Good morning everyone. I was wondering on your thoughts on the following issue please. Poppy, our now 12.5 week old black lab has been just brilliant since we got her at 8 weeks. She settled in really well and bonded with all three of us (me, my wife and our 9 year old boy). We spent the first week taking shifts to sleep near her downstairs in her crate (with door open) but then withdrew at night and she's been fine on her own since. She can be a bit nippy as expected but has a great temperament. We do have a grumpy old cat that Poppy loves to try to play with but he's having none of it. To give them each their own space the cat 'lives' upstairs and the puppy has the run of downstairs including a large garden. Anyway, to the point. I went out yesterday for a few hours and when i returned my wife was at her wits end. Apparently they had both spent time with Poppy including a garden training session but then gone upstairs to do some housework. Usually Poppy would be fine with this but she began whining, barking and trying to barge past the makeshift stair gate we have up. Eventually she broke through and went upstairs but still seemed unhappy and continued to cry and bark. My wife tried ignoring, rewarding the silent periods etc but nothing worked. Then last night she woke us all up at 1pm crying to come upstairs again (not happened for weeks). I moved downstairs with her so the others could get some sleep but she woke me up at 3am, 5am, 6.30am, 7am and finally 7.30am by which time I'd had enough! Just to be clear, this is a very sudden change in behaviour that we have not seen before. The only changes that we are aware of that coincide with this are: 1) On Thursday she had her second round of vaccinations. Could this have anything to do with it? 2) On the advice of the vet we have significantly increased her daily feed (from 100g kibble per day to 150g and then 200g in a week or two, in line with her age). Would this change anything? Anyway, thank you for reading and any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I'm back off to bed! Kind regards, Paul.
It's difficult to know why Poppy has suddenly developed anxiety about being left alone - it could be that she felt unwell after her vaccination, it could be that a noise scared her when she was alone, it could just be her age. I think rather than trying to pin down the cause it's best just to recognise that at the moment she is unhappy being alone and make a plan to go from there. The key thing is not to leave her alone. This means that at night you either have her in your bedroom or you sleep downstairs with her. You need to try to get a fairly good night's sleep as if you're anything like me lack of sleep can make you shorter-tempered. I chose to have my puppies in the bedroom and spoke gently and perhaps stroked reassuringly if they cried in the night. (I also chose to let them toilet on newspaper at night - but many people prefer to get up in the night and take their puppy outside to toilet. By 12 weeks all mine were dry and clean at night.) This won't be forever. If you think back to when your son was a baby I'm sure you comforted him when he cried. Babies don't cry to be annoying and neither do puppies ( though of course it's wearing for us when they do!) Poppy will grow up and be confident and secure if she is made to feel safe now. During the day if one person can stay with the puppy while the other goes upstairs that's handy, but if it's not possible then again I'd take the puppy up with you (perhaps have a pen upstairs so the puppy can see her family while they are doing housework - try a stuffed kong to help her settle) I realise the cat is tricky but perhaps you can think of ways to separate them but still allow the puppy upstairs. Puppies are hard work but, like small children, all the effort you put in now pays dividends later. I hope you have a better night tonight.
200g per day seems low, on this website it says at 3 months pups should be getting 250g minimum. I give my pup who is 15 weeks today 230g per day from her kibble meals which gives me room to give her more treats in training and kongs or bully sticks throughout the day as well. Maybe she's hungry? I'm quite confident my pup would sell me for a £1 for one more piece of kibble https://www.thelabradorsite.com/feeding-your-labrador-puppy/
Hi Paul Welcome to this great site. Part of it may well be a reaction to the vaccinations which could last a few days. I think it is more likely to be the food. 100g a day for a 3 month old puppy is probably half of what she should have been getting. Maybe now she is on more she has more energy and dare I say it is acting more like a young puppy. Also bare in mind the more that goes in the more comes out so she will need to go outside more. Once you get her up to the right amount of food the toilet training will settle back down and hopefully your night time sleep. Anything after 6 am is a bonus for us with early wakening. Even at 2 1/2!
Wow. Thank you so much for your replies all...they are really useful to read. Last night we had her upstairs with us and there were no issues. A shame as I'd thought that her having her own space downstairs away from noise etc might benefit her. Maybe that will come later eh? I feel really bad about the food now. I'd followed the advice on the bag rather than Pippas. You live and learn. I'd also allowed a little to much room for training treats I now realise. We'll keep on with the increase in food and sleeping upstairs for now and see how it goes. Incidentally, we've got a stair gate coming today and I'm now thinking we could use is liberally to keep her from upstairs for short periods if totally necessary. But also to keep her from going downstairs in the night (id read that stairs are potentially harmful to lab puppies hips etc.) Is that correct? Many thanks again for taking the time to help out, it's very much appreciated! KR, Paul.
I'm glad you had a better night. When she feels secure there is no reason why you can't change things to have her back downstairs at night if you wish - I've done this with each puppy I've had, and each one has been different in how long it has taken them to feel confident (from a few days to about 8 weeks). I think using a stairgate to stop her using the stairs unsupervised is a good idea. I know of only one study which found a link between early use of stairs and hip dysplasia https://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/ajvr.73.6.838 but it's common wisdom in the doggy world that you should prevent a puppy from unnecessarily straining joints until growth plate closure has occurred.
You can still use her meals for training as well? My pup has 3 meals, the first is straight after her morning walk, I take her entire meal in a treat bag and use a few bits of kibble to get her attention or reward and then give the rest when we're home (the aim is to have no food on the walk). The midday lunch is always something she works for, either chucking it around the garden she she has to sniff it out, basic training like sit/down/paw etc or in some games to get her mind working. Her last meal I give straight out of a slow feeder bowl
