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.

late to the party but @Pineapplemonkey I find peanut butter on a lick mat works well when she's restless, it takes her an age to get it all off and she's more chilled by the time she finishes. I do have to whip the mat away before she starts ripping chunks out of it though! Also yes to plastic bottles, I have to remove the little plastic rings that hold the lid in place if I don't want to be woken up by a puppy vomiting at 4am... learnt that with my other dog!

toilet training is very up and down and I think it's the cold... left pup with DS last night to collect DD from the train station... came back to pee on the sofa!! Also she's peeing right outside the back door and then stepping in it on the way inside.

We had a much better puppy socialisation class yesterday. The trainer is amazing! He asked us to get there early so she could get comfortable and have a sniff, then for the entire hour she just watched the puppies and pottered about. We did a lot of distraction, mark, treat every time she noticed something that made her uncomfortable (movement, barking etc). Scatter feeding when she was approaching threshold and at several points she willingly got very close to the other puppies! She was very curious. The trainer said you can see she's conflicted because she's scared but she wants to approach. He also voluntarily said I must be grieving for the puppy I didn't get, which was really validating, she is my giant lapdog and I love her to pieces, but I wasn't expecting to be walking such a tightrope of fear.

@Lougle yes! She is so food orientated that I can't effectively lure her with food... she literally has no idea where her body is when she's following a treat!

Oh dear! FluffyPup really isn't that arsed generally. Weirdo!

@BleakGarden I'm so pleased you're making progress. She's a very lucky puppy.

@BleakGarden she does love a licky mat with peanut butter, they are a bugger to clean afterwards though, my dishwasher can't manage it!

I've started melting a quarter tsp of peanut butter in hot water and then mixing with her kibble, seems to up her enthusiasm and she actually finishes the bowl, smells beyond revolting. I need something better to enhance her kibble, I tried grated Parmesan but not only did she leave the food, I thought I was going to actually vomit at that smell, hot kibble and cheese 🤢🤮

We're very up and down with toilet training as well, 1 step forward, 5 steps back......

Well done to Hazel @Lougle that's brilliant! I've only let Charlie off lead in hired private fields. He's quite reactive to cars (just another issue to add to the list - he also isn't a fan of the car, is so excited on walks he tries to pull like a train and wants to meet everyone and his dog, literally 🙄 - not to mention the drama of harness putting on 😫). We've had a really busy weekend so I've not measured him for a new harness yet. Dreading it as he'll try to eat the tape measure so I've been putting it off tbh.

@BleakGarden that sounds like fab progress and the trainer sounds understanding too. I know it must be frustrating and disheartening for you but I really think pup will get there.

Charlie is food obsessed inside the house and at puppy class but outside he couldn't care less - too much excitement being outdoors I think.

@Pineapplemonkey how about really tiny cubes of cheddar? Or a teaspoon of salmon paste? Or I think you can get bone broth in pet stores so maybe a bit of that?

Thanks everyone! It's been so helpful to come here for a handhold. Hopefully she keeps gaining confidence although I'm sure it will up and down.

I'm with you there @Pineapplemonkey I'd use the lick mat way more if it wasn't so awful to clean. I sometimes mix a tinned sardine or a boiled egg into the kibble. I've also got a bag of frozen beef mince, sprinkle some over and briefly soak in warm water. My other dog wasn't very keen on kibble when she was little, I switched her to Royal canin puppy which she seemed to prefer because it was bit oily

I soak the lick May in the sink and use and old toothbrush to clean it.

Here is pup enjoying the campervan for the first time

Hi from Logan. Coming home on 20 December. Christmas is going to be chaos!

We've got his full brother Oscar (4yo) and he was pretty easy as a pup, so hoping this little one will be equally chilled.

Picture fail..! Try again...

Welcome Logan.

@PinotPony aw Logan looks gorgeous! I recognise that whelping pen....I wonder if you've got your pup from the same group as I did, or whether it's just a popular whelping pen?

Wylanbriar Labradors?

@BleakGarden how much peanut butter do you put on the licky mat? I have some Meridian smooth (because I love peanut butter) but I'm unsure how much to use? I'd imagine it's not ladled on (as I have it!) but sort of for the flavour so a thin smear?

I love that picture of @FoxRedPuppy pup. Camping suits him!
and @PinotPony the way he's propped up against the pen, he's just so casually, cutely handsome.

We've had two good days. The harness hasn't arrived yet but I did two 15 minute walks in the garden twice a day over the weekend. Bertie loved it and so did I, he doesn't even wriggle when I attach the lead to his collar now, so he's clearly understood what it means. He also (twice) went to the bedroom door and when I took him outside he needed a wee so I think he's also learnt that when we go outside the bedroom it means we're going for "get busy" time.

Trainer has asked me if there's anything specific I want to focus on in our sessions and I've used this thread to add some things I'd not thought of, especially from @Lougle

I bought a toy slipper from Amazon at the weekend as Bertie is obsessed with feet/footwear. So far I'd say his response is "meh, there aren't any feet inside that so I'll pass, thanks" .

Yes!

@FeargalLandSharkey you've completely turned it all around! Well done you. Each day is a step forward.

Maggie has been horrible today. Well, she was ok this morning but this afternoon/evening she’s just been horrible. She’s refusing to walk, she’s scared of her harness and I don’t know why and now she just plants her paws and refuses to move. It’s wet and cold and miserable so I do get it, but it’s frustrating when you have a limited 20 minute lunch break and the dog refuses to move. Then she’s terrorised the poor cat, who winds her up relentlessly and she has just seems really edgy and weird all evening. I’m really tired which isn’t helping at all. I’ve ended up just putting her to bed and closing up her covers as she was not having a nice evening at all.

That's hard @thenewaveragebear1983 . Were you trying to take her for a walk, or just in the garden? Perhaps skip walks for a couple of days? I think we get guilted into thinking that dogs need two walks a day, every day, but at this age they can burn off energy in the garden and it's better to have one 'good' walk every couple of days than two battles each day.

We've had Hazel and our big dog in together much of the day. They play fight a lot but I decided to just let them get on with it and they did settle down after a while. It's easy to think that 'training' is teaching lots of behaviours and cues, but there is so much for them to learn just by being in the house and learning manners.

@Lougle i was walking her outside. She normally loves her walks, we’ve not had any scary experiences or anything. She doesn’t seem scared anyway, her tail isn’t down and she’s not whimpered or anything- she just stubbornly refuses to move. She’s not in pain because when I say ‘let’s go home’ she literally drags me down the street. I’m hoping it is just the cold and rain. She won’t have a walk tomorrow because she’s at doggy day care so hopefully she’ll be a bit more keen by Wednesday.

They are strange. Hazel has taken to hiding under her bed if someone tries to take her out for toileting. Yet, she happily squeezes through the cat flap to take herself out there!

Urgh. I think I paid for Hazel being awake a lot in the day last night. She was awake at 01:50, then I didn't sleep again. She's been awake again since 05:30.

Originally joined the last thread with Leif, my now 16 month old Samoyed.
Went to see an interesting litter of pups on Friday, and one followed us home. So meet Brock. Leif loves him already, older dog is taking a few days to warm to his presence.
Brock is a JRT cross Italian Greyhound.

Brock is lovely. If he followed your home, then it’s your duty to adopt him.

I have a sixteen month lab. Not sure I could cope with another puppy.

Just realised, Brock is your third dog? Leif and an older dog?