Puppy survival thread! All welcome!

[VanGoSunflowers]

Running on from our last one…

I won’t tag people because I will forget someone and then feel awful 😂

They gaslight you 😂😂

@Aubrielle as Pablo is completely back to normal after his stomach upset earlier in the week, I tried literally just a handful of Calibra. Thank you so much again for sending them, it was very thoughtful of you!
It sounds daft but I’ve looked at them all and they immediately seem better quality than Burns just in the texture?! Like they seem a little oily and less dusty or something!

In other news, had to try and new tactic this morning to stop P from pulling on the lead. Treats were starting to not work as he would just take one and then go straight back to pulling 😂 so I tried the walking in the other direction thing instead. I must have looked weird in the street this morning but never mind - it seems so far to be a little more effective than constantly having cheese in my hand! Almost like a combination of “if I pull I don’t get where I want to go any quicker” and “I’d better pay attention to this loon because she doesn’t seem to know where she wants to go”

Yay! That's great @VanGoSunflowers , I hope he's okay with it. They are all good quality, less dusty, quite fatty which is good for growing pups! You'd be fine with any of them. This baby has the best coat of any of our dogs and we're convinced the food has made a difference. I'm heeding the advice from @LandSharksAnonymous and keeping B on the junior until she turns two.

The lead pulling is a real battle at that age, it was for me too. It takes a while to get a feel for your own dog. I really struggled with this madam up until about 8 months, then she had that big growth spurt and it suddenly started to get a lot easier.

You'll find what works best for you & Pablo for lead walking. I'll give you the usual line - trust your instincts 😘

Hi all

Sounds like lots of crazy pups have us wrapped around their little paws 😂

Bert can go for his first walk today! We were going to go first thing but my daughter was up all night being sick so we're waiting till later si she can come too. I thought his biting was improving slightly over the last couple of days in that i could distract him better but then earlier he drew blood again on me 😥

In all other respects he has settled in like a dream, only 2 accidents in 3 weeks (& 1 was on Day 1), sleeps 10.30pm - 6am in his crate and the kids adore him.

He also starts puppy classes on Sunday so that could be interesting!

Exactly! That’s so funny! 😂

I’ve had a day off from puppy care today, first day in 6 weeks. DH is holding the fort whilst I take DD back to Uni. Hoping he’s not a blubbering wreck on my return!! 😂

@Aubrielle I'll be weening Twatdog off his puppy food once he turns 3(ish). Depending on how large Eris grows, I'll probably do the same. I caught Hen with her head in the puppy biscuit bag this morning, so clearly it's a favourite of all of mine 😀

@cazinge Hope Bert enjoys himself - let us know how it goes? Do try frozen flannels and towels to help with the teething, or just plain ice cubes - if your dog is anything like as dim as mine, he'll love chasing the ice cubes around the floor and tossing them up into the air...which obviously gives you some time to relax away from the biteyness!

Interesting @LandSharksAnonymous because the food I sent VanGo a sample of says up to 30 months, so Brie could be on it for another year. Sorry but chuckling at the idea of Hen with her head in the puppy food.

Did you see the Maremma photo? Stunning dog and an even rarer beast than mine. We almost got one a few years ago; went as far as talking to a breeder and going to a Breed Club show. But by the time she had a litter we already had Algy. She offered us a bitch pup and sometimes I'm sorry we didn't take her, because they would have been very compatible.

Rory had his trip to the vets today. He thoroughly enjoyed flirting with the receptionists and getting free treats. One asked him if he knew sit and he was like, “yeah and I can offer you a paw too 😇”.

I upgraded his plan to include free consultations too for only an extra tenner a month to avoid the £60 fee. I’d have been fuming if I’d have had to pay as he was only in there 5 mins! The little chunk is 15kg exactly and he kept getting back on the scales to try to get more treats 😂😂.

For me though, going back into the vets for the first time since Billy’s accident was really horrible. I felt sick when I pulled into the car park and I hadn’t really prepared myself for it.

Oh and he was digging in the garden again right before we left so I had to clean him and the floor before we could go, he’s on supervised garden visits now!

Oh and as proof that this dog will literally eat anything, I forgot to put the tablets in his dinner so tried him with them on their own and he wolfed them down 😂.

@Aubrielle I did - what a beautiful dog! From what photo, the proportions looked slightly similar to your beautiful girl in the shape of the head etc (or am I going barmy!?). Honestly, I do look at LGDs and I think 'Oh if only I had the skills/ability necessary to own such a dog' - but I'm a rather lazy owner. I need a dog who wants food. I wouldn't know how to train a dog that didn't want food! Are Maremma's as rare/hard to find as PMDs?

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding Oh I'm so sorry. How are you feeling now? I always find trips to the vets to be really bittersweet as it's where I take my pups to get their first injections - and it's so exciting to know they've got all their lives head of them - but it's also where I say goodbye.

Bless Rory though - a good boy out in public and a little demon-hole-digger at home. Just how we like them though, right? 😃If it makes you feel any better, mine are all hole-diggers. Even worse, they cover for each other! I'll look out into the garden and see two or three of them laying down together, and it's only when I squint that I realise the one at the back is digging a hole...and I don't feel like I can tell off whoever is digging the hole, as the others bloody help!

@LandSharksAnonymous thank you, I feel a bit out of sorts TBH. Billy had to go to the pet hospital in Manchester but I took him there first 💔.

Not sure why (or where actually, I can’t find the hole just that it’s round the side of the house) he’s started digging, maybe because it’s muddier? Bless them covering for each other, they’re so smart!

You could easily manage a LGD @LandSharksAnonymous I could definitely see you with an Estrela Mountain Dog.
They're all really fascinating - very ancient breeds.
The Maremma is incredibly rare - only 38 registered in the whole of the UK last year compared to 64 PMD.
To most people it looks like a scaled down version of a Pyrenean, but if you put the two side by side, they look quite different facially. We met some at an Agricultural show with our girls and had them standing side by side. It was really interesting. The Maremma has a more rounded head, Pyr has lower ear set and darker eyes. PMD also has a longer coat. The Maremma is a bit more obedient and trainable, whereas Pyr can't be off the lead. Yup, I can definitely confirm that bit 😬 But yeah, the LGD breeds are very unique and special dogs 💖

(Sorry if I've just sent everyone to sleep 😂)

I totally understand that about the vets @Idstillratherbepaddleboarding .
I can't go near our old vets after what happened to Algy. We both still feel traumatised 4 years on, so I completely understand your emotions about the loss of Billy.
Shocked that Rory is a digger! We've had 4 obsessive female diggers but none of the 4 boys ever dug at all. I presumed it was a girl thing, but clearly not!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding - hope you're feeling a bit better this morning?

@Aubrielle - definitely did not send me to sleep but wow, 38 registered puppies in an entire year...I think we probably register more Goldies than that in a day! An Estrela would be lovely and not that much bigger than Twatdog...but I am not sure DH would want me to have another dog. I think five is probably enough.

We had great fun this morning - absolutely pouring down to the point where I had to pull the car over and sit in the layby for a bit as I couldn't see a thing. But once we got to the Pinetum, it was just me and the dogs. Total bliss with 90 minutes of walking (of which Eris spent 60 minutes strapped to my chest, huddled under my jacket - I'm sure she's going to do my back in one day). Eris was a total sweet-heart though. It was her first 'real' thunderstorm so she did a lot of walking next to me looking worried but by the end of her part of the 'walk' she was fine. Puppy resilience when they're young really is wonderful.

Hope everyone else had equally lovely walks this morning @cazinge how did your first walk go?

That sounds like the perfect walk @LandSharksAnonymous
Who needs 2 hours in the gym when you can walk to strengthen your legs and carry a heavyweight pup to tone your arms? It's a flawless fitness plan!

Maremma have always been very low in numbers in the UK, but are finally increasing in popularity in the US as a working Livestock Protection Dog alongside the Pyr. They're being used more and more for working, which is why that crossbreed man's comment on MN the other night about old breeds no longer having a role and being dinosaurs, really irritated the hell out of me. And it illustrates why some breeds should be kept pure. (Taboo subject, I know. I'm living very dangerously 😏)

I know this topic doesn't belong here on puppy survival. Sorry for crashing your thread @VanGoSunflowers . It wasn't so out of place on the other.
Maybe we need a serious puppy/adolescent behavioural/breeding issues discussion thread @LandSharksAnonymous because there is seemingly no longer anywhere we can talk about this stuff in depth.

Paying the puppy tax for crashing your thread @VanGoSunflowers
Livestock Protection Dog baby.

First walk was great thank you, he's very confident. Zig zag ing all over the place sniffing everything. Only did a short loop to the nearest postbox and back but he seemed happy. And hes starting to get better and playing with toys on his own (rather than biting me!) so that feels like progress too 😁

One of his crazy bat ears has now gone floppy so hes definitely looking more Jack Rusell and he's grown quite a bit in the 3 weeks we've had him. Fur is much thicker too.

@Aubrielle agreed! we should make another thread where we just gossip about our dogs and have general doggy related chit chat and no topic is off-limits? 😁Brie really is stunning.

I absolutely love the fact we have a photo of Brie and then a photo Bert right below. The difference in size (even though Brie is much older) is quite amusing!
Glad it went well though @cazinge! I've always found first walks as exciting as they are nerve-wracking as I'm always so desperate for it to go well! His ears are absolutely magnificent - do you think they'll both go floppy eventually?

His ears really are the best! They used both be super erect and way too big for him! Not sure what they'll do eventually, they were quite cute sticking up but obviously it doesn't really matter!

This was him at 10.5 weeks (just before we had him), look how teeny he was!

@cazinge oh I hadn’t realised his ears and eyes had similar markings! He is absolutely stunning (I’m sure you hear that all the time) and will be even if both ears flop - although the one ear flop is particularly cute!

@VanGoSunflowers @Idstillratherbepaddleboarding how are you getting on with your gorgeous boys? @Houndymumma how was your DH when you returned? Was he a blubbering wreck? 😃

Bert is incredibly cute @cazinge

The photo made me laugh @LandSharksAnonymous because his colouring is so similar to Brie at that age - colour on both ears and over both eyes.

Slightly feel like a threadkiller here and should probably bow out of this one now as well as the other. I miss the chat 😞

@Aubrielle why do you feel like a thread killer? I’m always happy to chat 😊.

@LandSharksAnonymous so good 🥰 how about you? We’re definitely getting into the constantly cleaning the dog and floors stage of the year now though 😭. Off to the beach in a few mins. Rory is definitely not as much of a water baby as Billy was though, he’ll go in but cautiously and every ti he got wet yesterday, he has to zoom the water off which made for a nice quiet afternoon when he’d worn himself out!

I was pleasantly surprised when I got home. Both he and pup had had a good day and he’d even done some training. Saying that we’ve just signed up for the local puppy course starting in October. I feel I need a refresher as my last one was 15 years ago. Bit of socialisation and meet some other frazzled puppy folk locally.

@Aubrielle definitely not a thread killer! I still stand by the fact a thread for just discussing all things dog (not age specific) would be interesting and useful.

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding Oh bless Rory - did he zoom the water off today as well? 😀Eris is a horror about water. I can't get her out of it, but when it's time for a bath you'd have thought that I was trying to murder her the way she carries on!

@Houndymumma So not a blubbering wreck at all! 😂I must say I do find a quick 10/15 minutes of training a few times a day just knackers them to a point where they're vaguely less bitey.

Sorry all! Not been on here for a few days - @Aubrielle you’re definitely not a thread killer at all! And I for one have absolutely no issue with anyone chatting anything and everything dog on here as it’s interesting!
The weather has been grim here today! Nothing to report other than the more Calibra I mix in with his Burns kibble, the more convinced I am that it really suits him so I’ve ordered a bag of it as well as a Millie’s starter pack! I’ve spent so much on him lately 😂

Sorry I have been quiet, I’ve had a couple of days away from internet as I sometimes and stupidly wander over to the ‘other place’ on here and it’s so divisive over there at the moment!

Hope you are all well!
Oh and found another tooth today!