Puppy Survival Thread Autumn 2025 - all welcome!

[VanGoSunflowers]

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

I've already got a load of information from my breeder about the puppy we're collecting in a couple of weeks and one of the things she says is blood in poo is not as worrying in puppies as it would be in humans. Upset stomachs even including a bit of blood in poo is very common. She says don't bother with vet unless the puppy also seems ill and listless. As long as they are eating and drinking and seem fine in themselves, it is almost definitely nothing to worry about.

I will follow this advice even though with our last pup I did end up at the vets at 9am the day after getting him as I was so worried about his upset stomach. He was listless though and not eating which scared me to death as he is a Lab and they generally only refuse food when very ill!

How did it go? I slept downstairs the first night and if she hadn’t been so settled I’d have done it for longer.

@spartanrunnergirl Junior Spartan is lovely. 💖 I think it's quite common for puppies to have a bit of an upset tummy when they first come home. Partly down to the stress and upheaval of going to a new home. But I read the change in water supply can also upset their stomachs.
Puppy is fully vaccinated already? Does this mean you can go out for walks straight away?

I’m desperate to be able to go on walks. 2.5 weeks and counting here. Am doing a new thing where the vaccinations are done in 3 doses not 2.

Vet said you can get out 2 weeks earlier. So 2nd lot is given 2 weeks after the first not 4. I think they split the second dose into two smaller ones???

I was lucky when I got K, as the vets still had some Lepto 2 vaccines. So she was vaccinated at 8 and 10 weeks and out walking at 11 weeks.
Now they use Lepto 4 which is four weeks inbetween jabs. I've not heard of the three jabs one.
It's so annoying when there is so much pressure on people these days to get their puppies socialised before the 12 week window closes. I know they can go out for carries, but it's not the same IMO.

Yeah I am a bit worried he isn’t going out enough. He’s having very short walks in a sling.

Yes I think we did it this way too @NorwichMom - was so great to be able to get out a little earlier.

From what I remember we couldn’t go near open water until he had had the last dose of the three x

@spartanrunnergirl what a beautiful pup ❤️

Yes. Vet said stick to urban areas and avoid anywhere rats might be till after the third as they’re not fully covered for Lepto but are the others like parvo.

The vaccine phase was horrendous for us because our pup had Nobivac 4 and was almost 14 weeks before we got her out. She was too big to carry in a sling. We definitely paid the price for losing that initial 4 week socialisation period between vaccines.

That’s such a shame, mine will be 11 and a half weeks and it’s a worry. Just taken him out in a sling and he cried the whole time. Not sure if he’s scared, excited or cold. I’m also not sure what the benefit is if he doesn’t really get to do anything/sniff/meet other dogs, etc. I guess he sees some people walking about.

his puppy harness is too small for him so I need to get something bigger and then I could take him out for longer in the dog buggy I have.

@NorwichMom Mine was actually 11.5 weeks when she was allowed on the ground and she's been fine. Up until then, I carried her in a sling (tied scarf) zipped inside my coat. I had an older dog, so she'd come out for carry walks with her sister.
I had a pushchair when my 4 year old was a puppy. She came on walks with big brother and I'd take her into town to get used to people, shops and traffic.

Taking him to a pet shop to buy a new harness would be a good socialisation exercise.

ETA - they do change very quickly at this age, so I wouldn't worry too much yet. When I took K for her first vaccination at 8.5 weeks old, she trembled with fear when the vet nurses cuddled her. Two weeks later she was super confident and all over them like a rash. 😂

@SpanielsGalore thanks, that’s reassuring. To be honest the one thing he’s not lacking in is confidence! He’s much more confident than my older dog I think. Older dog will only go out in the garden for a wee/poo and then straight back in unless I’m out there with her and follows me round like a shadow.

Puppy is happy in the garden on his own (and it’s a big garden), happy to go and explore the living room on his own while I’m in the kitchen.

Thanks all for the reassurance re upset tummy. I’ll keep the vet appt anyway and just get him checked up. @SpanielsGaloreyes he is fully vaccinated and able to get out and about he is 12 weeks old. He is the cutest little boy 🥰

@spartanrunnergirl let us know how he gets on. Entirely possible it's just a bit of stress given, as you said, he's a bit older.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharksall good, it had cleared up by the appointment, just soft stools so he had a nice health check at the vet, lots of cuddles and a very positive experience :)

@spartanrunnergirl glad he's okay! It's such a worry when they're young and you have to rush them to the vets for something you're sure is nothing...the amount of times I've spent running to the vets in the middle of the night with various puppies over the years is insane. With my boy I think I made it three times in a month once when he was a few months old😫

Not sure if I already said, but your boy is absolutely beautiful.

Hope you and @NorwichMom managed to get some decent sleep last night!

Is it usual for a 9 week old puppy to be confident enough to be playing outside on his own for ages? I’ve never known it before. We have a big dog proof garden, I can’t even see the whole garden from the house. I go out with him, make sure he does a wee. He’s into everything in the garden, chasing leaves, exploring all the nooks and crannies. I got cold and came in and he stayed out another hour! I fetched him in in the end, but he looked like he was having the time of his life!

@NorwichMom not unusual at all for a well-adjusted puppy, particularly for an intelligent and rather fearless breed - i'd expect the same from a Miniature Schnauzer, for example!

If he's happy to wander far from you, it might be a good chance to start recall training if you wanted to get a head start. I have never been able to start with mine until they're older as mine are all so clingy!

@NorwichMom K was quiet on the journey home and for the first half hour home. And then the sedative wore off (joke) and she has ruled the roost ever since. She's always been happy to take herself off to other rooms and explore. She wasn't so keen on being outside, as she came home the week end of a blizzard and it was below freezing outside. In the first few weeks if I needed to go out, she went to two of my neighbours' houses. Walked in like she owned the places and couldn't care less that I had abandoned her.
The only time she showed fear was her first visit to the vets when, as I said yesterday, she trembled when the vet nurses cuddled her. Perhaps it was the smells of the surgery that affected her. 🤷‍♀️ She was fine two weeks later when we went back for the second jab.

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks thank you. I’ve been doing a bit of “sit” training but will definitely start some recall work. I’ve always had dogs with excellent recall as they’ve been so clingy, I do worry this one might be slightly harder work! 😁. But good to know I don’t have a puppy psychopath on my hands if being confident enough to be out on his own is normal.

All of mine were pretty independent minded right from the start @NorwichMom I've never had a clingy one. They'd all happily mooch about or lie outside. They were all little buggers for eating stuff they shouldn't though; stones, snails, random plant matter, so I had to keep my eye on them.

Oh maybe i should supervise more closely. Just and an awful evening and had to rush my older dog to the vets as she was passing large quantities of bright red liquid blood. Shes been kept in. They’re thinking colitis and I’m worried it might be due to stress of puppy arriving. I wouldn’t say that puppy is annoying my older dog but she is keeping out his way a bit, he can’t get up on her sofa or follow her upstairs and I’ve been giving him loads of fuss. Vet said it might not be this and she could just have picked up a bug.

Oh I'm so sorry @NorwichMom . I saw your thread earlier. I really hope your girl will be okay.

I really hope your doggo recovers swiftly @NorwichMom