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 😂

Loving all the pictures this morning! I will post an update pic on Monday when W has had his 6 weekly groom ❤️.

He’s 7.5 kg at coming up for 8 months, so definitely losing my dog is bigger than your dog 😂😂

Just adding another shameless picture of Rory on our lunch time walk, looking gorgeous in the green grass and the sunshine 🥰.

Merry just took herself off to another room to sleep. I’m so ridiculously excited, and I think it’s only you guys who will understand! We had a lovely sunny walk along the river, a play with a gorgeous spaniel and her lovely Mum, who told me that Merry is very well trained 😇. Bullshit of course, but she usually is an angel on walks. Then I made myself a cup of tea and ignored her so she wandered off and curled up in a patch of sun in the front room. I’m so happy; maybe we are making progress…?

Its lovely to see pics of your gorgeous doggos, so here is mine… first meeting with cows, and galloping through a field.

@Struckbylightning aww look at her ears flapping as she runs 🥰.

I forgot to add, we had a nasty experience on the way home. We were walking through the cornfield and spotted a woman putting her “pocket bully” thing on a lead so of course I did the same. We had to pass each other as the path is narrow and I wasn’t going to hop into the corn. The other dog went to sniff Rory so I let him sniff back and it tried to bite him nastily on his nose 😡. Surely those things should be muzzled like the XL version??

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding Poor Rory. I hope he's OK and it hasn't knocked his confidence. I try to avoid all on lead meets if I can, because they rarely go well IME. I had to pass a Westie the other day and that went for K and she ended up on her back. And a small mongrel dog bit P on the nose when the owner had said they were fine to meet.
I think the so called pocket bullies were bred (or their popularity increased) to get round the XL bully ban. Doesn't it go on height?

@Struckbylightning Those ears are fabulous.

@Aubrielle I think that’s another wonderful about varieties and different breeds, you can find one to suit if you’re a dog lover! I know there are many breeds of dog that wouldn’t suit my lifestyle but I still love to appreciate them when I see them out and about.

I completely agree about there being so much advice and so much of it is conflicting! That’s why these threads have been so useful because it’s more “this is what I did and it worked for us” so you can take what you need advice wise - and it all feels non-judgmental too.

@SpanielsGalore my human baby is nearly 8, so while there was a lot of ‘advice’ around during his first few years, I didn’t find it as mind boggling with him and I found it with Pablo strangely! But I read some of the parenting ‘advice’ - even given out on MN and I think woah! Why are we trying to make things so much harder for ourselves?!

Haha you have a nose for sniffing out coffee too - what if I promise to stand several paces away and then have a breath mint after drinking it 😂😂
I used to feel the same about tea though actually, but I converted to actually quite liking it and will have the occasional cuppa!

@GoodBones85 looking forward to seeing W after his groom! How is he at the groomers? Does he enjoy it?

@Struckbylightning I am SO happy for you!! I know you have been struggling with that aspect so
I’m really pleased you’re making progress and those pics melted me! She is a real beauty. She’s all legs at the moment isn’t she?

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding Im sorry to hear you had a bad experience. Pablo was bit on the nose once too, that was actually a Spaniel believe it or not but the way the owners handled and reacted to it, I suspected that the spaniel had been told off for growling/barking in the past so they went straight for a bite. The owner really man handled him afterwards, I was quite shocked!
It wasn’t pleasant - and the meeting was forced on to us but if it helps, Pablo hasn’t had any long term issues from it. His best mate is a spaniel and he still loves leaping around with her.

Im like you @SpanielsGalore and try and avoid all on lead meets also. It’s tough though because sometimes they are forced upon you. I had one in the vet waiting room yesterday, with someone whose teeny puppy was barking its head off at Pablo and I was trying to get him to ignore and sit and the owner just put their pup on the floor so they could meet. I was more worried about their pup being hurt - not because P is aggressive (he hasn’t got an aggressive bone in his body - that I have witnessed anyway) but because of how boisterous he can be. At least off lead, either dog can escape the situation if needs be.

I walked past an XL bully owner on a walk the other day. P was off lead and I looked up and saw the owner stop (his XL was muzzled and on lead, even in the middle of a wide open field with nobody around so fair play to him) I called P back and put him on his lead and walked past and we had a nice exchange. Just one of those meetings where both owners understand the situation and no words need be spoken other than him saying “thank you”
and that was it.

@SpanielsGalore @VanGoSunflowers thanks, he met a beagle that we know soon after and he did hide behind me (like a toddler 😂) but he went to play when I said he could and seems all fine.

We couldn’t really have avoided it as you can’t see very far in front as the corn is so high but I thought it would be OK as it was being walked by a nice looking older lady, who said hello. She didn’t apologise though!

Sorry about your bad experience @Idstillratherbepaddleboarding . No matter how cautious we are it can still happen. I hope it won't dent Rory's confidence.

So I’ve decided to collapse his crate today 😂 going to store it upstairs in case it is ever needed again but my living room now feels huge. I’m so glad I spent £80 on a new, bigger crate that he slept in about three times 😂 sure it may come in useful one day.
Hope everyone is having a nice Friday. Mine is conked on the sofa. He’s so lazy when we are at home 😂

@Struckbylightning Merry is lovely! So glad you’re feeling more positive and that things are going well for you 😊it’s so unbelievably lovely (and such a confidence boost) when it goes well! And so nice when you realise they feel confident enough to be alone in the house. A bit sad as well, as I always think it marks a turn into ‘adulthood’

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding that makes sense that he’s working line tbh - he (at least to my novice lab eye) is very slim, and always was even as a baby puppy.

How is Rory?! I’d have been so upset! I must say I do find the v. Small dogs tend to be the worst for snapping and owners not reacting ‘properly.’

Theres a guy near us with a ‘jug’ and a Chi, and both are constantly running up to other dogs barking and snapping. He always says they’re friendly. They jump at children too. They, thankfully, no longer even approach my dogs as when they raced up at DD1 once and she screamed (because even though she’s dog savvy, she’s still a kid and two dogs snarling and rushing at you is scary), Hen snarled at them and placed herself between DD1 and the dogs. Possibly the only time I’ve ever seen Hen snarl.

But it goes back to the ‘pack theory’ thing that @Aubrielle and I were discussing with @VanGoSunflowers earlier. Much of it is nonsense, really. But there are rare - very rare - occasions where a dog will act in a way that displays pack behaviour; Hen protecting DD1, Clem and Hen giving Twatdog ‘the look’, Satan just through her existence…

@VanGoSunflowers just wait…she crate will be replaced with fluffy bed after fluffy bed, and toys. So many toys!

@SpanielsGalore i suppose you don’t want to hear about my sad coffee woes? (Office coffee machine broken…so I have to get a new one safety tested before I can even bring it into the building!!!). I’m going to be stuck paying for coffee for about a month now

@VanGoSunflowers I know times change, but some of the advice and pressure on new parents now is ridiculous. My eldest was on solids at 8 weeks old, because milk didn't fill him up. You'd be hung, drawn and quartered for doing that now. And I never gave him extra vitamins. God knows how he managed to grow to 6' 3".

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding Yes. Sometimes it's unavoidable and you have to hope for the best. I met a woman with two dachshunds yesterday that were going absolutely ballistic as she kept walking towards me. I picked K up so we could get past safely. Sounds like the bully gets its manners from its owner. She really should have apologised. Although she'd probably have said "He's never done that before" which we all know is one of the biggest lies in dog ownership.

@LandSharksAnonymous I can sympathise with your coffee woes. I would be mightily peed off if I went to work and the kettle was broken, so I couldn't have a cup of tea. I think you need to WFH until the situation is rectified.
(I didn't think you needed to get brand new appliances PAT tested. Have they changed the rules?)

@SpanielsGalore Civil Service! I'm just surprised I don't need a meeting to discuss the future coffee machine with HR Safety and Security tbh. 😂

I can remember once DH wanted to take an ottoman overseas and there was a whole palaver about what he could and couldn't take and whether it was up to fire safety regulations. It took six months to get agreement. SIX MONTHS. 😑

Can anyone please advise on food?!

Our miniature poodle puppy will be coming to us in a few weeks aged 10 weeks and has been weaned on raw food so far. I know there is a lot of disagreement about the best food for dogs and it’s quite confusing!!

We will continue the puppy on the food he is used to at first, but I’m interested in how others feed their dogs.

I have seen videos of people making up chicken/rice/vegetable meals for their dogs and is this advised?!

Also, best way to keep teeth clean and healthy?

Thanks!

@LandSharksAnonymous he’s seems to be fine thanks 🥰. I think the term “pocket bully” is a misnomer though, they’re not small dogs at all, they’re horrible toad like things that are as wide as they are tall, with massive heads and tiny legs.

Yes, he’ll always be tall, thin and pointy 🥰. Most labs round here are working line as we’re rural but Billy went to agility with a show lab and he was much chunkier (not ideal for agility but he tried his best 😂).

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding Breed standard for pocket bullies says under 17 inches. An XL is 19" or 20", so there isn't really much difference between them.

@PoodlePlace Firstly, you need to decide what type of food you wish to feed and then people can advise you as to ones they think are good quality.
There is raw, cooked, dry or wet. Or a combination of them.
I used to feed raw for many years. My 4 year old struggled to maintain weight though, so I have switched to dry food. It's much simpler and I can adjust the amounts more easily to suit. And the dog is just as excited to eat it as she was a bowl of mince.

@PoodlePlace depends on what you want to feed. The main thing to be aware of is puppies have very different nutritional needs to an adult.

Personally I would not feed a puppy raw as it's calcium needs - for bone growth and strength - are far higher than anything raw feeding can offer. I'd be interested to know how your breeder is ensuring the puppy gets the calcium it needs!

Calcium, fats & protein are the main things a puppy needs in it's food.

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding I have to say, sadly, most of the labs (and dogs in general) around here are fat (very very fat) not even chunky. So I'm quite jealous of your country life with lots of slim dogs. Fat dogs are always one of those things that make me feel a bit sad. So tall, thin and pointy sounds like a dream! 😍

And 100% agree on the name being misleading. I wouldn't be happy either. It's funny how labs and Goldies are so different (despite being retrievers) and yet, for some reason, all XL Bully types seem to be much of a muchness (perhaps that's my innate bias/dislike for them - although I guess it could be the fact they're all severely inbred so the personality is actually a trait at this point).

@SpanielsGalore oh really? I don’t know much about them except that they’re scary and in my job, every other service user had one until the ban when they all quietly disappeared…

My ex-neighbour some how got into having a stud pocket bully. They were the most rural, middle class family ever but they started dressing their daughter as a mini gangster to show it, it was so weird. It had its own instagram page to advertise its breeding full of “Top Boy” style language and flash sales on its sperm 🤢 😂. I don’t know what happened as they’ve moved but I’ve seen on FB that that dog has also quietly disappeared and been replaced with a cocker spaniel 🤷‍♀️.

@LandSharksAnonymous the trouble with both types of labs is they really do love up to their reputation as food monsters. Billy would have eaten til he was sick of you let him, and then eaten that and if anything, Rory is even worse! So you do need to be careful!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding they have POMC, don't they? I remember a potential buyer talking tome about it once - they'd been debating between a Lab and a Goldie but they were worried about the 'missing gene.'

Sometimes I wonder if I have POMC...so far today I've had a slice of cake and a brownie. 😂

In actual puppy news, to make the most of the last few weeks of good weather, I have been beginning to teach Eris a flying down. Which mostly has involved me making the other dogs do it and having her watch. She's sort of getting it...but she likes to crawl forwards on her belly to whichever dog is closest to her, which is slightly defeating the point. But I'm finding that if I wear her out through training 3/4 times a day, then her nasty little piranha teeth stay where they belong - inside her mouth. 😄

I know I cannot be the only one. But do any other 'experienced' dog owners (i.e.those who aren't on their first puppy) just long for the days where their dogs become respectable members of society and stop being little nippers?

@LandSharksAnonymous I don’t know what it’s called but they’re just literally never full! Even after a full meal, they just want more. It’s hard because you want them to be happy but also healthy! People can have it too though, I believe!

Happy Saturday all - catching up again.

@VanGoSunflowers W loves the groomers as long as I give the groomer a pot of treats to feed him while she works 😂 had no issues with him at the groomers at all.

@SpanielsGalore I totally agree with the comments about raising babies and puppies in this era. The amount of info overload on what you should be doing is completely overwhelming and also often contradictory- it’s a complete minefield. Add to that having my son 6 months before lockdown happened 🤦‍♀️ so virtually all my help and support was internet based……

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding sorry you had a nasty experience. That sounds scary for you both. So far we haven’t had anything like that, just a few times when I’ve met people walking multiple dogs off lead and they have let them all approach W at once and surround him, which isn’t ideal.

Im really interested in the food discussion as W is completely fussy when it comes to food that isn’t treats. We have tried dry, wet and cooked. He by far prefers cooked but I have returned him to the wet as was worried about him getting enough calcium. Currently he will eat the wet (forthglade) if I grate a tiny bit of cheese on the top. He’s such a diva.

I think it's only about 25% of labs that have the missing gene.

Older one drove me to despair her first year, she was so fussy. I never expected one of the biggest challenges when getting a lab was going to be getting them to eat. My younger one is much more of a foodie but she's still not in the will eat anything camp. (A big bonus when we've got an allotment!)

@tizwozliz oh I thought it was all of them but I only have a sample size of 2 and it’s 100% of them 😂😂.
Billy would eat anything except chocolate (luckily), peanut butter and lettuce. He wouldn’t even eat a biscuit that had been in the tin that previously held chocolate biscuits! Oh and he wouldn’t eat kibble, only wet food.
Rory will eat anything except lettuce, including chocolate if he gets his paws on a crumb (obviously we don’t feed him it purposefully!).

@tizwozliz that's quite a big percentage isn't it! I have to say I don't know what I would do if I had a dog with the gene missing, it must be so hard to manage.

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding lettuce!?😂

@GoodBones85 I feel your pain. Five dogs, all currently on different food combinations. And half the time they eat each others food! You can get calcium supplements from your vet (if you are worried)!

@LandSharksAnonymous @Idstillratherbepaddleboarding
Brie loves lettuce. When she sees me washing any sort of salad stuff she'll come and ask for some, so I generally give her a big washed leaf.
She's quite finicky generally, bit weird about a few things, particularly anything fishy, but lettuce is a favourite along with carrot and apple.