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.

Is there any reason you can't take her with you around the house? I've always let pup follow me around and potter beside me.

For toilet training you do have to watch them constantly and take them outside at the first sign, as well as after waking, sleeping, playing etc.

Here is pup in the snow!

We only had a sprinkling of snow but enough for pup to have her first taste (literally!) of snow

Gorgeous pup!

Such sweet pictures!

@Chocolatebuttonns you're sounding a little bit unrealistic, tbh. She's a baby. She's not going to be ok with being left for a while.

Okay I feel your pain and most of us have been in yours shoes with similar things, toilet training, puppy blues etc. Doesn't matter how much you think you're ready, nothing can prepare you for the often awfulness of puppies. Pineapplepup is currently doing zoomies around the room and just generally being a complete pain in the arse, it's the witching hour and I hate it!

Forget leaving pup on his own for a while, it'll be quite some time, where you go, take him with you, it's easier.

I work from home too, I've moved my office to the kitchen table so pup can play/sleep and I'm right next to the door to let her out into the garden a million times a day.

Routine is your friend, Pineapplepup wakes up (in her crate) at around 7 everyday. She wakes me up by yapping at me (she's in the room next to mine that is usually my office) and I open the crate and she goes straight downstairs and out for a pee and a poo (with me obvs, she hasn't mastered opening doors yet) Then breakfast and playing for an hour and a half and then back to her crate so I can shower and start work. On a good day she'll sleep through to gone 12 giving me a few hours peace. On wake up, straight out for toilet again and then more playing whilst I work. Then out for a walk (thats still a work in progress) for half an hour. Then lunch and more playing, interspersed with peanut butter licky mats, treat snuffling and lots of chewing on yak and pizzle sticks, she's a big chewer. Then comes witching hour , her dinner and then she very carefully watches me eat dinner and then tends to settle down for the evening, maybe a bit of playing with her toys before going out for a bedtime wee and up to bed at 10 (or slightly later depending on when I'm a celeb finishes) she goes straight to sleep and sleeps through til morning.

It's hard work (especially as it's just me and her, no one else) but she's 16 weeks tomorrow and we almost have toilet training licked, any accidents now are my fault for not letting her out quick enough and all the accidents are on the hard floor next to the french doors so she was near as dammit in the garden! She also slightly less bitey and slightly more calm. LOTS to work on but she's come a long way in the 8 weeks I've had her.

I think you're brave getting a puppy with cats, I waited until my cat had passed away before I got the puppy, no way would my lovey cat have put up with a puppy!

Accept your life will be quite different for a while and some other things in your life will have to suffer/pause for a bit, they aren't puppies for long, as most of have said at some point, this too shall pass.

He’s just point plank refusing to move, I’ve tried carrying him further down the road but he’s shaking like a leaf, I don’t want to make the problem worse. Partner had the same problem tonight, he clearly wants us both there. I’m hoping it’s a puppy quirk and he’ll soon grow out of it. Please 🙏

Our training lady last night said that basically until adolescence they are genetically wired to be close to you, it’s literally the only way a little vulnerable pup would survive in the wild. That’s why they follow you around. They will eventually grow out of it.

I think I’ve been so lucky with Maggie with her crate, she has gone in there willingly since day 1 and we have never done any crate training as such, just put her in gradually for longer. I also work from home and I have had to build up to 2 x 2 hours naps in there every day, however the downside is that is her crate time, I must be prepared to be full on dog from the minute I log off, and I get up at 6 every day to do training and walk before work to buy me decent time in the working day.

Maggie has also hated her walk this week but i think it’s the cold, she’s just refused unless i constantly throw biscuits a few feet ahead of us.

Can you imagine her thought process @thenewaveragebear1983 ? "It's flipping freezing, stuff walking....oh a biscuit...yum.... It's flipping freezing, stuff walking...oh another biscuit?!...yum...."

Hazel finished puppy classes tonight. She was unusually distracted. She'll start bronze classes next week, which actually has a pass criteria, so a step up.

Part of me is sticking my fingers in my ears about adolescence. It doesn't sound fun!

@userxx . Oh I see. It sounds like he's very nervous or scared of something? Either way there is no point in pushing it. Could you carry him to a bench or somewhere you could both sit with him, with treats. Just to allow him to take everything in, in the safety of your lap?
Before we could go out we spent a lot of time together just sitting at our garden gate, watching the world go by. Lots of people came to say hello and I was bewildered by the amount of people that had a handful of dog treats in their pockets (and no dog!)

He is a bit of a nervous pup and I’ve no idea why, there’s been no scary experience. I’ll try what you’ve suggested, I might have to take a hot water bottle with me though! When the pair of us take him out walking he loves it, he’s an odd little wiry fella.

@Lougle 😛 yeah, except I think a Labrador’s entire life is pretty much ‘oooooh biscuit’ ‘oooooh, biscuit’ constantly. She will now respond to the ‘here’ command where I drop a biscuit between my feet from anywhere in the house, even when she’s chased the cat up the stairs. The lure of a tiny piece of kibble is that strong 🤷 🤣 thank god for gluttonous hounds.

I genuinely feel for you all struggling, I know those frustrated tears and that enormous feeling of regret, but it will get better. Don’t expect too much of them, or you. Even when you have a generally ‘good dog’ you still have those feral days where everything goes to rat shit, just try again tomorrow. 🌷

@Chocolatebuttonns I agree with @Pineapplemonkey . You'll find a routine that works.

Hazel's day tends to look like:
05.30-06.00 wake for pee and poo. Back in her pen (she has a pen surrounding her crate, and the crate door is left open now) with a carrot.
07.00 breakfast - never given in a bowl. She always has to work for her kibble. Sit, down, spin, middle, under, orbit, sit-stays, 'wait' while food is scattered, etc.
07.15-08.00 - potter around the downstairs and toilet. We undo her pen in the day time now, so she has free reign of downstairs, but have stair gates on the lounge and stairs, so we can zone her access.
08.00-10.00 sleep - often she'll go to her crate, or maybe her bed in the lounge, or with one of us.
10.00-12.00 Potter, play with our other dog, go in the garden, etc.
12.00 - lunch. More training, or scatter feed, or Kong Wobbler, or her star puzzle.
13.00-15.30 - snoozles
15.30 -1700 - potter, play, toilet
17.00 - dinner, as above
17.30 onwards in pen sleeping
21.00 - last toilet
She still sometimes wakes at 01.00 for a quick toilet break.

So Hazel doesn't tend to have a zoomies time because she likes to sleep before 6pm. It might change though.

@Lougle I came to post a question about carrots and there you are mentioning Hazel and carrots.

On the two occasions I've given Bertie raw carrot he has wee'd more often afterwards, twice yesterday in quick succession, indoors. Google says that carrots can be a diuretic for dogs, what's your experience of that, if any? Of course I may have been preoccupied and missed the signs as I finally have a definite completion date of 8th December so I have LOADS to do, thankfully not packing furniture because that 's all in storage but all the admin stuff needed and ordering things etc. So I probably did take my eye off the ball somewhat. I can't wait til we're in our own space. I have 3 door gates, an indoor play pen big enough to put his crate in and all manner of other doggy things to make our home a good place for us to live together.

Although I DO want to say Bertie and me had our first walk in the real world yesterday - one 15 minutes in the morning and one in the afternoon. He LOVED it and was so good, he met a bigger Springer Spaniel who lives down the road and they said hello. Very sniffy indeed, a bit wary of vans passing by but it was great. I definitely need to find him a warm coat that fits over a harness though, as his current one only has an opening for a lead attached to a collar. Anyone with any recommendations please feel free to say. His Perfect Fit harness is great though, before I took him out I just put it on him and let him get used to the sensation of it being there and it's going well, so far.

He very clearly, though, was desperate for a pee and just wouldn't go on the path and kept trying to stray onto grassed front gardens of other houses. Poor thing if he could've crossed his legs he would've done so I took him back to friends house and as soon as we hit the grass in the back garden he wee'd - the look on his face of just sheer relief was so clear. So the lesson is to take him out after toiletting and the big take-away is that we did it and it was lovely to spend time with him doing something we both enjoyed.

@thenewaveragebear1983 You’re so right about labs and food, any food. Riverpup stole a half a courgette the other day and happily munched it away.

Hazel is 4 months (19 weeks on Saturday).

@FeargalLandSharkey carrots are apparently a weak diuretic. I haven't noticed anything in Hazel, but I guess she has regular access to toileting, so I wouldn't necessarily notice it.

@Chocolatebuttonns you’ve got a raging case of the puppy blues. I felt like you, still have a few days now but I’m generally feeling much better. It will get easier. Being able to leave pup in his crate and pop out has helped my mental state so much. Why will the training be your responsibility?