Hi all, this is my first post on here so be kind! I shall be picking up a little Lab pup on 4th October. It's all a bit of a surprise because I had no intention of having a dog, but my friend's bitch went into labour while I was staying with her and I helped deliver the pups, which was a little stressful with the mother trying to eat the first two, one breach and one that didn't want to feed! I had to split the sacks open on each pup as the mother seemed unable to do it. Since I had no idea that I was going to be involved in that, it's not something I'd ever read up on, so I was frantically reading pages from the book between births! However, it was an absolute success as she gave birth to eight gorgeous little pups, four black and four yellow, and they have all survived to two and a half weeks so far, and are all healthy and very round in the tummies! The experience seems to have turned me a bit broody, so my husband and I discussed it and decided to take one of them on. The first thing I did was buy The Happy Puppy Handbook for my Kindle and, since I'm a bit of an insomniac and couldn't sleep last night, I read the entire book in one sitting. There's lots of great advice in there and I can't wait to start putting it into practice. I have a feeling the insomnia may be a benefit in those first few weeks Anyhow, it did leave me with a couple of questions: 1. The puppies are living in a place four hours from us, so when we go to collect our new addition, it will have a long drive back home. My husband will drive and I'll have the puppy with me, with towels that smell of Mum for comfort. I am fully prepared to be thrown up on! My question is, we will have to stop for toilet breaks on the way home. However, since the pup won't have had its vaccinations at this point, what should we do about setting it on the ground? Should we just look for a place that obviously isn't a common stop for dogs? 2. We live in a ground-floor apartment with a large terrace, which I was considering using for toilet training. However, when the puppy is grown, I would rather that it didn't poop there. The only other place suitable for a quick toilet dash during training is very heavily used by local dogs, so I wouldn't want to use that before the vaccinations are complete. Do you anticipate a problem using the terrace for training purposes and then having to break the habit later? Would it help if I used puppy pads on the terrace? Thank you for your help. I'm going to spend the next two weeks reading everything I can on the subject to make sure we're prepared. I've had dogs before, but never a puppy! The parents are both so well trained and joyful dogs, I hope I can bing out the best in our new addition
Re: A couple of questions for soon to be "mum" Wow, you obviously are excited I have never seen pups being born.....must be amazing :0 Insomnia will definitely help in the first few weeks, but I will admit that I was very lucky and Harley settled into sleeping overnight really quickly For the car journey home you could make some 'wee' stops and put pup on the floor but try and put him/her somewhere that isn't frequented by dogs. Not all pups will go to the toilet as they will be a bit apprehensive about the new environment. As for the toileting, several people on here have made temporary toilets (small box with mud/turf on or something similar) until pup is old enough to go outside. You could use puppy pads, I did in the crate overnight and when I went to work for the first few weeks. Hope some of this helps
Re: A couple of questions for soon to be "mum" How exciting snowbunny! You might not need to stop often at all. Someone else commented just the other day that the time spent stopping and trying to get your pup to wee might be just as well cracking on and getting home. I guess when they are young, having plenty of absorbent towels in a box or crate will easily mop up any wee so maybe just crack on with getting home? Its another option anyway. Building a patio "loo" might be a good idea. You might find reading this thread here useful for some tips.
Re: A couple of questions for soon to be "mum" Thanks both. Thanks for the advice. I'll be staying with the family over the weekend, so can make sure the pup isn't fed or watered for the couple of hours before our trip home, and I guess we'll just see how we go. I can see how it could be stressful for the little thing, too, on top of being taken away from home, so maybe it would be more sympathetic to just use the towels, as you suggest. I'll get my husband cracking on building a toilet area on the terrace and see how we go. They will have been going on newspaper in their kennel at night and on grass during the day, so either of these should be familiar. I know I'm going to be over-thinking everything until it arrives The birth was amazing in hindsight, but rather stressful at the time since I've never done anything like that before. It started in earnest at around 7pm, the first one was born about 7:15 and the last one at 1:30am. Seeing things like that on TV make me cringe a bit, to be honest, but when you're there, you just have to get on and do what has to be done, you don't even think about it. It was awful when she tried to eat the first one (because her instinct was to eat the sack and she didn't realise there was a pup inside), but luckily she has an amazing, trusting nature, so was happy for me to take it out of her mouth to clean it up. The second one looked really bruised when it came out, probably because it was breach and a difficult birth, and then she tried to do the same again! She got into the flow by the time the third one came around, though. Phew! Although that was the one that wouldn't feed... it was very small and just kept wanting to go to sleep. I kept rubbing it, saying "If you sleep, you die!!", opening its mouth with my little finger and putting it round a teat. It took a good forty minutes before it showed any interest in doing it itself, though, in which time two others came along. I really thought we were going to lose that one, but in the first week, the human mum and dad kept making sure it was feeding and by the end, it was the fattest of the bunch Sorry, I get a bit carried away when I talk about it!
Re: A couple of questions for soon to be "mum" What an amazing experience. I'm sure your little pup will be very special to you.
Re: A couple of questions for soon to be "mum" Hello from me and my 11 month old Golden Girl, Molly. Before fellow members explode with curiosity..........you missed out some very important information. Boy or girl? Black or Yellow? And a name I'm a fellow insomniac, and this site is perfect for us. There is usually some activity in some part of the world. There are few things lonelier than an insomniac in the wee small hours. It can be tempting to play with your pup in the wee small hours. You are awake, with nothing better to do. Resist the temptation. It needs to get into a sleep routine. Arm yourself with towels and kitchen paper for the trip home. Don't let them feed it before you leave (less chance of it coming back up). I started the journey with Molly on my lap but she was such a little squirmer that I thought it was unsafe, so I popped her into a cat carrier I had borrowed, I left the door ajar and put my hand inside to reassure her. After a small amount of protest she fell asleep, puppies do sleep an awful lot! Enjoy! And don't forget to pop back and see us. There are some very knowledgeable people on this forum, and there are plenty like me who can say "Yep, been there, done that". It can be a comfort to know that it is perfectly normal.
Re: A couple of questions for soon to be "mum" from a teeny tiny black 5 1/2 year old Lab known as The DivaDog and her pet human
Re: A couple of questions for soon to be "mum" [quote author=Mollly link=topic=7537.msg105333#msg105333 date=1409217389] Before fellow members explode with curiosity..........you missed out some very important information. Boy or girl? Black or Yellow? And a name [/quote] I don't know yet! There were four black and four yellow in the litter, three boys and five girls. They have actually named one of the girls after me for helping out (pedigree name Fiona, pet name Fifi) but we're going to see how their little personalities develop over the next few weeks before we make a decision. We're lucky in that, despite really good breeding (both parents are champion gun dogs), the puppies aren't going to be homed super quickly because they're in France and the French aren't interested in pedigree. They'd rather they went to English families because the French can also be less caring towards their dogs, but they don't live in an area with a lot of expats, so it could be some time before they find homes. If we do have Fifi, we'll be changing her pet name, because that would be a bit weird! Maybe to Trix (my sister always called me Fifi Trixabelle as a kid!). We have to avoid "human" names because of where we live - they find it very disrespectful to call an animal a human name, especially if it's a biblical name.
Re: A couple of questions for soon to be "mum" Hello from Carnie and Ash, the four month old yellow lab. Wow, how incredible to have helped new life into this world!! Sounds like you did a fab job. Do you also live in France? Or are you in the UK? I just wondered as I thought French dogs had to have a rabies vaccine and wait 21 days before they can come into the UK, as well as being microchipped. My English friend who's now living in France had problems getting her French dog into the UK when visiting family over here. Do let us know his/her name and colour when you do choose and don't forget to add a picture. Best wishes xxx
Re: A couple of questions for soon to be "mum" [quote author=ladyrattlesUK link=topic=7537.msg105403#msg105403 date=1409237956] Do you also live in France? Or are you in the UK? I just wondered as I thought French dogs had to have a rabies vaccine and wait 21 days before they can come into the UK, as well as being microchipped. [/quote] No, I'm in Andorra so there's not the same restrictions on the movement of animals across borders, luckily. It will be microchipped at its first vet appointment because, as well as it being a good idea, it's the law here. Even our ferrets are chipped and have passports
Re: A couple of questions for soon to be "mum" I totally agree snowbunny, I think it's great microchipping is going to become law here too. C xx
