hello, I have just got a beautiful puppy, she is almost 10 weeks. What age do I start with the training of sit and lie down, also brushing teeth, when does that start? I am a single owner so ant tips on that would be helpful. I don't want her to be dependent on my being here all the time.
Training can start now, this very minute. It is never too early to start training. Short sessions of a few minutes at a time. Are you planning to clicker train?
Welcome to the forum, whilst I am not a single owner, you will find from some of our other threads, that many of us wish we were, it can enable you to be consistent with training your puppy without, interruption from an other half etc! Although it can be nice to share the responsibility you being a sole owner will only strengthen your bond with your dog, would love to see pics of her!
I am pretty much a single owner in that I live with my 12 year old son who spends half the week with his dad. I am the one who does all the difficult stuff and he lies around cuddling her! I can find it a challenge sometimes, especially recently when I was ill and still had to care for the pup (now 6 months) but I have a dog walker once a week so she gets used to being with others and she started going to Doggy daycare when she was 4 months. I am the one who always gets up with her in the morning and always takes her out for her last wee at night so it can be tiring. She is a very loving girl and although she clearly loves me and is very focused on me for training, she is very loving to friends that come and visit too so not just dependent on me. I think some dogs find it easier to be left than others and I was lucky with my girl that she seemed fine being left from early on for short periods of time, which was crucial because I work full-time, although work a lot from home.
I agree with @Jojo83 Training can be started within the first few days, making it fun of course and keeping the training periods very short , as pups don't have a good attention span and will become bored .
Hi Ange, how lovely that you have a puppy, what colour is he/she? I'm pretty much the single owner of Cassie, now almost 12 months, but I do have a son and daughter in their early twenties who are around some of the time. I did find the early weeks really tricky, lots of what have I done type feelings but I'm dotty about her now. Like you it was important to me that she learnt to be alone quite quickly, which she did, athough I hate leaving. I work 2 0r 3 days a week, and she has 2 visits from someone who works here and is really good with her, I can't find a dog walker or day care round here. And my daughter will come if I need her to. Yes, I'd say those are the important things.
Hi Ange and welcome to the forum. I am married but I was effectively single for the first two months with my puppy (now 5 months) because I was in England with her, until she was old enough to travel to our home in Andorra - which is where my husband was. It was hard work, especially with two full-grown Labradors to look after, too - who, incidentally, took a fairly extreme dislike to her from the start! So, at least you don't have that to deal with Work on separation from the very start; start with leaving the room for a few seconds and gradually build it up. Do you have a crate for her? These are really handy when used correctly, as they give her a safe place to be - safe for her and safe for your stuff! Other training can come later - I didn't teach my puppy to sit for several weeks because it's not really very useful for a small pup and there are so many more important lessons, such as toilet training, bite inhibition, separation, settling down, not attacking the vacuum cleaner.... Get her hooked on kongs. These are a life-saver when you're on your own. Being able to give her a kong and have her settle down with that for fifteen minutes means you can do some laundry or have a shower.
I am not sure at the moment she is doing well with recall, coming when I call her, just using her name and being quite excited when doing so, just following The puppy book.
Your right it can be tiring, we are getting along ok and spending time with my sister who has Polly's sister, we got a pup together. I am going to start and crate her for short spells through the day and start to work back in my office, once house trained she'll probably spend time with me in there. Thanks for your post
How refreshing to here you had the "what have I done feelings" I did have some of them a few days in. Just felt a bit overwhelmed by the enormity of having this little bundle. She is jet black and has a lovely face, she looks like she has a little smile all the time, super cute.
I have crate and starting to leave her in it, she is doing ok, she is taking herself in there when she's tired which is great. I have bought a Kong and have used that a couple of times. I am sure we'll get there, we are only 1week in together so early days. Funnily enough she does not mind the vacuum cleaner, but likes to try and ride on the sweeping brush though, mmmmmm perhaps not the best game
How lovely that you and your sister have a puppy each, sounds like you have a good support network in place. As Cassie was bred by some friends she gets to see her Mum and one litter sister quite often, it's interesting to see how they are both growing up.
The singles I know are all women, three of them, no spouse, no kids. They have parents or neighbours who help them a lot. Two of these work full time so really need a lot of help for those times they're delayed at work, they have a wedding, the dog needs meds during the day, a walk. For those two training with consistency is still a problem since the dog gets so much time with their parents, and in one case, me.
Hi and welcome from me and 3 year old red girl, Harley. I would work on training very short sessions straight away. I started with 30 seconds training and slowly built it up.
Hello and welcome. Like others have said you can start training now. I think the basic things like Sit, Down, Watch me, Come etc are pretty easy to teach. I did start taking him to "puppy class" at 12 weeks but had already taught my pup everything before the class started. One good thing about the class was that he was able to play and meet a lot of other dogs and owners with the class, I think this is important being a single owner. I take him to daycare once a week for socialization, I also take him to puppy play once/twice a week. I also take to see my family/friends and let him meet them. It is hard being the single owner, you have to do everything.
Thanks for all the advice, some really good tips. I am working on leaving her in the crate for an hour which is working well. The Kong is a Fab idea. I intend to take her to day care once a week to give her the socialisation with other dogs. Every day is a school day
