Puppy Survival Thread - for old and new pups heading into winter

[Lougle]

A thread to continue our journey with our puppies as we head into winter.

If you're new to having a puppy, jump straight in.

I thought I’d update after my pretty anxious message the other day. After feeling so awful, my lovely in laws had pup for a day and my partner and I had a huge heart to heart. He reminded me how we always put family first, and pup is now family! The time away was really helpful and just focusing on the positives every day. Feeling much better than I was. Man this puppy stuff is hard! I’m the spirit of focusing on the good, sharing my favourite thing about little whippet: she normally naps from about 8pm all the way til bedtime at 10pm so we just get cuddles in the evening. On the weekend, if we bring her into bed, she’ll nap with us til 10. A true puppy miracle! Hoping she grows into the laziest whippet ever.

She's 8.5 months, exactly the same age as our older one was to the day (260 days!). I thought she'd be later tbh.

Was looking forward to some beach days whilst we were here which isn't going to happen now.

No carpets where we're staying or at in laws house so that's one thing.

@Pineapplemonkey hi! Have you had the behaviourist session yet? How's the barking now?

Hey, behaviourist is on friday. Yesterday however was the worst day ever, she was just continuously barking for hours inside the house, I've never been so close to opening the front door and pushing her out and shutting it tight behind her, there were a lot of tears. I videoed some of the barking and sent it to the trainer I had who helped me with some puppy training stuff a month or so ago. She came straight back and picked up that she always at doors when she barks and maybe it's an issue with reflections (French doors to the garden are obviously glass but all my downstairs internal doors have big panes of glass as well) So I immediately obtained some of that sticky back window frosting and have frosted the bottom panes of each door and a quarter of the way up the French doors (sod what it looks like for now). We'll give it a few days to see if it works, I hardly got a yap out of her for the rest of the evening, she didn't even bark at me to be let in the garden every 5mins. She was also far more settled and napped lots, she's been really agitated in evenings for a while now so fingers crossed it was reflections that were agitating her and she'll be a bit happier. Her barking in the garden (and inside) at noises still need to be addressed but it has improved today and I've been given some noise desensitisation exercises to do.

This too shall pass and all that, I have to hold onto that!

I do hope that helps @Pineapplemonkey . Well done for all that you're doing.

She's absolutely miserable wearing the pants 😞

@Pineapplemonkey oh I hope that helps. And fingers crossed the behaviourist will have some ideas too.

@Pineapplemonkey I’ve got my fingers crossed that you’ve sussed the barking issue 🤞

Maggie graduated from puppy school tonight and got her certificate and a cute little bandana!

i feel like we’ve got a bit sloppy and are slipping into some bad habits, so things on our training agenda for the next few weeks are to work on sitting and waiting until command to move, and loose lead walking. We do use a place command but I want to use it to my advantage a bit more to get some better behaviour especially in the kitchen as she is doing a lot of counter surfing and it’s impossible to empty the dishwasher without her ‘helping’ so I’m going to get her little square ‘place’ and go back to basics with those things to get a bit of calm back in.

she’s back to seeming absolutely frantic with hunger, she was only wormed last week but I wonder if she needs it again. There’s no worms in her poo that I can see. She’s now completely on dry food, Millie’s wolf heart gundog mix, but she eats it so incredibly fast. I have bought two enrichment food dispenser toys today to hopefully slow her down a bit. I don’t know what else to do really, she already has pretty much the full quota of food either as meals or treats.

Can I join the party - 10 week old border collie joined our family last weekend so we're a week and half in. Cuteness in bundles, training sit and come going well. Toilet training = disaster.

He obviously bright a mastered sit and come within a few days. However he continues to pee and poo in the house, doesn't often ask to go out and when out won't always do anything and the comes in and does it on the floor. I thought collies were relatively easy to train, where are we going wrong?

@Chocolategirl19791 your pup is much too young to ask to go out! Hes currently got no idea where he should pee - he's just a baby so you need to teach him.
I used Steve Mann Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy book. It's a great book for all things puppy.
This is the gist of it.
Pup needs to be taken outside after eating, playing, waking, or every 30 minutes.
When he's in the house someone is on puppy duty and that means watching him ALL the time for signs of peeing! Ready to whizz him outside!
Then you stay out with him until he does something. Even if it's pouring with rain.
When he goes make like a party! Praise treats play!
If absolutely nothing happens then bring him in, watch him like a hawk, if he starts to circle or sniff scoop him up and take him outside because he's about to go. When he goes it's party time!
And repeat. And repeat.
We had a timer on so we didn't forget to take him out!
A crate will help at night because he won't want to soil his bed.
We set an alarm for 1am, 4am and scooped him up, outside with no talking when he goes quiet praise back to bed no talking.
Any accidents in the house ignore, but you need to clean it up really well or he'll sniff that that's the place to go.
You can start to use a word like wee wees or hurry up when you're in the garden when he's actually going. You've got a collie so should cotton on pretty quick but you've still got to teach them.
Get prepared with coats, umbrella, head torch etc!
Sorry for the essay, hope it helps

Welcome @Chocolategirl19791 I'd love to disagree with @Sunflowers098 but she's absolutely right. Toilet training is all about consistency and repetition, which means you need to be there.

@thenewaveragebear1983 she's so beautiful. Congratulations to you both. How much does Maggie weigh now? Hazel is 13kg at 20 weeks.

We practiced emergency stop today. But somewhere along the way, Hazel thought she was being taught to slowly walk towards us before lying down, rather than just lying down where she was. So we took it right back to the beginning and nailed lying down in response to a raised arm, then we're starting to add in distance again. Trouble is, she's so darn cute and when that tail wags as she does something that isn't quite right (in a response to cue sense) it's so hard to resist giving her a treat. But I must remember that it just adds confusion to treat a behaviour I didn't want or ask for (even if very, very, cute).

We played a board game in the lounge tonight, so we popped Hazel in a pen with her bed, so she wasn't tempted to play with big dog. As you can see, she decided the board game was boring.

I've been using the easy peasy method for over 2 months (got pup on 5 th October) and he's still regularly having accidents. I'm so frustrated. He's almost 6 months and I just don't think it should still be this hit and miss.

@Lougle she was 13.5kg when we weighed her at the vets for her wormer about 10 days ago. She could easily be 15kg now, which is the cut off for the next food increase.

@Lougle i am very envious of your cage set up as well, i have the exact same pen but we just haven’t used it. I worry that we have missed the opportunity. I’m going to relocate my office set up in the Christmas hols so I am not in with her constantly and my plan is to use the pen and crate like you have. The pen is currently guarding my Christmas tree! 🎄

@thenewaveragebear1983 - I know it's often said that manufacturers over estimate food requirements but both of our labs eat more than the recommended food allowance and remain slim.

So ours get the recommended amount of kibble but then have a wet food mixer and treats on top of that allowance.

@Lougle Grace was 13.4 kg at 20 weeks so a similar size.

Pup is still miserable wearing pants. Not sure how we can get her to accept them.

Managed a good walk with them on long leads yesterday in a quiet area where dogs have to be on leads so she got a good run around. Didn't meet anyone at all.

@thenewaveragebear1983 you haven't missed it, definitely not. You'll just need to introduce it afresh like any new thing. So lots of treats for stepping into the pen, and allowing her to leave. Then when she's doing that freely, shut the door for a few seconds, then build up the time, treating each time. Then perhaps giving her a new or interesting toy or something to chew.

Hazel has a pen in DD2's room, around her crate, and a pen in the lounge, around her bed. In the day time, she free roams downstairs (stair gate on stairs, and one on lounge in case we need to contain her or separate the dogs). The bedroom pen is only used if we need to go out, or if we want her to sleep in her crate. She is now sleeping on DD2's bed at night.

The lounge pen is used at meal times and if we want her in the lounge but not playing with big dog. It's only big enough for her to be on her bed, beside her bed, or under her bed.

I wonder if I should have increased Hazel's food? She's still on 320g per day. But she looks fine, so I haven't yet.

Tizwozliz - can you just manage without the pants? I’ve never used them but have just kept them in the kitchen and out of the sitting room or carpeted areas for easier clean up. Some bitches clean themselves very neatly and there’s not much to do. Avoid open off lead walking so she can’t be covered unexpectedly and it should be fine. A little more work but worth it to make her more comfortable?

Morning all. Haven't posted for a while - Chimipup has been a little poorly - firstly with a loose bottom for a week which the vet said was lactose intolerance (he'd had a puppacino - his first and last - to celebrate graduating from puppy class) and last week with sickness. He'd had an olive wood stick from the pet shop and it splintered after a few minutes- I was horrified. The vet said it could have made him poorly (or he could have picked something up outside - loves drinking from muddy puddles at the park).

Coming on here to ask for recommendations for chewing - vet advised frozen carrots but he would demolish them very quickly. He's recently completely chewed a cows tail (from the pet shop!), and he gets through bulls pizzles so easily now - he loves them though!!

He's such a strong chewer and he loves it. Luckily so far he hasn't chewed anything he shouldn't! I threw the Christmas tree up yesterday and have put a guard round it a bit like @thenewaveragebear1983 has!!

So - looking for ideas either of toys/long lasting chews or healthy stuff from the pet shop please.

@Trixibella - we never used pants with our older girl but we're visiting family in Denmark right now, so she's only wearing them when we're in other people's houses. It's only a small part of the day but she looks so glum with them on. She's fairly chilled about it when still, just won't move with them on!

Poor wee Fluffpup was scared of the wind last night. I woke at 5am as she had heaved herself on top of me. She was licking her lips lots which she does when she feels threatened and when I went for a wee she followed me all the way there and back doing short fast tail wags to the left. (She has textbook tail language) She then slept with her snout tucked into my neck and me holding a paw. She’s happy now she’s survived the night.
It's the only thing she's scared of, apart from her few weeks of a fearful spell last spring.

@chimichangaz Pineapplepup loves yak sticks, 100% natural, bit pricy but last a while and don't smell awful which is a bonus

Ones had forgotten about these. He loves them too - do they do plain ones? Now we think he's lactose intolerant I don't know if the cheese ones are any good.

@chimichangaz
I think most of them are either negligible lactose or lactose free (so Google says). You can get all different flavours, we've had cranberry, mint and turmeric

@tizwozliz what a great photo! How much does she weigh now? I'm slightly obsessed by trying to predict how much Hazel might weight/what size she'll be. The weight predictors range from 'She'll be 18kg' to 'She'll be 38kg' based on whether they use one method or another to predict weight. Then other sites say labradors should gain 1kg per week, which is surely unsustainable? Hazel isn't putting on 1kg per week.