Puppy Survival Thread Autumn 2026

[CoubousAndTourmaIet]

Thought it was time for a new puppy thread, for anyone who has a pup currently or will be collecting their new family member in October or November.

Bump! Plus picture of my pup when he was a puppy, destroying the flower beds. This thread was very helpful to me back then.

I've got a 17 week old lab puppy and (with impeccable timing) am now suddenly going through a divorce.

Things will be tough but he's my little mate and I can't wait to spend the rest of his life together 🧡

This little lady is joining our family in 2 weeks ❤I'm currently in the nesting phase of clearing cupboards and puppy proofing the house. My daughter and I are off to Pets at Home this weekend to do a big puppy shop!

Gorgeous pup @TreacherousPissFlap Sorry to hear about the divorce but am sure your boy will be your rock throughout the stress.

What a cutie @poodlecurls , have fun with the shopping. We're madly puppy proofing too.

Collecting our boy tomorrow...

@TreacherousPissFlap and @poodlecurls Beautiful pups.

Love the first-big-shop-at-pet-shop shop! (Although your bank manager may not! ). Going into a pet shop for me is like going into a sweet shop, although I remember once we passed a country store, thought we would just have a quick peek, and came out having spent over seventy pounds. Our dog wasn’t even a puppy then! Be warned!

@Silverbirchleaf I've already done plenty of online shopping - DH is rolling his eyes at the parcels turning up daily!

My problem is that because pup is second dog, I'm having to treat the big girl as well. So it's been two new Kongs, two new feeding mats, leads etc because she can't be left out 🙄

He’s beautiful!

Can I ask how you’re doing with training? My puppy is 18 weeks, I think she’s doing ok but DH is really frustrated with her, so I’d love a realistic idea of where we should be at. She’s fully housetrained, haven’t had an accident in several weeks. Sleeps through the full night in her crate, which is still in our bedroom. Has 2-3 two hour naps in her play pen without (too much) fuss during the day. She’s not very destructive, but does chew rug edges and chase and nip feet and ankles still. Her sit, lie, stay and recall are all great at home or in the garden, but variable when out on walks if she sees a squirrel or something. She does pull and stop when walking on lead, I’m really focussing on loose lead walking at the moment and this is slowly improving but it’s still a bit of a 30 seconds at heel and then finds something more interesting elsewhere thing. She is ok with ignoring traffic, bikes and people 90% of the time, although will sometimes jump at people to be petted. She WILL NOT ignore other dogs, around 50% of the time given a decent distance I can get her to sit or walk past, but the other half she is straining at the leash to go say hello.

How bad does that sound to more experienced owners?

Puppy tax

To me, all that sounds really good for 18 weeks @AirborneElephant
What is your DH getting frustrated with? If it's the lead pulling and the jumping up, it's pretty much par for the course at that age...

She's very lovely. Is she a Rough Collie or a Sheltie?

Edited because I'd used the word pretty three times 😆

A Sheltie. Thank you, she definitely knows she’s pretty 😆. Irritatingly many strangers think so too, which isn’t particularly helping the paws on floors training 🙄.

It’s the biting and lead pulling that he’s struggling with. Good to hear you think it’s normal and will pass with time and training. Sometimes it just feels like nothings changing and there are days it feels like everything is going backwards.

To me it's normal @AirborneElephant , my girl is 2.5 years now and I felt as if she was pulling me off my feet for ages. She only really started to lead walk consistently well at about 8 months, before that it was a struggle some days. It will come with time, 18 weeks is still very young.

And yes, mine is a sweet and pretty one too, so we've had the same problem with trying to stop her jumping up to greet people who stop to say hello. It's irritating when people say "oh I don't mind, I'm used to dogs..." because it can set back the training 🙄

Hello All!

We picked our lab puppy up at the end of July. He’s 19w old now.

He’s doing pretty well, I think. We have only had a handful of accidents in the first week. He was a model pupil with lead walking, but is just starting to find things more exciting than before so sometimes gets distracted and pulls. But tbh for his age is pretty good- certainly much better than our previous puppies!

His recall is perfect in ‘set up’ situations, eg when you put him in a sit/down and walk away on walks or at classes but less so when out and about- he’ll come full pelt in a set up, but bimble back on a walk, and often gets distracted by a new sniff on the return so pauses… so he’s on a longline at the moment but it is improving.

The thing we’re slightly struggling with is him and our current dog (11 year old female lab). We have to step in and separate them a lot as she will not set boundaries with him, and he rides roughshod all over her, continuously being too rough in play and stealing things off her. He’s very good at reading signals from other dogs so i think it would be to both their benefit if she said ‘not acceptable!’ as I do think he’d actually listen and stop.

We lost our old girl (age 14.5) last year, and didn’t get a puppy until she was gone as it wouldn’t have been fair on her in the last few years… but I wish our current girl would take a leaf out of her book. She was so good with puppies… very kind BUT she would tell them when enough was enough, before it ever got out of hand- the canine equivalent of a raised eyebrow and a look that brought everyone back into line!

That's the problem @Newbabylabrador , they're all so different in the way they react to each other. I could find myself in the same boat as you tomorrow when we introduce our new male puppy to our established adult female. Absolutely no idea whether she'll be like your current girl and let him walk all over her or if she'll set the rules as your previous girl did. Sorry about your loss.

But, glad that you feel your puppy is otherwise doing fairly well. Hopefully, given time, he'll learn to be a little more respectful towards your older Lab.

She’s gorgeous. A Sheltie?

I agree, time and training will help.

One thing regarding pulling towards other dogs is to get them to sit and look at you (use ‘look’ command) and treat her when she does. Then she’ll learn that you’re more interesting than the dog.

Another tip is that if they’re standing and just looking at the dog nicely, let them, and reward when they turn the attention back to you. You’re teaching them it’s okay to watch the World nicely.

We have a 12 week cocker and a 6 year old. Just took the pup out for his first walk on the pavement - we tried earlier without his brother (not related but we call them brothers!) and he wasn’t happy so we walked them together and he was much more confident. Now pondering whether I should invest in one of those lead splitters as they both were determined to walk on my left side and it’s easier than holding 2 leads!

@Newbabylabradorwe have to separate ours too. Puppy is v confident and all over our older dog but he does tell him off and the puppy is learning. Biggest issue is tiredness so we are enforcing loads of naps still. Having said that I caught our older dog waking up the puppy to play with him 😂 so he can’t be that bothered!