Meet my boy - Hachi

Discussion in 'Labrador Puppies' started by Sudhanshu, Jan 8, 2017.

  1. Sudhanshu

    Sudhanshu Registered Users

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    Hi all...Hachi had liquid poo just now. It is my mistake. I fed him a lot of food in one go since I thought he burned a lot of calories playing with me today. It was almost 1 cup in 1 go (I normally feed him just over 1/4 cups at a time, 4 times a day). Immediately after the food he had a normal poo which was fine. I the. Took him outside after another hour and he did liquid poo. I know I am to blame for this. Will it be okay in the morning or afternoon. Just a bit nervous. I will go back to 1/4 cup now at a time.
     
  2. Samantha Jones

    Samantha Jones Registered Users

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    Just make sure Hachi has plenty to drink and his poo should firm up. Yes way too much food in one go - keep to the four small meals a day as his little tummy can't cope with more. Also you want to keep him at the right weight so make sure you are not overfeeding.

    Welcome to the crocopup! Try standing and turn into a tree with your arms folded - ignore him until calm. Or keep putting a chew toy in his mouth - you will have to be determined, very determined that he has the toy rather than you. If you are playing with the toy and his teeth touch your hand, then end the game by standing up and becoming a tree! The first time I did the tree with Bailey he bit my butt! However, even now when he gets over excited and is jumping and play nipping I turn my back on him, cross my arms and ignore until he is sitting calmly. If this does not always work, then remove yourself from the area or pop the pup into his crate for a few minutes. I always found Bailey at his crocopup worst when he was tired.

    Good luck - and by the way you have a while with a bitey little furball now, very likely until after adult teeth! Sorry but they do grow out of it, but you have to set the boundaries - ouch or yelping had no effect on Bailey at all and n fact made it worse!
     
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  3. b&blabs

    b&blabs Registered Users

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    Did you try trading him for a toy? Take your fingers out and put a toy in his mouth instead. Just redirect him to biting a toy instead of hand/fingers.
     
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  4. Sudhanshu

    Sudhanshu Registered Users

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    Thanks. So this morning, i gave him just 1/4 cups and the poop was much much better. I think it is fine now. I am not going to feed any treats to him today...just water and just over a cup of food - in 4 different meals, which i was doing before.

    As for chewing and biting, we are still working on it. We are trying to substitute with toys....and we ignore him once he bites for few moments. we crate him for 1-2 mins as well if he doesnt learn.
    Also I got a remote controlled toy car for him today. He was scared of it in the beginning but now he is playing with it, chasing it and it is a good way to spend his energy. 3-4 mins and I stop it - I dont want him to get bored of the toy car.
     
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  5. Sudhanshu

    Sudhanshu Registered Users

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    We are still working on it. We are trying to substitute with toys....and we ignore him once he bites for few moments. we crate him for 1-2 mins as well if he doesnt learn.
    Also I got a remote controlled toy car for him today. He was scared of it in the beginning but now he is playing with it, chasing it and it is a good way to spend his energy. 3-4 mins and I stop it - I dont want him to get bored of the toy car.
     
  6. Sudhanshu

    Sudhanshu Registered Users

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    [​IMG]

    Dont know whether this video is uploaded successfully, but this is 'Hachi vs toy car' :)
     
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  7. edzbird

    edzbird Registered Users

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    Cute!
     
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  8. TJB08

    TJB08 Registered Users

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    He is gorgeous! I found that on day 2 but especially day 3 Poppy has started to get way more confident and with that came more biting. But I'm teaching her the hand touch ( thanks to @snowbunny for this idea and video). And it seems to be helping her to associate my hands with other things that just biting. Also I've noticed she gets really biting just before she goes to sleep. Sometimes I can redirect her or sit up on the sofa and keep throwing toys for her. If it's really bad I put her in a penned area (her crate is inside this but she also has room to play et).

    In terms of wees yes I took her outside every 20-30 minutes and immediately on waking and she seemed to get the hang of it. I did find I had to give her plenty of time at first as she seemed to need to sniff everything before she would wee. To speed this up I kept her confirmed to a smaller part of the garden at first. Not she goes almost immediately. Oh the other thing I did was make sure I didn't take her straight back in after a wee (didn't want her to associate wees with end of fun). So a quick ball throw or something. She is up to about every hour now, but almost immediately after sleeping. I forgot earlier after we had been doing some fun play and she had an accident, but I took her outside even so just to keep that association and she weed more.
     
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  9. Sudhanshu

    Sudhanshu Registered Users

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    That confidence thing - ditto with Hachi. He gained confidence from day 3 and then the bites. But I have noticed in last 1 to 1 and a half days that he bites harder when he is very excited. So what I do is when he is not excited - I give him my finger and hand and he handles it with care and I praise him. And then when he is excited, I substitute my hand with toys and then at times give him my finger and as soon as he bites hard - I let him know by an 'Ouch' and then I start playing with him again after 30 secs or so. This way he knows that when he doesn't bite hard and takes care of my finger - he gets a praise and when he bites it really hard, I ignore him. Also Hachi is doing great sleeping alone. I slept with him first 2-3 nights. The next 2 nights he has slept alone with no one near him. In fact last night, there wasn't a single whine at all.he peed at midnight just before he slept. Then I set my alarm at 3, took him out for pee. Then I set my alarm at 7 AM and he went out for poop and pee. We play with him after he poops outside - he chases us in the garden :)
     
  10. snowbunny

    snowbunny Registered Users

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    Puppies biting is normal. They are all different and might do it to varying degrees, but they all bite. It's not them being bad, and you shouldn't tell them off for it. I find "ouch" does nothing. Sometimes I squeak, but that's only when I can't help it :D
    Here's a good article about it: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies-biting/
    If the puppy is over-tired, there's no training them; just put them to bed and wait for them to calm down. But, at other times, they can learn. I've had good success already with Luna - who was far worse than my last puppy ever was. I've found it really hard to be reactive with her (just responding when she does it of her own accord) because she bites my legs and won't let go, which Willow never did. Without putting my fingers in her mouth to extricate myself (which I don't want to do, because I don't want her to have unpleasant associations with my hands), it's hard to get a barrier between the two of us! So, I have to be proactive. I've been playing with her when she's in her crate and this is really working with her. In her crate, door open. Tickling her tummy (which she loves) and playing with toys. All the time she's gentle, I continue playing and stroking, telling her "that's nice, yay, well done, good puppy!". As soon as she bites too hard, I close the door and count to ten, looking away. Then open the door and start playing again. When she's out of the crate, I use the same tone of voice when she's playing nicely, and engage with her. It's a work in progress, but we're seeing some changes.

    She still has her mad times where I struggle to get her off of me, and the odd rogue hard bite, but that's just the joys of a puppy. She got me good yesterday on my right index finger. By the time I went to bed, my finger had swollen to twice the size of the other. Eeek! But, it was just a normal puppy nip that happened to land in the wrong place.
     
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  11. Sudhanshu

    Sudhanshu Registered Users

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    I want to share this thing what happened today. Hachi for some reason wasn't well behaved today. He was troubling me a lot in the evening. My wife was unwell so it was all upto me to cook, buy groceries, take care of Hachi etc. I was really tired from morning doing all the things and unlike everyday - I was having pee accidents which were frustrating. Since nothing was working and Hachi was also troubling me a lot
     
  12. Sudhanshu

    Sudhanshu Registered Users

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    ...continued from last post... (I was cooking and he was peeing all over the place which he never does and I had to clean everything up), I broke down. I just lied down on floor and started sobbing for a moment. Hardly 10 secs, and Hachi came to me, climbed on me and started licking my face for the next 20-30 secs. The moment he started licking my face - I acted as if I was crying more (just to see what his reactions is) and he continued licking my face until I stopped sobbing. He then did not leave me alone the entire evening - always by my side. He was so well behaved for the next 2 hours until he slept. He wasn't whining, he wasn't begging for food (which he always does). I am not an expert at dog behavior - but I thought Hachi had empathy for me.
     
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  13. Granca

    Granca Registered Users

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    It sounds as if you have a really close bond with Hachi. Earlier he had probably been reacting to being given less attention because you were so busy so, although it's very tempting to spend lots of time with him, try to make sure he has some periods of time during the day when he has less attention from you too.
    I hope your wife is well again now.
     
  14. Sudhanshu

    Sudhanshu Registered Users

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    She is good now. It was just a bad day
     
  15. Sudhanshu

    Sudhanshu Registered Users

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    I am trying to manage Hachi's excitement in the morning (as soon as he is out of the crate). He is jumping, biting (and biting harder than he does during the day). He bites so hard in the mornings that it is really painful. I have tried crating him for 30 secs - 3 times today morning when he bit me but that didn't help much. He kept on coming out of the crate and kept on biting me. Is it because of the long night (and the pain he has in his gums because of teething period) or just the excitement of being out of the crate. During the day, it is much better he doesn't bite that hard and if he does, I crate him for 30 secs a couple of times and he stops. Can someone tell me what you do for a hyper active puppy early mornings?
     
  16. Jay Z

    Jay Z Registered Users

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    This is great stuff sorry for you issues but in a way it's helping me when I get my pup home and probably what to expect. Also good to hear some of the ideas to fix the bitting.
     
  17. Sudhanshu

    Sudhanshu Registered Users

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    No need to be sorry :) It is just part and parcel. I expected this when I got a new pup. Hachi is a very active and lovable pup...i know the issues that I face are just as expected and will get better with time :) But yes, i really need someone to reply to me on my last post :)
     
  18. samandmole

    samandmole Registered Users

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    My boy Mole was very mouthy in the mornings and is still a bouncy morning person! Luckily the crocopup days are long gone! He gets a frozen kong in the morning. The puppy style bone shaped ones are perfect. He still has one to this day. Always seems to calm him. Just filled with soaked kibble mixed with some wet food and frozen.
    Sam and Mole
     
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  19. snowbunny

    snowbunny Registered Users

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    When Luna is going completely crazy, there is no point me trying to interact with her, so I pop her in her pen to sleep. Sometimes it takes a while! Now I'm getting on with her crate training, I can see myself using the crate instead of the pen to enforce sleep time. But when she's bitey but manage to function, I actually find popping her in her crate with the door open and interacting through the open door to be a useful tactic. That way, I can extract myself from her jaws a lot more easily than when she's out and about, because she is a real leg-biter. She's been a bit of an eye-opener to me after my last two, who never did that, and I can understand more how people struggle with it :D
    Having said that, she's quickly learning to be more gentle and, as much as she still mouths, most of the time when we're interacting, she's really good.
    Is it first thing in the morning as soon as waking up? If so, I'd be tempted to give him his breakfast in kongs to give him something to think about.
     
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  20. Sudhanshu

    Sudhanshu Registered Users

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    So one question - Hachi never bites my wife or bites very less - and that is because he listens to her more and she never allowed him to get so close to bite. She plays with him, gives him a belly rub as well but never allows him to get to close to her hand. With me the equation is different - Hachi is more playful. He listens to me lesser. Also - I can do what my wife is doing - not allowin him to bite. But I don't want to do that. Because if both of us don't allow him to bite, he will never learn how sensitive human skin is and how much pressure he can exert. I always pop up my hand in his mouth - in fact he is looking for it all the time. In fact since he is more bitey in the morning - I try to teach him more in the mornings. Whatever I am doing - is that correct? Or should I be a bit more like my wife ?
     

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