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.

Oh @FeargalLandSharkey. Moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do, you are doing that, living in one room and a puppy which is also stressful.

He won’t get separation anxiety from being with you. Freddie is always with me, it’s like when people tell you not to coddle your children, he’s a baby aAnd needs close contact at the moment. You are making him feel secure and that will help with separation when he’s older.

I remember Freddie becoming suddenly now unmanageable just before he was allowed outside. I used to sit on the boot of my car with him and watch people go by.

@Pineapplemonkey leasing a harness sounds like a good idea when they're growing. How much are the perfect fit harnesses new? I actually found a true love harness (amazon cheapie) that was a bit too small for my other dog, it actually fits pup on the smallest setting! I'm feeling like a money saving expert!

@FeargalLandSharkey that sounds super stressful, moving house is tough at the best of times. Pup spends most of her time with me, when the kids come into the room she has a crazy jumpy, bitey few minutes then she settles. I try to reward four paws on the floor but you almost have to ride it out for a minute or two. I hope it's not too long before you're back in your own space

@FeargalLandSharkey bless you! You're under so much stress. You're doing fine. Looking at the lead walking issue, what have you tried? I started with crazy daisy and just rewarded with kibble when she came near my left side. Then I gradually reduced my rewarding until she only got a treat if she stood beside me with her head level with my leg, pushing her back gently with the treat if necessary at first. Then I took one step forward - she went all over the place, so I waited again until she was back in position, one step forward... rinse and repeat. Then, I took two steps forward. Moving in circles is helpful because she has to follow to get the treat.

He's tiny, though, remember. You've only had her 5 weeks. At 17 weeks, I've had Hazel nearly double the amount of time you've had Bertie! Every day makes such a difference in the early months.

Thank you all. I feel better for your understanding, reassurance and advice. If I'd known how long the delay would be (original date was estimated 31st august!!) I'd have waited before finding my pup but I've never bought a new house before so I guess was taken in by what must be a sales pitch to get buyers committed. The house is lovely though so it'll be worth it, just itching to get there....

So yes I like the idea of just getting him out and used to the lead in the garden and at the front of the house on the driveway, there definitely is more to see in terms of 'things' like cars and people walking by although it's a quiet road. The harness hasn't arrived yet, hoping it will come today though. I can't take him out in the puppy bag any more because he's got quite heavy and he feels like a bag of shopping now!

I'll definitely include treats too, so that he remembers that I'm on the other end of the lead and I'm the source of all things yummy.

My mantra has to be 'Today is another Day' .

So Pineapplepup is driving me mad with her restlessness. She’s tired, she hasn’t slept much today and she had puppy school, visitors and a slightly too long walk that involved a lot of meeting new dogs and running.
She is currently just roaming , she sits down for a minute with a toy, then moves elsewhere, rinse and repeat, she needs to sleep but just won’t! She’s wandering backwards and forwards and it’s driving me mad.

Any tips for settling an extremely restless puppy?

Can you give her something to chew? It's exhausting and it's calming. Or give her a cardboard box to rip up. Hazel just got given a pizza box and after a few minutes ripping it up, she's gone into her crate and is asleep.

But, her crate is in a pen, so no mischief she can get up to, which makes it easier for her to decide she's tired.

@Lougle she's intermittently chewing on a yak stick (weird thing incidentally, her yak stick got tiny so I microwaved it to puff it up- she is terrified of it, barks at it and cowers - what is that about?!)
Question about the box, can it be any kind of box and do they eat the cardboard? And if so does it harm them?

Any cardboard box that hasn't had something harmful to dogs in it (e.g. not a washing powder box). You can make a box mountain and scatter kibble in it during the day - it's fun for them to explore it. But I literally just chucked an empty pizza box into her pen. They might eat a bit but it's not going to do any harm. If she tries to eat lots of cardboard it might be time to take it away, but Hazel tends to spit out the bits as she rips it up.

Another bit of fun, but noisier, is an empty milk bottle. Hazel chucks it in the air, then launches herself onto it, scooting around the floor, jumping over it. It's very funny.

Damn it I chucked out the milk bottle yesterday, will save the next one. Will also find some boxes tomorrow, I suspect she’ll attempt to eat them but spit them out. Much the same as she did with the treats the trainer gave her at puppy school, seems I’ve spoilt her with the quality natural treats!

She’s settled down now, only taken 3 hours 🙄

Just came on here to say how supporting the doghouse has been with discpup. She is now just over 2yrs old and is currently curled up next to me, keeping me warm and cosy. Just to say to new pup owners 'this too shall pass', they grow up and settle and then one day it has all just been so worth it.

Thanks Lougle the milk bottle has given me a good 15 mins so far of peace to drink my coffee!!

Last week was hard work with GhostyPup - so much biting and lunging at the kids and it was all feeling very hard.
it’s getting better though, we got a pen and an extra gate for the kitchen so they’re always separate if we’re not right there (should have done from the start) and have got a bit obsessed with him getting enough sleep but he’s a lot calmer as a result. It’s a learning curve!!
He did his first night alone downstairs (somewhat unplanned as I slept with ds with an ear infection) 11.30-6, can’t complain at that.

Glad the milk bottle was successful @GhostDog . I think we get so obsessed with 'training' that we attribute every struggle to us being bad trainers. But puppies need time to mature and that's where good management comes in. Pens, 'safe zones', 'puppy proofing', and separation are all great tools and just as important as training.

Hazel graduates from puppy classes on Thursday! She'll get a certificate and a blue rosette for completing the course. The following Thursday we'll start Bronze classes. It's a good setup, I think. It's a 7 week course, and the instructor has a mark sheet for you. If you achieve the criteria early, you move on to Silver. If you don't meet the criteria, you can book another Bronze course, but your mark sheet carries over, and as soon as you complete the award, you can switch to a Silver course.

We're still waiting for the funding to come through for the Assistance Dog course from DD2's Local Authority, but tbh, Hazel has so much to learn about being a puppy that it's not wasted time.

Something I found fun was that I found a bunch of leaves in our local car park and I scattered kibble in them. She loved it!

Hi all, hope you don't mind a newbie joining!
Is there anyone trying to toilet train their Pup in this Weather? Our poor little Guy is SO COLD (even with jacket) and just cries when we're outside / in the Garden. He will do a quick Wee but then be clawing to come bad in! He was doing so well indoors with his No.2's until the temperature has dropped, now he will hold it in until we're indoors and go the second we're back in the door... help!

Hi @Justanothermanicfunday that is tricky. I think you just have to persevere really and stay out until he's pooed, then give masses of praise and treats.

Does anyone else want to pump their fist in the air and jump up and down with excitement when their puppy does what you want them to without being asked?

I took Hazel out for a 'sniffy walk' today, so harness and long line with the only expectation being polite walking (not pulling). She remembered her door manners (sit, wait for the door to open, wait to be told 'Ok', then exit the door). She did a lot of sniffing and wandering, but she kept coming back to my side, she waited politely at the side of the road for cars when we crossed, and she politely sniffed a dog then moved on. Most exciting was that she greeted a couple of people I know (who she hadn't met) with great excitement, but didn't jump up and after the first couple of minutes, she sat down for her cuddles! I also let her off lead in the field for a while and she stayed in range and checked in with me for bits of kibble every couple of minutes. I was so proud of her.

We’ve had a very busy weekend. Yesterday we’d hired a skip and cleared my garden, and erected a temporary fence to cordon off a section of garden. Then my mum and brother both came round with their dogs. A cockerpoo and a collie. Maggie loved having friends to play with. However, I already know that Christmas Day will be hellish.
today we went to football. It was wet, cold , horrible really. Maggie was cold, bless her. She did incredibly well snuffling for biscuits and having little walks round the pitch but she didn’t like it really.
I feel really really tired now. I have no advice for the cold/wet toilet breaks @Justanothermanicfunday - Maggie will go out regardless now, but when she was new and we had that dreadful stormy week, oh god. I just kept my boots and raincoat by the door constantly.

And yes @Lougle , I was very proud of Maggie today. She was complimented by several people on her calmness and how good she was. She does seem to have ‘matured’ a bit in the last week. Like her behaviour has steadied out.

Thank goodness for food orientated dogs @thenewaveragebear1983 . Well done Maggie!

We have the weird Labrador who isn't food-oriented! 🙄

Our older lab isn't particularly food orientated, especially out the house when there's far more exciting things about.

At least he's not the only one!

Makes them slightly more difficult to train, frustratingly. He's generally quite good though.

Hazel is so food orientated that I can't train her to pick up objects with food as a reward because the object becomes dead to her 🤔

To be fair, it’s a blessing and a curse. She will genuinely eat anything. She was licking the door of my oven while our chicken was roasting earlier 🤦‍♀️