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 😂

@SpanielsGalore I am not going to ask how you know where you can buy sex feet from. 😂

@GoodBones85 Oh bless him! Both for running but then also for turning around and coming back - that's almost better than if he had come immediately, because now you know his instinct will be to return to you eventually. It's nice to have those tests, I think. And perfect puppies are dull 😃

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding this is the thing, she does actually really find comfort in it. When she was v. young she used to fall asleep whilst she fed, bless her. And, as you say, it makes them happy which then makes it so hard to say no. But my feet are extra slimey now. Do you recon Rory might be a toe licker?

@Struckbylightning you might be! We have one Kent/Sussex border (me) and then @Houndymumma is Hampshire...so I think you win! I can't believe you're eating chocolate in secret 😂

As I suspected... two of our dogs did come from your neck of the woods @LandSharksAnonymous - 12 miles apart but one in Sussex, the other in Kent.

@Struckbylightning i mentioned knitting, I’ve had to suspend all knitting at the moment due to puppy teething. Shame as knitting is my happy place. Instead I am doing circuits of the garden removing sticks/ leaves/absolutely anything from pup’s mouth!! Not quite so relaxing! 🙄

I’m right down south in Winchester in Hampshire so very South. Been so hot and dry this summer!

@LandSharksAnonymous basset waddles are usually 2-3 hour meets as they’re more of a slow paced waddle and a lot of chatting 😃

@LandSharksAnonymous I know Kent/Sussex borders well as I grew up close to there. 😊 Also spent 20 years just north of Chichester, followed by 5 years in Abergavenny (beautiful but couldn’t cope with the constant rain). Then back to the sunny South Downs, but on the western edge now in Winchester where I was a student. But my mum was from North Yorkshire so I know that area well too. I love seeing different parts of the UK, so many beautiful places. Once pup is old enough, we can start thinking about a holiday. In laws are keen for us to visit them up by @SpanielsGalore in Scotland, but it would be a bit of a road trip to say the least.

@LandSharksAnonymous he’ll never get near my toes to find out 😂😂. He does like to lick my legs when I get out of the shower though! To be fair it’s just what they do naturally to each other, grooming, they probably think they’re being really helpful!

I’d be worried my toes would go missing with my pup at the moment. Teething & chewing is absolutely insane at the moment. Can’t wait until that’s over. 😬

@LandSharksAnonymous I don't know where to buy feet, but I could have a good guess. I saw one on Celebrity Juice a few years ago. It comes complete with female genitalia. 🤢

@Houndymumma It would be a fair old trek for you. Think I'd have to stop for the night half way. I've driven to The Cotswolds in one go and that took about 10 hours I think.

@SpanielsGalore yes I would most definitely need to stop overnight. DH has done it in one go a few times but things like that don’t bother him.

@Houndymumma When we were looking at moving up here, I thought nothing of driving up and back down to the Midlands in 36 hours. Now I've had enough before I've reached Aberdeen/the A9, depending which route I take. 😫

So I’m not the only one mourning knitting. Balls of wool are so tempting and I also worry about my bamboo needles. They wouldn’t last 2 seconds!
@Houndymummayou have my sympathy, I’m also hoping the teething finishes soon. Merry bites me less frequently, though my son is still a target. But she often gnaws on anything and everything, including tables, chairs, clothes, books. Gosh she’s hard work!

@Struckbylightning yes I’m missing my knitting terribly. Autumn is usually when I cosy down with a lovely new knitting project. However as you say, bamboo needles and my lovely yarn would be too much temptation for my pup. She’s chewing everything in sight also 😕

My 4 year old still has a penchant for my crochet hooks but wool is mostly safe these days.

@tizwozlizoh my, your poor yarn! My garden currently looks a bit like that, but with more holes!

Our dogs haven't been too bad about my knitting, but the cats have been awful. They actually go inside my knitting bags and steal things, so I've had to buy a couple of new bags with zips. One of our past cats was completely obsessed with chewing the cables of circular needles and bit through several before I got wise to him and learned to hide them.

@tizwozliz this is what I would be worried about!!
@Aubrielle My cat is too fat and lazy thank goodness. I’m even avoiding wearing any of my good knitwear or clothes whilst pup is teething. Will not be looking my most stylish this Autumn/Winter. Mostly old jeans and very old tops. 😂

Luckily it was only cheap stylecraft.

My younger one has never shown any interest at all, but prevents crochet activity by sitting on me instead.

@GoodBones85 excellent post on the other thread - and I think really useful for OP to hear it from someone who has been there! It really is so hard finding a breeder. I'm sorry you struggled so much with your boy at the start - if it helps, puppies are all evil, no matter the breed.

@SpanielsGalore you have reminded me of why I do not really watch TV (other than 'Chicago'). TV and social media are dark cess-pits of depravity (usually made worse by twatdog and his sexiphant, in fairness).

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding are you wearing boots everywhere to stop the toe sucking?😃

@Houndymumma it is a beautiful part of the world! I'm quite lucky as I'm within an hour of the coast, but also Knole Park, Bedgebury Pinetum (dogs off leads) and Bewl Water. I feel your pain on hot dry summers though, my garden is just yellow...and weedy. But that's mostly because the dogs keep digging up dandilions and then running around the garden with them. I could train them not to do it...but it gives them so much joy.

I love the idea of a 2-3 waddle-thon. Sounds like a dream 😍I'm going to sound really stupid (forgive me, 12 hours sleep have made me a bit thick-headed), but do bassets play really boisterously like retrievers? Or are they a bit more normal?

No decent knitwear for us, even now.😮 Having spent the whole of summer 2024 sweltering in leather riding boots, thick trousers and long sleeved t shirts, I thought we'd be over it. But seemingly not. She's still mouthy at 17 months, we even had her dentition checked a few weeks ago, but it's fine - the vet thinks she's just a naturally tactile dog that likes contact. So we are scruffs now, from necessity 🙄

@LandSharksAnonymous thanks. The only way I can appease the guilt I feel about naively buying from what was effectively a glorified puppy farm, is to tell anyone who will listen about my experience and try and stop others making the mistake we did.

I wouldn’t change him for the world because he’s gorgeous and wonderful and has made such progress.

But I feel really strongly about the issue and will tell anyone who will listen……

Good morning all! Love all this talk about knitting and painting! I’d love to see pics of people’s creations if they wanted to share?

Never had a go at knitting myself but it does look soothing. Used to do a bit of sketching with pencils and would love to take that up again! Soothing activities for me are more DIY related these days!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding & @LandSharksAnonymous Pablo is a bit of a toe licker, but he doesn’t do it for too long luckily and tends to leave my feet alone unless I am not wearing socks 😂

@SpanielsGalore I am dying to go Scotland at some point but it’s still a bit of a trek from the midlands! I want to buy a van to convert or a camper van next year and have some lovely doggy holidays. Lake District would be a good detour for
me on the way I think!

Took him to my friends last night to see her greyhound girl. It was mostly a good evening, Pablo started to learn to not bother her because she told him so and they were pretty cute together by the end of the evening! Although, he took me completely by surprised and dropped a number two on my friend’s rug 🤦‍♀️ I can usually time his ‘movements’ like clockwork and he has never been an evening poo-er in my defence! I was mortified. Luckily thanks to the new food he is on it didn’t leave too much of a mess 😂

Sorry to drag the tone down so early 😂

@GoodBones85 hope you don’t mind but I went and read your post on the other thread - it resonated with me too! I don’t know whether I could refer to my breeder as a puppy farm but I was very naive when picking out Pablo and knowing what I know now, there were a couple of red flags (she was also whelping a litter of border terriers at the same time and told us that her lab bitch was on her second and final litter when in reality, it was her third) I don’t regret getting P one bit, he was made for me but I wouldn’t go back to that breeder!

Also agree about the age of children thing. DS is 7 and I don’t think it would have worked if he was any younger. Even then it has been challenging at times- and DS is a calm kid! They seem to have settled in to a rhythm with one another now and are becoming best buds but it took a lot of managing both of their behaviour around each other to get to this stage! I get really quite firm with DS if he isn’t respectful of P’s boundaries and he does listen, thankfully! And then there is the trying to stop P from jumping up at DS etc!

@VanGoSunflowers solidarity with the accident!

At the back end of writing my book I used to take pupsy as a puppy with me on some of the trips and one day, when she was about nine months, we were invited to one of the most beautiful (and most private) stately homes in the country. Was a coup to be invited, sort of thing. I got her out of the car and in my excitement and relief at having arrived I merrily trotted into the house. I let her off the lead and she stopped still in the doorway. I thought, what are you doing you dumb dog and called her and duly she came – and promptly had a wee on the carpet. I then realised that she hadn't been when we got out of the car and that she was reluctant to go inside needing a wee! Bless her. Our hosts dispatched a housekeeper to sort it and seemed totally unbothered: 'it happens all the time, not to worry.' Obviously I was mortified as she wouldn't have had an indoor accident by then for about five months!

@VanGoSunflowers of course I don’t mind at all! I feel really grateful to have found this wonderful online community where we can share all things puppy/dog (even if we are discussing poo so early in the day 😂😂😂)

Thankyou for sharing your experience too. I’m glad it wasn’t just us. We thought we had done all the right things:

• gone to a registered/licenced breeder - I now realise you only need a licence if you are churning out puppies
• insisted on health tests - I now realise this is far more complex then them giving us a piece of paper we didn’t quite understand
• insisted on meeting the parents of puppy - we did, but it was done in a weird way because they had two litters available - I now know this was a huge red flag

The worst bit was it was only when I got home and we had paid deposit that I realised they hadn’t asked a single question about us or our home/lifestyle. I should have walked away then but we had met pup, fallen in love and they had us. BIG lesson learned for me. I just thank my lucky stars he’s so great (so far).

Regarding children - someone said on another thread that young children have a natural knack for winding puppies up. I have lived this for the last 5 months. 🤦‍♀️ Another big lesson for me. My son is not what you would describe as calm 😂 he is very active, independent and curious. He doesn’t have his listening ears on 100% of the time. So teaching them to respect each other has been exhausting, although ultimately worth it in the end. They actually play together very well at times now ❤️

I am eternally grateful for the specific layout of my house which lends itself to separating them as necessary, which I still regularly do.

What things have worked for you @VanGoSunflowers in terms of getting your son and pup to respect each others needs/boundaries and get along? I’d been really keen to hear more about your experience.

@VanGoSunflowers I was really hoping Pablo was a creepy toe-licker 😄Clearly mine are in the toe-licking minority! Typical.

Bless Pablo! I bet you were totally mortified. 😂Did the other dog react? I sometimes, when I'm housetraining, see my dogs almost eyeroll at the puppies in a very judgmental manner. It's quite amusing!

@GoodBones85 I don't think you should feel guilty (and it's something I've said to Vango before). When you buy a first dog, it's so easy to get sucked in and make a litany of mistakes you otherwise wouldn't. It doesn't mean your dog isn't still perfect for you, or that you don't love them, or they are a 'bad' dog, or you regret buying them, or any of that...it just means you know you could have done better.

Ultimately, we are all animal (and dog) lovers. We want all dogs to be healthy and happy and live a good life. And that's what matters most.

I do love him a ridiculous amount…..❤️