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.

@FoxRedPuppy that’s a good idea, we do tea towels with treats in but not thought to freeze them.
we have an antler which she really gnaws and a couple of nylabones which can be frozen. At doggy day care they have a fishbone shaped one which she really likes, she can get a good angle for the molars 🦷

we really need some toys, I bought a 10 piece set and a couple of extras but she barely plays with the 10, they are all different rope twists. I might put a few away for a week or so. She does like anything that looks like an animal, we have a duck and a dragon that have been thoroughly mauled.

I like the kong soft toys. Mine loves soft toy ones and the kong ones are pretty tough

Have loved reading this thread, read all of it and good to see the progress you are all making with your pups. I have a 17 wk old chihuahua-papillon cross Otto - he is an easy puppy (as puppies go, still hard work sometimes) got him 6 weeks ago in a fit of grief after sudden unexpected death of my 7 yo dog. Hardest thing is adjusting to a baby dog who doesn’t know how to communicate what he needs or understand what we want him to do… Pic saying good morning to ds2 yesterday - puppy alarm clock!

Thanks for the teething tips everyone 👍

@isopogon OMG how flippin cute!!! 7 years is no age to lose a dog, you must have been devastated. Hope Otto is making you smile again.

@isopogon Otto is unbelievably cute!!

@isopogon Otto is adorable. Those ears and nose. I’m not really a toy breed person, but I do have a soft spot fro papillons.

@isopogon Otto is very cute!

Well Hazel seems to have learned that barreling on to the sofa is not the done thing, so that's good. It will be good when she's too big for the cat flap, but generally she's a very cool puppy now. She's currently munching a carrot to give me a bit of down time before breakfast.

Thank you for starting this thread, I am so glad I found it. Our Labrador puppy is 10 weeks now and I need someone to tell me it gets better! I feel like I’m having a breakdown!

He is a good boy in that he sleeps through the night and has almost potty trained himself but he’s just relentless! He doesn’t know when he’s tired so instead of sleeping he goes crazy, almost aggressive, starts with zoomies, ends with him just ignoring everything we are telling him, starts jumping on and trying to bite us and when he say ‘ow’ he just barks and growls and tries to bite more. He’s even grabbed and pulled at my hair. He’s not really affectionate either and will pull away from cuddles.

We have had to enforce mandatory naps in his crate but of course he howls the street down for ages until he finally crashes…even then he sleeps for only an hour at a time so it feels like he’s always up and I can’t get any work done (I’m trying to WFH) nothing around the house is ever done, it’s a mess. I am barely keeping it together, I’m crying every day. I feel guilty because I do love him but I’m just absolutely exhausted and worried and just miss my old life.

I would appreciate any advice or just some sort of c that it improves - as awful as it sounds I’m tired of seeing people with their cute puppies snuggling into them and just sleeping and being cute when I just don’t have that. This morning I sat crying on the floor because he woke up and instantly started playing up and I needed to log on for work. :(

@Mollysocks I’ve been where you are and still am to be honest! If they stayed this way forever NOBODY would own a dog, the streets would be dogless! It will get better, it’s just a tough stage that feels endless 😬

are you walking outside yet?

It does get better. My puppy likes to chew something when he’s tired, like a dummy. Can you pre-empt him being tired and put him in his crate before he goes crazy.

I sit with my puppy, with my hand through the bottom and shh him to sleep.

Thank you so much, @userxx I feel like such a bad person but I have gone through such feelings of regret. My DH works away a lot so I am often alone with him so probably bear the brunt of everything. Feels good just to vent, when I vent to people in real life I feel they are very dismissive and I just get the ‘wait til you have kids’ line.

No not yet, he gets his final vaccinations in 2 weeks so can take him out I think a week after that, it’s just garden at the moment. I honestly have tried everything, licky mats he just tries to use as a chew toy, he destroys even the toughest chew and soft toys (he has one nylabone and one fluffy mouse thing he hasn’t wrecked yet), frozen kings he gets bored with after 10 minutes. I keep looking at puppy routine schedules but they all look like they are written for people who don’t work!

How old is your pup? :)

Thank you @FoxRedPuppy It’s hard as sometimes as he plays up after 20 mins of being out and I don’t feel that he has had enough exercise or mental stimulation yet to go back in - he really doesn’t like the crate either. He is eventually fine but he howls and barks non stop at such a high pitch it goes straight through me (I feel like such a bad puppy mum for saying that). Some people say ignore it or you’re encouraging it, some people say don’t ignore or you’ll get an anxious dog - I just don’t know what to do…

I can’t use a pen either because he just barks if he can’t be with me, s not just leaving the room but also if he was penned away from me he’d bark.

16 weeks on Saturday. Feels like 16 months 🙈. I also have to enforce sleeps in the crate which helps, in the last week or so he settles down on the sofa at night and nods off whilst being stroked, feels like a big step forward.

You’ll see a big change once you can get him out walking, it just feels like a long way off.

Thanks @userxx so nice to hear it gets better. He’s a good boy he just can’t regulate his emotions yet but then he is still a baby - I know I’m expecting too much really :)

Ok, I don't freeze kongs at te moment, I put kibble in and then yoghurt/beef paste/peanut butter at the top. I use a snuffle mat, and you also do scatter feeding outside- literally scatter some treats and kibble and point to some and encourage him to 'find it'- sniffing calms them down.

Kong do other toys that are pretty tough, also dressing gown cords and old tea towels wet, twisted and frozen.

He's a baby and relentless, but he will learn with consistency. If he goes for you, leave him for a few minutes (in another room, not crate). And keep repeating. Its so boring, but he will learn it doesn't work.

Have you done specific crate training? Make it a lovely place to be, not just a place he is expected to be alone.

I love those ideas thank you @FoxRedPuppy I’m definitely going to try some today. I might try the scatter feeding inside on an old towel because unfortunately he snuffles up everything outside at the moment, have pulled clumps of grass, mud, slugs and everything else out of his mouth, he’s so quick, you think he’s sniffing for a pee and then it’s schlluuppp in his mouth (cue me having to pull it all out!) You’re right about the frozen Kong, thinking about it it’s probably too hard for him to get at the insides.

He eat in his crate and we also scatter treats and hide them in his bedding so he snuffles around for them and also play a few games. He seems to get bored easily so as soon as he is done with whatever toy etc is in the howling starts.

@Mollysocks I’ve got a Labrador pup too and definitely we have had times like you’re experiencing. Some tips from me: stick with the crate, I also wfh and Maggie now does 2 hours twice a day while I’m working. She gets a good long sleep and is much nicer and less bitey.
weigh them and check the food is sufficient, she’s gaining a kg a week and some of the biting is down to genuine hunger.
pick your battles with the house and get them used to the hoover and steam
mop so you can do it while they’re up.
once you can walk they calm down, they are bored in the same house all the time.
the constant garden buffet is relentless and we have resorted to lead on for garden time for the time being.
someone posted a link upthread to some impulse training and that went down really well, plus we have followed a few gun dog trainers on Facebook (Acer gun dogs) who post daily training clips which are fun.

and wine. Lots and lots of wine.

Oh and the other thing I’d recommend is if you know people with dogs who would play with your pup nicely, then get some meet and greets in- other dogs stimulate and talk to your pup in a way that humans can’t and it definitely pays off and tires them out.

I also highly recommend wine for you!

Also once he is 12 weeks, they have all manner of disgusting chewy things, like goat's ears and pizzle sticks. I got a variety of foul smelling things from my local pet shop- also JR pets do them. He is currently munching happily on something made of dried camel.

Thank you so much @FoxRedPuppy and @thenewaveragebear1983 this is all so so helpful and thanks for not judging me!

I cannot wait for 12 weeks so we can meet friends with dogs and go on walks, I feel there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The fact you’ve brought up food is interesting @thenewaveragebear1983 we have been reducing the kibble slightly because he won’t do anything without a treat so didn’t want to be overfeeding him. I am wondering whether we need to up his main food a bit more.

Also @FoxRedPuppy I didn’t realise 12 week old pups could eat those things, anything that keeps him occupied for even a small amount of time sounds great to me!

Just seen your bit about the garden buffet @thenewaveragebear1983 😂it’s true. We have put a lead on him too but he still swoops down and gobbles everything, maybe it’s a lab thing. We told the vets as were concerned but they just said don’t let him eat things off the ground , well that’s easy for them to say… he is so so quick it’s like a split second and sometimes he is just sniffing around to go potty and then I don’t even realise he has gobbled something off the ground until I see it hanging out his mouth. Hoping he grows out of it or walking him in a few weeks will be a nightmare!😩

Hello!
Just joining back in. Hiddenpup is now 5 months/21 weeks old (yes, I did just count that up on my calendar 😄) and she is calming down nicely.

Like any Miniature Schnauzer, she is rendered physically incapable of walking when I put a coat on her so that makes the walks to school on stormy days more of a workout for me.

She is sleeping nicely, into a routine on week days so I can actually get work done. Working on recall and now need to really hit hard on the separation anxiety so I can leave the house/room without causing a minor panic attack.

She is biting less and hardly any zooming about at 7pm, both of which were driving me insane. She likes a cuddle too which the kids enjoy. Also socialising with other dogs well which is a relief. She was terrified of all dogs and now loves meeting them and playing, the bigger the better. Bit less barky but she's a MS so still barkier than a lot of dogs.

Overall, I'm beginning to remember why we got her!

Welcome @Mollysocks . We have a labrador puppy who is coming up for 16 weeks. Is your lab from working lines or show lines? We did a lot of crate games at the beginning and we put a pen around the crate, which has been really helpful. We also did the 'It's yer choice' game early on to teach food manners.

Today I took Hazel with me for DD2's horse riding session. She was really great. We did loose lead walking with a long line, then I dropped the long line and she decided that walking alongside me was still a pretty good place to be. She did really well when a few cars came, and a cyclist. She was stoic in ignoring a decomposed....something - ribcage and long bones on the side of the verge. She also ignored the horse poo, which was a surprise.

Our vet just sort of wry smiled and said ‘yes, well kitty poo and hedgehog poo really are tasty” - no really firm warnings to avoid them. I mean, we don’t actually allow her to eat it but if she does, I don’t think the odd morsel is too horrific.

I have read that you can add oregano oil to their food (in a carrier oil) to prevent certain parasite in the gut. I want to research this more but if you have a garden muncher this could help? I have noticed, she doesn’t do it on walks so it is possibly a boredom thing?

in my reading about why puppies eat poo and sick (see my earlier post where cat vomited up half eaten mouse and puppy Ate it) I learned that little pups eat their mother’s regurgitation as their first food. Even more so, they lunge at the mother in such a way that forced them to regurgitate- that kind of nose first leaping right at your face chest is that programmed into them. They aren’t biting necessarily they are trying to force you to throw up so they can eat it. (Not sure which is worse tbh)