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.

Just wanted to wish you all a really happy new year 🥳 this thread has kept me sane the last few months and Maggie and I are very grateful to you all 🐾 💕

So I’m not a huge fan of New Year and this evening has not helped with that dislike.
Pineapplepup had a wee under the kitchen table (which she has been doing several times of an evening of late 😡) and she goes absolutely mental over the floor mop I use to clean it up (barks at it and tries to attack it🙄) I decided to shut her in the living room whilst I had a wee myself (not on the floor though obvs)and mopped the floor, could have been anymore that 3mins, possibly 4. I came back in the living room and she runs off to the corner to continue chewing something crinkly sounding. I prise her mouth open and pull out a blister pack of ibuprofen with 5 of them missing. I had taken 2 of them earlier (twisted my knee the other day when I tripped over the stair gate at the bottom of the stairs). I grab the puppy and fish around in her mouth and pull out 2 caplets that are still whole but then realise I’m still missing one. So I held her upside down and shook her whilst scrabbling around in her mouth and out falls half of one, a couple of mins searching the floor I find the other half. I phone the vets 24hr helpline and they say phone the out of hours vet straight away, so I do and they ask me to bring her in as quickly as possible and that she will be in at least overnight as she’ll need a drip.
I chuck pup in the car and rush her to the vets where vet decides that as I got all the pills and bits of pills and because they were caplets rather than capsules, the said she could have ingested enough to worry and so I can take her home and they won’t charge me.

They did weigh her helpfully though and she’s put on a kilo in 4 weeks meaning she’s now a chunky 6.75kg at 20 weeks, I’m worrying now I have a mutant mini schnauzer as maximum average weights for bitches is only 8.5kg, she doesn’t look or feel fat though…….

So Happy New Year all of you and make sure you keep drugs a lot higher up than you would think you would ever need to, seems puppies can climb a lot higher and quicker than you think when you leave them unsupervised.
Take care of all those puppies and I so hope yours aren’t so dopey as mine was this evening.

Happy New Year to you all.

@Pineapplemonkey you poor thing!! I'm glad you got all the tablets.

Do any of you have a puppy who won't sleep enough? Boo reminds me of my sons when they were young. He gets to the stage where he can barely walk, but still won't sleep. This is usually the time he gets very bitey. We try calming him down, that doesn't work. He has a pen and a crate, but trying to give him a time out in either of those with the hope he'll drop off just leads to whining, barking and he seems really distressed.

@Pineapplemonkey what a scare! Glad you’re all okay. Guess you needed a stiff whiskey/brandY/gin after that!

Welcome Boo. What a cutie!

@Pineapplemonkey - what a nightmare - thankfully you were able to get them quickly - good thinking on your part so she didn't have to have any evasive vet treatment!
And welcome Boo. He looks like a handsome chap - I'll throw my hat in the ring for staffy too - I bet he has a big staffy smile?!!
For over tiredness which for Fluffpup really brought out the worst in her I settled on a routine. Like for babies people either love it or hate them!! We fell into 1 hour activity 1 hour asleep. Any timings would do - that's just how long Fluffpup napped for. Outside for a pee before nap, outside for a pee straight after nap and offered inbetween as well. We don't use a crate anymore but you do need to have it for positive associations only. Make it cosy and comfy and their place only. Put his toys in there or random new toys in there and throw a handful of treats in it randomly during the day. Fluffpup always loved her crate so i never needed to push it on her.
It feels relentless at the start as it's all about getting a great bond and management of their environment. Oh and things like licky mats and sniffing tires them out and calms them down if they are hyper.

Oh and if we did get to the stage of being over tired, I did cuddle to sleep and let her nap on me. I'll get shot down here on mn but I did the same for my babies. There is something quite lovely to stroking your puppy to sleep on the sofa then randomly waking up an hour later (and panicking that you will be fired from work!)

For getting a puppy to sleep, the same trick works for them as for babies: stroking between their eyes and down their nose! FluffyPup isn't a cuddly dog, but would lie next to me while I did that.

@Pineapplemonkey do you ever look back and wondered why you threw a 4 legged grenade into your life 🤪

Wishing pups and people a happy and healthy new year.

Separation anxiety seems to be an issue with pupxx, any words of wisdom or advice?

We've had lots of frenzied humping of sofa cushions the past couple of days. I'm hoping it will disappear once the season is over. We've had occasional humping previously but this is another level. I closed off the lounge yesterday and that just resulted in crying as she wanted to get to the cushions so much!

We hired a field today so she could have a proper run around and did some retrieves and some ball finding. Quagmire though so had to be hosed off afterwards which she hates.

Hopefully on the home stretch now though, I think she's slightly less swollen. Not looking forward to going through it all again in 6 months.

We hired a quagmire field last week, @tizwozliz. FluffyPup enjoyed it. We didn't!

Has anybody else got a tufty, moulting, lab? I need to locate his brush post house-move and give him a good going over. I imagine we'll get a full second Labrador out of him!

At the moment, Hazel doesn't shed. But I'm presuming that will change at some point? She's 5 months.

FluffyPup was definitely shedding by 6 months, so maybe soon?

Our older pup didn't really shed at all until older, younger one does but still not much.

Ime yellows seem to shed more.

I read that they lose their baby coat at around 6 months and then the shedding basically never stops 🤦‍♀️ Maggie loses a few hairs but nothing to drastic yet.

No shedding here, I've decided it's the law. She has a beautiful, shiny coat right now. That can stay.

To be fair, big dog is GSDxGR so we're used to heavy shedding of a mixed type double coat. He's always got tufties, too, which we need to pull out.

FluffyPup has started with tufties this week! His arse end looks like he has mange! 🙈🤣I just know I'll get shit loads from him when I brush him. My aim is to do it outside tomorrow!

Last summer, that's a big apple as well!

This is all I got from my two. Always a bit of a disappointment compared to the huge piles I see others with!

Impressive! 🤣

I don't think we'll get that much, but he's not as furry as that!

We get practically a whole dog shape from our big boy.

@Lougle Here is the 5 month old terror 😬

@userxx he has 'bundle of fun' written all over his face!! He's like Chewbacca's dwarf cousin. Such a darling.

The prettiest border I've ever seen!

My two looking fab