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 😂)

@VanGoSunflowers as with others! Eris has been sleeping 9/10-6ish on my bed happily since the night her littermates went home. Pretty sure if I’d ever tried to crate her she’d be more like 11-5!

Just be aware once you let him up, it’ll be a struggle to get him back down again. But all my dogs have always slept in my bedroom or on my bed.

@VanGoSunflowers your holiday sounds lovely! Billy slept in his crate quite happily until he was a year old as that was the advice at the time then he migrated on to our bed. Rory slept on his bed next to ours for the first night and then had been in our bed ever since 😂. I think it’s really helped our bond 🥰. The main thing you need to know is that Labradors have the magic ability to expand to fill any space on the bed! You will find yourself hanging off the edge of the bed or sleeping in some odd positions around them. The last 2 nights, Rory has taken to somehow sliding me down the bed while I’m asleep and sleeping on my pillows. Yesterday I woke up face to face with a sleeping puppy which was actually very cute 🥰.

Thanks @CoubousAndTourmaIet, much appreciated. I can understand why it wouldn’t be feasible for the beautiful Brie to sleep on your bed! Also, thank you for the advice on the food. I spent so long researching it that I decided for now to keep it simple, stick with the same brand of puppy food but transition to the lamb version. Checked the ingredients out and lamb is the only difference in the recipe - therefore in my tiny simple mind, I will know if he is better on lamb over chicken because all the other ingredients are the same. If lamb seems more suitable, I will give it a while and transition to a different lamb kibble then and see how we get on!

@SpanielsGalore thank you! same circumstances and the same age and everything 😊 did you notice a change in her behaviour at all after sleeping with you?

@tizwozliz I know what you mean, I wouldn’t say my sleep has been overly broken but I am an 8 hours a night girl given the choice and as much as I’ve been fortunate that Pablo has given me 7, it’s starting to catch up with me now! Weirdly for me, I think I have a sunk cost fallacy thing going on with crate training. I spent so much time persevering, sleeping on the floor next to him and then on the sofa etc that it’s difficult to ‘walk away’ from it. I know that makes no logical sense 😂

@YorkshireFelix wow, 9am sounds like a blissful lie in to me! I’d obviously convinced myself it was his bladder waking me up at 6am but it does sound like he doesn’t want to be on his own. Before coming away, I had deliberated on letting him sleep in the kitchen on his lush bed (which I brought away with us even though he chose the bed last night) he was happy when he woke up this morning and getting 9 hours of sleep was amazing.
I don’t let him have access to the stairs at the moment, do you think once up and once down every day would be ok for his joints at this stage?! I can carry him up if needs be but probably that won’t last long as he’s getting big 😂

@LandSharksAnonymous so you’re getting a good nights’ sleep with her at the moment? I feel that’s half the battle with tackling anything really, if I feel rested I feel like I can take the world on!

On the subject of it being a decision that’s difficult to reverse, I guess that’s why I needed to think it through. Trying to figure out if there are any circumstances in which I would regret it! I can’t think of any, save for if he spends the night at my ExH’s again as he has done before, I’m pretty sure ExH wouldn’t want to share a bed with him and so he’d need to take his crate. Having said that, I have no plans for Pablo to need to stay with anyone over night at this stage anyway so doesn’t seem logical!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding oh bless Rory, that’s very cute! They’re like kids that way aren’t they? Taking up so much space for such comparatively small creatures 😂 I guess lucky for me that I don’t have to share a bed with anyone else - apart from when DS comes in for a cuddle first thing. But it was extremely cute to wake up to both of them this morning!

@VanGoSunflowers No change at all, but then she's always been the dominant bitch in this house. 😂
I like having her on the bed, even though she takes up 3/4 of it. And she's happy to sleep until whatever time I wake up.
I carried K up and down the stairs for the first few months. I think I read they shouldn't do stairs before 16 weeks old, so I carried her until she was 4 or 5 months old. My stairs are also blocked off, so she only goes up and down once a day, so I didn't think that would do her any harm. She jumps on and off the sofa multiple times a day anyway.

I'm another one who has the dog in the bed - Bill's been there since night two. I carried him up and down stairs until the vet said it was fine to let him walk by himself. I still had to carry him back up at bedtime for months, the lazy git. Dogs are social sleepers, they want to be with someone. Never regretted it - he still sleeps in as contact with me as he can manage, and I often wake up with him either curled in my arms, or behind me with his soft chin resting across my face.

And somehow, despite being the size of a sawn-off Lab or a chonky cocker, and sleeping on top of the covers, he steals all the blankets and most of the bed.

Why does my heart melt whenever I see Bill? ❤

No other dog has that effect on me, aside from my own girl.

@VanGoSunflowers yep! 8(ish) hours every night since her littermates went home. She’s a star.

But I do also have four adult dogs in the room with me, so she almost certainly sees them asleep when she wakes up and snuggles back down which makes sleep training. Ditto with house training and regular training.

I joke that when DH comes home he’ll need to sleep on the duvet box, or in it. But I am only semi joking - once you’ve had a dog in your bed it’s quite hard to go back because it’s so reassuring having that companion at night. Dogs > DH (unless he has chocolate).

P's an anti social sleeper. Every time K tries to lie next to her, she gets up and walks away. And when we're all in the living room in the evenings, she'll either sleep on the sofa in the dining room or upstairs on my bed. Until I come to bed, when she gets off and sleeps in her own bed. It's hard not to take it personally. 😞

Aww @Bupster what breed is he? He looks a lot like my Rory and Bill(y) is the best name!

He's half WCS and half working Lab - utterly idiotic choice for a first dog but the absolute love of my life. The nobhead.

@Bupster awww cute, I bet a little hyper though! My parents’ cockers didn’t settle down til they were about 6!!

I’m in a right flap today as I’m having to leave Rory over night with DS (who is 16 so it’s fine). DH is helping at a local event and he wants me to go tonight and camp in the camper but we only realised once he was there that dogs aren’t allowed 😭. I don’t even want to go but feel like I have to. Rory can camp over tomorrow night once the event is officially finished. I’m leaving it as late as possible to go though!

So interesting reading all the talk about where pups sleep. I’ve been feeling really bad about not crate training mine, because that seems the dominant advice. Merry and our old dog have always slept in our bedroom. (I couldn’t have her on the actual bed because I get really hot and HATE having anyone touch me when I’m asleep. Even my old man. We have a super king size so that we both have our own space!)

Merry actually sleeps under the bed; she commando crawls under there and stays there all night. It’s cute but I don’t know what she’s going to do when she gets too big!

@Struckbylightning you may well find that when she gets older she decides to sleep half-under the bed with her head and neck under but her body sticking out. A few of mine do that in hot weather!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding how did Rory get (and DS) on last night? When are you picking Rory up today?

Eris is still being suspiciously good. But I am expecting when DDs go back to on Friday (yeah I know - it's still August) it will all go horribly wrong. Five dogs, two DDs and an adult is manageable but five dogs and only one adult...slightly less so.

@Struckbylightning we crate trained Billy on the advice at the time but we haven’t with Rory and I think it’s much better. And of course I feel super guilty towards Billy!

Billy was happy in his crate but I think he’d have a really good sleep in there and then he’d come out and be switched ON until he tired himself out again whereas Rory naps and potters all day and we don’t have the moments of madness! It does make for more anxious times when leaving him though but we’ve had no issues so far 🤞.

@LandSharksAnonymous all good thank you! Rory was on his own for less than 2 hours while DS was at work and he had his sleeping music on but I was anxious until DS rang to say everything was fine. Rory slept on DS’s bed despite DS saying he would be sleeping on his own bed next to DS’s. We got home at 8am and they were both in bed still. DH has gone back and I’ll go back with Rory after the event finishes for his first camping experience!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding
"Rory slept on DS’s bed despite DS saying he would be sleeping on his own bed next to DS’s"

I have to confess that made me smile! It's hard to say no to a puppy that wants to be in your bed and hard to say no to a puppy even if it doesn't want to be in your bed 😀

I hope he enjoys his first camping experience!

@LandSharksAnonymous I don’t think he even tried to be fair as Rory’s bed was still in the living room this morning 😂. It’s nice though as DS was very unsure about getting a puppy so soon after Billy 😭.

I am getting really anxious about when I do have to leave her on her own. She is still Velcro-pup and follows me if I so much as leave the room. My proper real life begins again in September and I don’t have a clue how it’s going to be. Our house is semi open-plan and not at all puppy proof.

The ‘mad moments’ are fewer and shorter, but still happening every day. I must confess there have been a couple of times in the past couple of weeks when I wanted to take her back to the farm! I thought I knew what I was doing, but I’m struggling. I miss my old
life, and I really miss my old doggo. And then I feel guilty even thinking that.

@Struckbylightning ❤️

Im so sorry you’re struggling. By my reckoning she is about 14 weeks now? So still very young. I found when Pablo hit about 4 months old he started gaining confidence (and again in the past week or so he seems more confident still) he still follows me around a lot, of course. But I think it’s more to see what I am doing and if it’s more interesting than what he is doing!
Have you left her alone at all yet? Is there anyway you can make a puppy safe area for her?
When I first started leaving Pablo alone, I built up the time until I had to leave him for an hour for something I couldn’t miss, and I was absolutely beside myself over it. I think he handled it better than I did (at least, when I checked the dog cam he was curled up asleep)
I think we humans need to get used to it just as much as they do sometimes. I have had some extremely anxious moments over Pablo so you’re not alone. I’ve also wondered what the hell I was doing and that I’m not cut out for it, but that’s the anxiety talking.
Has she been going for walks? Have you managed to get the others in the house on your side to be consistent with her?

Sorry, I’m probably not much help but just wanted to say you’re not alone and I think it’s normal to feel the way you do x

@Struckbylightning I know how you feel, I didn't think I'd ever have a moment alone again at one point!

You sound overwhelmed so take one thing at a time. First, puppy proof as much as you can. That means get stuff off the floor or hidden! Then he can't hurt himself or damage anything precious when you're not looking or not there.

For distancing I started by closing the bathroom door when I had a wee and he soon learned that I came back out quickly. He now sometimes doesn't even follow me to lay outside the door but watches from where he's laying. I can even have a shower with the door closed now, that's real progress in a couple of weeks!

Next I got him sleeping in the kitchen diner in his crate while I go to my bed. This crate won't fit in my bedroom so no choice in that one! The first two nights I stayed in the lounge a few feet away (open plan bungalow here). After that I left a bit of my clothing from that day close by and now he just does last wee, gets in and settles as soon as the lights go out. He's there from 11 - 6, I let him out for a wee then he lays on my bedroom floor for an hour till we get up for the day.

Tonight I've done the first try of him being in the crate awake while I'm at the other end of the room. We had a long walk and his after grooming treat was a pigs ear in his bed. Fingers crossed it's working so far and he's happily chomping with the door closed and me not in his eyeline.

I'm looking for daycare but I need twice a month and a lot want a bigger commitment than that so I need as many options as possible and that includes leaving him and having a walker come in as needed. One thing at a time is all he (and I!) can manage but that's fine as long as it's moving forward!

@VanGoSunflowersthanks for the solidarity! You are right, she’s just 13 and a bit weeks. I know she’s still a baby. We are now walking, but obviously just little short ones.

I have never left her alone. When I need to go out I’ve always made sure my son can be home and we’ve been lucky so far but he does weird random shifts. There isn’t really a space I could make totally safe, unless I invest in some kind of pen, which would have to take up the whole kitchen. I keep seeing book shelves, and wires behind the telly. The precious (full) wine rack…!

Yes, the boys are really trying to follow my lead, but she randomly lunges at my dh sometimes and it freaks him out. And she still sees my son as a giant chew toy and madly bites him. I feel sorry for him because he does all the right things with her, but she looses her head around him. He’s not a child btw, he’s a grown-ass 23 year old. I don’t know why she does it.

On a positive note, on her walk this evening she was as good as gold, even sat and waited at the kerbs and lay down to watch dogs passing by. So maybe some of my efforts are sinking in?!

@Struckbylightning how long are your walks at the moment? It may be that she needs longer ones. Is there somewhere you can take her to let her off the lead as well? I had Pablo off lead from day one - someone on the adolescent thread said he wouldn’t want to wander too far from me when a pup and they were absolutely right!

On the puppy proofing - I bought a pen for Pablo in the very early weeks but he could climb out of it from day one! So now, one side is attached to his crate and I have kind of run the rest of it up against the wall so he can’t get to the curtains, wires or books. It’s difficult to explain but it works. When in September do you need to start leaving her for and for how long? It really needs to be built up over time. I started with flitting in and out of the room from day 1, built it up very gradually after that by closing the gate over the kitchen and literally walking out of sight in to the hall, standing there for a few seconds and then coming back in to reward for being calm. I dunno if that’s what did the trick but eventually, over a long period, we got up to a minute, then 5, then 10 etc - I sat in my car and watching him on the pet cam once we were up to that point to see what he could tolerate and carried on building up from there.

I think you just need a plan, it may take a rearrange of some of your stuff and furniture, moving as many things out of her way as you can, trying to protect the rest and then decide on how long you have to get her to where you need her to be and work on it daily.

Failing that, is a dog sitter an option?

I know what you mean about efforts sinking in! It feels like you’re throwing a Hail Mary sometimes when you’re training - doing the same things day in day out until one day they show you that they were listening after all! Pablo is 5 months old in two weeks and we’ve gone from him pulling towards every human and every dog to now actually walking to heel past them. I never thought we would get there! He’s also not jumping up at people anymore, something else I thought would never happen. It’s amazing when it clicks in to place and it definitely will, she’s a clever pup!

Sorry to keep banging on but the random lunging and biting - Pablo does this to me but only when he hasn’t slept enough. It was so easy to keep him a good sleep routine when DS was away or at school or with his dad, but when we are all together (as we have been the last few days on our break) he finds it harder to settle and go to sleep and the biting and lunging really ramped up more than usual. Now we are back, and he’s had as much sleep as he needs, he has settled right down again.
Do you think she gets enough sleep during the day? Is she largely left alone to rest when she’s showing she is tired?

Evening. Haven't RTFT but we picked up this little cutie today, he is an 11 week old rescue JR cross. We lost our previous rescue dog a couple of months ago aged 14.5 but she was 15 months when we got her (although had never lived in a house) so I am new to puppies.

I had to train our previous girl so I think that will be ok. Pup has been in foster not kennels so was Crate trained which I think we will continue, our previous dog slept on our bed!

So far, he's doing pretty well. All toileting outside except once which was my fault as I wasn't quick enough. I think as long as I take him fairly regularly he will be ok 🤞

Loving all the cute puppies 🐶

@cazinge he’s a little cutie 😍
And Hi!