Hello! Have been reading the site since November 2016 - an excellent resource! Our puppy came to his new home a week ago (at 7 weeks) and is settling in well. We had a lot of snow arrive at the weekend, which temporarily dampened his enthusiasm to pee outside. But warm sunny spring days are now back again and he seems very happy. So am I, as it's less damp newspapers to clear up
Welcome to you from Mags, Tatze and Mollie from Manchester UK Tatze is my pet dog, a black Lab and she's four years old. Tatze means 'paw' in German. Mollie is my fourth Guide Dog puppy, a black Lab who is seven months old. .
Hello and thanks for the warm welcome! drgs@5, Our puppy is called Nelson (after the famous admiral ). SnowBunny, here he is!
I should add a bit more info about our experiences, in case it helps any other new puppy parents. He's from a "hunting line" (field trials in English?). I hunt ducks, black grouse, willow grouse and capercaillie (as well as moose, but that needs a totally different dog!), and he will join me for the 2018 season, if all goes well I have to say that I've been quite surprised how easy he was to get settled in. We haven't seen any evidence of separation anxiety from litter mates, or other negative symptoms one hears about. We had visited him a couple of time, at 4 weeks and 6 weeks old. The whole litter was very active and we "got to know" them all. We used the same trousers for each visit, and wore these same trousers when we collected him and took him home. The breeder gave a small blanket that had been kept with the litter, which we placed in his new nest. He slept in our bedroom for the first 7 nights and we took him out regularly for a pee during the night. Tonight will be his first night in the hallway, just outside our bedroom door. He peed a bit on the floors early on, which we cleaned with the enzymic cleaner. He has only had one accident in the last 3 days, it's going well. He gets one kibble for a successfuly toilet outside. We started training on the second day, basic stuff - sit/sit and stay, come and "zip" for when he is chewing something we don't want him to. On the 4th day he was already walking to heel without a leash. We've tested his retrieving instinct inside and the potential is there. But we'll wait a few more days before introducing the dummy outside. We're using the Stonnie Dennis method of using half of his rations as "incentives", sometimes giving the "jackpot portion" of 5 pieces or a special chicken treat (max one per day). 3 days ago we introduced the clicker, and use this when he does the right thing (walk to heel, chew his kong rather than our fingers). We've kept the sessions limited to 2-5 minutes, and probably do 4-5 a day, and we always end the session on something positive. Nelson is proving to be very easy to train, but we know this might not always be the case Yesterday Nelson had his first visitor (also a dog owner, who came without his cocker). During the previous days we had put a lot of effort in to teaching Nelson not to pull on the leash (we just stood still if he pulled, and only allowed him to move off again he stepped towards us or otherwise allowed the leash to slacken off). We allowed our guest to walk him, and unfortunately Nelson learned that pulling gets him where he wants to go. So there was a good lesson to learn - be careful of you allow others to handle your puppy, especially if they will not follow your own methods 100%. I really couldn't believe how all the good work came undone so quickly. But we know we can fix it again, as he is so young and eager to do the right thing. Anyway, I don't want to turn this in to a boring essay, so I'll leave it there
Hi and welcome from me and 3 year old girl, Harley. Nelson looks and sounds amazing. It is so nice to hear someone who hunts but uses positive methods. I do agility and sniffer work with my girl and found her really easy to teach (except loose lead walking, but that's another story!). Look forward to getting to know you all and hearing about Nelson's training.
Hi from Holly and me in Wales. Your last post wasn't a boring essay at all. It always good to hear about a puppy that's settling in so easily. For the first few weeks puppies are very keen to follow you around. Later on the instinct tends to decrease so now is a great time to work on recall.
Hello and welcome from me, Wispa (5) and Tuppence (3). Nelson looks lovely and it sounds as if he's settled in really well.
