Puppy Survival Thread for New and Old Pups - here comes winter 2024

[Bupster]

I thought I might as well be the one to start the new thread! Nothing to report but a sleepy puppy over here.

Oh totally, @DataPup. It so depends on the dog, the situation, and how as an owner you read the situation. In our case it was clearly never genuine distress, she just had puppy FOMO and was being a madam, as was proven by her self-settling after a few minutes.

I also agree that a lot of people overlook things their dogs do that are, to me, clearly cries for help in various ways, but it's easy to say that when you've seen a few dogs. We all have to start somewhere in learning about them.

I asked this question in the puppy training group I’m in as pup cannot be left for any significant time without cries and whines. The trainers words to me were… can pup entertain themselves with chew/toy to allow you to leave the room for a moment without coming after you? (Er, probably not for me right now) once you get to this point build up time so you are out the room a little longer and they are happy doing something else/not looking for you.

She also suggested it’s good to use a camera to monitor them when you try to leave them in the house. Some dogs will whine and bark when you are in the house as they can’t access you but would be ok if they know you are not there and there is just something between you but the only way to see if this is the case is to test the theory in short periods by monitoring on camera/device.

I’ve only managed to leave pup literally to go to bins. There was one day we were out in the car and I had stuff to bring in from the boot. I popped him in the utility behind a gate. Went out to car and brought first load into the hallway. When I came in, I couldn’t hear any noise or barking, went back to car, got second load, when I came back into hall this time there was lots of barking. I returned to utility and he had done number 2 on floor. Not sure if this was distress or mad timing on my part.

I definitely think, they go through phase of being more clingy than others. We had to leave pup with mum last week for a family funeral. Things didn’t go as I thought they would and we ended up being gone much longer than we would have liked but couldn’t be helped.

The following day I was in the office, DH & DD were home with pup.

The 2 days after this he would not leave my side, would not even nap in his crate which is usual for him so I do fear this may be an issue for us. Will be following along for any advice/wisdom/experience.

So much good advice there from everyone. Thank you so much.

Grateful to see that, in part, age should help. She really is just still a wee baby in the grand scheme of things. I will say that when it's just a wee moan I leave her for a wee bit. If she's getting quite distressed (rarely) then I obviously go to her but I just stay calm and don't make a fuss. We do have a camera in the living room for us to watch her when we do go upstairs for any period of time.

She's pretty good at "being alone" when we do bedtime for the kids and will sleep and hour or two by herself in the night. Then she cries if I leave the room for a minute to go to the toilet. It's just a tough phase. It leaves me feeling quite trapped as I'm a WFH/SAHM so I just would like to know it will get better with a bit of training and age! Ha.

Also, remember dogs can pick up on our anxieties.

People never used to set up cameras to watch dogs when alone & I still don’t.

Not saying I’m right but there is more general anxiety these days about whether puppies will be able to cope left alone but they have had to do so for many years. A few develop separation anxiety which must be a nightmare. Most don’t.

Oh, I really dont watch her on the camera a lot. Maybe when she's been a bit restless and we have to do bedtime with the kids I'll check if she's settled properly. We've really just got it for when we do leave the house, only to check in on her in those early stages. And also, to make sure that if/when we do leave her she doesn't cry constantly and drive the neighbours mad!

I have found the camera really useful. I would hate to find out that he was barking his head off when I was out and disturbing the neighbours and I had no idea. A friend of mine was telling me yesterday her neighbours pup howls constantly when she's out and the neighbour didn't realise until they had told her. We got one from amazon from a brand called Tapo, I think it was around £20. It links to my phone and works really well.

My main point was to be careful your pups don’t pick up on your anxieties.

Cameras in themselves I’m sure can be useful. As long as they don’t increase your anxiety every time you go out & leave the dog behind because dogs are so clever at picking up on our moods.

@Kateboosh I think the house training thing element can make things seem worse than they are! With your poo situation, it sounds like accidental mad timing rather than distress. I remember once I drove pupsy home an hour from somewhere before she was totally housetrained and then brought her straight into the house and forgot to ask her to go for a wee first and she promptly weed on the floor in the kitchen in front of me. 100pc human error. I just shut the door on us absentmindedly and the poor love hadn’t had a chance to go in the garden first. I was so upset because she’d been dry inside for ages at that point but she was obviously desperate and I hadn’t clocked her plaintive little look. All of that is to say that sometimes we just mess up and that’s OK.

I didn’t use a camera but almost all of my doggy friends of my (millennial) generation do and they’ve had a great experience with them. We never got one because it would have made me worry more but that’s just my personality. I preferred to deal with whatever the mess was when I got home and enjoy my 33 minutes in Lidl in peace.

@ConsternationStation That she’s good at being alone when you’re doing bedtime is great as I imagine that’s quite an exciting, potentially noisy time, or at least one where she can hear you moving around upstairs, plus it's a nice little routine for her as it happens every day. Just do little and often – a bin trip here, and a clothes-putting-away marathon there. It is tough and I know what you mean about feeling trapped. As you say, she really is a tiny baby still. They are velcro-like and my girl has really mellowed and now doesn’t bother getting up a lot of the time when I move around the house so I promise you it will come. Then you’ll be put out wondering why you’ve been able to go to the loo in private.

Morning all

Anyone else's little furry monster live napping in this glory sunshine?!! For a nap refuser, he will happily spend most of the morning following the sun on the carpet around the lounge having little nanny naps. Provided he can see me he seems happy! God bless the summer!!!!

Question if I may - we've recently changed him from the Burms Puppy dry food he came home with (almost constant very soft poos) to a Eukanuba dry puppy one (grain free and much higher protein/lower carb). Did the mix it bit by bit gradually increasing ratio of new to old thing for a week. Now he's exclusively on new one.

Two things -

First - I'm gobsmaced at the amount! Followed the guidelines for age and weight but it's almost x 4 the amount! I did have a separate thread to check if got it right which pit my mind at ease at bit but still! It's loads!! I've actually cut it down slightly as he's a few weeks more until fully vaxxed so not yet properly exercising.

Second - it seems to be making him extremely thirsty which has definitely coincided with the new food. Not a problem except this means we are having more accidents indoors and often on his blankets in the night if we aren't downstairs quick enough to take him out. Also loads of poos and they are huge!!! And annoyingly he needs to have al almighty dump at 2.30am

Anyone experienced this with a food change? Could it just be the transition?

My pup (5 months) is still on the food the breeder recommended so can’t advise re transition. I have read though that the best foods should result in smaller poops as more nutrients are absorbed. Dpup generally has one poop when he goes out first thing in the morning then another on his walk early afternoon. He did used to go in the evening too but hasn’t done that for a while.

Reading about all the bitey pups brings back memories of our first pup. He’s now 4.5 and lovely. New pup is 16 weeks and a dream. Seriously the most chilled, easy puppy ever. I think part of it is having an older dog to copy and we’re more confident second time round. But, I also think it’s personality. She chose us by jumping in my lap and snuggling in. She still loves snuggling.

I assume it’ll all change at adolescence as it’s too easy. She’s off lead because her whistle recall is spot on. She taps the bells hanging from the back door when she needs the toilet (got that within 4 days for coming home), sit, paw all great.

ddog 1 was not like this. He was clever but needy and so very bitey.

They’re both gorgeous @TeenLifeMum

They are just gorgeous @TeenLifeMum

And as someone who sat for most of the afternoon trying to work from her laptop, wearing a big jacket, as I took pup out so often only for him to pee on the floor the moment my back was turned, I am very jealous!

@Kateboosh does it help if I share that last week I had an important meeting to attend for 2 hours and needed to present for 20 minutes of that. Dpup had slept for 2 hours and woke up just before the call. I knew if she got bored she’d keep tapping the bells so I’d go with her outside, but I wouldn’t be able to. I decided to leave the back door open. My house was 4 degrees by the end of the call and I’m assuming they thought I was nervous with my quivering voice rather than the reality I was getting hypothermia! 🙈

Hello, I'm checking in as we bring our puppy home in just under 3 weeks. Following the thread for advice :-)

Hello
please can I join.
We have a 17 week old Labrador. I’ve never had a dog , let alone a puppy.
We chose her as we want to raise her to be a friend for our autistic son.
She is a lovely little pup sleeps 9:30-8:30 with a wee break around 11, we have left her for 3 hours and she hasn’t made a peep, but I have the worst puppy blues still :( every single day I have an attack of anxiety, and a massive feeling of overwhelm that I can’t do it.
I can’t cope with all the conflicting advice, as a first time puppy mum I just constantly feel like I’m doing it all wrong.

Hello chocolate welcome! I'm pretty new here but this is a lovely warm welcoming thread, you'll find it very supportive.

Yup the puppy blues are real. And so so much more intense than I ever imagined. It sounds melodramatic but having a puppy is up there with most stupid most difficult thing we've ever done. It's like a bomb has gone off on our quiet, steady drama free life! We absolutely adore him but lord ... if I'd really known how relentless the day to day would be (and at times, how lonely it would feel) I seriously believe we would have not done it!

Onto advice I can give as to be honest, I feel like I fuck things up most days is once I decided to Step Away from the puppy books and YouTube, I felt much better. It started to feel like all those resources were doing was to remind us of everywhere we were going wrong, of that makes sense?!

We have two more weeks until our pooch is fully vaxxed and allowed out after having to restart his jabs ... think we're counting down the hours!

Apologies for all the typos

The conflicting advice can do your head in @Ilovechocolatetoomuch

But you’ve done very well already if your pup sleeps so well at night and copes with being left alone for up to 3 hours.

Labs are the best ( I’m biased) but they are very hard work at the puppy stage. Once they are adult most become very chilled at home though where they sleep a lot, are cheerful & much easier.

Gosh I remember those days well, it is much easier/ nicer when you can get outside.

I have just signed up for the next level of puppy training, I feel like this has helped me so much ( even if she is the worst behaved puppy there 🙈😂)

.

Everyone keeps telling me they are the best, and when we take her out she is very much adored.
I just keep thinking what is it they all see that I don’t.

When I go out all I see is people with dogs , people who absolutely adore them and all I can think is why am I finding it so hard nobody else looks stressed and down.

At the moment when she is awake she seems to need constant attention, I have no idea how people work from home and do it.

She came sleeping that well, nothing we did I don’t think. She grumbled a bit first night then that was it.

People see a cute puppy full of life and Labs are naturally friendly and non threatening to people despite their large size.

They are the best (in my opinion) not because of their cute looks but more because they become so easy going once they have grown up a bit. As puppies, they do demand constant attention and like you, I found that very challenging (and I don't even work so goodness knows how people cope who are working). But our Lab puppy is 10 months old and he amuses himself most of the day now as long as we give him regular walks and time off lead to be crazy.

It's rare to see a neurotic Lab. They are just the most easy going dogs but yours is only 17 weeks so is still in a difficult, bitey phase.

Thank you, I find myself wishing it away.

She has lost a few teeth already, in the evening she is often pawing at her face and snapping at the air. Touch wood she hasn’t bitten us for a few weeks now or if she has it’s been gentle, fingers crossed she doesn’t start again.

She’s doing better than mine did at not biting until all their adult teeth were through. But mine is so gentle now.

And all those people looking happy while out with their dogs? I guarantee that at least some of the people you see with puppies will be having exactly the same thoughts as you. Like why did I do it and have I made a massive mistake? We all hide it in public most of the time though which is why threads like this one are so good.

@Ilovechocolatetoomuch I am right there with you… our puppy is 18 weeks and I’m feeling massively overwhelmed with it all still. Also our first time having a dog/puppy too.

I could have written your post, though we have not been able to leave our pup for more than 10 mins, very much a velcro dog which is causing me to worry that we’ll never be able to leave him. The conflicting advice of “leave them for short periods from the minute you get them” and “don’t leave them too soon” I find really hard to navigate. I’ve never done this before, I don’t know what to do for the best and I don’t want to do the wrong thing by him.

The sheer volume of things to be done I find really overwhelming. I am trying to WFH full time, keep an eye on him, make sure he naps, take him out for the toilet at regular intervals, take him for a walk and make sure he doesn’t get anything in his mouth he shouldn’t as he wants to put EVERYTHING in his mouth. Take him in the car to get him used to that, groom him regularly to get him used to that. Take him to puppy class weekly, where he does nothing the other puppies do as he has no interest in treats when we are outdoors, would rather intensively sniff the ground (even high value treats he goes nuts for at home he literally turns his nose up at). Then find time to do the homework set by puppy class before we are there again, only to show we can do it at home but not outside.

I just don’t think anything can prepare you for the sheer overwhelm of things to do and all at once. DD is literally obsessed with him and loves him so much, I feel bad that I find it such a challenge