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.

Such encouragement @thenewaveragebear1983 😁They're disgusting little creatures really, aren't they?

In the interest of giving reassurance, Florapup is 6-months-old now. Being bitten, house training and her eating anything she could pick-up, are distant memories now. It does get so much better 😀

I could have written your post a year ago and cried daily.

IT DOES GET BETTER!

Hang on in. Don’t forget, social media only shows the good side, not the bad side. Someone commented on my loose lead walking yesterday, if only she knew the struggles I had.(RiverPup is now one). Your pup is still young, and still learning his new life with you.

I'm desperately trying to take comfort in this post. Mabel the mini schnauzer is 13wks and I have the zoomies and biting, plus the toilet training issues (my carpet is always preferable to the garden, even if she's been in the garden for the last hour or more). Add into that today's new problem, the loudest barking I have ever heard (it's ear splitting) for no reason whatsoever and it goes on for what feels like like forever and nothing I do seems to stop her. I think she might be hearing people walk past the end of the garden (I have a 6ft wall and it's a small path, she can just hear footsteps). I have no way of fixing this 🫣

So another 10wks ish of torture and I might see an improvement eh @Hiddendoor ?

@Pineapplemonkey it was hard going until about 18 weeks and then a noticeable upward curve in better behaviour!
She is definitely less bitey since her puppy teeth started falling out a couple of weeks ago. New adult teeth appearing and whilst she still enjoys holding my entire wrist in her mouth, she doesn't bite...

The last few weeks has also seen her going to the kitchen door and barking when she needs the toilet. A revelation!

Obviously the mouthing/holding my limbs in her mouth aren't ideal. And the barking is more than I expected. And she is like velcro to me and follows me into the toilet and howls like a banshee when I leave the house and she only has DH and the two kids to keep her from desolation and utter loneliness... but overall it does get better!

Has anyone used a piddle patch for toilet training? I’m compiling a list of things to get for Paddipup and these look interesting.

Just adding a moan of my own...

Charlie is 20 weeks today! I guess I should start talking in months now? So 5 months. As others have said there have been steady improvements week by week. Until this week 😫 .

He's been nicknamed dickhead dog more than once the past few days. Despite no inappropriate accidents for 3 weeks we replaced the mat by the back door last night and he immediately pissed all over it - even though the door was wide open! It's washable, so not the end of the world, but grrr!

He's been a nightmare with his harness- lets us put it over his head but then bites (not hard but still not pleasant) when we try to fasten it. So going for walks has been an issue as I refuse to fight him to do it.

Evening zoomies have made a reappearance - can't sit down in the room with him as he's crashing about trying to nip and trying to bite things he shouldn't.

It's making me feel like we're really behind on training when I had felt it was going quite well 😫

@DoggyNewbie don't despair they go through peaks and troughs.

Have you considered using a Perfect Fit harness? They come in sections and you can unclip it from one side so you just slip in over one paw then fasten. It could be that although he accepts you putting it over his head, it either excites or stresses him (most dogs don't like things going over the back of their head) and so he can't control himself when you're clipping him in. The other alternative is to do some desensitising work with the harness. So put it over his head and treat him, then remove. Repeat 3 times. Then put it over his head and just touch his side, treat. Repeat 3 times. Then pull the strap up to where it would fasten, repeat 3 times. Then clip it. By breaking it down into steps, you'll see what his trigger point is.

I'm trying to spin out Hazel's morning start. She seems to want to get up from the day at about 06.10. I'd rather it was 07.00 onwards. So the last few days I've given her a carrot to munch on while I read the news and Mumsnet.

@DoggyNewbie maggie used to be awful with a clip round harness, the only way we could resolve it was every time we put it on having two of us, one dispensing treats and the other doing the harness.
also if she’s getting excessively over bitey we do that impulse game first, it really does seem to switch on her concentration and calm her. Ultimately you’re going to need to do that harness twice a day at least - you’ll have no hands left if they get too bitey!

we went to puppy school last night and we learned so much. The biggest take out for me was as the lady said - you have working busy breeds, and if you always only reward for ‘actions’ eg. Sit, wait, paw whatever, you will train your dog to ‘do’ all the time. You need to reward latent good behaviour without a command. Teach her an ‘I like that’ marker/click and use it When they are just ‘doing’ the behaviours you want naturally, not following a command. So we are using the marker ‘yes’ and our homework is to reinforce that for a few mins every day- so settled in her bed, looking nicely out the window, walking nicely etc. don’t command, just reinforce.

Thanks @Lougle and @thenewaveragebear1983

New tape measure arrived last night (he destroyed the last one 🙄) so I am planning on attempting to measure him so I can order a perfect fit. I think the issue is excitement as he knows he is going out. We managed for a few weeks by giving him cheesespread on a lickimat while we fastened the harness but that's not cutting it anymore.

It's not been all negative - we took him to enclosed fields yesterday and practised long lead/off lead recall which was brilliant and it also really tired him out. Just definitely like there has been backwards progress in some ways.

Has anyone else started a payday list /Christmas list for their dog? On ours is:

long line lead
head torch (for me, not the dog!)
temporary fencing so we can cordon off a particularly catty area of our garden
some better toys (she’s not mad keen on rope toys, she like cuddly/stuffed prey)
one of those bone toys shaped like a fishbone
a stairgate

plus I saw a dog sofa which is exactly the same colour as my actual sofa and I’m quite tempted but I know that’s ridiculous considering how expensive she is!

@thenewaveragebear1983 that's great. We use SMARTx50 which is 'See, Mark, and reward x50'. Hazel does a lot of just 'being' in her pen, too.

We've taught Hazel quite a lot of behaviours but I've noticed that she gets a bit frustrated and offers any behaviour that she thinks might get a bit of kibble, so if we're saying 'sit' we'll get a sit, but she might throw in a 'down', 'spin', 'middle', or 'orbit' part way through. I'm probably reinforcing it because she's so damned cute when she does it 🙈 So I need to tighten things up.

Freddie does that @Lougle , all the tricks to get a treat 🤣.

I need a harness that doesn’t go over th rheas as he hates it coming off. He does have big spaniely ears. I’d like a perfect fit, but because he’s a crossbreed it says to call them. I’m neurodivergent and not great at phone calls. So I keep putting it off 🤣

You can email them with his girth measurement and his breed and age, then they'll email you back.

I looked at perfect fit too, they look great but the problem is she's growing so fast. I also hit the phone call point and put it off until later! @Lougle did you find the perfect fit would grow along with pup?

Pup was a bit stressed at her third puppy class last night. There's a retriever puppy that keeps getting away from her owner and just really getting in the other puppies' space. I don't really understand why her owner doesn't just pull her away. She rushed up to a toy poodle that eventually yelped in fear and then my pup couldn't relax. The retriever then rushed up to us and despite my pup backing up she wouldn't go away... so then she barked and started to bare her teeth. Which is the opposite of what I'm aiming for with her socialisation! I'm thinking about emailing the trainer and saying we can't come back unless the other owner can stop his dog getting away from him. He knows my pup is nervous, in his position I'd restrain my dog if I had to prevent her from approaching a fearful dog and she wasn't listening! I don't want to be out of order though because the trainer is lovely.

We've got a clinical behaviourist coming on Monday to help us with pup's fearfulness around dogs. I managed to track down two other puppies from the litter and it sounds like they are both similar, so at least I know it's temperament rather than a negative experience she's had. Fingers crossed

Also @Mollysocks it does get better. Your puppy sounds like my 3 year old dog was when she was little. My god she was a hard puppy but she's just the best dog now, she loves people and dogs, she's super obedient and steady. You'll get there.

@BleakGarden perfect fit do need to be changed out as they grow, but the elements can be swapped. I took their advice and then bought second hand.

Sorry about puppy class. That's frustrating.

Thanks @Lougle second hand is a great idea, I'll have a look. Yes definitely a bit frustrating, it's not really his fault. Puppies are unpredictable and love to say hello, if anything it's my puppy that maybe shouldn't be there

Try Vinted for harnesses once you know their size. I bought a few for only a few pounds each.

No that's not true. The owner has to have their dog under control at all times. That's the law. There is a very reactive puppy in our class. She always sits near the door. Whenever there is an exercise that involves moving away from her chair, the trainers specifically ask us all to make sure that we have our dogs under control and we're keeping their attention with treats. If it's an activity that can go to the puppy, they take it to her.

Pup is snoozing on the sofa next to me right now…… feel like I’ve turned a corner 🤞

@BleakGarden The owner and puppy trainer should be taking action. The other pup should be under control.

@userxx Gorgeous photo.

Spoke too soon, I’m now sporting a new injury 🙈😬. Roll on adulthood!

@BleakGarden Not your puppy or your fault and not a good trainer. Really bad for your pup to learn this behaviour and become worried about other dogs. Definitely tell the trainer, they are at fault and leave if they do nothing, find a proper trainer!. Exactly as Lougle said. Our trainer ( excellent trainer) insisted dogs on lead and reactive ones on the edge, as the weeks went by the reactive ones improved and we could all walk closely with no problems .

@Lougle That’s our pup, we’ve taught him to go sit on his bed but did it with treat rewards rather than praise so now everytime he wants a treat he jumps on his bed and if he doesn’t get one he will do a few stroppy ‘paws’ and then he will bark.

@thenewaveragebear1983 I think we need to do this, just positively reinforce any good behaviour, like sitting quietly. Did you start with treats or just the ‘yes’ praise? Trying to get out of rewarding with treats as he’s a greedy boy and I think it might be teaching him everytime he does xyz he gets a treat (see my comment to Lougle above)

@BleakGarden Thank you, just feeling like I’m not the only one has done wonders for me honestly! This thread has been a lifesaver!

@DoggyNewbie Oh I feel you, despite being usually good at potty, the other day ours decided to sit at the door to go out, then not wee and just munch from the all your eat garden buffet and then proceeded to wee on the mat as soon as he came in. We have names when he’s being a jerk, one being ‘smeg head’ we also say ‘the dragon is awake’ when we see he is stirring in his crate 😬it’s like living in that film The Quiet Place sometimes, tip toeing around, avoiding that creaky floorboard so not to wake him!