Welcome to the puppies board

Re: Welcome to the puppies board

Hi all. Went yesterday and picked out "the one" WISPA! Beautiful, confident and cheeky I'll try and get pics on ASAP
Thank you all for help and support

 

Re: Welcome to the puppies board

How do we post pics to the forum? Thank you

 

Re: Welcome to the puppies board

There are some guides in the technical section of the board....but basically you have to put them into an outside service and then link there.... I use photobucket, some use dropbox and flicker...

looking forward to seeing pictures of the new addition!

 

Re: Welcome to the puppies board

Hello

Myself and my partner are about to get a new puppy and I've been reading lots on house training, including the Happy Puppy Handbook which is fab! One thing I can't seem to get a clear answer on is what to do until the pup has had its first vaccinations? We've been told by the breeder to have the pup home for 5 days before we go to the vet for the first round of jags, which presumably means we have to train the pup on paper/pads inside - is this correct? We live in a tenement flat with a shared garden which has definitely had other dog visitors, and, as its in them middle of Edinburgh, most likely foxes as well. I don't want to risk my pup's health, but equally I've read that training it to toilet inside the house will be confusing. Is there a definitive answer to this or do I just have to make a judgement call? I'd be very grateful for some advice!

Thanks

 

Re: Welcome to the puppies board

Hi Anna, and welcome from me and my two nearly 8-month olds, Willow and Shadow.

You've made a great start by getting a copy of The Happy Puppy Handbook - it helped me enormously both in the preparation stages and also once the trouble arrived.

Even though my puppies are litter mates, we brought Willow home first, at 8 weeks and Shadow didn't arrive until after the second lot of vaccinations, so I didn't have to go through everything with him, so my experience of this age is only from the one pup.

She had her first lot of vaccinations at 9 weeks and the second lot at 13 weeks, so she was a little older than most by the time she was allowed to go on the floor. Until then, we carried her everywhere outside, to get her socialisation in. She was a heavy lump by the end of it! She never needed to go to the toilet when we were out and about at that age - they have a strong instinct to not go to the toilet when being carried, which is a bonus!

As far as toilet training is concerned, it sounds like it's definitely a judgement call. Is there the option to make a small "spending area" in the garden, like a shallow box filled with soil that she can use that you know is safe? If so, you could just carry her to and from it. You're right that it can be very confusing to start them off going to the toilet inside, so that should be avoided if possible. You could also maybe use the puppy pads outside so you know the area she's walking/toileting on is safe, but the challenge is going to be keeping her from wandering into the area where other dogs have been, especially as she gets older and more inquisitive.

Sorry, that may not have been much help!

 

Re: Welcome to the puppies board

Thanks SnowBunny, that's a really useful suggestion. I'm sure i'll be on here lots more in a few weeks when she arrives!

 

Re: Welcome to the puppies board

Hello Anna - a hello from another Edinburgh newbie. We took our black lab puppy Ember home with us on Monday. We are lucky in that we have a garden so we're able to get her outside there until her second jabs.

 

Re: Welcome to the puppies board

Welcome to you AnnaHainsworth

If your garden is safe from foxes it will be fine to have the puppy there.

It's a great idea to have a spending area but it needs to be at least 3 metres X 3 metres and fenced in. My Gypsy has one and she is trained to do all he wees and poos there. They need to be trained from day 1 and consistently 'tho. The best surface is stone flags or concrete as other things would get very smelly (a concentrated area). I swill each wee with a very weak mixture of Simple Solution - two squirts to a small bucket.

Here is our spending area with the dogs sitting outside it.

 

Hi
We have a 10 week old labrador. We plan to go back to work in 2 weeks. we will be away for 9 hours. Not sure how to prepare for that?

 

Hi Leon and welcome to the forum.

Nine hours is too long to leave a young puppy, so you need to come up with a plan. Do you have someone that can pop in a few times a day? Or look at puppy day care. There are people you pay to pop in to play with the puppy during the day if you don't have anyone you can ask. I don't have any personal experience of this, because I work form home, but I know plenty of people on here have managed to have regular jobs and bring up a puppy, too. Hopefully they'll be along with more advice.

Welcome again

 

Hi and welcome to the forum!

As Fiona says, nine hours is far too long to leave a puppy alone - or indeed an adult dog. It isn't just that you will have trouble toilet training your pup - he needs company and stimulation, or he will grow up poorly socialized, which means lots of issues. Think of it like leaving a toddler alone all day - dangerous, distressing, and with disastrous consequences. However, just like for working parents of a toddler, there are many options - doggy day care, dog walkers, friends, neighbours, family can all help. It can be a bit of a logistical nightmare, but lots of us have done it very successfully.

Have you started crate training, or getting your pup used to being left alone in a safe place for short periods? Frozen kongs and other toys can help keep a puppy occupied, but the absolute maximum you should consider leaving your puppy (after a walk/playtime of course) is 3 - 4 hours. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

Welcome to you.

Dogs are social animals, just like we are. If you leave them alone for so long you are sentencing them to solitary confinement - think how you would feel

I suggest dog sitters to be with them all exept an hour or two up to four months old (they need to know how to raise puppies) Then you will need people to come and walk the dog at least twice during the nine hours.

I hope you soon get arrangements sorted for you pup - she deserves it

 

It's worth finding Dog Day Care in your area, start by asking at your vets' or just do a bit of research on the internet. You will probably find that you have to produce your innoculation evidence including Kennel Cough. It can be costly but if you can find a way to do it, it is such a weight off your mind - like dropping a child off at the child minder.
Also, I found that it's only a few quid more than having someone drop in for 15 mins.
It's great for socialising too.
In my area in the UK (Surrey ) the charges ranged from 15-22 pounds a day; someone dropping in for just 15 mins charge 12-15 pounds.

 

New mommy to duke he is twelve weeks old and doing great any tips on jumping up and chewing on me

 

Hi Duke and Terry and welcome to the forum from me, Willow and Shadow.

Jumping up and biting are two very common problems with young Labrador puppies. Don't worry, we've all been there (and some of us still are!).

Here are a couple of articles that may help you:

Stopping the jumping up
http://www.thelabradorsite.com/no-more-jumping-up/

Stopping the biting
http://www.thelabradorsite.com/your-labrador-puppy-biting/

Above all, both require a removal of attention and absolute consistency. They will pass in time, with the correct approach.

Good luck!

 

Hello,

My husband an I are bringing home our first ever puppy - Dexter on 29th August, we are in the process of reading everything we can in preparation.

One question we have is regarding the crate. We have one big enough for the bed one side and paper training on the other side however we would prefer to potty train outside. Will it confuse the puppy if we encourage paper training over night/while we are at work and garden training whilst we are in the house?

Which leads me to my next question of where do we keep the crate. Our kitchen is not near the back door however Dexter will need to be in the Kitchen whilst we are not in the house so should we keep the crate there?

Finally for the first month we will both be working full time then I will be working from home, we have employed a doggy day care lady to come play with Dexter while we are away and also once he has his vaccinations he will be going to doggy day care to play with the other dogs. My question though is for the 3ish hours he is alone at home, should he have free range of the kitchen or should he be in his crate so he cant chew the dining room table to shreds?

Thanks in advance for you advice

Daniella

 

Hi Daniella,
Firstly, hello and welcome! I think we all do things slightly differently so you may get a variety of answers. I would not leave a puppy for more than an hour so I'm reluctant to give advice on what to do if you are leaving your pup for 3. I would be thinking extra hard about how to get that time covered so he/she is not left for so long. Or maybe I have misunderstood.

Anyway, thinking about the crate, I am struggling a bit! Sorry. I managed to get some people to stay with my pup until she was able to go to day care, so toilet training was all about going outside. Even at night time. I would take her out between 11 and midnight for her last wee and be up at 5.30 to let her out again. This was gradually extended to about 6.15 in the morning. My guess is that it could be quite confusing for a pup to do two different things and toilet training is something you want to get sorted asap.

Hopefully you will get some more replies shortly to help you out. If not, it may be because you have posted here and not been noticed, so do try again on Introductions.

Best of luck, enjoy your pup!

 

Hi and welcome. My understanding is that you don't want puppy to be toileting around his crate - the crate represents his den and a safe place and puppies don't like to toilet around their den. I would be taking puppy out on a frequent basis until he is housetrained and that roughly equates to after every sleep, play, meal and in reality probably every 30 minutes in between , and of course a couple of times during the night to begin with as well. I have been home full time since day one with my girl and she has only been left alone I've gone shopping and not for 3 hours which, for me personally, is to long for such a young puppy to be left. Could you arrange for the doggy day care lady to visit twice a day rather than just once, at least that way puppy will have more interaction which is so important. Many people have a puppy pen attached to their crate to allow puppy more freedom than a crate would provide while keeping puppy out of harmful chewing.

 

Hi, I'm new to the site, so I thought I'd share my new puppy story so far. I picked up my black labrador almost 2 weeks ago and he is now 11 weeks old. As soon as I brought him home, and after doing a toilet stop in the garden, he went straight into his crate to explore. He loved it and sat chewing a toy for a few minutes. From the first night, he was brilliant. Went to bed at 11pm and I set an alarm for 3am to take him outside. Every night since, I've extended the time by 15 minutes. This morning the alarm was set at 5.15am and he's never cried once during the night; I've been so lucky. I get up at 6.30am, shower and go down at 7am, clatter around for a minute or two and then let him out of the crate. He makes no fuss at all. Breakfast at 7am.

Following the advice in a Pippa Matterson book, visitors are asked to ignore him for a few minutes on arrival, and he has been calm when they've gone to stroke him. He's got the hang of "come" and will sit as soon as he gets to me; we're working on "lie down" at the moment, which is going well. He is also retrieving a ball or a frisbee (most of the time). Sometimes, he chases it, picks it up, runs half way back, drops it and keeps going until he reaches me and sits. He's nearly there! We had his 2nd lots of injections on 23rd July, and the vet said to wait 2 weeks before going out for walks... we can't wait! We are also going to a puppy party on Thursday at the vets.

There is a difference on food packets and books in terms of how much to feed my puppy. At the moment, I'm putting enough kibble in his bowl so that it is about a quarter full. He doesn't finish it all, and I remove the bowl after about half an hour. Any advice on food would be great. That's the story so far. My new friend has been brilliant! I've got another 4 weeks off work, so I'm hoping to have sorted house training etc. well before than.

 

Sounds as if you're doing really well with your puppy. One command I would teach very early is "leave", which will become very useful in the weeks and months to come as puppy explores the big wide world on walks .

With food I would check puppy's weight and then weigh out the right quantity of kibble based upon the recommendation on the pack. Any food uneaten in around 10 minutes should be removed and disposed of. I took Juno into the vets every 4 weeks just to pop her onto the scales so I could monitor her weight gain but also adjust her food intake inline with the recommendations for her weight.