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.

Oops can only do one at a time

Beautiful pup! I, too, fear adolescence.

Hazel makes me laugh. She disappears out of the cat flap, then returns with a little bit of moss, or a scrap of wood, or a chunk of tarmac, or a stone. I say 'leave it', she spits it out, then I put it in the bin and she looks sad.

Earlier I taught her 'share'. So if she has something and I want to look at it, I say 'share', she spits it out, I look at it, then hand it back. It's quite fun.

That's very clever @Lougle I need to teach drop, we've done leave but when she finds something very high value (a floppy dead mouse for example ) we struggle

Yeah, a floppy dead mouse is hard to beat. But if you have something very yummy, you might get her to leave it.

I actually had some roast chicken but she was playing keep away, so at close range I blew the recall whistle and then she dropped it and took the chicken... which made me think she didn't know I was trying to give her the chicken. So we'll work on drop, I think there's a Chirag Patel video where he sets it up very clearly as a trade

Bad behaviour in adolescence isn't a given. Our older one never had what I'd term adolescent bad behaviour, she just improved gradually. Admittedly she wasn't an easy pup to begin with so an easier position to improve from 😂

Will be interesting to see how younger one is. We've had no major backwards steps so far and she's so much more straightforward than our older one was to begin with.

I hope so @tizwozliz actually thinking about it, the struggles with recall and chasing had started by now with our older dog. It would be great if I didn't have to go through that again! 😓

I'm picking up Janepup on the 19th!

So, just like a first time mum, I've got an Amazon shopping basket full of stuff.... but I'm questioning myself if I really need half of it.

Heartbeat/warmer toy thing - for comfort as I want to make his transition into our home as nice as possible. We'll have a long drive home so I was thinking of having it in the car, he will have company for the journey home too.
Puppy sling - largely still walk my daughter to school and back, it's only a 20ish minute round trip but obviously in those first couple of weeks he won't be able to be put down to walk.
Lick mats - for enrichment etc

My head is spinning!

Here is JanePup (border terrier) - he's just coming up to 8 weeks old and he is so loved already!

Awww janepup looks so cute and cheeky!

I'd add - lots and lots of kitchen roll and enzyme cleaner. I remember doing a 9pm emergency trip to Tescos for that!

Oh he's very cute!!

@JaneIves yes to licky mat, maybe a puppy sized kong? I bought a puppy sling dead cheap on vinted, used it once (seriously a 5kg squirming Labrador puppy is not easy to carry), gave it to my friend who also only used it a couple of times… I wouldn’t buy one new. Ditto car basket seat or canvas crate (puppy chewed 1 zip tooth off, entire thing ruined - metal only now!

our girl loved her cuddly duck and her antler and they are still her besties.

I need recommendations for a water bowl that cannot be ‘flipped’ as maggies fun new game is to drink a bit then flip it right over onto the floor. 😡

here’s a picture of the ol’ spaghetti legs this morning. She lost 3 teeth today as well!

So gizlotspup has found his voice and likes using it, we are managing the early morning barking by beating him up ( not physically.. waking him up before he wakes us up) ( so tiring) but the day time/ when I leave barking is doing my head in ( and probably the neighbours) he isn’t consistent. So sometimes me leaving the room is fine, no reaction, other times as soon as I walk out the room he starts.. tried ignoring but he just keeps barking, tried quiet when he pauses and he then starts again… asked trainer as she said ignore. Not even sure why he barks sometimes… he ignores the door/cars/people on the street so I think it is mostly for attention. He has just turned 12 months

@Gizlotsmum no! Don't say they can find their voice at 12 months?? I am quietly smug that Hazel is such a quiet puppy at 5 months old and assumed that if she was going to be a barker, she'd be barking lots by now. She very rarely barks (only if she's playing with the dog).

@thenewaveragebear1983 she's all legs, isn't she! Lovely photo.

I just had a major panic. I came into the lounge, having walked past DD2's room, and saw DD2 & DD3 playing a card game. I asked where Hazel was, and they said that 'she must be outside'. I went into the garden...nothing. I went back into the house and said "I'll ask again... Where is Hazel??" No idea. I grabbed my coat, searched the garden, nothing. But I did hear a faint whine. DH came out, unlocked the garage, and Hazel appeared. It turns out that he had been in the garage while I was out, then when he went to lock it up, she must have followed him in.

It's occurred to me that we don't have Hazel's collar on indoors because of choke risk, but if she did get out, she would only have her microchip to identify her.

@Lougle he started to find it around 8 months but it has definitely stepped up recently! Weirdly he rarely barks when out!

That must have been terrifying! Must admit we keep collar on but have one without a buckle so any hard yanking (getting stuck) should release the clasp

It was horrible. As DD3 said, if anyone found her, they'd keep her because she's so perfect 😁

Scary @Lougle , we do keep maggies collar on indoors, it never occurred to me to take it off. We don’t have another dog though, I guess that hugely increases the risk.

today is national Labrador retriever day (apparently!)

I keep Fluffpup's collar on as well - for that reason. I live right on a main road and would hate to not be able to grab her collar. I know you aren't supposed to though.
Fluffpup never barks - only when startled so I'd say 1 a month or so? Nothing I've ever done or trained - think just her breed? She does sound like a dinosaur when playing or rolling around like an idiot on the grass.

We keep FluffyPup's collar on as it has the tag with our details on if he escapes. You get your dog back more quickly, in theory, if they can just call you rather than take the dog to a vet.

He once got shut in the under stairs cupboard and didn't make a sound to let us know! 😬🙄🤣 That was a hairy moment.

He used to rarely bark. Then we moved house, and he seems to be more vocal here, while he's getting used to what are normal noises and what noises require his attention!

Hi all. So lovely to see everyone's updates.

Logan is settling in fine. He's 10 weeks now so has had first jabs. He's sleeping quietly in his crate from 10.30 to 07.00 and we've left him during the day for a couple of hours with no issues.

Training is going well. He knows Sit and Stay so we'll keep building on that. Also been doing lots of work around steadiness at any thresholds... so I wait for him to sit before opening the crate door or the front door. Just to get him used to not rushing through.

He's quite bitey as expected. Has a Teddy to chew on when he starts on my slippers!

His big brother Oscar is decidedly unimpressed that the whipper snapper is staying, particularly given Logan's penchant for gobbling up bowls of kibble that don't belong to him. Words have been had! 🤣

That all sounds very positive @PinotPony . I've almost forgotten how small Hazel used to be. She goes on for miles now!

Here she is.

No, here she is!

@PinotPony did Oscar correct Logan for eating his dinner? Our older dog just watches it happen so I might be feeding them separately forever. Speaking of which pup is such a gannet, she's doesn't believe in chewing. I did have a slow feeder but she just flips it over. She was eating so fast yesterday she vomited halfway through her lunch (presumably she was choking). Need to come up with another plan

@BleakGarden we feed separately. No point inviting trouble. We also feed at different times because Hazel is still on 3 meals per day.

We're really mean and Hazel only gets her food for training, or in puzzles or enrichment. So she might get it in a Kong Wobbler, puzzle toy, rolled up knotted tea towel, cardboard box stuffed with paper, etc.

I did notice that Hazel was very protective of a bit of cabbage heart I gave her yesterday. She was similarly protective of a frozen carrot (she normally has raw carrots but we hadn't given her a frozen one before). So I'm working on making sure she feels safe with it.

@Lougle yes they'll probably never eat together really. Our older dog chews each individual piece of kibble, it takes an age!