Puppy Survival Thread Autumn 2025 - all welcome!

[VanGoSunflowers]

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

Do you still have Roman or is he with Guide Dogs now?

Aw thank you for remembering his name.

He has gone to Guide dogs now and is in full time training with them. If he continues do do well he will get matched with "his person" by around Easter time.

We miss him a lot. But went to see him in training a few weeks ago and he looks amazing. Healthy and happy and much better behaved than he ever was with us😂

Ahhh, it's wonderful that he's doing so well!
It must feel hugely gratifying to know you did such a good job with rearing him, but at the same time I'm sure it was a massive wrench when he left to go into full time training 😢 That must have taken some courage, I'd imagine there were a lot of tears.
But it's amazing how they're trained for the job from birth, and I hope his working life will be happy ❤

I feel really proud of him but at the same time a bit disappointed he didn't fail to get into "big school" as they call it. We know some puppies that did and their puppy raisers got to keep them!

We would have kept him if we could but he is really cut out for being a guide dog. His temperament is naturally calm and he's not fazed by anything. Also, he loves the the training element according to his trainer and actually gets excited by the harness going on. I found that a bit hard to believe when I heard people say that. But I saw for myself how as he was guiding his trainer through town with the harness on, his tail was really high and happy (and he isn't naturally a dog that waves his tail that much). So that made me feel much better.

I was worrying a bit about him having to wear a harness because he never liked them when he was a puppy. Dogs are so adaptable they are amazing animals. Glad to hear that your dog is doing well also, she sounds gorgeous.

@GoodBones85 please keep checking in on your friends, I am no better 5 months on from losing our boy in a freak accident like your friend aged 4 and no one seems to mention him anymore except me 😭 (DH and DS find him very hard to talk about but they are just as devastated).

I haven’t been on here in a while as I’ve been really struggling mentally to the point that I’m signed off sick from work. Rory is really helping me though.

It's wonderful that you've seen him working @Twiglets1 and that he is completely suited to the role. He's going to make such a massive difference to someone's quality of life and I'm sure that makes it all worthwhile. Although yes, can totally understand you secretly wanting him to be able to stay with you 💓

We're doing well now, thanks - after a nervy phase in early adolescence, she's really calming down and becoming a lovely young adult, albeit a very hairy one 🙄

@CoubousAndTourmaIet that must have been such a tough time for you ❤️

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding sorry to hear you’re struggling, I hope things improve for you soon ❤️

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding
I'm really sorry to hear that you're struggling so much.
Honestly, a sudden death takes a long long time to recover from. With Algy we still feel traumatised and blame ourselves for what happened to him. Having Brie does help to some extent but it's still hard to think of him without remembering the loss. It is so much harder than losing a dog to old age when you know they've had a full life. When they die young, the shock is immense.
I am so so sorry for you. I have chronic anxiety and cannot work so I know how debilitating and exhausting mental health issues are. I know you have SAD and I hope that once midwinter is past you might start to feel more hopeful and able to look forward.
Sending you warm hugs from me and the fluffy headed monster girl.
xxx

Haha the "terrible teens" phase can be tricky - just when you start congratulating yourself that the puppy is no longer so naughty 😅

Thank you @CoubousAndTourmaIet, I will start to feel a bit better in about April! We also blame ourselves for poor Billy even though it’s not something that could have ever been predicted. I still can’t even get my head round it TBH 🤯.

@VanGoSunflowers thank you for your kind words also ❤️

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding thank you for your advice, I will check in on my friends. My friends’s pup in the accident was also only 4 🥲

Sorry to hear you are struggling. Sending you love and strength. Our line of work often doesn’t help. If it would help you are always welcome to drop me a PM, if you wanted to talk to someone ❤️

@GoodBones85 it’s awful losing a pup so young and so unexpectedly, they’re one of the family aren’t they.

Yes things are pretty horrific at the moment aren’t they? I am looking for another job as ours is not safe and not sustainable!

It is very, very hard losing a young dog.

My husband's family had a puppy that got run over when he was a child. He's still sad and angry about it now and he's in his 60s!

So I really sympathise to anyone that has lost a young animal, it's obviously not an easy thing to process.

With our 4 year old we knew how it would end because he'd had worsening epilepsy for a year or more.
But with our 7 year old, it broke us. A big robust healthy dog in his prime, we thought we were protecting him with a vaccine and it killed him.
How do you ever trust yourself or your vets after that?
4 years on, we are still devastated.

I think the hardest part is that you’re expected to carry on as normal, if it was, god forbid, a human family member everyone would expect it to take a loooong time for you to be anywhere near ok but with a dog, you still have to continue with life as normal. People who aren’t dog people think it’s “just a dog” but Billy (and Rory) will never be just a dog!

Here’s a random question to lighten the mood, if your puppy was to win an end of year award what would it be?

Rory would get world’s stinkiest paws 🏆 😂.

Aw … Roman’s award would be best hole digger award.

In our garden! 😡

Brie would get the slowest walking award. Particularly when we start heading back home 🙄

100% W would get the worlds fussiest eater award…..

and at the same time the award for being able to hear the fridge opening from anywhere in the house 🤷‍♀️😂

Hi I’d love to join this thread! I have a little papipoo who is 12 weeks old today, I’ve had him just over two weeks. He’s absolutely adorable but toilet training is slow going, the weather isn’t helping.

He is adorable!

Toilet training is slow going often but then they just seem to get it.

You feel that will never learn but they do! Don’t envy you in this weather, but what a cute puppy ❤️

Thank you! Yes I have another little dog who is 2 and she wasn’t reliable until 9 months, so I realise it could be a while yet. He’s definitely getting better though.

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding I think Pablo might be a good contender for ‘the most obsessed with food’ award 😂

@Theonewiththewagglytail what a cute little pup 😍

@Struckbylightning How are you getting on with Merry?

Noticing some changes with Pablo here! He’s still the same on walks, if anything he’s probably slightly better but at home he’s getting in to more mischief than before 😩 he’s discovered there are interesting/edible things in the bin for the first time and I’m having to move things higher up now he is getting so big! Also slightly concerned I may be a bit allergic to him - sneezing and breathing difficulties especially in the morning after sleeping with him all night. Fairly sure it’s allergies as a piriton usually eases it so I have just ordered an air purifier to see if that makes a difference. I guess it wouldn’t have shown up so much in the summer as the back door was always open!

Any suggestions for a dog proof bin? 😂

ETA He is just coming up to 8 months old now!

@VanGoSunflowers Welcome to adolescence. 😁
I used to have this bin. When I had my kitchen replaced, I got a bin cupboard.
https://www.dunelm.com/product/dual-30-30l-recycling-pedal-bin-1000237387?defaultSkuId=30886540

Sorry to hear about your allergy issues @VanGoSunflowers . I'd suggest that you ask your GP to test you for dog & cat allergy. I'm allergic to both - we already knew this 30 plus years ago but I was tested around 10 years ago and had it confirmed. They will likely advise keeping Pablo out of the room where you sleep though, which obviously won't be easy at this stage when you've already established a sleep routine...😞
It's helpful to know if you're allergic, even if you don't want to make lifestyle changes. You'll probably tend to be worse with seasonal moulting and it may be wise to only groom outside. It is manageable, but still probably needs to be on your medical records in case of a bad reaction. They may want to give you a salbutamol inhaler for your medical kit.

Our kitchen bin has always lived in the cupboard under the sink and it does make life easier.

Kitchen tops are always kept clear in our house because we have cats so we're pretty strict on all foods being put away. We learned from experience that they work as a team and the cats push things off the edge for the dogs 🙄