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.

Poo palace

I clicked on "add image", nothing happened! These dogs are absolutely gorgeous. I have a 13 week old red/white border collie (plus an 8 year old Blue Merl,BC) just after getting her last month,DH and I went down with Covid....first time,omg getting up in the night was hell! Now things going in the right direction. Our dogs have been flap trained, she has just started coming back in it, after being let out of the back door.. in an ideal world, would have got a puppy earlier in the year, but haven't had rain in the SE UK,apart from a couple of spots.. we lost our last doggo January,he would have been 18 in march. Have always had 2 dogs,in fact he was our third. Going to enjoy this thread

A week in with this new pup - working cocker named Dylan. Got lots of little puncture wounds from puppy teeth but working on ignoring those bites moments and he seems to be stopping quicker.

He's fantastic at night. 10:30 to 6:30in his crate

He's going to my partners office today and I feel bereft 😂. He will be going to partners office everyday so he has to get used to the routine but I feel like when I sent my children off to school!

We had three dogs, Springer, lab and a cocker poo. Lost the springer last year aged 13, the lab 3 months ago aged 15 and we still have our cockerpoo who is 9. She's now renamed the Ice Queen - she's not very impressed with the pup despite living with other dogs all her life. We are hoping she thaws soon and begins to love this new addition.

Can I join please? I'm bringing home DPup on 25th October. Based on this thread I've decided to get an outside pen for the toiletting and some waterproof ankle welly things for the night time poos/pees (genius ideas, wouldn't have thought of that otherwise).
Pup is my first dog and I'm quite nervous. Suddenly I realise that I don't know what I don't know and Easy Peezy Puppy Squeezy hasn't covered some of the things on this thread!
I've done 2 puppy hauls so far and will be ordering the indoor crate and outdoor 'poo palace' @Lougle today.
Is it too early to get insurance quotes? Pup will be insured for first month through the breeder but after that it's down to me - or should I just insure from the date I pick him up and use that if necessary (I sincerely hope I don't need it though).

So many questions......thanks for this thread.

@Pineapplemonkey it will get so so much easier. Puppy might have been confused but in no time at all they'll know they're out for a wee. And taking the rain in their stride is a great skill to learn.

@Lougle oh I wish we had made one of those! That must be a huge help.

Unluckypup met her brother yesterday :) I spotted him a week ago and knew he had to be related to her (they are a funny looking mix) and arranged a pup playdate. They absolutely adored each other :) His recall has taken a step back in the same way so I felt less of a rubbish owner who's just failed at training.

@FeargalLandSharkey if you stay with the same insurer, the puppy insurance is best. It covers you immediately and then when you extend the cover into a full policy, it covers continuously.

If you insure yourself, you can't insure until she's yours, then the first two weeks won't be covered.

If you change insurers, the first two weeks of the new policy won't be covered.

@Nannyfannybanny once you tap/click 'Add image' a box appears below that you have to tap/click to select the image you want to add.

Thanks everyone, crossing my fingers that today will be a better day! Although this is the first day where it is blowing a gale and due to to be raining pretty much all day.

@Lougle as of yesterday I do have a penned in area for her to use as a toilet, nowhere near as swish as yours but it's a fenced off patio area that she can't escape from and although she's still pottering about too long for my liking, she's doing her business much quicker as she doesn't have the rest of the garden to distract her.

@Trixibella I've started saying 'empty' when we go out, a lot! She doesn't reliably recognise her own name yet though so I guess it'll be a work in progress.

@ilovesushi I have ordered (on Amazon Prime day- half price!) a pair of fleece lined crocs, currently have flip flops which are too fiddly to put on in a hurry, and even worse if I have socks on. It's still 18deg here so pretty warm thank goodness

@Pineapplemonkey that area sounds ideal! It's hard work, isn't it?

It's really hard work! It's the constant attention and need to be entertained.

I've just got an indoor puppy pen (again, thanks Amazon prime day!) and she'll wander in but if I shut the gate, she howls, do I just leave her to howl and she'll get over it? She has all her toys in there, a snuffle mat, a bed, water and she can see me a couple of feet away, what more does she bloody want?!!

That's tricky. We have deliberately not entertained from day 1. She has her meal given through training. She has toileting. Then she is expected to settle in her pen or we shut her in her crate for a sleep. Often now, if we just put her in the pen, she'll wander into her crate.

Hazel has her crate surrounded by the pen and that's her base. Do you have the pen separate to her crate?

This is how we have Hazel's space. It means she's always safe and contained, but has plenty of room to move around.

Also, I read a thing about toys just becoming 'landscape' if they're left all the time, so you might want to consider reducing what is in her area, then introducing bits and bobs on a rotation so that they're new and interesting. For example, unless you have food in the snuffle mat, it's not really doing anything and she'll be disappointed when there's nothing to find.

Her crate is upstairs next to my bed, she goes in there quite happily at bedtime and again for a bit after breakfast while I shower and dress. The pen is in the living room where I'm trying to work (I have an office upstairs but I don't know what to do with her if I work in there (no room for a pen of any size)
Maybe I'll keep putting her in the pen for short periods and hope she'll get used to it, I can't imagine the whining can last that long 🤞

Great advice, I'll take some of the toys out right now! She currently fast asleep next to me on the sofa looking very content

@FeargalLandSharkey - you might find you can't get a quote as they'll ask for a birthdate and it will say pup is too young. We insured 2 weeks in to the free 4 weeks insurance, that way we still had insurance through the 2 week waiting period.

@tizwozliz you have to be just a little bit careful with that, though, because some insurers have a clause that they won't pay out if you have another policy in place. I didn't realise that we would get puppy insurance, so I set up a policy with Petplan for the day I collected her. But it wouldn't have paid out for illness for 2 weeks. Then I got notified that I had Petplan puppy insurance, which gives instant cover. When I phoned up, they said that unless I cancelled the policy I had taken out, the puppy policy would not be valid.

Thanks for the help,you might be sorry though, I might post lots of pictures now.

On wet 11pm wees I also got a rather fetching rain hat just to keep by the back door. I got absolute pelters for buying it. Now however it keeps going mysteriously missing and had to be a second one.

I bought an overlapping policy for this reason, so I had no break in cover (the 4 week cover also refused to pay out on FluffyPup being ill the day after we got him, so I wasn't going to stay with that insurer!).

My current insurer wrote to me to say there isn't the waiting period if you transfer from another insurer now. I wonder if that will become standard?

That was the same insurer so they knew about the other policy. I doubt it would apply to a different company.

Hiddenpup is about 16 weeks old. Mini schnauzer! She knows her name and will perform sit, down, touch (my hand) and come but only if she knows I've got treats.

Toilet training going well, better when DH pays attention though.

Off to take her out for a walk, will join in later!

@NoWordForFluffy did they decide that she was ill before your puppy cover started? That's a nightmare.

They did. And the breeder didn't want to know. £400 spent, give or take. 😬

As a fellow mini schnauzer owner (Mabel is 9wks today) any toilet training tricks? She was great for the first few days but is getting worse. I just took her in the garden as she blatantly needed to go. All she did was whine and try to climb out of the pen for 5 mins and didn't pee. The minute she came back in the house, she ran into the living room and peed on the carpet - why??!! I suspect she doesn't like getting her paws wet (it's very wet outside today) but I can't think of a way she can toilet outside without getting her paws wet. I am so out of patience today ☹️