not interested in snuffle mats, lickymats etc as he has a 5 second attention span.

@thenewaveragebear1983 can you get a puppy pen to go around the outside of the crate? Hazel is in hers now - she's been in her crate all night and has been out for wees and poos, but I just need to have my cup of tea before we start the day. So she's in her pen, which gives her a safe 'no supervision' space.

@Lougle no we don’t, and I think we really need to sort a solution. We don’t really have a dog proof room, our kitchen would be the obvious but we have a very old senile cat and that’s his place, he never leaves the kitchen. I’ve been looking at pens, we do have quite a large hallway and I do have a 2nd crate which we could set up in there, it’s a tiled floor. Something to think about over the weekend. To be fair to the hound, she does go in her crate now during my working day for 2 decent naps so I feel guilty putting her in again. She does seem to be liking her crate more and goes off there herself when she is getting overtired sometimes which is a really good development.

We bought this one

@TheSproutOfWrath no, but mine is half show cocker. The last week he has got very zoomy and bitey in the evenings particularly. The thing with working lines is they need to work, so sniffing out treats (doesn't have to be a sniffy mat, can be hiding things, even people- my kids play hide and seek and he has to go find them- they are holding a treat).

Spaniels love balls, have to tried teaching fetch. Generally though if they get into a biting frenzy they are overtired or overstimulated. I have to admit last night I ended up putting him in his crate, shutting door and sitting next to him while he whined a little and then fell asleep- I knew he was tired, but just didn't want ot give in.

I’ve noticed that Maggie gets bitey especially when she is thirsty- she doesn’t drink much unless I take her to her bowl which I am trying to do more.
she also wees more frequently in the evening, sometimes every 20 minutes or so, and that seems to make her a bit more bitey, I think now she can hold it better, she doesn’t ask so frequently and would rather play, so she gets a bit bitey as a result. When she is bitey now, i take her outside, then when we come in I direct her to her bowl. This does seem to calm the shark behaviour a little.

I'm insanely excited. I was struggling to teach Hazel paw because she has learned to keep all four paws on the ground around food. Someone on Facebook suggested teaching her paw targeting using a piece of cardboard, capturing and shaping her behaviour. Within a few minutes she was giving me her paw on command.

Yay! Well done Hazel!

So the balls have appeared and he's taken to humping...... delightful. Got a consultation with the puppy class bloke tomorrow and it's not a moment too soon, pup is getting bolshy.

He just reared up going mad at a cat across the road and has taken to barking at people which isn't good, he seems wary of people. Another fun filled day in puppyville 🫤😬

@userxx Ahh this takes me back, my pup used to hump his bed every evening in the witching hour. We ignored it and eventually he just stopped doing it.

Unfortunately it's my arm that he has taken a liking to, a bit harder to ignore when he's clamped onto me 😬😆

@userxx have you tried getting a treat/kibble, calling his name and throwing the treat a short distance away from you? It might divert him. As he jumps off your arm for the treat, once he's doing it consistently, you can add a command word. Perhaps 'steady' or 'calm'.

@Lougle I'll give that a go, he goes mad for a treat so I think that will work 👍

Maggie was in a horrible mood last night, really snappy and bitey, very unsettled. In the end we put her to bed early, she settled well. This morning though, she had had a bad tummy in the night and had pooped in her crate. She seems fine in herself. I think it’s probably due to her eating literally every single thing she lays eyes on. It can’t be good for them can it?

Any advice on which insurance company to use? Has anyone heard of Napo?

@cockapup after much research we are with perfect pet, lifetime cover.

Freddie humps two of his toys. When he’s very humpy I remove these toys. I also use his name as a positive interrupter and some treats. And divert with different toys that can’t involve humping 🤣

Must have been in the air, Mabel was a complete monster last night/evening. Unsettled, beyond bitey and just a complete pain in the arse. Peeing everywhere, just being thoroughly unpleasant, she was threatened with the puppy pound multiple times but I feel she didn't take that threat seriously enough, I'm convinced at times she enjoys making me miserable.

I now need something super warm to wear in the garden that's super quick to put on while I'm waiting for her to play/bark/loiter toilet in the morning/nights. Coats are in the porch at the front of the house and garden is at the back of the house off the kitchen so nowhere to hang anything,

I've taken her out for 2 walks now round the block- she goes nuts at any human or dog within a 100m or so. Twice yesterday I had to scoop her up as she tried to have a go at an elderly pug and a small child 😡.

I suspect it's just noise and not aggression (she's been great with small kids so far, I think she likes them more than adults in fact)
She hasn't really come into contact with other dogs since she left the breeder (and they had a LOT of dogs and cats and small children) and I don't really know anyone with dogs for her to play with. She starts classes a 2 weeks today, hopefully that might help? 🤞

@Pineapplemonkey i just keep my boots and coat on top of the dog crate which is right by the door. I have given up on having a nice living room at least for a while, we use our patio doors as garden access.

Found out today that she’s been eating the dead leaves/stems of a toxic plant, this could maybe explain the bad tummy overnight. This morning in the frost and wet I have cleared my patio, moved all pots, swept up all the debris and moved anything that I hadn’t realised might be dangerous. Lesson learned, hopefully she won’t have actually ingested any of it.

for walks, it’s really hard isn’t it? I can distract her from most things with chicken scraps but other dogs are just too enticing. Actually other dogs are the best ones to teach her, I always ask if they are ok if she says hello and they tend to accept no nonsense from her, a growl or a woof if she oversteps the mark- even friendly dogs don’t want a puppy all over them. The bigger problem is people- people just tend to stroke her and then she thinks everyone wants to say hello. Dogs get a bad rap for being over confident but 50% people encourage it, it’s a lot to expect a tiny puppy to understand. We are just going to keep working on ignoring everything with chicken to distract her and hope she will eventually get it.

At night I wear my dressing gown and otherwise I keep a jacket on the back of a chair near the back door.

Freddie loves other dogs. I’m trying to reward when he sits nicely. He does go a bit mad and paw their faces though!

Here is enjoying our morning walk.

Maybe I need to let her approach other dogs (with permission obvs) and see how it goes then.

Have just been out for a walk and she is improving (not with the barking at anything that moves!) walking wise. I was told 1 min of walk per week of age, Mabel was 13wks yesterday so we just wandered round for about 15 mins (rounded up) - is that right? It felt like she she could have gone much further/longer. She's still full of beans and is currently bouncing round the garden. Is it 15mins per day or per walk? Could we go out again later?

Can we guess the first time dog owner here?!

Yeah I’ve known 5 mins per month. That said, I don’t adhere to it strictly, partly because he sniffs and stops so much 15 mins wouldn’t get us so far. It’s to protect their kings do they aren’t overused.

This morning we walked about a mile. But slowly, lots of sniffing. And w sat and had a coffee at a garden centre and rested a while before turning back.

5 minutes per month of age (1 minute per week) twice a day.

It's to stop stress on the growth plates. But it very much depends on the type of walk. We cover very little physical ground due to all the sniffing and interaction with people and other dogs but we'll be on our 'walk' for 40minutes. She actually gets more physical activity in 5 minutes of fetch in the garden.

I'm being quite strict with people interacting when we're out. I ask Hazel to sit, then I say 'go say hi' once she is sitting nicely. If I don't want her to say hi, I just say 'this way' and offer her a treat to distract her.

We did a bit of recall and sit-stays in the car park at the end of our road this morning.

“I've taken her out for 2 walks now round the block- she goes nuts at any human or dog within a 100m or so. Twice yesterday I had to scoop her up as she tried to have a go at an elderly pug and a small child 😡.”

Apparently it’s not good to scoop them up as then you are reinforcing the behaviour that human/dog interaction equals something to be fearful of. I was told to distract them - put a treat above their nose and walk past distracting them, and then give the treat once past.

Another method I’ve heard is to engage a friend with a dog. Walk up to them, and at the point they about to start barking, say something positive. Walk away, return and as get closer, start treating and rewarding. Rinse and repeat getting nearer each time. Ie. Replace negative action with a positive response. Probably not explained well. Look at YouTube for better explanations.