Puppy Survival Thread for New & Old Pups - Soon be Autumn 2024

[BrodiePup]

Setting the ball rolling on a new thread as the last one has reached 1k 😊.

Brodie had his first proper bath today...
I don't think he was overly impressed!

He'll be 6 months old on Tuesday. I can't believe how the time has passed, or how far along we've come.

To everyone who is struggling at the moment, stick with it, it really does get easier.

Love all your puppy photos - here’s Roman

@Twiglets1 Ooh, he's got a lovely head...he is a handsome boy already.
What is it about laces? My bootlaces are wrecked!

He is lovely … has a special fondness for my trainer laces unfortunately

Aww @Twiglets1 hes gorgeous 😍

Hi all, mind if I join? We have a new puppy joining our family this week and I wanted to ask some advice about slings. She's a little border cross, like our existing dog, so I need to walk the older one and obvs her little legs won't be able to walk out as far as we go for quite a while. Does anyone have any recommendations? TIA :) Picture of the little tiny girl for puppy tax!

@winsomeadante
Oh what a cutie!

A baby sling seemed like a good idea to me too but it probably depends how wriggly your pup is because to me it didn't feel secure. Then again my girl was way too fat and heavy for a sling in truth. Sorry that's not really helpful, I know...🙄

Lovely puppy @winsomeadante !

My friend lent us a sling too so that we could walk the puppy to the end of the street to look at cars etc before being old enough to go on the ground. He was really nervous of cars at first so it helped to get some gentle exposure to them in the early weeks.

We also used a sling. I ended up getting two as the first one I got from Vinted was very small and didn't feel secure enough!

I bought this one from Amazon afterwards and it's fab. I wasn't sure as it has quite mixed reviews but it did the job well for us.

Although Vinny just used to as leverage to stand up on his back legs the whole time which was rather annoying 😂

amzn.eu/d/1jLMo5v

Gorgeous puppies 🥰
@AubrieDog I just want to cuddle Brie!

Thank you all so much!

@BrodiePup

This one's for you then. She's just a gigantic lap dog really...😆🙄😘

@AubrieDog She's an absolute beauty, her coat is gorgeous.

LOL, that coat is not so gorgeous when it's all over the sofas and carpets and in every sandwich or mug of coffee though... 😨

Hope you have a lovely day, you certainly chose a gorgeous week to be out and about.

@AubrieDog Thank you 😊 the weather is being kind to us.

I've started thinking of dog hair as seasoning, and a cup of coffee without a hair floating in it is unusual. I've got B booked in for a groom mid October, I still hope to do him myself eventually, but I haven't a clue how to start on his legs. Will Brie have to be groomed?

Cute puppies!

@BrodiePup seasoning 😂

@BrodiePup Vinny has a puppy groom next week! He hates the bath so we'll see how it goes...

He's been an absolute little shit today. Like really horrendous!!! I don't know why. Just constantly biting and chewing stuff he shouldn't and stealing things and hiding. I am covered in bites and scratches (more than usual!).

We bought a huge bag of the food the breeder had him on (Eukanuba) but he seems very bored of it, and it's not the best nutrition-wise. Quite often he doesn't eat much at all and today he only ate half of his breakfast all day until just now. I mixed it with some small chopped up bits of dog pate (not that he bloody deserved it) and he wolfed it down so at least he's eaten.

I'm thinking of moving him on to something else, maybe Millie's Wolfheart as I've heard good things and they are very local to me. If you've changed food, how did it go? I think he would like a mixture of dry and wet but not sure what's best really.

It's a naturally moulting breed @BrodiePup so we don't go to a groomer. I presume adult Working Cockers need to be clipped regularly though...?

We just brush the Pyries with a large slicker and a rake every few days, trim the dewclaws when needed. They shed the undercoat pretty much constantly but have a bigger moult twice a year when you can get bagloads of fluff coming off. We always groom outside and will bin most of the wool but it's nice to leave some for the birds to take.

Interested in this @YorkshireFelix I want to change Brie's food too - the breeder had her on Purina and we've carried on getting it but I'm starting to think it's making her a bit smelly.

Sorry Vinny has had a bitey day. It is frustrating when they start making progress but then have an off day.

@AubrieDog WCS's don't generally need to go to the groomers, but Brodie has particularly hair legs compliments of his Dad. They look really cute but are a pain to dry and for picking up grass seeds and sticky buds.
I bet the birds have lovely soft nests near you!
@YorkshireFelix Sorry Vinny has been a monster today, it's a roller coaster isn't it? He'll probably be an angel tomorrow.
Brodie was fed vetspec food as we collected him but didn't seem to enjoy it, we changed him over to James Wellbeloved which he loved, but it didn't produce the best poos, and I was a bit unsure of the quality. He's been on Millie's Wolfheart duck and veg (their recommendation) for about 6 weeks, he loves it, his coat is really glossy, and his poos are perfect. We always changed food over a week or so and had no problems.

@YorkshireFelix Our girl came to us on Royal Canin which we swiftly swapped for Skinners and just mixed it in until the RC had run out. She's tried all of the puppy flavours but is now on an adult one, a few months early, half and half with raw and it really agrees with her – she actually eats her food nine times out of ten now. The amount of things I tried to get her to eat drove to me distraction: leaving it down, not leaving it down, adding hot water, adding cold water, hand-feeding... nothing changed for long until I tried her on raw. Would def recommend Skinners, not only for the choice but as it's working dog food it's VAT free. They also do wet food which I got through a lot of in my crusades to get her to eat something. Apart from the country shop near us the cheapest I've found it is on Amazon and they do small tester bags of kibble too.

In my experience sometimes they're not just hungry even though they ought to be so try not to stress if he isn't fussed. In the beginning I was quite anxious about her eating because I didn't want the precious poo schedule to get messed up (!) and I now realise that all that stress was unnecessary.

Sorry to hear about your injuries today! I always put those days down to a growth/developmental spurt of some kind. You must be soon able to get him out on pavement walks? He should be much easier after that.

Roman gets Royal Canin puppy kibble supplied by the Guide dog organisation and he’s pretty keen on it ( though a Lab cross so he literally likes everything half edible). We do fill a kong with wet food as a treat to keep him occupied while out & about & he likes that even more.

aww all your pups are gorgeous!! 🐾
Max is 6 and half months now and he's starting to look less puppy. Hes a lovely little dog for the most part. He does pull like crazy on the lead though and he's decided his ears are for decoration when out on a walk particularly if he sees another dog. I'm going to invest in a long line lead until he can be trusted to not completely ignore me and make me look like a terrible dog owner!! Here he is my lovely little arsehole 😂

@BrodiePup yes he will probably be an angel tomorrow when he's with DH all day! Great to hear Millie's goes down well at yours. Going to give them a call tomorrow and see what they recommend.

@brushingboots Ah yes I know the drill of trying everything to get him to eat. I often put his kibble inside an empty plastic bottle and he thinks it's the most exciting thing ever and snaffles it all 😂 I'm interested in raw feeding but it sounds complicated! Do you find it expensive? My parents have a greyhound who is raw fed and she loves it but it always seems like such a faff. I bet Vinny would wolf it down every time though!

We can walk him from Monday thank god! Still another 3 weeks after that until we can go down the canal, river and woods but I am thrilled with just a pavement walk.

@Twiglets1 I did buy a puppy kong but V doesn't seem to get on well with it. Although we've not used it for a while so might give it another go now he's bigger.

@lookwhatyoumademedoo what a handsome boy!

@YorkshireFelix I think it probably is slightly more expensive if you compare it just food for food, but with the amount of extra stuff I used to buy to try and get her to eat and the time I used to waste, I reckon it's about even now. She's on Skinners kibble half and half with raw with a few pumps of flax oil and then whatever bits I want to add on top, though not every day: venison/lamb heart, venison trim, egg shells. But that's cos she's spoilt, she'd be absolutely fine without the extras.

I honestly don't find it complicated – I just had to work out how much she needed per day. She has different flavours on rotation so every third day or so it changes and I rarely have to throw food away now which is pleasing!

Hooray for Monday! You're nearly there and then life will open up!