Hey everyone, I just joined this forum, anyway my 2 month old female Lab puppy is arriving on Monday, and I would like to know what I need to get beforehand that is essential? This is my first time owning a dog in my apartment (2 floor, with a balcony, plenty of space, I live alone, and spend most of my day here, around my building I have three very large grassy areas to take her out to) After watching my boyfriend for almost a year with his PitBull terrier puppy, I've picked up almost everything involved around taking care of your young doggy, but I was wondering what I should buy beforehand. These are things I've come up with so far: A crate for her to go potty in on the balcony, as it's snowing very heavily where I am right now, and I plan to keep that on the balcony in the future for when I have uni next year and she's home alone for 5-6 hours. But the main potty area will be outside during her regular walks. Food (Dry puppy food - opinions?) A leash and harness (Thought about getting this once I pick her up because of size, not sure which to get) A tennis ball to play with I'm planning to remove all my carpets at the start (I only have 2 but still) so it's easier to clean up any accidents if they happen, and to avoid the smell of urine/poop being in them to encourage her to go there again. I don't know, I guess that's what I've been planning, if anyone has any opinions or suggestions please do write them down!! I'm looking to consider all advice Thanks
Hi and welcome . Bringing up a puppy in a 2nd floor apartment isn't going to be easy , with regards to toilet training , but it can be done . Its going to take much patience and repetition on your part though, because teaching your puppy to use a crate on a balcony as a toilet area isn't really ideal , most want to do their toileting outdoors . I am a little concerned about you leaving her for 5/6 hours when you go to uni , four hours is usually reckoned to be the maximum a dog should be left alone , especially in a restricted area , would it be possible to pop home or have someone go in to her to break up the time ? Food ? Most start on a good brand of puppy kibble , she will need feeding four times a day to start and then once she is around four months old, this is cut to three and at around six months , two meals per day . There are loads of puppy toys on the market , Kongs being one of the favourites as they can be filled with food, idea for when a puppy is left alone . I think maybe a harness would be better for her , definitely until she has become lead trained and walks nicely ( this can take some time ! )
Welcome to you. The Happy Puppy Handbook and this site are a great place to start - https://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies/ .
We were in a second floor walk up apartment when we got our puppy, and decided not to use puppy pads. We carried her outside regularly (every 20 mins) and after eating and napping. It just became part of our routine. We did use a puppy safe hallway in the early days as a pen rather than crating for longer periods of time so she wouldn't be forced to pee in her crate while we were still trying to settle into a routine. One end I put newspaper down, the other end she could access her crate/bed. Do you plan to crate her outside? I also don't think it will be easy to train her to go potty inside a crate - I know people who have fake/real grass patches on their balconies that may be more consistent for potty training. I second the advice to get kongs as well as some puppy safe chew toys. We had a few stuffies, soft blankets and squeaky toys ready for when we brought our puppy home, and breeder sent her with two toys and a blanket that smelled like mum that we put in her crate. As for food, you will want to keep her on the breeder's food for awhile until she settles in, then transition slowly. There are a lot of good foods on the market, but make sure you go with large breed puppy food.
When I had my latest puppy, we were in an "upside-down" house, so I had to carry her down the stairs every time I took her out. The best bit of that was the exercise - I stuffed my face on Cornish cream teas every day and still lost weight!
hi and welcome!!! my boyfriend and i have had our little Chili for about a month and a half now and she's about 3.5 months old. she did pee in the house a bit when she first got home but, general rule of thumb is to take them out about 10-15 minutes after they have water or food. any time they come out of the crate its straight outside. while my puppy is peeing we say "go potty, go potty, go potty" and then GOOD GIRL when she's done - the idea here is to train her brain to when she's older and we say "go potty" she will immediately go while outside. she has not peed in the house since she was about 11 weeks so we were able to train her quite quickly. our trainer says to walk outside, stand in one spot and let her walk the length of the leash to go potty, no running around the yard because she will start to think of it as a game and it isn't very fun taking a dog out in the middle of January to play around when all you want her to do is pee! it does take a lot of diligence and most importantly patience! puppy pads are good simply for the point of cleaning up pee- we definitely wasted money on them because she just chewed them up when we lined her crate with them lol. i recommend a martingale training collar so he/she learns early on not to pull on the leash. I have explored harnesses but likely won't get one until she is older, for now just using a regular leash and it is working fine. definitely kong toys. he/she will start to teeth so anything hard or rubbery they will like a lot more than a cushy toy. hope this was helpful!!!
hmmm....I am not so sure. Martingales collars work by tightening around the neck, that's how they work. I would not be comfortable using a martingale collar on a young puppy. The neck structures are just too delicate. A soft webbing harness would be my preference, plus a LOT of patient loose lead training!
you're right- i should have clarified that we have only been using it in the last week or two. we first used a regular collar and that was just fine but she does really yank on the leash when we're outside! she's stronger than I would have imagined martingale has been working just fine and our trainer has told us how much better she's been while working with her on leash etiquette!
OK, help me understand here , your pup is 3.5 months old? This is the age we invested in a harness for our pups. They moved into a flat collar around 7/8 months old, however, there were times, usually because of the potential of very distracting environments where I would revert to a harness. Generally speaking, we would work in low distracting areas so the pup could get the hang of loose lead walking first. I am wondering how you are training a loose lead walk? I appreciate though how difficult this can be, I have been there at times with an almost dislocated shoulder!
A Martingale is a form of choke chain designed to tighten around a dog's neck and is, in my opinion, a totally unacceptable tool to train a loose lead walk. A harness, lead, treats, time and patience is all that is needed. I would be rather concerned with your traibers techniques if they view Martindale collars as acceptable.
I appreciate your input- I guess I am a little new to all of this so thank you for your kind response. There are many different schools of thought on dog collars, the martingale was just a temporary solution and I have not yet even taken her for a walk, we are working on pottying outside. We use treats and have plenty of patience! She is a very good girl and I am doing my best. My trainer is perfectly fine and I was just offering a suggestion of what has been working for me and my family which is what I thought this forum was for!
Things to buy for your puppy! 1) Sanidog floor cleaner (there will be toiletting accidents) 2) Old towels to clean / dry the floor and the puppy! 3) A harness. 4) Vetbed to sleep on. 5) Find a good dog class to attend. 6) The Happy Puppy Handbook And go shopping, have some lie-ins, get ahead on your studies as the first few weeks can be full- on puppy (but worth it)
Thanks everyone for the advice I'll go later today to get all that stuff. I've just been reading about loose-leash walking, the start, stop, turn around method, and plan to start immediately, I've seen too many fully grown dogs pulling their owners around the streets, doesn't look very fun! Okay so I will be taking her out every 20 minutes, however when an accident does happen, say she pees or poops indoors, how do I react to that? I don't plan on using methods such as rubbing their nose in it, but do I say 'NO', or just ignore it and instead reinforce peeing and pooping outside with a treat or a 'good girl'? My friend gives her dog a good spank when he's done a doodoo inside, to the point of the dog whining but I don't feel right doing that :/ ?
Yes , just reinforce the pee and poo outside, much praise and treats , that's the way to go . Definitely no spanking ( as per your friend ), that's awful and will only make for a fearful and anxious dog x
This is a very good question, and you are right to feel uncomfortable in the ways that some people deal with this. I think we need to remember our puppies are babies, just like human babies, in the sense, they have no control over their bladders. It doesn't help reprimanding a puppy for an accident. A puppy will only understand you are angry, and will not understand why. The best way is when you are there and the pup has an accident, to quietly take the pup outside, and offer the opportunity to wee/poo (in case pup isn't empty!). Never shout or rub the puppies nose in it..just imagine if we started doing this with human children! Every time your pup wees/poos outside reward them with praise and a treat, so they make a positive association with weeing/pooing in the right place. Here is a bit more detailed information: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/house-training-your-labrador-puppy/
Ignore any accidents inside the house and praise/reward all wees/poos outside the house. They all develop bladder control at different ages (some take much longer than others). One day it'll all just "click" and they'll know to hold on. One day they'll be peeing every 10 minutes and suddenly the next they'll be able to hold on an hour. It's an amazing day when it happens! You've just got to be super patient
Yes, that's exactly right. You think they'll never get it, but suddenly they just do. It's as if as their body and brain matures their world gets bigger and their"den" that they want to keep clean extends to the whole house.
Absolutely . We love to share information and tips on training; the forum does have a policy though of only promoting positive reinforcement training methods and sadly a martingale collar would not be regarded as 'positive reinforcement'
Okay so a new piece of information I have just recieved - I should not let her out on grass to play until she has had all 3 of her vaccinations against Dog Distemper. She has had one already, and as I have said is 2 months old, so should I stick to this plan? Only take her out in front of the building to pee and poop and then back inside without contact with other dogs/too much nature? Her revaccination is in about 2 weeks.
Your vet is the best person to ask, as he will know what the risk of parvovirus is in your area. Basically, the way the vaccinations work is (apologies to the medical types who will likely cringe at my over-simplified explanations) : - Puppy gets protection against disease from the first milk (colostrum). The length of time this protection lasts varies from puppy to puppy. - Vaccinations don't work while the puppy still has this protection. This means that if your puppy's MDA (maternally-derived antibodies) wear off at 10 weeks and he is on a 8-12-16 week course of vaccinations, then the 8 week vaccination won't work and he won't then be protected against these diseases between 10 and 12 weeks of age, when he gets his next shots (or shortly after, once the vaccinations have time to take effect). Parvovirus can live on the ground for a very, very long time - months and maybe years. So any animal that is infected that uses that piece of ground can contaminate it. Letting your puppy down on the ground when he is not protected by MDA or vaccinations means he is potentially at risk from contracting it, and parvo kills a lot of puppies. However, you have to assess the risk for yourself, with the help of your vet. Most vets in most areas seem to agree that it's safer not to let puppies on public ground until a week after the final vaccinations have been administered. But if you live in an area where parvo is extremely rare, you might decide that the risk is minimal and the benefits outweigh it. Most people will let their puppies on the grass in their own gardens, even if foxes run across the land. It's a considered risk and I would suggest getting advisement from your vet.
