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 😂)

Thanks all. To be fair our day has got better. The sun came out after the rain stopped so Rory and I had our lunch the garden and then a lead walk. It was only short and he’s not 16 week yet so the things he’d have missed out on include: reinforcing nice lead walking of course, reinforcing crossing the road, waiting nicely for other people to pass (the pavements are very narrow), not worrying about tractors an lorries going past, that squished hedgehogs (🙁) are still prickly and that when someone puts a box of courgettes out labelled free to take, that does not apply to dogs 😂.

@VanGoSunflowers I wouldn't have an issue with recall if I kept them within a metre of me. 😂

@CoubousAndTourmaIet It's all food and it's very weird. She used to watch me eat and wait for scraps off my plate, share packets of crisps and slices of toast with me etc. Then one day, she shared my first piece of toast and then ran off. I found her trembling outside the bathroom door. It progressed rapidly from there to not being in the same room as me when I eat anything. She'd tremble by the back door and try to escape into the garden. I threw her a piece of steak once and she came crawling out of the corner like the most abused dog ever. I can grill sausages for breakfast and she'll refuse them. But when I cut that sausage up and take it out on a walk for treats, she'll eat it. And just to add to the oddness of it all, when my son comes to dinner she will sit alongside the table and stare at him for the whole meal, even though I am sat there too.
The car issues started after all of the visits to the vets with her knee problems. The vets was 80 minutes away and she'd be catatonic by the time we arrived. It took months of sitting in the car without moving and then short three minute journeys to get her to stop shaking. She can still only cope with about 20 minute journeys, which takes us to all of our walks. If I wanted to do a long journey now, I would have to sedate her. Previously she'd travelled ten hours down to the Cotswolds with no problems.

We've just had our walk too. She did beautifully on the way out, with traffic and lots of people today. A white van man asked me if she's a wolf, which is a refreshing change from the usual polar bear comment.

We had a manic bout of lead biting on the meadow, right in front of some people with an off-lead cocker 😳and she really hammed it up. So I guess I'm an incompetent owner again 😒I shall brace myself for the thread about a big mad dog with a tiny old lady.

Then on the way home she decided to plod along at a snail's pace because she was peeved that the walk was over. So now I'm probably a cruel and wicked person with a poor exhausted doggie, and only me & DH know it's a complete con. If we turned around and headed back out she'd be bouncing along nicely.

The food issue is bizarre @SpanielsGalore . How could you even begin to unravel it?
I suppose the travel phobia after multiple vets visits is far more understandable. It sounds as though you're coping well with it, although it must be frustrating at times.

@VanGoSunflowers I got "at least my dogs will recall" from the e-collar woman and that one made me furious 😡

Sorry. I posted on the wrong thread 😨 Given that she's a few weeks shy of 18 months, the post about my walk should have been on the adolescent thread. Apologies.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet Well P is 4 and K is an adolescent, so I shouldn't even be here. 👀 😂 Fortunately we're all a nice bunch and don't care if the threads go astray. 😁
Sounds like a mixed walk, encompassing all behaviours. Try to focus on the positive parts. We haven't mastered nice lead walking at all, so you're ahead of me there.
Who cares what other people think? I hope your reply to the ecollar woman was "At least I'm not an abusive bitch."

I thought I was smart waiting for a shower to pass before going out but no. From bright sunshine came a sudden thunderstorm and torrential downpour just as we were mid walk.

Luckily, it turns out B isn't scared of thunder after a few looks at me to check. He is however, not happy at being wet through or wearing his drying robe thing nor being towelled dry. Poor thing looked quite little and scrawny compared to his normal fluffy outline!

@SpanielsGalore well, precisely and that’s a bloody good point. How do you even train a dog to recall if they don’t leave your side… how can you ‘control them from two fields away’ without letting them two fields away to train them in that scenario 🤔
@CoubousAndTourmaIet I saw something online the other day about a trainer defending her use of an e-collar by saying “my dog will still recall without one” - right ok, so you’re just shocking them for pleasure then seeing as it’s not even necessary? How does that make any sense?

@widewomanofthevillage oh bless his little face! They look at you like it’s your fault it’s raining don’t they 😂

@CoubousAndTourmaIet can confirm she was an angel. Got quite far away at a few points bit always with one of the girls and always came when called. And she ignored several dogs which I’m very proud of her for. We did 25 mins then I carried her for 30

I’m going to take her and Twatty to the coffee shop in a bit, once she wakes up, to do some more socialisation/ ignoring training. He’s a good one to take as people avoid him as he’s so bouncy and large 😃

Awwww, what a good girl she is @LandSharksAnonymous ❤ It's amazing that she's recalling and ignoring other dogs already, but it proves just how much they learn from watching the older dogs. I know you put in a lot of work to have calm, well-mannered dogs and I'm not downplaying that at all, but it does sound as if your older girls are giving her more confidence than the average puppy would have at tis stage. So well done, girls!!! I hope your outing later will be just as successful. Hard to believe people avoid Twatdog though, I'd have expected him to be pestered by people wanting cuddles...

Awww bless him @widewomanofthevillage , he did look a bit fed up on the photo and I hope he's nicely dried out. Very impressed that the thunder didn't faze him at such a young age, I have to say.

@LandSharksAnonymous I have not long woken up and am a couple of sips into my first coffee and I tried to tag Eris in to this instead of
you 🤦‍♀️ I assume she doesn’t have her own MN account! But anyway, that’s excellent news - what a little star she is! Can I ask how you do ‘ignoring people’ training?? Asking for a friend… 👀😂

Pablo let me sleep in until 9pm!! God love him!

@VanGoSunflowers 9pm? That's a long lie in! 😂 The beauty of co-sleeping.

@LandSharksAnonymous What a good girl Eris is. 💖 I hope you all enjoy your trip to the coffee shop. Although you might have to train people to ignore the cute puppy rather than the other way round.

I dunno about MN accounts but did anyone else laugh when they changed over their microchip details and were asked for their dog’s social media accounts? 😂😂

Rory has lost his first 2 teeth 🥰 right on 16 weeks as I was expecting.

@widewomanofthevillage I didn't see your post when I posted! What a cutie! And such an unimpressed face 😀

@CoubousAndTourmaIet It's 100% more to do with having older, calmer dogs that my ability to train! She gets so much attention from the rest of my dogs, and there's always someone for her to play with, that I don't think she's going to be that interested in other dogs. When she's a bit bigger but still as manic and so Hen/Clem are more inclined to tell her off if she's rowdy...she might try and make friends with others. But at the moment she's small enough that all my rabble indulge her a fair bit. And why would she play with others when she has three generations of adults to bother? 😆

People do want to pat Twatdog, but then they realise how large he is so unless they're 'real' doggy types, they tend to avoid him or just smile from a distance. He also still has a habit of barking in excitement (he is slowly growing out of it) so that puts people off.

@VanGoSunflowers I could create a mumsnet account for her but I'm not sure she would have much to contribute!😀Basically, I sit there with a chunk of chopped roast beef in my hand/in a container on the table outside the coffee shop...and every few minutes I give the dogs a bit of it or if someone tries to pat them, I call their names and give them food. When you actively call your dog away people tend not to try and follow or pat them. Plus it helps I have a fantastic sour face that puts most people off talking to me if I am not actively smiling 😂

Thank you @SpanielsGalore but I cannot take any credit as is it down to the girls! And she is still very young, so there's time for her to be naughty yet. Twatdog was awful from about 7 months - 18 months.

Eris was very good. She had a nice snout 'boop' with a old-timer cocker spaniel, who I know quite well, and she got lovely ear scratches from his owner. And, of course, she was given pats by the owner of the coffee shop. But otherwise, it was pretty much eyes on me (and the roast beef). If there is one thing you can count on, it's a Golden Retrievers appetite.

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding are you going to keep them!? I have all of mine still!

@SpanielsGalore ah, 9am not 9pm 🤦‍♀️😂 you can tell how useful I am pre coffee!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding ah yay! A milestone! Which ones did he lose? I haven’t found any of Pablo’s anywhere and I can’t tell if he’s lost any more or not! I’ll have to have a good look later. His teeth don’t seem to be bothering him too much

@LandSharksAnonymous She’d probably speak more sense on here than most 😂 you could get her to do an ‘ask me anything’
Right so, stock up on treats and practice my ‘leave us alone’ face! Glad she was so good for you!

Weve just come back from our walk, I walked him through the town centre for 5 minutes to begin with, just to see if I could get him to focus on me in a higher distraction area and it was largely successful- with chunks of cheese of course! I was worried it would be like starting from scratch again! But he’s got the hang of looking to me for a treat rather than pulling towards people so I feel that’s good. The offlead bit was obvs the best. We walked down by the river and there wasn’t many people about. He’s definitely getting braver, ran around a corner at one point so I was out of sight for a few seconds but obviously came back. Also have managed to get him to start lying and ‘settling’ next to me when I am eating rather than jumping up at the table!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DN-iYI4gsGK/?igsh=MWZ2aTFld2p1aXRjZw==

Pablo’s big boy bark for anyone who wants to hear it 😍

@LandSharksAnonymous I haven’t found them they’re so teeny. I was just looking as how small they looked in his mouth and noticed 2 were gone! They must have just come out as his gums were a bit red. I hope to keep the canines.

@VanGoSunflowers that is a big boy bark 🥰. Just so you know though, it comes up with (I presume) your full name incase that’s something you’re worried about!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding I know, the stuff I post that’s dog related is already pretty outing so I’m not worried 😊 but thank you

@VanGoSunflowers haha me too to be fair, anyone would know who I am!

@VanGoSunflowers 'I'm A Puppy: AMA.' Tbh it would probably be a very popular thread😄

Bless Pablo with his big boy bark (which is very impressive) but also ignoring people!😍 It really is a matter of patience and practice, isn't it? Retriever puppies are so biddable and keen to please and food motivated it really does make training them a dream!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding Oh their puppy teeth are so tiny, it's adorable. I've got all the canines of mine and a few of Twatdogs other teeth. Bless Rory though, I bet his gums are hurting!

I'm feeling left out for two reasons.

1. I can't hear P's big boy bark. It tells me the video has no sound.
2. I've had four puppies and never once found a baby tooth.

@SpanielsGalore it said it was muted for me, but I could still hear it!

And you're not missing out on the baby teeth! I nearly swallowed Twatdogs the other day as they live in a mug on my desk and I picked up the wrong one 😀

It wasn’t muted for me! I never found any of Billy’s either I would have loved to have some 🙁.

I’m panicking a bit and also sad as my friend/ neighbour messaged to say she lost her dog last night to a very short, unknown illness. He was only a year older than Billy and full of life last time we walked together 😭. I’m worried incase there’s anything going round or he managed to find some poison or something as we walk in the same places.

A new puppy thread for you all:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_doghouse/5401577-puppy-survival-thread-all-welcome