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 😂)

@Inastatus hope pup is ok!

Pablo was weighing in at 7.1kgs at 11 weeks. That was over two weeks ago so who knows what he weighs now 😂
I think there a pros and cons to having a larger pup.
Pros being better bladder control, cons being a play pen was useless as he could climb out of it

How often do we need to weigh them? I don’t think I know how much Walter weighs. 🤔

@Paws4thought25 Im not actually sure. I go by looking at him 😂 apparently they should have a waist, you shouldn’t be able to see their ribs but you should be able to feel the last two if you run your hand over them?

I thought Pablo was looking a little on the leaner side the other day so upped his rations a bit - but not too much so he gets loose stools. I’d forgotten that, of course, getting out for walks was going to burn more calories 🤦‍♀️

Ah. Makes sense. Definitely don’t want a porky pup!

Soupdog gets weighed every couple of month so the vet knows how much worming/flea meds she needs. Otherwise I’d have no idea and would just go on looks too.

So I have a confession to make which I am a little worried I will be flamed for!

I was casually reading different opinions online about when people start to leave their dogs at home alone etc, as well as opinions on crates vs free roam.

I do have a crate for Pablo, but he only sleeps in it for 7 hours over night and some day time naps. Not the past couple of days because it’s too hot IMO.

Anyway, nearly everything I have read advocates for ALWAYS restricting how much freedom your puppy has around the house, unless you are watching them. Some advocate for attaching them to you at all times, others for play pens and others still, far too many hours in a crate (in my opinion)

So our set up is - Pablo has free rein of all of downstairs and the garden as the door is always open. Downstairs is two rooms - kitchen and living room. Both puppy proofed as far as can be (I.e. no wires to chew and other items out of current reach but of course he could chew through my kitchen table or my sofa if he chooses to do so) my garden is a medium-sized boring fenced grassed area so he cannot go anywhere I can’t see him out there, nor is there anything out there that can harm him. I do not have eyes on him the entire time he is awake. I largely let him wander around as he sees fit. He has plenty of his own stuff to occupy him and I have never once caught him chewing or destroying my sofa/table etc. am I doing it wrong?! Nearly everything I am reading advocates for as little freedom as possible but that doesn’t feel right to me?!
Don’t get me wrong, if I haven’t seen him for several minutes I will go and check what he is up
to!

That takes me back.

Our pup had free rein as well.

@VanGoSunflowers mostly the advice against free reign is for two reasons:

A) To protect the puppy from eating/consuming something they shouldn't. You'd be surprised just how much damage even small things can do and puppies don't tend to have the adult dogs common sense to avoid things that are toxic. Even in thirty seconds they can eat something that lands you with an expensive vets bill (rocks, sticks, your wooden table leg, tea-towel etc).

B) To help with toilet training. It's easier to do toilet training if you restrict the space the puppy can piddle in - because if the puppy has free reign completely they can end up doing it v. quickly without you realising. If you keep them in the room you're in, then chances are you'll spot them in time.

Once you've sorted toilet training, then A is really your main reason. Ultimately, it's down to your risk appetite. There's nothing wrong with the approach you're taking if it works for you and Pablo is safe 🙂Personally, I'd rather someone does what you do than confine their poor puppy to a crate during the day and at night.

Ha! I'm lurking and I'm the free rein queen dontcha know 😉 It can be done. No lectures but some of you know my little cutie was free range with two/three rooms of her own 24/7 at 8 weeks old. No crate and no issues with toilet training or chewing.

I'm not here to be bossy, just to say that free range pups do thrive.

Lovely to see all the gorgeous pups here but it's making me broody.

We’ve opted for the middle ground for SoupDog. Crate for nighttime but it has the door open all day and if she wants to go in she can but otherwise she’s pottering about the kitchen, hall and front room. Back door tends to be open on good days for easy garden access when she does dig, bark at unknown passers by and wreaks havoc on my apple trees!

@LandSharksAnonymous & @CoubousAndTourmalet thanks (again!)

We’ve had no issues with toilet training so far, so that’s definitely not a concern. We do get the odd wee accident but that’s always my fault for not encouraging him to go outside after a sleep 🤦‍♀️ haven’t had one of those for a while though but probably because the back door is always open!

TBH, I haven’t seen him make a bee line for chewing furniture (yet!) he will try chew my cushions so I’ve moved them out of the way (and promised myself fancy, new ones when he is grown up 😂) but appreciate this could change as he matures.

Have either of you had anything particularly bad happen to a pup when your back has been turned?

@CoubousAndTourmalet its definitely time for another pup 😉

In other news, the favourite game of the day is to tip up the supposedly none-tip heavy ceramic water bowl. I’ve moved it outside to attempt to save my wooden floor, but each time I fill it up, he takes a little drink, splashes around in it and tips it over. So I fill it up again and the cycle continues 😂

Im just sitting here watching him. It’s highly entertaining.

Also lurking from the teenage thread and, like comrade @CoubousAndTourmalet also a proponent of free range puppies. We didn't even buy a crate and our girlie is fab. Just had a couple of baby gates but they've both gone now and I have my lovely old doorways back! She never chewed anything that wasn't hers because she grew up with it all being normal and not a novelty – fancy wooden handled pans at her mouth level etc. I just moved dangling wires but other than that she had everything in her space as it is now. From night one she slept in her beds in the kitchen/snug and still does today.

10/10, totally recommend, but I accept that it doesn't work for the layout of everyone's house.

@VanGoSunflowers

I'm the most cautious, safety conscious, over-protective puppy owner in existence. I never take risks. I don't let them climb stairs or jump around, but I've honestly never had an issue with allowing them freedom. No injuries of any sort, no significant damage (aside from a slightly chewed kitchen mat). They've all been sensible pups around the house. They move around a lot during the night but just settle in a different spot, they don't ever mess around as people might expect them to.

I admit that this may be one of the advantages of a giant breed though; there is definitely less risk of them escaping through small gaps, crawling under furniture to access cables etc. In some ways I suspect it is far easier to keep a giant breed puppy safe than it is to keep a tiny toy breed puppy safe.

So while I do advocate free range I can see that crating is less harmful for smaller breeds. For anything Retriever/GSD size and up I'd say they really benefit from having space. Plus crating is kind of impractical with a dog the size of a bear (Brie was almost 16kg at her 12 week vaccine weigh-in).

Sorry for very long-winded answer but you know what I'm like 🙄

I always appreciate your attention to detail @CoubousAndTourmalet 😘

@brushingboots Im loving you all lurking on here and hope it’s making you all broody for new puppies 😂 in seriousness though, you guys have all been there (as have others that aren’t first time dog owners on this thread) and I did wander about whether it would be easier for him to know and (hopefully) be uninterested in items in the whole house by the time he is grown.

My friend suggested I remove my rug in the living room before I got him but decided against it in the end, despite me being fond of it and he’s never chewed it. Appreciate that might all change one day though.

I do think his teeth are bothering him - but he does usually make a beeline for his designated chew toys (and whole frozen carrots!)

I have nothing to compare him with obviously but he does seem so far to be a fairly sensible pup 🤞 so I guess I will carry on as I am but try not to get too complacent!

I'd like to join although my little nugget is only five weeks old so won't be joining us for a while.

Would love to have the wisdom of those of you who are a few weeks ahead!

@scoobiedoozie oooh exciting! Can you tell us more? What breed have you gone for? Have you picked out a name yet?

From what you've said @VanGoSunflowers , I think Pablo is a sensible pup. Some just are very calm and laid back right from the start.

Not the topic of the thread but Nextdoor has just poked her head over the fence - she has a dachshund and he was the first dog Pablo had a play date with. Anyway, I haven’t heard him barking in quite a while and she said he had slipped a disc in his back and needed emergency surgery and is currently paralysed the poor thing! Is it weird that I miss his yappy little barks?
I felt so bad for her, she seemed really heartbroken about it!

Buddy only goes in his crate at night now, during the day he mostly naps at my feet while I work and chews on his toys (sometimes the rug or the wheels of my chair but that tells me what to distract him with, a hard or soft legal chew!). That free ranging happened naturally as he learned to put himself to sleep in the day where he felt like it rather than me enforcing crate naps, it was nothing planned on my part!

I'm in a bungalow and the back door is open all the time, he goes out to toilet on his own and he's just started to go out independently to find things to chew or bring in to show me and play with too. If he's too quiet he's usually digging so I don't leave it long before checking up!

I have dangly wires and leads covered indoors but other than that he's pretty good at knowing that "Ah, leave it!" means I'm about to shift him elsewhere and give him something he's allowed. I did buy a play pen but he whined even when I was literally beside it with my hand dangling in so now that's used to screen an area of the conservatory that I don't want him to get to.

Oh the poor thing! I'm also not a fan (my mate had three toe biting little yappy sausage shits) but can imagine she's in bits, they take so much of your heart.

Also recommend free range. Our 5 month old pup has had the run of our kitchen/diner since the day we got him. He slept through from day 1 and now sleeps from 11.30 to 7.30 every night. He still has the odd accident but it’s getting less frequent.

Another free ranger here, but only of the downstairs. The stairs are blocked off so they can't run up and down those all day, as it's bad for both puppy and elderly arthritic joints.
K did wee in the living room once whilst I was in the kitchen, so I can see why some people restrict their access. But I think keeping them on a lead and tied to you is a little extreme.
K slept in a cage in my bedroom at night (I carried her upstairs) for the first couple of months, mainly so she wouldn't hassle the other dogs. But now sleeps on my bed.
I do have stair gates up still, so I can open the front door without them escaping onto the street. Plus I have multiple dogs and it helps to feed them and give them chews in different areas. Otherwise one of them will wolf their own food down and then steal from one of the others. No prizes for guessing which one.

We only need @Bupster here to complete the set of free rangers from the other thread.

I'm with you @SpanielsGalore in regard to gating off stairs. Ours never go upstairs because of their size; they get upstairs easily but struggle coming down. Current pup has free rein downstairs, and during summer the back door is open all day for garden access.