Puppy Survival Thread Autumn 2025 - all welcome!

[VanGoSunflowers]

Hello everyone! Won’t tag you all as you know everyone is welcome 😊

And where is Pablo? 🤔

And where is Eris?

In disgrace for being a nasty winky sucker!😀

😂

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks you rang?

Absolutely loving seeing everyone’s wonderful pictures.

Here’s my boy …..

@GoodBones85 I love how his nose is the same colour as his fur (at least in that photo)! He is such a handsome boy.

@VanGoSunflowers @Idstillratherbepaddleboarding Pablo and Rory are very similarly built (and equally handsome)

@CoubousAndTourmaIet photo of the nasty winky sucker below! You'll remember how big Twatdog was as a puppy - she's nearly as big as he was at the same age. Really the only difference between them is that her head is a bit bigger, and she's less golden.

@GoodBones85 What a beautiful boy 😍. He is still very dark. Midge was the darkest in his litter but the bottom half of his tail has gone a lot lighter this year, and also his bum has faded a bit.

Pablo is growing up so quickly! @VanGoSunflowers ! He's a handsome boy.

Oh look at those pre-Raphaelite curls @GoodBones85 ❤ They give me hair envy!

She's beautiful @TheHungryHungryLandsharks , gorgeous face. And the expression in those eyes is one I recognise from Brie as a "don't underestimate me" sort of look. She'll be no pushover.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet and she knows it. Little devil dog that she is. I always said nothing could put me off Goldens...but she's doing a pretty good job 😀

Well, I won't be the one to remind you which stage lies just ahead...😬

Seriously, it's amazing how similar their expressions are. I suspect you'd have no trouble in reading a Pyrenean. It's no wonder you get asked if TD is a Pyr and we get "white retriever?" on occasion.

Help! Pablo has just eaten a dead rat!! What do I do? Tried calling the vets but they’re shut? Does this count as an emergency? Google says to just contact the vet! Tried to grab him to get it out of his mouth but he slipped his harness trying to get away from me with it in his mouth! I am really hoping he is going to throw it back up. Do I just keep an eye on him? It was one random dead rat in the middle of a huge grassy field so assuming it wasn’t poisoned??

Quite honestly, I'd get him to an emergency vet pretty quickly.

Please let us know how it goes xxx

@VanGoSunflowers K eat one a few months ago. Same circumstances - random dead rat in the middle of a field. I phoned the vet and they said they'd assume it wasn't poisoned from its location and just to keep an eye on her.

Oh @VanGoSunflowers that's awful! I'd take him to the OOH vet just to be sure as he's quite young. Will keep my fingers crossed for him!!

@CoubousAndTourmaIet as you say, incredibly similar expressions on the two breeds! I wonder if it's a size thing as well - the look reminds me a bit of 'and what are you going to do, not like you can pick me up if I am naughty.' 😀

I suspect that both being highly intelligent breeds completely glossing over my breed being ranked 64, they have a similarly cheeky (nay, Bolshie) attitude towards their human family @TheHungryHungryLandsharks 😁

Decided to call the emergency vet, they suggested I take him in. On balance, while it was in the middle of a field, it wasn’t far enough away from housing for me to be totally sure it wasn’t poisoned. Also think it’d been dead for a while. So he has been admitted for induced vomiting and observation. They said it could be a couple of hours. Will update when I know more!

Hopefully will be ok @VanGoSunflowers

Roman found & ate a dead bird just before we were about to drive home from a trip. It was a 4 hour journey so I was dreading him being sick in the car. He wasn’t, but that’s Labs for you - most have cast iron stomachs & are natural scavengers.

@VanGoSunflowers I think that was the best call. M nearly ate one a while back; it was staggering round so obviously poisoned. Fortunately there were two of us, one to hold M and one to dispatch the rat. I opted for the dog holding.

Luckily, it was much quicker than anticipated! Went back to the vet after an hour to wait and apparently, he’d brought the thing up whole not long after they had induced vomiting 🤢

They told me how bad it smelled and also that Pablo wasn’t in the least bit phased by the experience and his tail kept wagging the whole time. There were some interesting smells coming out of him on the way home 🤢 they’ve told me not to feed him until about 6pm and that he will be a bit sleepy and that’s that. Luckily, just the £100 excess to pay! And I doubt he will have learned his lesson 😂 but I am glad he is ok and he managed to bring the whole thing back up again!

@Nella68 I don’t blame you! I was poised to take the thing out of his mouth until he slipped his harness! He knows ‘leave it’ but was clearly choosing to ignore me. On balance, I should have tried to be a bit more lighthearted but I panicked and was shouting like a loon a combination of “here” and “leave it” and he probably thought it was a big game. That or thought he must have something really valuable that I didn’t want him to have so he panic swallowed it 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Glad the vets were able to help him get rid of the thing @VanGoSunflowers , wouldn't have been nice to deal with that at home 😬
Hopefully he'll be none the worse for it.

It’s impossible not to panic in the moment @VanGoSunflowers

My husband was in charge of Roman when he found the dead bird and said the more he shouted the quicker Roman chewed 😂

All his training went out the window with the thrill of finding a dead creature.

The main thing is your dog is safe 😅

@VanGoSunflowers Glad Pablo is alright and you haven't got to deal with vomited rat later on.
I hope the insurance covers it. I know people who have had OOH claims refused as the insurers didn't consider it an emergency.

We’ve had a few episodes of panic eating in the garden. Our neighbours feed the foxes (they leave tray fulls of eggs/ raw meat/ pork pies etc out every night). The foxes obviously aren’t hungry so they bury all sorts of ‘treasure’ in our garden. M can sniff an egg out at 20 paces. It’s not too bad when they are fresh but he’s dug up some rotten ones which I would rather he not have. Same with the rotten meat. The neighbour is refusing to stop putting food out.