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.

@YorkshireFelix
The bitter apple works to some extent, except that once it dries I find you need to reapply it. Brie doesn't seem keen on the smell of it however, so sometimes if she's having a sneaky chew of table or chair leg I just take the cap off the spray bottle and let her sniff it. She generally then does a puppy bow and pretend grumble and lies down to sulk a bit, without me needing to spray the chewed object at all.
If Vinny is chewing wood objects then it might be worth giving it a try.
She's actually not too bad for chewing now, but it's still handy to have bitter apple and a cayenne pepper shaker which is our other chew deterrent item.

My puppy will chew on the yaks a bit half heartedly and soon leave them alone. He prefers other hard chewy things it has to be said.

And we find the bitter apple spray works ( cross fingers) no more chewing the skirting board since we sprayed it

Do you microwave your yaks? We do and he demolishes half within about 30 mins. Or do you give it to them in its shop bought form?

I give them in the shop bought form. Maybe will try microwaving them - how long do you microwave them for?

It says 30-60 seconds I think our microwave takes about 45 seconds. They come out massive but do take a while to cool down.

Thanks, I’ll try it 😊

Today was our first walk - it was quite successful! He didn't throw himself to the floor anyway

Photo evidence 😂

Wait what, you're supposed to microwave yaks?! I did not know this. My pup has never shown any interest in them and I have a pack languishing in the cupboard. Can't wait to try microwaving them!

I'd heard you should microwave the ends of them but never thought of nuking the whole thing - genius

Ah, super cute!! We have had our first walk too. She seems to like crawling along on her stomach a little 😂 but did get the hang of it!
Also we had an accident free day yesterday so I'm over the moon.

@Newuser75 We only had one pee and one poo inside yesterday! Never thought I would see the day where I counted that as a successful day lol.

Yes that's kind of where we have been at since we got her so yesterday was a joyful day 😂.

Glad the first walks went well!

Teething here is HORRENDOUS as he's gone back to being super bitey again. The myriad of chews hold his attention for 5 minutes then he's biting the hell out of me again. I am hoping it passes quickly...

Sympathies to you @YorkshireFelix It is a horrible phase but it really doesn't last long at all, or at least it didn't for us. I realise all puppies develop at slightly different rates though.

Everything seemed to change with Brie once she turned 5 months; teething was more or less done with so the mouthing lessened greatly. She was also fully toilet trained and sleeping right through the night by that point.

It does start to get easier I promise you.

@YorkshireFelix it will pass, I promise! Just keep stuffing his mouth with stuff. I imagine he's in pain with it so try and bear with him. Have you tried frozen carrots and frozen tea towels? I seem to remember finding some teething treats somewhere too which had (something like) camomile in them to soothe her mouth.

Oh thanks for reminding me! @brushingboots @YorkshireFelix
We made goats milk ice cubes because it freezes much softer than water and they really seemed to help Brie with the teething.

Thank you, I really hope it doesn't last too long! He's been lovely the past 2-3 weeks and I was actually starting to like him 😂

We've tried frozen carrots but he's not fussed but I'll definitely try the frozen tea towel as he's obsessed with tea towels!!

He was a complete horror on his walk tonight and the same last night too. Pulling constantly and nose to the floor, just completely feral behaviour!! It's embarrassing but thankfully it's been dark so no one can see him haha!

Finally, after what seems liked ages (has been years) I can join this thread.

We are picking up our puppy on Monday!

I am completely giddy, DP is being very sensible - very opposites of what we're usually like 😂

Ah welcome @locketrocket

What breed is the pup?

A cockapoo. I know it's not an actual breed, but still very much wanted chez locket rocket

Very nice ...there are a few cockapoos at my local park and they are all lovely

Bill cocked his leg today for the first time! Obviously this is not the sort of thing you put on a FB post but I needed to share it somewhere, and nobody else will understand the bizarre sense of maternal pride I felt. It was only once, and the rest of the walk was puppy squats, and part of me is going 'oh shit, adolescence,' but I was so proud: my baby is growing up! 😄

This made me smile, not exactly sure whether to offer congratulations exactly, but we've had several boy dogs over the years so I totally get it. You're a proud dogmother to a fast growing boy.

We had a girl that cocked her leg which really used to confuse people. In her case we suspect it was learned behaviour because when she came to us at 7 weeks we already had a 4 year old male. No doubt someone will tell me I'm barking up the wrong tree (😜) but that was how it felt to us...

Aaaah, lovely! Boy or girl?

I hope you'll come on and share a photo once you get pup settled a bit...