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.

Yes, the sleep tip is so good!
I've found that she will settle on my lap, despite a little whining, and then stay asleep, I'm aiming for about an hour awake at a time 4 times a day. Conveniently this fits with the current feeding schedule, and I suppose will change again as feeds reduce in frequency.
Hopefully live and learn 😆

The good thing about about having a puppy now, is come summer, you won’t be housebound and will be able to get out and about more.

She is very cute!! 🥰

This is very true!… We have 4 more weeks until he can go out!

He can go out in your arms and really should do - this is such a crucial socialisation period. He needs to see all the big vehicles, hear all the sounds, smell all the smells. We got a dog buggy second hand from Facebook and Hazel went about in that until she was able to go on the ground.

absolutely what lougle said, pups need to see the world whilst tiny.

JanePup has gone for the double tonight 🤦🏻‍♀️

Intermittent, quiet whimpering at 3ish turned into a bit more persistent and I came down to find he'd pooped I his crate, first time ever. Been sleeping through the night for 4 weeks now. Bedding changed, back in bed.
Only to be woken by him wretching and had a small vomit at 0515....

He seems fine in himself, he did eat more than he normally would for his dinner at 6ish pm, could it be that?

We've had the bile thing in the morning a few times now, as he often eats very little in the evening. A happy medium would be nice 😴

Don't do arms. Put them in a sling - it's more secure. Puppies in arms will wiggle and you have far less control over them.

Dog buggies can encourage people to pat them and puts them closer to other dogs (which is also a bit risk and should be avoided)

I guess it depends on your point of view. Our buggy had a mesh cover so she could see out and was still protected from all that she needed to be. It worked for us.

Sorry, I meant on the ground!

He goes out loads! School run every day, car rides to the garden centre and other shops. Walks with the other dog. He goes in a rucksack 😀

I agree. We just use a rucksack. This is our recent walk.

Aww so sweet!!

So, we were doing really well overnight with puppy sleeping in crate from 10.30ish until 5.30/6ish. At which point we’d lie down with her until 7. But the last 2 nights she’s woken at 3.30. And won’t then settle back down without us nearby so we’ve gone back to sleeping next to her crate from then until we get up. Her crate is downstairs in the hall so as close as we can get to being upstairs without actually being upstairs! Is it just a phase? I don’t won’t to make the extra early wake up a habit but not sure what to do for the best as she’s still only 12 weeks. Any advice or wise words from experience?!?

Are you planning on keeping her in the crate as a place to sleep as an adult?

We’re in a bungalow, so not sure if that’s easier. But our puppy sleeps with us on the bed… which is on the floor so he can’t fall off. It’s then easier to hear/feel his cues as we wake when he wakes and take him out. He’s only 9 weeks and we’ve had him for 2 weeks so could all change but we’ve had very few accidents in the whole.

At the moment he goes out at 11, 5 and then 7. He’s fallen in to this himself after initially going out every 2hrs 😴

His cues have now become more obvious too, like whimpering and running to the door.

She won’t necessarily stay in the crate long term. We have cats and want upstairs to be a safe space for them so no plans for her to be sleeping upstairs (although they’re actually getting along much better than anticipated!). She goes in the crate at bedtime quite happily, we started off sleeping next to her downstairs and she gradually got to the point of sleeping all night and we gradually slept further away from her. She’s been doing that quite consistently for a couple of weeks so we’re just not sure what’s changed in last couple of days. She’s nailed toilet training, takes herself to the door and whines if no-one sees her and I can’t remember last time we had indoor accident so we don’t have a problem with that. Never mind, hopefully it will settle down again soon!

Pup had a bit of a grumble this eve at my
daughter when she stroked him. He had a new chew in his mouth and he hadn’t slept for a couple of hours. Do you think it could just be over tired?

@oOmoonhaOo Your DD should be taught sharpish not to bother the dog when he is eating something.

Pup gave a little warning and rightly so.

I get that but he wasn’t bothered about me touching him. Is also something I’ve never considered as we had a dog for 13yrs, and have another dog too and we’ve never had this issue before.

Different dogs behave differently and have different boundaries. They also view different family members in different ways so whilst he may tolerate you potentially taking away his chew (as he sees it) he may not tolerate your DD doing the same thing. Children can’t be expected to read their body language and warnings, so you need to remove the risk by putting a firm rule in place to prevent issues in the future.

Not disturbing any dog when eating or in their safe space (bed, crate, whatever) is one of the first rules to put in place when DC and dogs are living together.

Has the temperature changed? Mine wakes more when it’s cold.

Yes, thank you, I do wonder about this. We’re giving it another go as usual tonight and will see how we go!

RiverPup isn’t settling tonight.

I hope you had a quiet night!

What time did he finally settle?

FluffyPup has his moments where he has ants in his pants in the evening. Not sure what gets into them!