Summer 25 pups

[Lavenderdog]

Any other new puppy owners around this summer? Have been looking back at some of the old puppy support threads and can see how helpful it was for those posters to share their experiences.

9 week old mini schnauzer here - so toilet training and avoiding those needle sharp teeth are the current main activities here!

(And being tolerant of her determination to rid my garden of lavender plants. Hence my user name 😂)

I hate to pee on your cornflakes but I wouldn't even think about it with the commitments you have already. I live alone and wfh but I am physically and mentally shattered from my Cavapoo, it's only been a couple of months!

ive got 3 kids however im a stay at home mum so it makes it easier, but i will say they are FULL TIME. You need eyes in the back of your head when they’re so little. My kids have been a great help with being off for summer.

@Springhare76 I have one 7yo son who lives with me for half the week. I WFH full time and am puppy raising alone. I haven’t for one second regretted getting my boy. I wouldn’t describe it as ‘bad’ for me - but it depends on what you mean by ‘how bad is it’… what’s your definition of ‘bad’? I spend a great deal of time either training, walking and even thinking about my dog. I’ve changed my home set up so it works better for him, I slept on the sofa for 7 weeks so I was in the same room as him at night - he’s been expensive and time consuming and I’ve had to make some big changes to my life but I personally find it very rewarding. You have to put a lot of effort in with a puppy and they’re a lot of work but I personally think it’s totally worth it. If that’s for you, then great. If not, I would reconsider.

I crate her - in a hand-me-down crate from a much bigger dog - but the plan is to leave her with the crate open once she's past the chewing everything phase. She wouldn't be safe just now, unless I had a room with absolutely nothing in it.

She started out screaming if I even left the room to go to the loo, but that lasted only a couple of days and she seems very content now. She eats and sleeps in her crate and takes herself there for a nap when she runs out of energy.

I also have a baby gate across the door of the kitchen, so if I need to get on with things around the house, I stick her in there where she's not under my feet but I can still keep half an eye on her.

If I had my way, she'd be with me constantly, day and night, but I'm trying to be sensible!

I do actually have a bigger crate cos I was meant to be getting a rescue staffy but it didn't work out, thanks for that reminder!

The only trouble with a bigger crate is there's plenty of room to pee away from the sleeping or eating areas! It took her a couple of days to stop peeing in there.

My 2.5kg puppy was in a 46" crate over night. She never toileted in it once.

That's great! My pup did for a couple of days (and from what I've read/heard it's quite common if they have room).

It wasn't a big problem, didn't last long, and I like that she has plenty of room to move around, stretch, sleep in different places/positions etc

@Springhare76 The problem with puppies is, being brutally honest, they are more intelligent than most people.

If you can't give it what it needs, you and the entire family suffer the consequences - whether that be aggression, anxiety, submissive urination, snapping, reactivity, resource guarding etc. It's very rare to find a dog with severe behavioural issues that are not a result of poor ownership.

So, do you have the time, energy and commitment to look after a puppy - because if you don't, it'll be your family and the dog that suffer the consequences.

I dunno if anyone remembers me saying a couple of pages back that Pabs had started to come to me for attention a bit more than usual when I am working and I put it down to just being a little more mature and needing something to do?
Well, I think I’ve cracked what the problem is. Work has been very busy lately, and on a couple of occasions I’ve been about 20 minutes late giving him one of his meals because I have had a call overrun. That was it, he was just looking for his lunch 😂
Talk about a simple fix to an over thought problem 🤦‍♀️

@VanGoSunflowers That's so funny. 😂 Poor, starving Pablo.

@Unmute I think it's one of those things 'they' say that is now taken as gospel. Personally I went for as big a cage as I had space for, so she had lots of room to move around.

@VanGoSunflowers M is very good at telling the time. He’ll come and sit and stare at me about 5 mins before his meals!

@SpanielsGalore I know, he’s like the dog version of Oliver Twist 😂

@Nella68 one thing we have in common, I tell the time by how hungry I am too 😂

On the crate thing, Pablo has never toileted in his either. I’d say it was on the larger side for him when I brought him back but he will outgrow it eventually. Will need to think about making a decision of whether to do away with the crate completely at that point or get a bigger one. I’m torn on that!

I spent far too much on different sizes of crates. The current one has a divider, I should have just bought that one!
I would love to get rid of it but he sleeps so well in it, whereas if he’s free range (in the same room I might add) he spends the night woofing at the cats/ foxes/ hedgehogs. So it looks like we’re stuck with it

😂😂 I wish everything was fixed this easily lol!!

On the subject of crates maybe it’s just different for the breed, rather than size. My mum previously had a dachshund in a massive crate and the poor thing couldn’t settle! Whereas I have Rolo in one that’s just big enough for his bed to fit, but again.. dachshunds are quite sensitive and I believe they love the ‘cosy’ vibe. Whereas another small different breed dog could love more space. Who knows, it’s all trial and error isn’t it

@VanGoSunflowers sorry still having issues with MN loading so I can’t even have a proper conversation 😭.

I got him a Tail the Hedgehog teddy as Rory is orange (well fox red but definitely orange 😂) and when he’s really happy his tail goes supersonic 😂. Plus he loves his teddies and hasn’t destuffed any (yet!).

There is a private gun dog trainer in our area but I’ve seen her out on a walk with her dogs when I was out with Billy and she hit one of her dogs with its lead so… no.

I think I’ll stick with my own brand of loving but firm training. I just want help with the more advanced stuff really when he’s a bit older. So far we’ve had no unwanted behaviour whatsoever except that he’s a knicker thief which is easily rectified by keeping them out of his way!

@Springhare76

Second this. It’s a lot of time and energy but also hugely rewarding - the main issue is the wins can come after hours/days of fist clinching frustration over something and then lots of effort over changing the trigger.

When the pup turns a corner or you suddenly realise the thing you were losing sleep about last week is no longer even an issue, it feels pretty good!!

But then there’s the next thing and the cycle starts again 😂

I can’t imagine enjoying the process unless I was ‘all in’ and wanted a well balanced and (appropriately) social dog at the end of it.

We’re 4 months in to having our WCS pup. It’s not ‘bad’ for me, but it’s absolutely full on and like having a baby and a toddler all rolled into one but you can’t take them everywhere with you. I’ve questioned the sanity of getting a pup on most days!

Have you looked after dogs for family or friends to get an idea of how you’d manage? Have you spoken to other people in RL who have taken on pups about the pros and cons?

We did a lot of dog sitting for friends and family including 2 weeks over Christmas, we discussed our lifestyle with the breeder, who is a friend, and held off for years until our kids were old enough to actually help with our pup. The teenager is brilliant with her, the 12 year old not so much despite begging us for a dog. Me and DH both work out of the house and we waited until our work patterns made it feasible. Neither of us WFH.

We know it will be a long haul to train our pup to be the best dog for us.

@Idratherbepaddleboarding oh! I can’t imagine why anyone would want to work with dogs for a living if they feel they have to resort to hurting them, that’s awful! The woman I had our session with was so sweet with Pablo - I especially enjoyed it when she was showing me how to train his retrieves. She said not to take the dummy from him straight away and to praise him just for coming back with it. She was sat on the ground and saying “oh look at you, you clever boy, what have you got there? Aren’t you so clever” in this lovely warming voice. And whenever she wanted to get his attention, she’d just run around making an excitable trilling kind of sound and waving her hands in the air rather than shouting his name or whatever. I wish I could be her mate 😂

We had a lovely walk yesterday evening. We saw not another soul apart from towards the end when I bumped into a very good friend of mine, her husband and their 12 year old terrier cross. We had been talking about getting them out together on a walk for a while so it was nice it finally happened.

The only thing I’m not sure about it that they seemed a bit anxious about it at first, I got the impression they didn’t want their dog to tell my puppy off? They kept saying “she might growl or bark at him” - I said good, I don’t mind that as my mate’s Greyhound does that to him sometimes to put him in his place and I figured it’s good for him to learn some good doggy manners from other dogs.

Anyway, we started to walk and they got on really well, their dog did put Pablo in his place a few times - no biting just growling and the odd little “get out of my face” bark but both tails were wagging and on the whole, it seemed like they had a lovely time running around together. I thought the interaction went really well as Pablo would back off a bit when told and he seemed to learn pretty quickly where the other dog’s boundaries are. The only thing was, her owners kept telling her off for doing it and I kept trying to explain that I welcomed the interaction (by the end, their dog didn’t want him to leave!) but I didn’t know if I was undermining them or whatever? I mean, she is their dog and if they don’t want her to growl I get it but I just saw it as doggy language?! I’d love other people’s thoughts on this!

@VanGoSunflowers People don't like to think their dog is being mean to a cute little puppy. When in reality, what you describe is a perfectly normal social interaction between two dogs. Obviously if their dog had been full on aggressive, pinning your puppy down it would have been different.
K was told off by two dogs for being rude and jumping all over them. One woman was absolutely mortified and kept apologising to me. Like you, I assured her it was absolutely fine. K was being very rude and needed telling.
I wouldn't see it as undermining them. More as trying to educate them about dog behaviour and body language. Stopping a dog from growling can lead to them reacting with no warning in future.

@SpanielsGalore thats exactly how I felt about it, that they didn’t want their girl to tell a cute puppy off but I had to keep saying that not only did I not mind, I welcomed it. There wasn’t a hint of it escalating in to anything further than what it was. I dropped her a text this morning anyway to tell her to say thank you to her little lady for putting Pablo in his place a few times. I also wonder if they were doing it out of politeness to me as well, like they didn’t want me to think badly of their dog or me to be annoyed about it or whatever.
As you know, I try and limit him meeting stranger’s dogs as much as possible but I really value the interactions with my friend’s older dogs for that reason.

Just had another great walk, our usual route but was much busier today. Fair few other dogs and people around but Pablo did me proud. No trying to lunge or jump, started to walk towards them but listened to me when I asked him not to. I was very proud of him! Although he seems to have swapped eating poo for rolling in it 😂 but I guess that’s the lesser of two evils!

Well it’s been an eventful day today. Took SoupDog out for a walk this morning and tried the halt when she pulls method to see if it’d help with her pulling constantly. She managed about 10 seconds of nice walking towards the end of it. I did less than 2000 steps. So thought it’d be nice for her to have a long lead walk this afternoon to get a proper run about. DD1 came with me. SoupDog only went and managed to get out of her harness after scooting through a hedge and then went tearing after birds in the park. I actually thought we’d never get her back as there was a cricket game going on and I was in the horrors that she’d crash it. Thankfully she eventually ran out of steam and came running back when I called her and crouched down with my arms wide to receive her. Honestly she’s an absolute menace. So halter been tightened!

Oh you poor thing I can feel your horror! Buddy has decided that if I stop he sits and scratches or has a lie down. I wanted him to sit whenever we stopped but this is a bit too far and really scuppers my stop when you pull plan!

He likes to try and join in with any football games he spots even though the balls are bigger than his head. His recall is fairly good but even squeezy cheese and me being LOUD SQUEAKY FUN MUM RAH RAH RAH can't compete with new people and a ball. I'm currently shopping for a new long line, the one I have was meant for a bigger dog and is much too long and heavy.

My car is in the garage and the part isn't in till tomorrow so we had our first local bus journey (that means me too, I only moved out of London last year so anything other than a big red bus is all new to me!). First one was a bit barky and unsure but on the way back after his groom he just settled on the floor by my feet. I missed the stop to get off so we had a very tired, bit longer than it should have been walk back home but he's bathed and trimmed and the last of the mats from the cone have been removed so happy days!