tulpe, and other very recently acquired puppy owners

[Slubberdegullion]

I pick up my puppy on thursday. Am everso slightly over excited about it.

Can you tell me what stuff has been excellent and well worth buying, and what has not. I'm off to PAH tomorrow for the final bits and bobs.

So far I have:
crate
1 bit of vet bed stuff from Ikea (I'm going to buy some more tomorrow, how much will I need?)
2 bowls
ginormous sack of puppy food
a huge pile of puppy books
a clicker

so what else?

toys?
a kong? is she too young for one yet, she'll be 8 weeks on Thursday
a collar (iirc there was a thread about collars, what did you get in the end?)
a lead of some sort

tia

LOLOL at the lady tights. Did she find them in the woods? Nice! What is it with dogs and foot related articles (shoes, slippers, socks, tights)? Is the smell of human foot like chanel no 5 to them?

The scent training sounds so much fun.

We just had a good session in the garden with me adopting more and more peculiar positions (lying down, draped over the swing, casually lounging on the garden chairs) and asking her to sit from there. I hope the neighbours weren't watching.

As you guys are ahead of me can I ask when I can start to give her treats that aren't just her usual puppy food? Oh and raw hide chews? The puppy chew toys have all been rejected bar the kongs which only have limited allure. My hands are far more desirable

Worryingly Slubber she hasn't been to the woods for a bit, she's been happy to play in the garden and do a bit of training. I'm slightly concerned that she's found a way out again. She demolished some of our puppy proofing and sneaked out behind the shed to raid our neighbours flower pot store when she was younger. I do hope they aren't my other neighbours tights, or should I be asking DH if there is something he would like to tell me.

I think you're right, feet are Eau de Pied in the dog world. I'd love to see your training sessions, you'll know if the neighbours have seen you if they start giving you strange looks. Is she sitting from your various weird postures ?

With the puppy treats I'm not quite sure when they can have them, might be an idea to have a look at the pet shop and have a look if there is anything. I've heard raw hide chews can be very dodgy, they can choke on them. I use those little bones ones you get for things like her Tug a Jug (that will be a must actually for when yours is older, great fun with that one) and for training I use little bits of cheese, ham or chicken etc, but I mean small - chopped finely with scissors. This could however be a lot to do with why she is a fussy eater so possibly not recommended !

For training treats, I use same as Wynken (to my kids' dismay!) and also dried cat food. Its tiny so doesn't fill her up and she seems to love it ways beyond her own much more expensive stuff!

Wynken, yes I'd be wanting to get to the bottom of the tights mystery, either to reveal escape holes into the neighbours or a cross dressing dh.

I did get some treats from PAH that said from 8weeks+ but the info in my puppy pack from the breeder says to give treats from 12 weeks . I probably am overthinking this as god knows how many daffodils, stones, moss, grass she has actually managed to consume without me fishing them out first.

She did eventually sit from weird position training. She did EXACTLY what the book said she would when I asked for a sit whilst I was lying down. If a dog could say wtf? then that would have been it. I kept up with my cheery "Too Bad!" no-reward marks and kept on moving around until she sat down, click, treat, LIGHTBULB MOMENT.

It was great to see her working it out.

How are you getting on oxo?

Given up on the tights and pretending it hasn't happened and am now baking a cake -liver cake . It's hopefully my secret weapon back at training tomorrow after she's had 3 weeks off. Problem is apparently it stinks the house out and I have people coming tonight. Indulged dog in garden eating bone.

I still think she's a very clever puppy Slubber. I'm sure mine wouldn't do that at her age. Will you DC's and DH be giving you a break from training duties this weekend?

Oxo, do you still have a shattered puppy and how are the walks going?

MY WORD! You are baking, and a liver cake (waht is this delighful sounding thing?) to boot. I hope your dog is the best in the class tomorrow Wynken. She should be. That surely is the ULTIMATE in dog treats.

I think she is a very clever puppy too actually the reality is she is a very greedy puppy and will move heaven and earth to get at even the most dull treats.
We had another stab at down today. No bleeding hands (hurrah!) she does it with the treat as the lure, but if I put the treat in the other hand and try the down hand signal with an empty hand she gives me a beautiful sit. Followed by a series of beautiful sits.

LOOK! LOOK! LOOK AT ME SITTING! NOW GIVE ME THE FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

Just for the record, liver cake stinks. Needs to be cooked on day when you can fling doors open. As if by magic one dog and two cats have just appeared from nowhere.

LOL

is there a recipe for this delicious sounding item?

I did 250g liver with 3 cloves of garlic, 3 eggs and a splash of milk all put in the liquidiser until a vile looking brown liquid. Put it in a big bowl then added flour bit by bit until it makes a cake consistency that plops off the spoon. Put in greased tin and baked for 20 mins, 200 degrees.

When cool have cut into squares, am freezing most and have cut a square into tiny pieces with scissors. It should last for a fair time and I reckon it cost £2.50. She REALLY likes it but key test is if it can over come the lure of other dogs during recall at training tomorrow.

That is great Wynken. Great and yet revolting, but what an excellent way to make delicious doggy treats for not much money. I'd much rather make that than buy the goodness-knows-what's-in-them stuff from PAH.

Goodluck with recall training tomorrow.

Hi, well the lst 2 days I've given up on the walks and just let Phoebe play in the garden. I had a hectic day yesterday and didn't give as much time to her training as most days and by the evening she was hyper! Racing around and snapping at eveyone's legs. She has a horrid new game of sinking her teeth into a trouser leg, dressing gown etc and growling and shaking the trouser quite viciously. We can't ignore as it is too painful and the ouch doesn't work when she is so wound up as it seems to be a signal to challenge to her. We've resorted to picking her up and putting her into the garden for a few minutes where she howls!!

What should I do here? Is this common 11 week behaviour? I have noticed that the more mental stimulation she gets, the less she does this. It seems to be like a toddler tantrum, roughly at the same time every evening. I'm a little worried because of the growling.

Anyway, a sunny weekend forecast so we'll try either a neighbour's big garden or a local park (not woods!) and work on the lead waling. Hopefully somemore training will tire her out!!

I think the growling is a normal part of puppy play, if you watch a couple of young pups play you hear it. We were alarmed at first when ours did it but I know now it's fine.

A lot of pups do have a mad half our in the evenings and I know several people with pups who did the trouser thing. Our trainer suggested for jumping that we keep a light lead on her then when it happens to take the lead, not look at her and remove her from the room for a couple of minutes- not to let her back in mid bark, wait for a gap. I think that might work for the trouser thing as you'll know roughly when the leas will need to go. Consistancy is the keybsnd sometimes it gets worse before better with an extinction burst.

Someone said somewhere that 5 mins training = 1 hour exercise.

Am off to training now, keep your fingers crossed she behaves for me.

Thanks Wynken, that's reassuring news! I have just started another (proud ) thread as we had a great morning!! Hope you have one too!

We were top of the class today

I've seen your thread Oxo, really pleased it is going well.

Am sitting here laughing at us all with our precious puppies. Such fun

The growling and shaking things does sound like puppy play - our pup is nearly a year old now, but still likes to do this - we have the sort of toys where she can grab onto one end and we hold the other, and she growls and shakes, and we play tug of war. Apparently you have to make sure you always win tug of war, though - so the puppy doesn't think they are top dog over you - but Coco wins sometimes and it doesn't seem to be a huge problem.

She's a brown lab puppy, by the way, and I came over all mushy at the photo of Elsie's litter on your profile pics, Slubber - soooo cute, and she is absolutely gorgeous!

We haven't bothered too much with specific dog bedding - she's got a soft pad in her cage, and we cover it up with fleecy throws and towels, which are nice and easy to change and wash regularly.

The biting and mouthing definitely settles down as the puppy gets older - Coco is much better now, though one of her favourite games is to take dh's socks off, and then try to remove the flesh-coloured 'sock' underneath, which is a tad painful.

Labs are lovely to train, because they love their food and are very food motivated. But this does mean that as they grow, they can become terrible theives. So far, in her short life, Coco has eaten 15 mince pies, one mars bar, a pound of defrosting bacon, three steaks, three salmon steaks, a rum and raisin doughnut, some of a profiterole cake, two tiger loaves, three packs of butter, rabbit poo, sheep poo, horse poo, cow poo and her own poo, my glasses, a wooden cat ornament, several fence panels (in an attempt to get to the Love of her Life - the labradoodle next door), the post, the newspaper, several of my shoes, dh's wellies (thank heaven we didn't manage to find the Hunter wellies he wanted for Christmas and settled for a £10 pair from B&Q) and a whole pack of the tablets that are supposed to stop their wee turning the grass brown. There may be more, but I have forgotten!

All that said, we wouldn't be without her and she is such lovely company. Come the autumn, we will be able to enjoy my favourite walk, where she wiffles round in the undergrowth, and I pick blackberries.

Oh - and I think I may well have a go at the clicker training - Coco is pretty good at some things, but her recall isn't that good. The Liver Cake (mmmmm) may help too!

DT'sGirl, I am giggling at the long list of stolen goods! We aren't doing too badly on that front yet but she is only 11 weeks! She has, unfortunately discovered how easily she can reach the dining table by standing on her back legs

Now Phoebe is happy with the lead, most of the snapping and trouser biting had stopped. I think with all the physical and mental stimulation through walks (on and off lead) and clicker training she is worn out . She does seem extremely happy on it though!!

Oh and she has just learned to 'roll over'. Think my time might be better spent teaching her to come back when called though

Oh My GOD at your list of food steals DT'sgirl. Holy Cow

I know exactly what you mean about being motivated by food. It does help with the clicker training. As soon as she sees it (the clicker) there is leaping about with joy. I love doing it with her.

Today (after reading a bit in the culture clash book) I thought we'd have a stab at a hunting for food game. I put her out of the room and then hid (when I say hid I mean put pretty much in the middle of the floor) a tiny piece of cheese (hope this is ok) and then let her back in with lots of "where's the cheese, where's the cheese" (I know, she doesn't speak english ) and then assisted (read: knelt down looking at the cheese and poitning at the cheese) until she 'found' it.

Repeated this several times putting the cheese in new 'hiding' spots. She was in HEAVEN. Sniffing around like mad. I thought her tail was going to wag off.

Oh I am enjoying her so much.

Very glad to hear the trouser biting has worn off oxo
[my poor pyjamas]

Well, its WEARING off Slubber ........... I wouldn't say we are quite there yet but it is definitely helping. Everytime she starts to pull on anything, rather than getting into a confrontation of me saying 'off', her pulling harder, me getting sterner etc, I get the clicker and like you said, she only has to see it to sit eautifully, expecting good things! Maybe this could be seen as rewarding the bad behavious ie the trouser biting but it seems to work better than anything else I've tried so far and does seem to break that 'naughty' mood

Will have a go at the finding game later - sounds like loads of fun!!

Have you got the culture clash oxo? There's a really good section in there about tug games. I think I read about 3 puppy books that all said NO tug-of-war games, ever never which I was a bit sad about as I remember clearly playing tug with our Golden retriever when i was growing up, and her adoring it.

The culture clash book is a bit different in that is says tug games are fine, in fact they are really good as they help to use up the dog's natural urges to pull things as well as being bonding (its you and the dog vs the tug toy, not you vs the dog). You just have to have quite strict rules about when and how you do it.

It's early days yet with training Elsie how to do tug games 'properly' but I'm so happy that we ARE allowed to do it. I'm trying to direct her to playing tug with allowed tug toys, and not my trousers

Hi slubber. I have ordered the book from Amazon but not received yet. Think there was a 3 week wait! Interesting what you say about the tug or war games. Phoebe loves them. We went out today and she met a GSD pup only a few weeks older than her. Its really interesting watching how the pups sort out the doggy politics seemingly withing seconds of meeting each other.

Am off to buy some smelly treats now as quite fancy a go at 'go find' . She is sprawled out on her back in the sun with the cat as I type. She looks ENORMOUS - at least twice the size of the puppy I brought home 4 weeks ago!!

A mightily large batch of Wynken's liver cake has just come out of the oven
[om nom not]

This must be the ultimate in smelly treats