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?

@longtompothow is the sleep going?

I feel as though all DPup has done today is sleep, chew his chew toys or bite me. There doesn’t seem to have been any time when he’s just been chilled. He now has so many and such big teeth that it really hurts when he nips.
On the plus side, he has spent two chunks of time today home alone (in his crate), did some brilliant loose lead walking and came racing back as soon as I called him when he was running up
to an older off lead dog in the park and that dog’s owner called that her dog didn’t like puppies. He is a really good dog when out, it’s just behind closed doors that I feel he’s a bit of a menace! I feel that disproportionately
today too as the flip side of him having managed some chunks of time home alone is that I was out so missed out on that down time.

@FoxandDuck we have had two mornings in a row of 7am! Makes things so much easier when not so wiped out from sleep deprivation.
The biting is tiresome isn't it. I know most of the time it's because she is tired, so she is still having naps every hour to hour & half which really helps.

Are you letting yours off lead when out on walks? I've not dared to do that yet. She did a little bit nice lead walking today, but we also had a bit of an eek moment when she had a bee in her ear! I thought she had something in her mouth, which she may well have done, but I saw it on her ear. I don't think she was stung as she didn't yelp, but if she was she didn't have a reaction so that's good.
We annoyingly had an off lead dog run over to us and then follow us across a quiet road near us, one I crossed in the hope it would go back to its owner, or its owner would be less useless. It's one thing that I dislike about owning a dog, dealing with other useless owners dogs, not the dogs themselves so much.

I've been a bit lax on giving her space alone so she has started to whine when I'm not in the room but she can see me, so we have put up a retractable safety gate screen to try and get her used to being separate from me. My previous dog had it really bad so it made life hard for others around me ie outside shops.
I do t feel we are getting far with her training tbh. She gets so overexcited when I try the technique in the Battersea dogs link Imposted to get her to walk close to me, and when I am trying to teach her leave it. She is doing the thing my last dog did which was pick up all sorts of stones and plastic when out and about, most I just don't see until she has it, and I am looking constantly.

@longtompot I can't remember how old your puppy is.

But it's a good idea to let puppies off the lead sooner rather than later. The reason is that young puppies won't run far away because they have an instinctive need to be close to their carers - look how they stick close to us at home! But once they reach adolescence they are more prone to running away as they feel more confident with distance apart. So ideally, you will have established rock solid recall by the time your puppy is 6 months old say, which takes a lot of repetition. You can't practice recall while they are on the lead.

Forgot to say - I'm very impressed with your pup sleeping until 7am, that's amazing. Ours is still fixed on 6am (though that's partly because that's when my husband gets up to be fair so it's a pattern they share).

We have a neon very long line that we drop. Puppy can wander off and sniff and run around and we periodically give the recall command and reward lavishly with treats and praise and if we see a distraction coming or a stream up ahead or whatever and recall fails then we can put a foot on the line to stop him if we really had to. This only works in a wide open space where the line won't trip everyone up obviously! But that's how we practice recall with a safety measure. I don't know if we'll get to 'rock solid' in the next six weeks but we are trying!

We have a bit of an issue with over friendliness - if off lead on a walk where there are other dogs walkers, he will run up to greet the dogs and jump up at walkers. Because he's cute, people reinforce it by giving him a massive fuss. Not all dogs feel the same! So we keep him on a lead on those walks to try to teach him to wait and approach politely if wanted.

Oh and we also have the picking up stones and plastic thing - I try not to make a big deal of it, just drop a treat ahead and say 'find it' and he usually drops whatever he has of his own accord. He has improved lately and picks up less as presumably he's figured out that not every piece of litter is actually that interesting.

At home, with treasures like tea towels and shoes and laundry he is an absolute menace and teaching 'leave it' and 'drop it' is relentlessly unending!

We have the same issue with puppy picking up stones and plastic and pine cones and ... loads of things he shouldn't be picking up.

We are teaching drop it, which he is responding to pretty well as long as he always get a great treat for dropping the object.

@Twiglets1 shes 15 weeks now. My friend did the same as you when her cockerpoo was a puppy and she had brilliant recall. I know I should, but the fear of not being able to get to her holds me back, even with a long line, and I know it's not healthy for her.
Oh, and I don't want to brag, but it was 7.20 am this morning! I know she will regress at some point but loving it whilst it's happening.
@RaptorShark same with people and jumping up. She just wants to say hi to Everyone! We even had a builder put his sheet of plasterboard down so he could come over and say hi. Great big burly builder on the pavement loving a puppy. I'm trying to put blinkers on when out and ignore those doe eyes they give her. I need to be firm and say you can say hello but she needs to sit first.

It’s only been a week that DDog has been allowed out on his leash so I can’t imagine letting him off safely as he’s soooo excited by everything around him that he would ignore me for sure. There is a local park with a wee enclosed area that’s fenced off so I will give him a go this weekend there.
He was doing well in his crate 11-6 ish but I got fed up with 6am starts and started wakening him at 4.30-5 when I get up for a wee (I don’t set alarm I just rarely ever manage a full night without needing a wee) and then I’d take him for a wee then I’d lie on the floor bed next to his crate and then get til 7-7.30 out of him. But that’s kind of backfired now as he seems to waken up earlier and wants to lie with me for the remaining time rather than go back into the crate. And he is a little obsessed with me (but spends most of the time with dd (16) who is off on study leave and is meant to be the main carer. He had be reliable in pooping outside but today has pooped twice indoors. Dd has been having to go to exams so DS or DH have been “In charge” when he has pooped. Doesn’t sound like he’s just a bit out of sorts with the change of carer or routine? I feel we need to have a plan to get him a little more independent… and less obsessed with me. He is like my shadows when I’m here, bless him. I am home for an hour as doing training session on Teams and this is him now.

I know you're not alone in that fear and it's a common one but honestly, there's never a better time to instill recall than when they are pre adolescence.

My friend had the same fear and actually employed a trainer to walk with her and the trainer gently encouraged her to let her puppy off the lead. Maybe my friend thought there would be 2 of them to catch the puppy if they bolted!

Tbh she could have just asked me, I would have done it for free but maybe she wanted the reassurance of a professional dog trainer.

7.20am is amazing!! My puppy has never stirred that late and he is 6 months now. We're going on holiday next month without him and one of the main things I'm looking forward to is lying in bed with a cuppa in the mornings!

What a little poppet @TappingTed how can you ever say No to that little cutie?

I promise you he won't ignore you when you do let him off the lead. Only for a few seconds at least but he will want to keep checking in with mum (and when he does give him a little high value treat each time).

I imagine he's just a bit confused by the change of routine and going back to basics will remind him what is expected.

@Twiglets1 well, today I was brave. Dh & I took her to the park on 2m longline & let her free! We called her to each of us & she did incredibly well, coming back immediately 90% of the time. It meant she was tired enough to do some lovely loose lead walking home.
I have also been reading up on how to stop her from resource guarding as so far she doesn't seem to have any. Plus, my copy of Total Recall by Pippa Mattinson arrived, which was recommended on another thread which I managed to get from World of Books for under £4, so lots of learning & then hopefully implementing.

Aw, I'm so pleased! The great thing about them running free(ish) is that they get loads more exercise so are nice and tired when you get home. My puppy walks so much better on the way back from the park than on the way to the park. Challenge is to get him to walk nicely both ways!

I am practicing the resource guarding most meal times. I just casually touch the puppy while he is eating - so far he just wags his tail every time, bless him. Occasionally I even move his food bowl slightly while he is tucking in and his tail still wags. I don't think Labs are known too much for resource guarding though. I look after my friends spaniel sometimes and he steals our shoes then growls when we try to take them off him!

I feel as though I am tempting fate by saying DPup has got good recall but, so far, it’s going well. Tips I was given were to go somewhere without too
many distractions, leave them on their lead and go just before you would usually give them a meal so that they are hungry. The last tip almost backfired as DPup stayed so close that it was hard to actually test his recall! Those first few times when he was literally around my ankles, I’d give him a treat each time he voluntarily looked at me, say “check” to get him to look at me and give him a treat for that. Then, when he found a particularly interesting sniff, I’d try and take a step back when he was distracted, say “come” and then treat him as soon as he got to me. We got through his entire breakfast portion of kibble pretty quickly that way! I also take some of his favourite treats with me and give him one of those just before I let him off to remind him that I have them with me and he might get one when he comes back.
What I like doing now is standing behind a big tree or even bending down in some long grass and seeing how confused he looks when I call him.
I do feel I’ve been lucky. We were in the woods near our house the other day and there seemed to be a whole squirrel party going on a couple of hundred metres away but he was too distracted by all of the smells to notice. And then at the weekend a deer ran across the path in front of us and he was oblivious to that too.

How is the biting @foxandduck? I have had the same thing practising recall where I can't get far enough away from him as he will be at my feet! But he has selective hearing for sure, and is no good at ignoring distractions. If a pigeon lands on the grass ahead, I don't exist anymore.

He ripped another cardigan of mine today though I think truly by accident when a tooth snagged on it as he was jumping up to say hello. But I keep thinking the biting is getting better and then we'll get another relentless day. We're approaching five months now and I really did think the biting stage would be coming to an end.

How's everyone's pups coping with this heatwave? I've had to keep Rosie downstairs during her daytime naps as her bedroom was just far too hot. I have started putting all the ice packs we have on top of her crate overnight and it did seem to help last night.
Also trying not to play with her too boisterously and doing more brain stuff like find it, bits of carrot hidden around the room. We are pretty much living in our living room with a fan on, curtains shut and one door open which is keeping the heat down. That said, yesterday was hard, I think because it was too hot for me and I wasn't coping very well with it
She does like ice, so I've been giving her small amounts of that.
Scary moment yesterday. I needed to pop to our local shop for a couple of bits for dinner, left her in the living room, which I thought was pretty safe, and came back to my eldest in the room with her after finding her chewing through the cable to one of our standard lamps! Thankfully it was unplugged but oh boy! Won't do that again, not for a long time

@longtompot I discovered yesterday that our puppy had chewed right through the cable to a standard lamp in our "snug". We don't use the room much so don't know when it happened.

Doesn't seem to have done him any harm, thank goodness!

We found an old paddling pool made out of heavy plastic (it was actually a sandpit originally) that we filled with water over the weekend and our puppy has really enjoyed going in there and cooling off. He's a Lab so they love water.

The last few days feel as though they have been an insight into what it might be like to have an older & hopefully calmer dog as DPup has just been too wiped out to do much. For the first time since we had him, I feel as though we have hit the 18-20 hours of sleep mark! He has been very good at finding cool spots around the house and then he’s had his cooling mat in his crate and we’ve taken it into the garden with us when we’ve gone out there in the late evening. He’s enjoyed playing with the hose and in his little paddling pool. He hasn’t been for a walk since Saturday and we’ve gone very little training so I’m slightly concerned he might have forgotten everything! It’s really cooling down where we are this evening so we’ll head up to the woods a bit later with him.

I agree with @Twiglets1 on letting puppies off the lead. I was scared to do this when mine was young but did it anyway and I’m glad I did. The main danger was trying to make sure I didn’t trip over him and he would stick so close to me! To practice recall I actually had to keep putting him in a sit and walking away from him as he wouldn’t be far enough away from me to do it otherwise!
He’s 14 months old now and times have changed 😂

Big lurker and not frequent poster here, but just to say I was struggling with my boy before Christmas and his bitey ways and the advice from all of the ladies on the old puppy thread was so helpful and reassuring. He is now 11 months old and a dream.

From 6 months old onwards the biting and lead ragging slowly subsided with some bad weeks in between. He’s a border collie and they are known little landsharks. Anyway I’m sure it’s been said a lot but it will pass and I am so thankful I no longer have to spend an hour hiding from him every evening until he calms down.

It really is a case of getting through it over time more than any technique, no matter what online videos tell you. Nothing seemed to work with my boy, ignore him, he carried on, distracted him, he just wanted to bite me. I was bruised and fed up, especially as it’s only me and him. There were a few tears.

I know some of you have struggled with the biting so just wanted to come on and say this really. It will pass and on the other side will be your lovely maturing pup.

Also an advocate for letting them off lead early. I started with a long line but he just got tangled (and bitey!)

I've never bothered with long lines (on my third Lab) and can't really see the point of them unless you are one of the few unlucky enough to have a puppy who isn't good at recall.

I'm a bit clumsy so just know I would get myself and the puppy all tangled up.

I have a 10 month old miniature poodle teddy bear. He’s really settled into our family and family routine perfectly now and is so much fun. I was struggling so much back in December / January with the enormity of the responsibility but they really do calm down and he’s a delight now!

The heat has definitely wiped us all out. We’ve been managing walks at 7/8am and 8pm and a lazy day in between. My boy is great off lead when he’s with the whole family or when we’re walking with friends and their dogs. On the other hand he won’t walk at all when he’s with just one person - he just sits down and refuses to move! Completely different to how he is when out with a pack. If we try leaving our house, he will walk two houses either side, but no further. I can’t risk him off lead when I’m out with him as he will just walk back to the car, completely ignoring me. Anyone experienced this or have any advice?

Finally, what do you all have planned in terms of holidays?? We are planning to take our pup with us to Europe, but I’m starting to wonder if this is a good idea!

Sorry - that should say, I can’t risk him off lead when I’m out ALONE with him…

Re the recall problem when he is off lead and you are on your own - is your puppy food oriented?

If he is I would try giving him a small piece of his favourite treat every single time he returns to you when you call him whether in a pack or on his own.

I have been reading this thread with a mixture of excitement and absolute dread. We are bringing a 14 week old cavachon home on Tuesday and Im sure Ill e back for some advice if thats ok.