CockersOnline Forum
Cocker Specific Discussion => Puppies => Topic started by: Sarahingarforth on June 05, 2014, 10:34:50 AM
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Hello all
We have had our 10-week old puppy for nearly two weeks now and I just wondered if we're letting her have enough sleep as she seems to get cranky and start biting after playing for a while.
We've been letting her sleep for an hour or so, then playing / going outside for about an hour or so?
Is this enough / too much? Any advice welcomed!
Thanks
Sarah
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Hello and welcome to COL :D
At 10 weeks she needs lots of sleep so if you can learn to recognise the point at which she becomes tired and cranky you'll then be able to pre-empt it and try to calm her down so that she falls asleep rather than becoming over tired. Finding a way to calm her may be the tricky bit :lol2: but if she's playing with you, try to make the playing less exciting at that point and see if that works, or try a puppy Kong with something tasty in it or a puppy nylabone. Chewing things like that can be calming and soothing so may help her fall asleep.
Please tell us some more about your puppy and post some photos too :D
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Hi and congratulations on your pup
long time since we had a pup but someone will be along shortly to help. I think it is best to let them sleep for along as they want to. You are also heading for the cockerdile period. shall say no more and wait for the posts :005:
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Hello
Mali is nearly 6 months old and my first cocker so I'm no expert but she was exactly the same, she very rarely gave in for a sleep and would keep going but get very nuts and bitey. We started to give her some quiet time so that she woukd sleep and noticed improvement almost immediately. One thing I've picked up on this group is also not to over exercise them either and the rule is 5 mins for every month in age.
I hope that helps a little.
Sarah x
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Thanks for your help and advice. Much appreciated. I think might be asking quite a lot of questions here!
I'll try to work out how to post a picture but Poppy is pretty much black all over except for a white bib.
She's mad as a box of frogs so I must admit it's taking a bit of adjusting to having a puppy. But she is lovely! X
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We have only had our Larkin since Saturday so he's not quite 9 weeks yet and he has a lot of sleep during the day. He's definitely more bitey when he's starting to get tired - when he starts wanting to bite us rather than his chew toys is usually a sign he needs to start calming down.
On average, I'd say he's been sleeping for 2-3 hours after 1-2 hours of activity.
Following advice from this forum, and because we are up early, I'm looking for him to have at least 2 hours sleep in the morning, 2 in the early afternoon and if possible another 2 hours later on.
I would love it if someone would tuck me up in a nice cosy crate and let me sleep - I'm done in! :lol2:
Good luck with your puppy.
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Thanks Bunbury
Good to know it's not just us. Poppy does exactly the same - starts biting hands and trousers etc rather than chew toys.
We're early risers too so trying to get her into some sort of schedule that works around all of us. Not easy!
I know what you mean about being done in - best of luck with your pup too!
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I should also say that we found the biting when Larkin is tiring less stressful after we switched from giving him a hard chew toy at this point to offering a large soft toy (if you look on the puppy photo board you'll see him triumphing over his sheepy friend!).
It may be obvious to experienced owners, but we've never had a dog before and so it was only by observation that we realised he wanted a substitute for his litter mates i.e. crawl all over someone, have a good nibble and then fall asleep together in a big heap. The large soft toy seems to help with that - and has the added advantage of helping to keep your hands out of the way when you're offering it to him ;).
If I'm reading that wrong then I hope an experienced members will correct me!
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Thanks Bunbury. I'm new to this too so I'm glad to be able to learn from others! X
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Minstrel is nearly a year now so his early puppy days are getting faded - but I do remember him sleeping quite a bit during those first weeks, caught up with the jobs I could not do whilst he was awake tho - and we had some crafty snoozes on the settee together. :luv:
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Bunbury you just reminded me, I got my pup a substitute litter mate before we got her, the Donky was about twice her size :lol2: it did save our fingers on more than one occasion :005:
I found putting her in her own quiet space with some soft toys helped her nod off for a couple of hours, I let her sleep for as long as she wanted and tried to get her to sleep every couple of hours, you soon get to see the signs :D
Good luck more fun to come :005:
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Thanks all - lovely to be able to ask people in the know! Sarah x
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Hallie is 9 weeks old and I got her on Thursday :lol2: she seems also to sleep nap a lot, as I type she's actually asleep beneath my feet . She tires out, sleeps, she tires out, sleeps:). Although she has kept me alert at night to let her out. I am too, very tired but smitten :luv:
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When you say you are letting her sleep, does that mean you are waking her up? If she is quiet and sleeping, then leave her until she wakes up. Pups need a lot of sleep (like human babies) but are usually rubbish at recognising that they need to have a rest. While there is something going on, they will usually keep going and get bitey and manic as a result of overtiredness. :-\ I would just make sure there is a quiet place for her to settle for a snooze when she needs to ;) Sadly, her sleep times may not coincide with yours >:( - those first few weeks and months are very hard work, but will settle down and soooo worth it :D
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Thanks Rachel and Joules
Yes we have been getting Poppy up to try to get her to fit in with our schedule a bit!
Touch wood she's been pretty good at night (hope I'm not tempting fate here!). It's a while since I had newborns so a bit of a shock to the system!
Good luck with Hallie Rachel :) x
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When Murphy was younger he wouldn't sleep at all unless it was enforced. At the end of the night he would collapse and I could pick himup and carry him up stairs without even waking him. We were not very good at reading the signs at first and had a terrible time with him. Once we realised that he was over tired (and not needing more exercise to tire him out) it all started to click into place.
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Thanks this last post seems to make sense. She doesn't seem to want to go to bed through choice, but put her in and nine times out it 10 she zonks out!
S
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Once we realised that he was over tired (and not needing more exercise to tire him out) it all started to click into place.
This is exactly right - took us a few days to realise this though! As we don't have children we have no experience of newborns so it came as something of a surprise to us.
We never wake Larkin up and also start slowing him down a bit ready to get him back to sleep after about 1.5 hours now. I also read somewhere that 60% of the time the puppy is awake you should leave them to amuse themselves. We started doing this instead of feeling that one of us has got to be doing something with him all the time e.g. we will cook together while he toddles about around our feet rather than one of us cooking while the other entertains him.
Most times this calms him and, after a bit, he quite often just sits between (or on!) the feet of whichever of us has stood still for 2 minutes and then falls asleep :luv:
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It took us a couple of months to suss things out. Coming from the most docile dog on the planet (Rusty the cavalier :luv:) to a hyper bitey cocker was a culture shock of epic proportions. I must admit that things didn't go very well for those first months and if it wasn't for the help on here and people telling me that things would get better I don't think that Murphy would have lasted in our house.
I blame myself totally for this though. If I ever (hopefully) get another cocker I will be so much better prepared for it.
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Thanks again. I'll try the not over-entertaining as I think we may be guilty of this at the moment. And good to know that others have found the first few weeks and months challenging - I've been feeling like the worst pet-owner on the planet - hands up, I'll admit I've found it hard at times! X
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Thanks again. I'll try the not over-entertaining as I think we may be guilty of this at the moment. And good to know that others have found the first few weeks and months challenging - I've been feeling like the worst pet-owner on the planet - hands up, I'll admit I've found it hard at times! X
I've also found it really hard going at times, particularly at first, but things are definitely improving after reading up on other peoples experiences and putting their tips into practice.
If possible, try to also make time for yourself if you've not already. I have struggled to 'switch off' even when Larkin is asleep (I'm in the house on my own with him in the daytime) but have just been out for a 20 minute walk while he slept. This was the first time he's been in the house on his own (in his crate) and I was terrified! I know that is silly though, as he has never yet slept for less than an hour, and it's more likely to be 2 hours and what could possibly happen in 20 minutes to do him serious harm? Still felt like I was bunking off though ph34r
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Hello, my pup Sparrow is now 9 weeks and she sleeps and sleeps and sleeps. I also began by making the error of constantly entertaining her when awake. Also, if she was sleeping and woke I would take her out and play with her thinking she was now alert, but actually I now find that sometimes it is better to take her out then return her to her playpen with a toy or chew and she goes straight back to sleep.
We are slowly getting into a pattern. She wakes at 6am and is perky until around 9am and then she gets a bit OTT, so I pop her in her playpen and she will sleep 2-3hours. Then she wakes at dinnertime and I try to do some socialising with her (today we went to a teashop in the park and she sat on my lap), she will then sleep another 2-3 hours. In fact today she slept 2.5 hours, woke up, had tea and then got really naughty and chased the cat. I popped her back in her playpen and she has crashed out again.
I completely forgot just how much sleep a puppy needs (my older boys are 3 and 6), and even when she is awake I am now letting her quietly play with toys rather than try to over-excite her.
Must admit I have wondered on occasion what I have let myself in for!
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Thanks Merbury. I know what you mean about over-playing. I'm trying to get Poppy to play a bit more on her own as she seems to be getting a bit clingy and it can be impossible to get anything done without putting her in her pen!
She stills seems pretty active though! X
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Have you tried a treat ball - one she can knock around to get the treats out of till she gets tired.She could play with it in her pen.
I use/d Fish4dogs star treats in Minstrel's and he still loves kicking it about either on his own or we have a game of footy together.
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Thanks Mudmagnets I might try that. I tried a Kong but she just didn't seem interested but a ball might be a different challenge! X
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Not a prob, I use biscuits as apposed to soft fillings as obviously the biscuity treats will rattle when the ball is moved ;)
I also bought him a wiggly giggly ball, but because it makes a noise, may well make your little one more alert - not good if you are trying to get her to nod off, lol