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 😂

Oh I'm pleased that cheese is a winner! I'm also not sure about cocktail sausages@Aubrielle, the quality is questionable...

Love the idea of having babybels in the house @VanGoSunflowers - one of me and one for her as we go!

@SpanielsGalore I never thought about a licky mat! I will try that too - the cheese is tricky as it only leaves me with one hand to do the grooming bits so that's a great solution and gives me more cheese to play with the rest of the day!

🤢🤢 so that squished hedgehog I mentioned last week… it’s still there! I took Rory out for a lunch time walk and we had to stop to wait for a car and he rolled in it 🤢🤢. Only for a split second before I realised but he stinks. I didn’t have time to wash him before I had to go on a work call so had to sit there smelling it and now wish me luck with his first bath!

@LandSharksAnonymous no we didn’t go as it’s a little far from us and my girl is so little. Quite a few friends did though. Maybe next year! 309 is rather a lot, I’m not usually one for massive crowds. Our usual basset waddles are usually around 25 dogs.

@Houndymumma im not a fan of crowds either particularly with lots of dogs, but I think being in Holkham would make up for it (it’s my happy place).

In case anyone else is wondering why I am waffling on about Holkham…see below photo completely with Satan.

@LandSharksAnonymous that’s lovely, similar to our beach, nobody around for miles and miles 🥰.

Agree, the emptier the better. My favourite time to be on a beach is Autumn/Winter when it’s deserted. Hopefully I’ll get out to our local beaches soon as second vaccination took place today. This August has passed in a fatigued mostly housebound haze! 😂

@Houndymumma feels like lockdown here too.
Not a first time dog owner but it’s been a long time since I had a puppy and having serious regrets. Come on here for some words of encouragement. Hoping once we can take her on walks life will feel a bit more normal!

I’m so jealous of some of you living by the sea. I’m about as far away from the coast as you can get - Holkham is about a 4 hour drive for me - I’m dying to take Pablo for a beach walk!

@Houndymumma @Thisloyalrose you have my sympathies, it’s not the easiest time before they’re allowed out!

@VanGoSunflowers I waffle on about it all the time, but it is stunning and it's so 'cinematic' (as one journalist put it)! If you go at the right time of day and year (off season) you practically have the entire beach to yourself and it goes on for miles. I tend to go in December/January and it's much cheaper as well.

For those of you struggling with pre-going out biting/other issues. Try and turn their 'meal times' into training sessions. They tend to be the most engaged around them and using their brain tires them out! That's what I did with Eris. We also did lots of trips out in the car and to our local coffee shop - which was amazing for my cardio and toned my arms😁

Agree, I think for most people with a new puppy it’s very hard. It’s 15 years since I last did it and it’s been difficult at times. However we’re now vaccinated and full freedom is looming. Most puppy threads have puppy blues victims, and I think it’s all part of the process of getting a new puppy. Especially when you’ve perhaps lost a dog who fitted in so well with your life. I love my new puppy dearly, but I’m also missing my old pair and the happy routine we had, so it’s a mixture of feelings. However nearly all threads online say how most people felt this and now how happy they are with their puppy once settled. So I think accepting you’ll have regret days (even many) is totally normal at this stage. You’re definitely not alone! At least they grow up quicker than human babies! 😊

@Thisloyalrose our current puppy is perfect so not really a good indication of life with a puppy but I’m not gonna lie, my previous dog landed me on anti depressants as a puppy! He turned into the most wonderful dog though who will be missed forever 🥰.

Definitely a rollercoaster ride and some are naturally easier than others to begin with. But I’ve found it so much better now careful visits to coffee shops etc are allowable. Our vet said fine to walk along quiet pavements straight away, but keep away from dog heavy places for another week to ten days due to lepto vaccination taking a while to kick in. Plus even if we have to keep to short walks for the foreseeable due to joints and bones, it’s lovely to rejoin the world.

We’ve got a second vaccination on Monday and then two weeks after that can do pavement walks. Then it’s the 3rd vaccine and 2 weeks after that can walk anywhere. Don’t remember waiting so long previously!

@Thisloyalrose It does seem to vary. Are you in the UK? We’ve only had two rounds of vaccinations at 8 and 12 weeks. It’s the Lepto vaccination that takes longer to work in our case, hence no water, farmland or places with heavy doggy traffic for 10 days. Also had Kennel cough yesterday too. Seems 3 jabs is very normal in North America and some other countries, maybe because different illnesses?? I suppose it might also depend on makes/brand of vaccinations used. Ours were Nobivac.

Also I’ve had to wait 4 weeks between vaccinations this time, whereas 15 years ago it was just two weeks. Never felt the weeks go so slow!! Being confined to home drove me mad, we started doing short car trips out to where coffee vans were. Dog obviously stayed in the car with the estate open (I have a dog crate so she could see out) and I sat on the estate end of the car next to her with a coffee. That did help my sanity slightly!

I've never heard of three vaccines before.
I was lucky with K as we got in at the end of the Lep2 vaccine. It was only two weeks in between jabs and wait for one week after, so we were out walking by 11.5 weeks.
The vets use Lep4 now, so it's a four week gap and then out one week later.

Drove me crackers that wait for Nobivac 4 @Houndymumma and really held her back, because she was way too big to carry far. She was almost 16kg by 12 week vaccines and that's a lot of pup to lug around.

I'm glad you're almost at the point where you can get out.

@Aubrielle Wow, 16kg at 12 weeks!! Mine came in at 7.8kg yesterday. Yes the vet said if on quiet pavements etc it’s ok now, as socialisation is very important too. We have a cul-de-sac behind us that houses mostly old people with no dogs so is ideal. Even sitting in her car crate looking out at other people near the coffee vans helps too I think. Obviously I didn’t let anyone touch or fuss her. That wait feels like a life sentence at the time.

Yes in the Uk. She’s had Nobivac L4 and her second jab is booked for when she’s 13 weeks and can’t go out for 2 weeks after that until she’s 15 weeks. They offered us an extra jab in between so she can at least go on pavement at 13 weeks. Still a long wait though!

Yes we’re in the UK

Slowest few weeks ever! Even worse when we first got her home as that heatwave hit 🥵

Talking of vaccines (sort of), Rory had his before he came home to us as he was slightly older. I’ve signed him up with the vets and got him his pet plan for vaccinations/ flea and worming tablets etc but when I went to make the appointment the vet said he has to see the vet to get it all set up and I have to pay for the consultation. If he hadn’t had his vaccinations, both the vaccinations and the consultation would have been covered by the pet plan. That doesn’t seem very fair! 😡

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding I'd argue the toss on that one. Seems extremely unfair. They're effectively saving on the cost of the vaccines as it is.
I was charged a £25 dispensing fee for a worming tablet. I refused to pay it. We'd seen a vet two days before and was booked to see one the day after. Either of those vets could have dispensed it within the cost of the appointment.

Just when I thought it was all going well…..

Lavender pup, now 4.5 months, has been reasonably hard to house train compared to pups I have had before. Poos are fine, she goes on command in the garden, as she does with wees. But in the house she sometimes wees more frequently than I am
expecting her to, often in a puppy pen or when she is loose. All my fault, I know.

In the last 24 hours, however, she has weed in her crate several times, whereas up to now, she had barked to be let out, including at night. My understanding is that they don’t usually do that.

I have to crate her at times, I have an elderly dog so I don’t let the pup out with the oldie because she’s too boisterous. And at night she’s next to my bed in a crate.

Is it still early days for reliable house training? Or do I have problem and need to
go back to basics again?

@SpanielsGalore I think I will! All it is is weighing him surely!

On a happier note, Rory met 4 dogs on our evening walk. One ran up to him and he said hello politely then it ran off (to its oblivious owner) and he came straight back to me, he didn’t try to follow. Then we were walking right towards 2 friendly looking collies. The owners looked relaxed so I thought I’d test him and told him to stay with me until the collies started coming over to us and I told him to go on so he went up to them and gave polite sniffs. He just knows how to behave! The last one was a 6 month old cocker spaniel that appeared out of the corn field and again both pups said hello politely and went back to their respective owners when called 🥰.

@Lavenderdog is she getting used to peeing in the house as the smell lingers (to them, I’m not saying your house smells). I use Simple Solution extreme dog stain and odour remover to clean up any dog related mess and it is magical! I don’t think 4.5 months is too soon to expect reliable toilet training.