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?

Eddie is flaked out across my lap. Dora is flaked out on the rug in front of me. They sometimes now snuggle up with each other to nap. Will put pics on my profile when i have loaded them to the pc

booyhoo wrt to the jumping and nipping, I am a bit of a mean mummy am I right in thinking your ds is 5? Mine has just turned 6, he has been told and shown the right way to deal with jumping and nipping and if he doesn't I tend to tell him off until he does, otherwise he gets all shrieky and screaming and runs around and makes Rudy a million times worse.

The thing is ds has to learn to be able to stop him or the puppy won't learn not to do it but instead learn to do it when you are not looking. However I do step in when things get out of hand amd I have to more often with my 2yo, though I am trying to teach her the right way too.

You also need to create calm situations when the puppy can get lots of praise for behaving in the correct way with ds and encorage ds to train and feed him too (under your supervision).

Still with the best will in the world all puppies have mad half hours are the jumping and mouthing does take awhile to disapear.

yes he is 5.

i am a bit of a mean mummy aswell and have been quite frim with ds when he shrieks and runs around. i show him how to walk assertively past him rather than bolt past and how to turn his back on the puppy when he gets to excited but ds is very nervous about it and yet still enjoys the jumpyness until it ends in a nip.

the puppy is actuall better with ds2 who is 15 months and crawling. he knows he can run along beside him but not touch him unless ds pets him. but with ds1 he just gets very excited and nippy.

i will try hard with the calm scenarios, i think it will be a case of crating him everytime i will be out of the room or taking him with me until we have got a good grasp of it.

WTWTW - thanks for the advice. It is easier said than done, but yes, I think I will have to start carrying a few exciting toys with me into the garden. DP has developed this method of holding the lead just tight enough so that Rory's nose hovers about 2 inches from the ground at strategic parts of the garden.

booyhoo - you are lucky it was only weeing. Rory had a bout of diarrhoea 48 hours after his first vaccination. He dripped everywhere and it took me ages to clean it up. Luckily, it only lasted an hour or so in the early evening and he had no accidents overnight. We have sort of assumed that it was connected to his jab, as he hadn't eaten anything he shouldn't.... at that point! So, does that mean we should camp in the garden after his next vaccination? Or is it not likely to happen again?

oh no, we only had them yesterday so only 24 hours ago. i hope we don't get diarrhoea aswell. I'll keep him in the one room for the next couple of days so to limit any damage.

i am using hills science plan healthy puppy, for no reason other than it has the most meat content listed in comparison to other dog foods. i also use hills SP for my cats for the same reason. am i very deluded in thinking i am giving them good stuff?

Barking heads is an excellent holistic food, very good choice.

Would also recomend Fish 4 Dogs and Burns if you want to feed a dry complete. (I use F4D).

If you have a very fussy eater it can be combined with a wet complete to make it more palatable, such as Nature Diet or Wainwrights (Pets at Home own brand). It must be a complete wet food though not just normal tinned dog food or you will mess up the ratios of what they are eating.

Whatever you swop to it must be very gradual or his tummy will protest mightily.

I don't moisten dry food as Rudy seems to like the crunch, but I do mix with Wainwrights.

I'm not surprised he didn't like the Barking Heads, Pedigree is full of sugar and all kinds of crap to make it tasty, it is the froot shoot and Greggs of the canine world. It may be a slight struggle to change him but will be so worth it.

There is a list here for good choices for food (Barking Heads and F4D arn't on it, I think because they are very small and new, but they are both excellent choices).

An really good complete can look expensive but you need to feed so much less that it really isn't, plus it is so much better for your dog.

booyhoo I wouldn't feed Hills, it isn't very well regarded and is horribly expensive. You can get much better food for far less. (You should check out Fish 4 Cats too ).

ooh, feel terrible now that i have been feeding it to them. going to look at those others now and get some ordered. thank you.

wats it just depends on what he prefers, I imagine he has quite a little mouth, I don't know what size kibble it is? (it is puppy isn't it?).

Some dogs like it better moistened, you do it with boiling water so it makes it smell nice and gives it a bit of 'gravy'. Entirely up to you, like I said Rudy won't touch it moistened.

To swap him I would do 3/4 what he is used to, with 1/4 new food for 5 days, then 1/2 and 1/2 for 5 days, then 1/4 old 3/4 new for 5 days, then all new.

booyhoo most sites will give you free or very cheap samples, I would really recommend F4D, if you do go with that, if you join their 'puppy club' or (something similar) you get the puppy food loads cheaper.

i am just looking at proces for F4d now . the good thing is he has only been on hills for a week so hopefully not to much damage done. poor kittys have been on it for about 6 months now .

would you recommend F4d over any others?

thanks booyhoo I am going to do that tonight. Any tips on how to combat the dreaded chewing?

sorry, we are just encountering that now so i have no tips on that except to swap whatever he is chewing for his own toy and to keep everything possible out of reach

um may be a tad difficult unless I nail the settees, carpets, table, doors, basically everything to the ceiling!!! lol

have you got space to section off an area for him so that if you have to leave the room he can go in there till you get back?

i am very lucky in that my living room is big and a funny shape so i have a crate within a playpen. but the playpen is opened out so that it is in an L-shape and fixed to 2 walls making a good size rectangle run for him. it is very handy if i ned to go to the phone and the dcs are in the living room. i can put him in there an know they are all safe from each other.

booyhoo yes, I think F4D is the best that's why I chose it . It is very palatable and excellent for picky eaters and sensitive tummies. The company also has excellent 'green' credentials too, which may or may not be important to you.

Being made of fish it is high in omega three which is now considered as important for growing puppies as it is for children, it is also fab for their coats.

If you do choose it get some of the sea jerky tiddlers too, they are just dried fish skin, Rudy loves them and they are good for cleaning their teeth too.

Since deciding to feed F4D I have persuaded 3 other friends to swap and they are all really pleased with it.

Oh and bless you, you won't have done any of them any 'damage' there are just much better foods

pinkanaimal you need to be really consistent with the chewing, my knowledge of siberian huskies is limited, but am I right in thinking they are rather destructive?

Has he got a Nylabone and a Kong? Let him know (with lots of praise), that these are the right things to chew.

You can also get a spray called 'bitter apple' from pet shops, this can be a very good deterent for some dogs (it tastes foul), you just spray it on furniture legs etc. Some dogs don't care though and chew on. You can also use tabasco in the same way, but again some just seem to relish the taste!

Some puppies are just very chewy, though I don't want to scare anyone, but the chewing doesn't start in earnest until they begin to teethe. That's why you want to teach them now what is theirs.

thank you WTWTW. i will order some of the samples and see how we get on although I'm not sure how much you can learn from a sample. migt be better jsut to buy a small bag?

we have the puppy kong chew with the puppy paste but even when i show great enthusiasm in it WB is just not into it at all. is there something else i can put in it? maybe the paste just isn't nice for him?

also, can anyone explain why, when you put fresh vetbed and blankets in the crate beside the radiator in the nice warm living room, does the puppy choose to sleep in the pile of dirty washing on the cold kitchen floor???

I have never used the paste, try, peanut butter, soft cheese, scraps of chicken and chicken stock or jelly (if you have had a roast) frozen, also the salmon mousse from F4D is great.

Can I just say at this point I am not on commission. I just think it's a great food.

And yes, probably better to just get a little bag.

And the sleeping, because it smells of you all and so is all lovely and comforting.

Dogs don't dig fresh sheets, though actually my old stafford did, bless him, he used to sit by the washing maching while his stuff was in the wash and then sit under the washing line and wait for his blankets to dry.

aww, that is very cute.

at the minute i am wahing his bedding daily because we just haven't cracked night-time wetting yet. i am coming down twice during the night and taking him out for a wee but even if it is dry the first time or second time, it is always wet when i come down at 6. think i shall have to come down again about 5 to try and catch him before he wakes up fully.

yes WTWTW you are right they can be destructable which is why I want to tackle it now while he is small and impressionable. He has a bone that I actually forgot to give him! will do now, will go out and get him a kong asap too. May avoid the paste and just go for the other suggestions.

cor he just farted and it's worse than DH's!

I wrote a message earlier and it vanished!

We had a lovely day at the park. Teddys recall is super, even with lots of people and dogs around, he still kept close.

I received some bad news about his mum. She is extremely poorly at the moment. She is too weak for the vet to operate so it's a waiting game for now. I am praying that she gains some strength so they can operate, then she may have a chance. I am so worried about her, she is only young and doesn't deserve yo be suffering