Hi I am sure I am worrying about nothing, but being my first puppy I wanted some advice from people hat have recently been where I am! Bailey is now 12 weeks old, out walking and running in the big bad outside world, with all its exciting smells and tastes. Reaching the big 1 2 also means an increase in food (something I am sure all Labs dream about!). Today Bailey has been quite sleepy and listless in the morning, and not overly interested in his food, taking quite a long time to eat his breakfast (almost two hours today). Lunch as a bit quicker followed by a long sleep and then tea was eaten a lot quicker, followed by nearly two hours of playtime. He also seems to have had a bit of an upset tummy - not diarrhoea but very soft, becoming firmer as the day goes on. He is peeing as he always does, and doesn't seem to be going any more frequently, and there have been no indoors accidents. He still sleeps all night, with no need to go until we get up in the mornings. Despite our best attempts he is still hoovering up rabbit pooh during walks, particularly in the morning, although the last two mornings we have walked him somewhere different where there are not as many rabbits. Also the last two mornings we have not walked with my friend and her two dogs as we do Monday to Friday. I have a routine appointment at the vets on Tuesday, and I will be talking to her about this, but does anyone have any advice in the meantime - is there something else I should be doing, or giving Bailey. I would hate it if my inexperience with a puppy means I am missing something. Grateful for any advice please. Thank you
The softer poos might be because he is getting the extra food - sometime it can be quantity related. So you could cut back to a level that's more like what he was getting before, then build it up gradually over the course of a week. Maybe he was feeling a little under the weather this morning but from your description he's now fine Eating rabbit poo or similar is pretty normal... I wouldn't worry too much about that except for trying to limit the quantities a bit. There is an article on the main site about teaching a cue to get your dog to leave/walk away from objects you don't want them to go near, pick up or eat (basically this is just a really strongly reinforced cue that means 'come to me for an amazing treat'). Will try to find the link for you Definitely discuss any worries with your vet but I wouldn't be feeling too stressed at this point
Juno was partial to rabbit, cow and horse poo The rabbit poo was worse as we had rabbits running around the garden, so plenty of availability. The 'magic' word does work although choose your word with care, you will be using it in a bright, happy voice at a distance from your dog I used high value treats which were only used with the magic word and for nothing else.
Thank you - I started this today with some new treats Bailey hasn't had before, so fingers crossed I can distract him from gobbling up all the pooh around! Thank you so much for the advice and the link, both the OH and I have read the article with interest. Choosing the word is the difficult one!
I used 'Bingo', perhaps not the best choice to be calling when walking around the local park , but you also need a word that you won't commonly use
