Our new arrival is a GWP dog pup 8 weeks old. He is a gorgeous, feisty little chap with a high energy level and sense of humour. At the moment we are keeping him in the kitchen with supervised trips to a small part of the garden out of reach of our 3 cats and plants I'm not sure about. The problem has been burning off his energy. He tends to direct it all at us, clothes tugging, nipping etc. especially my seven year old daughter who's getting the brunt of it, so I took him out earlier into our main garden for a run round. He went completely wild with excitement of course. It was great to see him enjoying himself but unfortunately he then proceeded to hoover up. First a dead mouse, one of many presents from our cat, then a variety of plants, then he discovered the delights of cat poo. I tried finding it all and cleaning it up but of course he's better at finding it than me and my efforts were wasted! To begin with he'd give up what was in his mouth but eventually he got fed up with me and snarled/snapped so I took him in again so once more I have a hyper pup in the kitchen.
Firstly, how do you burn off energy with a pup of this age and keep them safe?
Secondly, where can I find a good list of poisonous plants?
Also, it concerns me he snarled and snapped. Should this be expected and how should I deal with it? Eating cat poo is anti social but should I just let him get on with it?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Puppies are bundles of energy, then flop down and snooze for a while to recharge the batteries, then start all over again! If he's really full of energy it's usually a sign of good health - a lethargic pup is generally unwell.

Have you bought a copy of "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen Bailey? It's an invaluable guide to what to expect from a pup and how do cope with/avoid problems.

Can you fence off an area of the garden, preferably by the kitchen door, so that he has somewhere to run and play outside? He needs to burn off physical energy, so lay games with him, and now is the ideal time to start training him. This will make him use mental energy which will also tire him.

Get him lots of strong toys that you can change about so he doesn't get bored with them. A ragger is good, so is a Kong, a rubber bone....and mine loved an empty 2-litre plastic pop bottle (with the top removed) and a coconut! Old cardboard boxes are fun to tear up too.

Good luck. :)

I'll echo what was said by Jeangenie. I got Dylan on Friday (8 week old Golden Retriever). He's doing the typical puppy thing of food, toilet, masses of energy, then crash out for a couple of hours. During the 'energy' phase, he's been playing with toys (spookily we have just what Jeangenie has suggested: a kong, rope toy, cardboard box, drinks bottle and tennis ball). The latest thing for him is to wedge a tiny treat in the small hole of the kong, and he's taken a little while to work out how to get it out.
I've also been trying to tire him out mentally. We've taken a couple of walks to the nearby shop. Because of course I am carrying him, the shop has to be *very* close, as he's rather heavy :D.
He's also interested in everything in the garden - in particular bits of dead plants: leaves, twigs and decorative bark :rolleyes:. I have been offering him a treat in exchange for what he is chewing up. As he's very foodie, he's quite happy with this exchange :D.

Good luck!

Sarah

Thanks for the exchange tip. Hopefully he prefers cheese and biscuit to dead mouse and poo! You've got to laugh!............

I would invest in some 4 foot Galvanised Weldmesh Dog run panels. I have them across my garden and they are just fastened to Angle Iron Posts that are shoved two feet into the ground.

As these are silver (Galvanised) in colour they don't stand out or block the view of the garden too much!

This is a really good idea because I must say, apart from him eating everything I wasn't looking forward to the moon craters he was promising to dig either so this is good solution without ruining the view!

You can buy 10gauge weldmesh on a roll, and make wooden frames to make up panels. This is what my neighbour did to stop his Jack Russell pups ruining his lovely garden when his elderly bitch died. They had forgotten what pups were like. Je bo0ught a roll in Jollyes. go for this heavy gtauge which is in two inch squares, as it is more attaractive and stronger than any of the lighter mesh.

They fenced in their patio with these four foot panels, and had aimed for this to be temporary, but as the view is fine, and it also keeps the Grandchildren in from trampling the garden it has stayed up. He used 2 inch by 1 inch battens to make the frames, and made a gate in the middle. The framing is painted in woodstain and looks quite attractive.

Thanks for your reply. Bizarrely, I went out after posting this site to the book shop and bought the 'The perfect puppy' then came home and found your message! It's definately the best guide I've found, especially regarding food aggression and 'funny five minutes' which my other book, The Dog Whisperer doesn't mention at all. The Dog Whisperer is great on philsophy where Gwen Bailey seems better on practical solutions. I've already started planning the doggy garden and bought some new toys for him today so here goes! He's an absolute star, sleeping well at night etc so we're doing OK..............

Hi Emma

I also have a 8week gwp pup, can't offer much help but I have made a large puppy pen just outside our kitchen door for the pup to play in but she has supervised trips into the top garden after wakening and feeding, after 10 mins play she then goes back in her pen and usually sleeps. The pen is also useful to get her used to the cats coming in and out.