Is there a new puppy survival thread?

[Isadora2007]

I could only see one from Autumn so assumed it was older?
Anyone with a new pup wanting to share the trenches?

Our dog trainer recommended the coffee wood stick too and it’s one of DPup’s favourite things. We refer to it as “the very expensive stick” as we spend so much time taking sticks off her on walks that it seems crazy that we had to buy him one. Of
course, I know the reason for buying it is because it won’t splinter. I had taken her word for it and so confess I hadn’t checked whether it was age appropriate.
Our trainer said it was the chew most similar to furniture and so particularly good if your puppy was into chair legs or, in our case, skirting boards.

The combination of your comment @Twiglets1about Dpup being over stimulated and yours @RaptorShark about visitors was a bit of a lightbulb for me. We haven’t had visitors but DPup is usually home with just me most of the me but the DC had an INSET day on Friday and then we’ve had the long weekend so there has been a lot more going on at home plus I was out quite a lot so DH has been in charge and is less militant about naps than I am. I’ve been much stricter about naps today and there has been a lot less chewing. And biting which is a relief. Thank you!

I have really thought tonight about what it would feel like to return him to the breeder (I won't). I'm putting in so much effort but it feels utterly relentless, and an enormous drain on my time and energy. I am entering a really busy period work wise and feel so overwhelmed. I've been looking for dog friendly holidays, and have booked one soon which I'm kind of dreading as I think he'll just be a nightmare in new surroundings - we'll probably go right back in toilet training and I'll be constantly stopping him from chewing furniture so there will be no chance of relaxation. I am now thinking maybe he should go in boarding though he's so young for that. I wish I could fast forward through the puppy phase.

I’m so pleased @FoxandDuck

After I posted I was worried I was a bit too blunt and may have offended you.

Have you any trustworthy late teens in your circle that might stay at yours and puppy sit in exchange for some money?
or perhaps a change of scenery might not be as bad as you’re thinking as I’d assume you’ll be quite busy so he might be tired?
Would the breeder board him for a week? Maybe just knowing you have some options will help a little…

@FoxandDuck I will see if our local Pets at Home has one when I go in later this week to pick up my cats medication from the vets there. Rosie is a real furniture leg chewer so this will be a much safer option. My dd said olive wood is another option which is meant to be safe for them to chew, but not looked that up.
We popped in to see my parents yesterday on one of our short walks and she had a lovely time running around their back garden and eating their daisies in the grass. She was so good coming to me, or rather my mum, when I called her.

I think it's been two days since she has had any accident in the house. We had a rug in our dining room which she kept going on which we have now taken up. My dh said it was an expensive puppy pad, though it was a cheap rug to be fair. I am so glad we took up our living room rug though, as that was a bit more expensive, and I'm looking forward to having that back down by the end of the summer.

She is now sleeping through until about 6am which is much more bearable. I'm still not feeding her until 7am, so we had a little snooze on the sofa this morning instead of taking her back up to bed. It was really nice her snuggling into me. At our worst moments though, I have had the brief thought of how it would be to give her back, same as you @RaptorShark I wouldn't but I do ask myself what was I thinking! But my mantra of this will pass, it's only a short time in the scheme of things and what we put in now will help towards the type of dog we will have for the future, really helps. That said, I am not trying to fit in a working day as well as a puppy, so I can only imagine how overwhelming this is for you

Just to say, this absolutely isn't true.

Whilst you can flex above the five minute rule, someone walking a 3-4 month old puppy for 40 minutes or even an hour in one setting is absolutely setting their dog up for a lifetime of painful, life-limiting, joint issues (and particularly if that dog is badly bred and/or pre-disposed to joint issues). They're not just incompetent, they're downright negligent.

I'd be horrified if someone walked a Golden Retriever for 30 minutes at 4 months old in one sitting.

Mike Farrell also uses a study which only used 600 Golden Retrievers as evidence for some of his hypothesis and recommendations. 600 Golden Retrievers were used in that study and each year in the US about 40K are registered. Assuming an average life expectancy of 10 years would give 400,000 Golden Retrievers in the US and the sample was 600 which isn't even 0.2%...yet he has based his hypothesis and recommendations of that. That's literally nothing to be making recommendations over breed health on.

Sorry for popping up on this thread, but that disinformation absolutely needed to be called out.

The original study which recommended 5 mins of exercise was based on an extremely smal number of gsd (i thik 15) so if you are dissing Farrell study on numbers then the 5 min rule would be wrong.

Farrell does not recommend walking a dog for 40 mins so maybe check the literature before dismissing it. Free exercise is fine, running walking etc. allowing the puppy to self regulate, rest. Taking a dog on a 40 min walk on a lead and frog marching around the pavements is obviously a rubbish idea.

Farrell study shows that healthy bred dogs with have way lower "bone" issues if allowed to exercise more. Wish the breeders would take note. Lets put the blame where the issue is.

Guide dogs have pretty much eliminated Hip dysplasia through good breeding not from restricting exercise.

Mike Farrell is one of the good guys who is doing so much for long term good health. He is to be listened to.

Safe exercise in puppies

@bbb77 I literally said

"Whilst you can flex above the five minute rule, someone walking a 3-4 month old puppy for 40 minutes or even an hour in one setting is absolutely setting their dog up for a lifetime of painful, life-limiting, joint issues (and particularly if that dog is badly bred and/or pre-disposed to joint issues). They're not just incompetent, they're downright negligent."

Guide dogs have absolutely not nearly eliminated hip dysplasia! They are the WORST for breeding. They breed dogs before their growth plates have fully fused, breed bitches twice in 12 months (even the KC says that's atrocious) and breed them well after they should have stopped breeding them. They admit all of this on their website, and are proud of it. If I followed the breeding practices of Guide Dogs UK, my local breed club would throw me out - that's how disgraceful they are.

Anyone who thinks Guide Dogs UK are the pinnacle of dog breeding shouldn't be allowed to pet a dog, let alone own one.

Edit: I won't reply anymore as I don't want to derail the thread, but honestly stating Guide Dogs UK are a good example of dog breeding is like saying Jeff Bezos is a philanthropist. Laughable.

@RaptorSharkI’ve been meaning to post all day today and ask how you’re feeling today? I was feeling similar to you the previous Sunday at the thought of a week ahead having to juggle normal life with a puppy. I always knew my life would be the one most impacted by the dog on a day to day level but I hadn’t appreciated how overwhelming it would be.

Thanks @FoxandDuck - it's up and down, truly! He's so good in our training sessions that I'll really feel like we're getting somewhere, but it's one thing mastering 'stay' and 'leave it' in my living room and another trying to do it in any real life context.

I was a bit anxious to post again on here given the walking argument and I do not want to start it up again but I wanted to clarify something. I posted the other day about our walks and was typing early morning not proofreading - I wrote we were doing walks of 'an hour or so' which missed out the crucial word half. Half an hour or so. I don't time them rigidly, but truly I have never been on a walk with him that my watch registers as exercise at all - at least a third of the time I'm standing still and he's sniffing around in the grass. I think from all my posts on here it's clear I am incompetent haha, but I would hate for people to read that post and think I'm negligent and dragging pup out for hours at a time. I just meant I am not clockwatching for twenty minutes. We always go at puppy pace (which is extremely slow!)

But yes, it is overwhelming and I am a bit surprised as so many people have dogs and loads get them as puppies - I look around all the time and wonder how everyone manages! I read and researched and talked to owners and the breeder so I understood it would be a lot, but it is still more than I thought. I chatted to the breeder about the holiday and she thinks it will be fine. I am considering putting him in doggy daycare maybe half a day a week so I feel less swamped - i figured if he goes in the morning, I could pick him up at lunch and get a good couple of hours nap from him in the afternoon so almost get myself a full day to catch up on the rest of my life!

Haha @RaptorShark i do that “staring at incompetent people Who have dogs and thinking how the feck could THEY cope!?!?” Thing to…
This too shall pass. I think your half day doggy daycare idea sounds fab. And comparison is the thief of joy so please don’t compare yourself with others as they might be looking like they have it all sorted but also be struggling and I’m sure people
see you and your pup and are envious too!!
Hope today is better for all the pups and owners.

I used to be on the old puppy threads, but my youngest is now 19 months old. So I read this thread but don't usually comment any more.

However, just wanted to say @RaptorShark I am glad you clarified your post, because I did think it was madness to walk a 4 month old puppy for three hours a day.

FWIW, I read the current thinking is 5 minutes of walking + 5 minutes of sniffing per month. So at 4 months, we were doing 40 minutes of slow wandering through the woods. It was all off lead and very much at puppy's pace, rather than me striding along and her having to keep up. And we did this two or three times a day.
By 6 months, we were up to an hour long walk and we stuck at that until she was a year old. I didn't rigidly time the walks, so we might have sometimes been a little over or under. I find you get to know how long certain routes take you.

If I had done on lead pavement walks, I would have stuck to the old 5 minutes per month rule, as that type of walk is harder on the puppy's joints.

@FoxandDuck We had a coffee wood stick. My eldest buried it in the garden a few years ago. My youngest recently found it and chewed it in the kitchen. Bits broke off everywhere. I don't know if it's because it has been outside for ages or not. We didn't have it for long enough to test it out when it was new. You probably don't leave her with it unsupervised, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

ETA - apologies for gate crashing. I shall bugger off back to the adult dog thread now. 🙈😂

Hello everyone,

We collected our new puppy on Monday, we were supposed to collect her next Friday (15th) when she was 10 weeks old mainly due to the fact I have two weeks off work so would be around 24/7. However the breeder was 8 months pregnant and has had to be induced early, so I don’t feel like I’m wholly prepared. My job takes me out of the country for 12 days a month (cabin crew) and I’m away this weekend flying and next week also.

We lost our last Ddog in March 2025 and still miss her terribly.

We have gone for the same breed again a bichon frise but it’s nearly 14 years since I last had a puppy and I really can’t remember it being this hard 😂.

I’ve a case of the puppy blues and am questioning my rationale behind getting a puppy. I know that will change as she gets easier but oh my days it’s like having a newborn baby again.

My dp probably wouldn’t have had another dog if it wasn’t for mine and DD pestering. My DD is 12 and has been brilliant with the puppy since we brought her home. Obviously in the daytime it’s all on me.

First night we had a total crate fail and she ended up in my bed. Last night she did go in her crate and slept 10pm-630am but we forgot to take her out and she did a wee in the corner of it. Toilet training is going ok so far but my last dog came home half toilet trained and if I remember correctly was a lot less hard work, maybe I’m wearing rose tinted spectacles though.

I read your thread the last few weeks and it’s really helped me realise things will get easier and this shall pass.

I'm such a sucker for all of these puppy pics 😍

I’ll come back properly later but, in the meantime, a question
Our puppy (14 weeks) woke up at 6:30 and didn’t go down for a nap again until 9 having been for a 20 minute walk. The rest of the time he had been in the car 30 mins, pottering around downstairs and lying in his bed in the kitchen. He woke up from his nap at 10:15 which was earlier than I expected and has now been barking and whining in his crate intermittently for 20 mins. Both for his well being and my work, I thought he’d sleep until at least 10:45, maybe 11:00. What do I do in this scenario? I’m trying to break the habit of letting him out as soon as he wakes and makes a noise but I also don’t want him to think that barking means he gets let out. I want him to be able to wake and continue to be in his crate.
He did a wee & poo on his walk so I’m not worried that he needs the loo.
We’re detached and the location of his crate means I don’t need to worry about neighbours being disturbed.
Any tips appreciated!

I'm a bit mortified @spanielsgalore as no way to edit it now! It was just a missing word, but it really changed the meaning. I only noticed because I went back to re-read a bit.

Would he settle back down in the crate if you were in the room with him? Mine sometimes just likes to know I'm there.

She's so cute! Toilet training really got me down, but it does get better.

@FoxandDuck In situations like this I wait until Rosie is quiet & then I let her out and see if she needs to go to the loo. I then sit quietly with her & if she falls asleep on the floor then I pop her back in. I am starting to recognise what behaviour means what which is helping recognise when she is tired.

@MrsRolandRat I too have been wearing rose tinted specs with regards to my previous dog, also last did the puppy thing 14 years ago. She did get toilet training well, but she did wee in her crate which Rosie doesn't do at all. I have been lucky that I am home all the time and can give her my whole attention but it is still hard, so I am not surprised you are struggling a bit. Another similarity is we weren't quite as ready as we wanted to be when I saw this litter with Rosie. From seeing her to bringing her home was about a week.

This week we have been doing two 15 ish minute walks as it's in pavement, but Friday we can go to our local park and grass areas which I am looking forward to and dreading in equal measure, mainly because of other people and their dogs.

Finally back…
With his nap yesterday, as soon as I’d posted I went down and walk past his crate with a basket of laundry and then back again with something else and then did some bashing about in the kitchen. With the reassurance that I was at home, he settled back down again for half an hour. We then had a strict one hour awake/2hr naps for the rest of the day and I even went out during one of those and he didn’t wake when I shut the front door and even though he was awake when I got back, he was just lying that. So that felt like progress. The biting though, well let’s say it’s a work in progress!
@RaptorSharkDPup had his first settling in session at doggy day care today. It was liberating! It was only 90 mins so not long enough for me to do anything but I did feel my shoulders relax. And he was so excited when I got back. And he collapsed in his crate as soon as he got home so I feel that I do now have a couple of hours in which to do things. We’ve got a few things in the diary in June when we’ll need him to be there for full days so I’m going to send him for a couple of half days for the next couple of weeks and then a full day once a week. Longer term, if we can get him used to his crate, I don’t think we’l need it regularly but it is good to know it’s an option.
@MrsRolandRat how are you getting on? It must have been quite a shock having to get the puppy sooner than you expected and not having the chance to fully prepare for it. We were really lucky as ours was pretty much toilet trained but we still had a few days of what I think was attention seeking little piddles which I quickly got very tired of! I don’t know whether he would have stopped anyway but a friend who has always had dogs happened to come over when the puppy did a pee in the garden and told me that I was being too blaze and to be more excited. I felt a complete idiot standing in the garden clapping and then running over and giving the dog lots of cuddles but it worked pretty quickly so I thought I’d mention it.

A sample of 600 is very large - many studies in canine science with conclusions that are accepted as gospel used 50 dogs or fewer.

For a population of 400k, a sample size of 400 would allow a 5% margin of error - provided the dogs were randomly selected from different blood lines etc.

That being said, I'd like to read the paper - which I can't track down online.

@bbb77 thank you for the link.

@EdithStourton I disagree that a 0.2% of the breed is a large sample size. But we'll have to agree to disagree😊

Statistics, innit?
There comes a point where expanding the sample doesn't do much to change the accuracy of what is found.