New Puppy Owners

[kid]

I know there are a few of us that have recently picked up new pups.
Were your puppies lovely and calm when you first got them or were they mental straight away?

I can't believe how calm Teddy is being so far. He has slept a lot but even when he is awake, he just nibbles gently on your fingers or rolls his ball with his feet.

He has not had any accidents in the house yet which is a miracle.

I am wondering if this is the calm before the storm?

wats pmsl at your dh's reaction to you bringing the dig to bed. My dh don't mind as long as teddy doesn't do his puppy launch on him (which he does 99% of the times)

I got teddy some dental hedgehog shape treats tonight. He has been munching on it for the last 45 minutes. It's made from brocolli and spinach and according to dh, smells like weetabix. I got them from the puppy class, but imagine you can buy them somewhere or other.

As suspected, teddy did catch kennel cough from puppy class as one of the other pups also has it. It's so contagious, I can't really complain to the the owners if the dog that had it first. Although they did cause me to get a £45 vet bill!

I am so glad teddy sleeps through the night and stays asleep until I am ready to get up. I hate not getting enough sleep, especially when I have to get up for work the next day.

Spaying - I have had advice from experinced trainer and handler to get them done before the first season - something to do with sesaon changing their personality ??

Would be interested in what the research is . It seems alot of vets go for dingit after first season at least .

'dingit' - too many early mornings

'doing'

How to you get a dog to retrive?

Our lab will carry things in her mouth etc but not necessarily bring back , DH trying to do it with her yesterday - she failed miserably as a Lab 'retriever' [ grin] or rather DH did !

I copy my post on retrieve training, let me just find it......

Ok, you sit with a pile of treats a clicker and a ball, preferably a new one.

Don't do it when pup is super excited or he will just be trying to wrestle the ball off of you.

Sit holding the ball in one hand ask Teddy to sit and wait for Teddy to touch it with his nose, as soon as he does click/treat - repeat many times, until he understands that to get the treat he has to nose the ball.

Eventually with hold the click/treat and wait for a bigger response (this is called shaping) ie trying to bite the ball, then click/treat.

Keep doing this (over a period of session and days not all at once) until when you offer the ball he takes it and holds it in front of you, in order to get the click/treat.

Now every time he does this say the word 'fetch' repeat a lot.

Now in essence what you have taught him is that the word fetch means 'get your ball and sit in front of me holding it' he will release it in order toget the treat and you can introduce the word 'drop' or 'give'.

So now when you throw the ball accross the room and say 'fetch' he knows he has to get it and be sitting in front of you holding it to get the click/treat.

Simples.

Tbf I had to go through all this rigmarole as whippets are not naturally a retrieving breed. You may find that all you need to do is hold a ball and Teddy will automatically take it and you can miss out lots of stages, make sure he is sitting though and it is all conducted fairly calmly, or you may find that he just nicks it and runs off.

Avantia just google spaying there will be loads of stuff to read.

wats aw, that's a shame, happiness is a warm puppy (in your bed).

No, you don't cut down to 2 until around 6 months.

It is fine to give him more at each meal though, don't try to follow the guidelines too rigidly.

Don't forget he was poorly for a while he may have a fair bit of catching up to do.

Kong Recipes

I would just get a puppy one in the relevant size for now.

Hello all
How much time are you all spending with your pups?
I work from home so I haven't left him yet (although it's a big house so to be honest I don't think he knows if I'm on the premises or not), but I can't be with him 24-7, and tbh I don't think I should be, he needs to occupy himself a bit. He's 11 weeks.

This morning DH got up at 650 and took him for a pee and a poo, then fed the dog, I got up and 715ish and 730-8 we went for a walk (not half an hour walking, as a lot of it was stopping, sniffing, wagging tails at people, etc etc).

Then took him back into the garden for a wee, and left him in his dog room for an hour. Came back - pee on the floor. SIgh.

Then spent half an hour playing with him in the garden, another wee. Have spent half an hour pottering around near him and gave him his first Kong with biscuits.

Now he's sat there looking expectantly at me, and it's only 10.10 and I need to get on!

What's everyone else's schedule like at this age?

Oh thank god, he's put himself in his crate to nap.

So, how much walk/training/play time is everyone else packing in? Feeling like a very lax mummy here but I'm exhausted!

Hmm about an hour walking as like you, there is much stoping and starting, meeting people etc.

Three or four training and play sessions of about 1/2 an hour each.

About 20 minutes grooming and health check.

Hour training class once a week.

The rest of the time he is asleep, but then that's what whippets do best.

OH god, it's all going horribly wrong today.

So, after this morning when I took him out to pee, then brought him inside and left him for 65 minutes to come down and find stone cold pee on the pad in his room.

Then we went out, played, peed etc. Left for another 45 minutes, came back, more pee on the mat.

Went to take him outside, found a FRIGGING GREAT SNAKE by the back door, had to put him back inside while i checked what the hell it was, came back in, more pee on the mat. And a slight smell of poo, so am wondering if he ate it, although 2 previous indoor poo eating incidents have not been as clean as that.

His toilet training is getting worse, and it's all my fault, but I don't know what to do

re: the toilet training. I'm hoping it happens eventually we just have to be really patient (ok so we aren't nuns!!!)

Don't worry you will get there, how old is he?

It's best to expect occasional accidents for a long while really, just like you would with a child, they are only babies after all.

almost forgot, this will make you laugh! Sunday on his walk Storm was crunching something and I found a big bit of glass in his mouth! He wasn't hurt at all. (ok so not funny next bit is I promise) Then later on he pooped in the hallway and DH found that the poop had a little button neatly sitting on the top of it!!! Dunno where he got it from. And today he ate chewing gum! and swallowed it!! before I could retrieve it! And the other day He encountered a huge frog/toad and I had to rescue it!

Oh god, he's peed on his pee pad AGAIN. That's 4 times today (once or twice was previously a bad day), and each time he's been left shorter and shorter times before he does it.

Am seriously going to start blubbing soon. He's 11 weeks.

Aw, he is still so little.

Tbh combining pad training and outside training is very confusing for them, you should really stick to one or the other, with just going outside being the best choice.

but i can't take him outside any more often!!! Not without setting up a tent out there anyhow.
He really shouldn't need to go more than every 45 minutes should he? Especially when he has been quite happy with ever hour-hour and a half for the past week. I think we've just got out of sync today so he's just doing a little squirt when I take him out, then bursting 20 mins later.

The pads we put down on the first night as a precaution and he seemed to 'get' straight away - right by the back door, so if he goes towards it and we spot him he's out straight away, and he goes on the pads during the night. Reluctant to close his crate yet as there is RIVERS of the stuff in the morning and he clearly wouldn't be able hold it in overnight, and obv definitely don't want him peeing in his crate as that seems a big backward step.

Well the pads are impregnated so he will 'get' that they are for weeing on.

It's up to you but if you have pads you are teaching him that it is ok to pee in the house, so you can't really complain when he does iyswim.

If you just do outside toileting the usual thing is to take them out every time they eat, wake up or play, plus every hour on the hour for good measure.

Most 11 week olds pups would be dry at night though, what is he fed on? Does he drink a great deal? It could be that he has a UTI.

Oh god. Feeling worse now!

Obviously we're not trying to teach him its ok in the house, and we move/startle him if we ever see him about to go in the house. If ever his pad is wet/moved he goes near it in his room (a sort of halfway house indoor/outdoor room) overnight, so I'm concerned if we take the pads away, unless we move outside with him, he'll just pee less discriminately on the floor in his area.

He's fed on Eukanuba (soaked), and has constant access to fresh water. Our friends' Doodle of the same age goes through the night in her crate dry, but doesn't have water, which seems mean to me.

We go to bed quite late (has recently been very late 1am ish) and let him out last thing, then are up around 7 so he doesn't have to go for ages.

Pee is pretty much clear with no strong smell.

Have detected a slight "fishy" smell coming from Lucy and I do mean slight as my DH says he can't smell it but think I have a sensitive nose. Have looked at her bits and pieces they all look fine, she seems ok no difference except for having one or two soft poos.......any ideas?

You just have to make a decision and stick with it, if he were mine it would be-

Throw away the pads, yes initially there will be much confusion and more accidents as it will be like starting again , but you are going to have to face this at some point, he will not learn that he has to wee ouside while he can wee in the house. I would rather deal with this now as a puppy than as a full grown dog.

Shut the crate door at night, he will probably wake you once or twice initally to be let out but it will get less, atm you are just teaching him to wee at night and in the house.

If you don't want to do this then the fairest thing for him is to just pad train him for now, but it will be hard to break the habit later.

Personally I have never given my dogs access to water at night as they sleep in my room/on my bed and sleep all night.

But I don't want to get into another 'access to water' debate, it is just what I do.

curlylox belle had cystitis and had a course of ten day anti-biotic. She is fine now. Her wee looked really yellow, and she was peeing tiny drops very very often. She was crouching to go and nothing coming. Thank goodness I spotted it quickly as she started to get better quite quickly.

30 - exactly as has been said. I also thought that if they had made a wee literally just before eating that they wouldn't need one directly after, well I was wrong! Puddle! It doesn't necessarily go as we think it will. I am afraid of jinxing myself, but belle is now 12 weeks, and has been really good in that department for the last 10 days. I hope I don't go backwards having just said that! I still watch her like a hawk, and I'm afraid that you have to spend ages waiting in all sorts of weather for them to perform, but it is all worth it in the end. Belle is crated at night, band if i have to go out, but very happy there, she takes herself off at any given chance. Better and cosier in there than the floor.