Hi Guys, I apologies for the long post however we have never had a puppy before and need a little help! We collected our 8 week old chocolate lab "Indiana" on Boxing Day and over the last week I think it is safe to say it's been an eye opener. There are a few issues that I am concerned about and every time I go online (google my new best friend) we just seem to get conflicting advice about what is best to do. 1.Toilet Training- We are currently taking Indie outside every half hour to the hour for a wee, he is doing very well when outside and will 9/10 wee on the command of "wee wee" however we are still having little accidents in the house. We don’t respond to them and just put him straight outside. At night time he sleeps in his crate and is very good he will go to bed around 10.30 and then myself or my partner will get up around 2.30-3am to let him out, we have not as of yet had any accidents in his crate at night. (fingers crossed) My big concern is that we return to work on the 5th Jan and we have arranged for someone to come in and let him out when we are not here, I don’t want to crate him in the day it seems to long for a little puppy however if we allow him to have his own little area he will undoubtedly wee on the floor, even with putting puppy pads down will he think this is acceptable and all our hard work over the last week will be wasted? 2.Biting- Over the last few days he has grown in confidence in the house, we don’t let him have the run of the house, his crate is in the kitchen and he has a bed in the living room with us and he is constantly supervised. He is however biting everything and everyone he comes into contact with last night making a good friends finger bleed quite badly, we have read to make a squealing noise and then stand up and ignore him, at worst to put him in his crate for a cool down period- is this correct? We read never to use the crate as a punishment. I have resorted at the moment to removing his tuggy ropes as we read it encourages them to bite? I have some puppy kongs and put some pre bought treats in them- have no idea what else to use? 3.Socialising- he has had his first injections now and thanks to the Christmas period has met all different people and ages, he has been out in the car with us several times, until his 2nd injections I don’t really feel like we can do much more, we want to introduce him to others dogs- family ones we know are vaccinated however I am a little nervous to do so. Has any one else introduced them before their second injections? 4.Lastly, we feel at the moment like we have had a newborn, we don’t feel we can leave him unsupervised for more than a minute due to toilet accidents or chewing, we are taking it in turns to do the house work or have showers, would everyone else just crate him at this point? Sorry for such a long post but we don’t really have anyone else to ask, any advice, tips would be greatly appreciated as we desperately want to get this right. Pippa & Lee (stressed puppy owners)
Re: Advice for first time puppy owners Welcome to you both! Sounds like you are doing all the right things - here is a new site to help you all the way! http://thehappypuppysite.com/puppy-care-housetraining-methods/ And here are a great set of articles on puppy biting - http://www.thelabradorsite.com/your-labrador-puppy-biting/ I would pop him in his crate when you go for showers etc. I'd also make sure your dog sitter visits regularly during the first few months. Take lots of photos - this time passes so very quickly! Mags, Tatze (20 months) and Gypsy (7 months)
Re: Advice for first time puppy owners Hi and welcome to the forum from me and 16 month old Harley The link Boogie has put is really worth a read Harley is my first ever dog and even though there have been difficult times, she is amazing 1. Keep doing what you are doing with toileting. When I went back to work Harley was in her crate until she was about 6 months old. I always left her with a kong or a chew and would watch her on webcam whilst I was at work and never had any problems. It's good that you have someone coming in when you are out 2. I didn't find having tug ropes made the biting worse. Do squeal, stand up and no eye contact for a few seconds before going back to play. If it persists the crate is good or maybe use the kitchen as a time out? Kongs can have soooo many fillings - kibble soaked in water, natural yoghurt with tuna or peanut butter or carrot......there is a thread on here which has lots of suggestions - search for kongs in the search bit at the top of the page. 3. I let Harley meet friends dogs who I knew definitely vaccinated. I also took her to the local pet shop, sat at a bus stop, sat outside a coffee shop with her on my lap (having a coffee of course!). Try and get him out as much as possible over the next few weeks by carrying him. 4. I did occasionally crate Harley when I was doing chores or showering - I always left her with a kong which she enjoyed. Enjoy your bundle of fun, they do grow so quickly Would love to see some photos if you get chance
Re: Advice for first time puppy owners Thank you very much for the links and advice I will have a look through them. Naya can I just ask how long Harley was crated for when you went to work and if you don't mind me asking did you work full time? Many Thanks Pippa
Re: Advice for first time puppy owners The first 2 weeks she was crated for 2 hours then I popped home for half hour then another 2 hours crated. Over the period of about 4 weeks this was built up to 3-4 hours in the crate at a time. I work 30 hours a week on average (flexible) - I work out and about a lot and also live only 5 mins from work so I was lucky to be able to pop home regularily. I now leave her for a max of 4 hours at a time. I have a dog walker who takes her out twice a week which means I work through without popping home at lunch that day so can be home by about 3/3.30pm. There are a lot of people on here who do work full time and have to travel. A dog walker is a godsend to me as I occasionally have to work a long day so she goes to doggy day care on these occasions Hope this helps
Re: Advice for first time puppy owners Welcome to the forum Pippa and Lee. I work and crated Lilly after the first 4 or 5 weeks when I went to work. We had acclimatised her to the crate. She was left from 8.30 to 12. OH came home for 45 mins at lunch. Then she was crated again until my ddaughter got home from school at 3.15. She was always left with a stuffed kong. And always very eager to go in her crate when we were leaving. After a few weeks she stopped needing a toilet break at lunchtime so the time was stretched and she managed in her crate all day until my daughter came home. I do appreciate that this is a LOT longer than recommend but we didn't have any guidance from anyone at that point and did what we felt she was coping with. Lilly is very laid back and has a bladder like a camel. I think we were lucky. Having someone to go in regularly is pretty important. They are all different. There is no way we could do that now because of work commitments and the chances of another pup so flexible would be slim. Definitely source a good dog walker or doggy daycare would be my advice.
Re: Advice for first time puppy owners Hi Pippa, Welcome the Forum . It's hectic at first isn't it and you are right,there are so many conflicting things to read. You've had loads of good advice already so I haven't got a lot to add...all I would say is if you are going to have Indie in his crate for some extended periods it should be a great ,happy place for him to be so I wouldn't use it to time him out if his biting is getting out of hand....have you got somewhere else you could seperate him?like a little bathroom or utility room? The biting doesn't go on forever but it's tough while it does. Ternaya is right,There are loads of things you can use to stuff kongs with.I used to have a production line on a Saturday eve of kibble,soaked kibble,steamed/roast chicken,sea biscuits and sardines...Dexter has quite a sensitive tummy and whilst all of these were tolerated well by him,I'm currently on a food trial where he is limited to one food source ( his kibble ) .....so I'm filling his kongs with a just a combination of soaked and dry kibble...he is not less enthusiastic about them and it's a lot easier! Poor denied boy of mine!
Re: Advice for first time puppy owners Welcome to the Forum. New Year, New Puppy - its going to be an interesting one! You are doing fine with the toilet training. There will, inevitably, be accidents for a few weeks. Just remember to clean them up with a proper enzyme cleaner it neutralises the smell, otherwise a little whiff will linger, which you won't be able to detect but will tell your pup "this is the place to pee" and they will do so. When Molly was little I used to pop her in her crate if I wasn't able to supervise her. Gradually she has been given more freedom, the room next door with the door open etc. I still pop her in the crate if I want to wash the floor etc and she sleeps in the crate and if we go out and leave her. I have always referred to it as "bed" ready for the day I transfer her. She will go and get in the crate of her own accord if she fancies a "lie down". She is 15 months now. I am afraid the biting is par for the course. It took me completely by surprise that a dog re known for its gentle nature should be a biting machine. Nothing I did stopped it until she outgrew it at about 5 months. I would trust her mouth anywhere now. I gave Molly every experience I could when she was young. I carried her down the road so we could stand and look at the traffic. Whether it worked or I was just plain lucky is difficult to say but she is fairly laid back about loud noise, roaring traffic etc. She gets very excited around other dogs, but I figure if I was kept without contact with my species I'd be pretty glad when I met another human.
Re: Advice for first time puppy owners Thanks for the tips everyone I think it will be a matter of trial and error but I'm much more relaxed about crating him now and have got people coming in to let him out around 11-12 till Lee gets in at 3.30. He does settle very well in his crate at night and does go in their in the day if tired, however we have another bed for him in the living room as well so if he starts getting confused we may need to remove that for a while. We are going to do some shopping now for a couple of hours so we shall see how it goes. Thanks again Pippa
Re: Advice for first time puppy owners Hi Pippa, We were in the same situation as you just nine months ago and I remember doubting or worrying about everything I did with Monty as our first dog. It sounds like you are doing great with the toilet training, we made lives harder for ourselves by using puppy pads in a pen area around the crate overnight and in the mornings when he was left alone. When he started to go through the night at around 5 months it was great, and I realised he could have done this a bit earlier on and we could have toilet trained him quicker without the pads, so keep up the good work. You'e probably read a lot about the biting and that it will get better, the only thing I will add is that I had a bad bite from Monty on my palm at about 4 and a half months, and for a few weeks after that I became a bit scared of being bitten again, so I didn't give him treats properly, so he sort of snatched at them and it became a bit self-perpetuating, looking back I was probably a bit of a wimp and didn't help him to achieve a gentle mouth very quickly. Crating - even after a year I still crate Monty if I am upstairs for more than 10- 15 minutes - he's still quite 'chewy' and can't quite be trusted. As he spends each weekday morning in there I see no issue with crating for an hour or so at weekends to get some housework done, especially after a walk when they will just sleep. When he was tiny he went in and out of his crate like a jack in the box, clicking and treating each time he settled, it took a few weeks but was worth the effort. If he's been to the toilet and has a filled kong he will be quite happy while you get on with something else and you will feel better for a bit of time not watching his every move. It's great that Indiana settles well already, it bodes well for you having a few lie-ins when he's a bit older! I don't think Indiana will get too confused about having different beds, Monty has three different beds to nap on during the day when we are home, but he knows that the crate is where he goes at night - they are all called 'bed' and he seems to have picked this up fairly quickly, we just point or stand near the one we want him to sit / lie on. Good luck! Also I think everything is better and easier in the spring / summer with a dog so roll on the longer days!
Re: Advice for first time puppy owners Leejane mentioned above how her pup kind of snatched at treats - working on how the puppy takes treats is another way to work on a gentle mouth. My trainer suggested this at the first session, but holding a treat pinched between fingers and waiting for her to not use teeth, but just lips/tongue to take the treat - said it would be helpful for teaching a soft mouth. Well, I tried it a couple times, and found that OUCH! It was SO painful to just let her chew on my fingers until she figured out what was going to get the treat! So I didn't do this for awhile, until I started treating her more while walking and she kept snatching at the treats… urgh. The first 50 times we did it, it hurt. I had to switch fingers and hands, and figure out how to hold it so her teeth were hitting my nails instead of my poor fingertips, but after just 2 days of this, she has already started being much more gentle and doing less snapping for treats. I think this is an important way to decrease biting but it's not always as recommended. It will hurt at first, but then getting that gentle taking of the treat will make you so happy!
Re: Advice for first time puppy owners Just a quickie on the 'snatching for treats' issue - we're working with Pongo on this, what seems to work is to offer the treat in a way he can't really get it immediately (so hold it in your palm with the BACK of your hand facing him?) - only turning the hand around when he is doing nice gentle snuffles rather than being over-excited.
