New puppy thread, where new puppy owners can come for help and advice and hopefully clever people like minimu, midori et al will check regularly (please) to help us...

[Happymm]

Exactly what it says on the tin really. Kings idea, that we have a thread where we can all come and ask for help, advice, support or just to vent and that the much more experienced people will come and help us out :)

We are getting our puppy in just under two weeks - not told the kids yet as and not sure when to as I know they will be excited (the dog is very much for me though ;) ).

She is from working cocker lines but the mum lives in the house with her owner so the puppies are well used to people. On the advice of the owner have gone for the more placid one as the other bitch available was the most dominant in the litter. Still no where near shy though - they were all clamering to be picked up and she just snuggled right into my arms.

What do I need for a puppy then? Not sure about what size collar & lead etc till we pick her up - and would imagine they grow fast so is there one I could get that would grow with her? Have got a crate and food/water bowls.

This will be our first puppy although we both grew up with dogs and my sister is a vet so always on call (I spoke to her first after visiting the puppies before DH!) but getting nervous now.

How exciting pisky!

I bought tons and tons of (mostly unnecessary) stuff but am sure that all you need initially is a comfy bed, crate, food/water bowls, food supply, LOTS of chew toys and EVEN MORE poo bags

I did order a collar and lead online too, and got her used to it from the first week; I just ordered everything in 'small' and it still fits now - five weeks later - as can be adjusted.

The only thing I didn't buy before she arrived, because I didn't think she would need one, was a puppy play pen. I have found this very useful!

Um...doggy toiletries for inevitable 'poo in bed' carnage? Training treats?

Also - shin pads, iron gauntlets etc...!!

I'd add bio washing powder/liquid, a pleasant smelling disinfectant, kitchen roll, stout rubber gloves and a stock pile of sleep.

Klad a high pitch no doesn't work on our pup it seems to get her more excited. Although when she has nipped the DCs she has run off pretty quick from their shrieking but it hasn't stopped it.

I'm assuming that it will all calm down!

How exciting that you are getting puppy!! As a family we have always had spaniels - my mum has 3 over indulged Kings Charles' and I had one when I was growing up. Spaniels always have a welcoming happy face!

I would buy disinfectant wipes and some of that odour stop spray for accidents in doors. Lots of poo bags, a kong, nylabones (you can get a three pack of mini ones) We got a puppy collar and lead from pets at home which are OK at the mo for our springer.

Training pad things to go in crate? We have them in there at night as we had some disasters when the crate was only size of bed and I decided I'd rather clear up a pad than have to wash all the bed each day.

Welcome to the thread!

You must have got the defiant one in the litter :)

Some kiddies never do what their mums tell them.

Hi Pisky, how exciting for you. As well as a bed for her crate I would get a hang off the side water bowl, ours clips onto the side of the crate and the bowl sits in a ring, so bowl can be removed and re-filled - also another tip is don't overfill, our puppy was emptying the bowl and soaking her bed so I just put an couple of inches of water in the bottom and there is allways some in the morning. Make sure you have a hot water bottle a ticking clock and a radio on for her at night. Also ask the breeder for something that smells of home so you can leave that in with her. I also got mine a microwaveable soft puppy that I heated up and put in with her. Get some blankets to cover the outside of the crate for nighttime and make sure they are really dark and cover the whole of the cage - I had very early morning starts for a few weeks until I eventually used a king size duvet in dark aubergine cover which really kept the light out and she started sleeping through till 7.00 almost immediately (thanks to Happymm for that one!). Make sure you have a huge umbrella and a torch for taking her out in the dark before bed.

Get some earplugs, make sure your extreme patience levels are fully topped up and if you can obtain some sort of steel coating for your heart that would be good

I would if you haven't already buy the Gwen Baily Puppy School book, also trawl through the 38 pages on this forum and read every crate training thread - you will find lot's of angst from me on them but there is some great advice particularly from Midori and Minimu. Also google Ian Dunbar Crate training, you don't have to buy a book, his articles come up if you google, he also has one about bite inhibition which is good.

Can't wait for a piccy when you have some!

My daughter just read this over my shoulder and told me I'm an idiot. Nice. Apparantly the explanation of the sound is a loud, high-pitched yelp. Ouch!

The puppy may not stop immediately. Yelp loud and sharp and push it away. Do this everytime it bites, even when it doesn't hurt and it'll soon learn.

When my westie boy was a puppy, I left him in the kitchen at night. I'd come down every morning to find his bed full of potatoes. Turns out he was pulling them out of the vegetable rack so he could sleep in it. Even now, we have to create 'caves' for him to sleep in, he won't sleep in a normal dog bed on the floor. At the moment he's asleep by my feet squeezed into the bottom shelf of the computer cupboard between the printer and the hard-drive.

Alp, maybe it is just the wrong noise for your pup and she is seeing it as exciting? As you say if the children are doing it maybe she just things it's children shrieking in play and not yelping as such?

When mine (who to be fair has never been that nippy, however was doing it enough to worry me with my daughter and her friends) nipped me once when I was sitting on the floor with her I did a fairly loud and high pitched owwww and was really over dramatic, I stood up and held onto my arm and owed, owed, owed a la stubbed toe scenario and then cried (well I didn't really but pretended to). Never shouted at her but made a really big deal of the fact that I was hurt, she hasn't touched any of us since. Occasionally she will snap her mouth in play at our direction but we just say no and she stops and licks you instead.

I read a thread on here that said someone had a behaviourist round who did the same and the poster was commenting about how over the top and different it was to the yelping they had previously been doing and how it worked so I thought I would give it a go.

Yes perhaps a bigger noise from me and DH would help. Perhaps if we did it,it would take her by surprise!

Just had a good fetch game with her - bolted straight down the garden - she'll do anything for a treat!

Alp, just read back this thread and there is a great post by BCBG on page 6 about biting and screechy voices etc. Have a read it was an excellent post by someone who is obviously very experienced :)

Are you telling me I have ignored good advice? Oh damn it ....... Sulks off tail between legs.....

Not in the slightest!!!! but sometimes we need new strategies and I knew somewhere on the doghouse this would have been covered from a different angle I went back a few pages and came across it!

Maybe my first line should have been Alp I have just read back this thread rather than "just read" which I mean't as I had just read back through the thread and not you should read back through the thread! Gah this posting thing is so hard!

Why does "read" look like a totally alien word used in a few contexts and said so many times in one post!!

Spam I was joking

I did read back and remember thatthe pinning to ground seemed to get her more riled (sp) up giving her a breather to jump/bite again.

We have taken other advice from the poster though. We have a whistle which DH says when used off lead in the woods has meant she's come back like a rocket.

We have been treat training a little. Really to get the initial interest then alternating the rewards so not to expect one all the time.

I think I might read back through my own posts to see how far we've come.

Daisy, something crazy with the site as PMing not working-just flicks me back to the top of the thread

You're quite right, Our ginger pup is from working stock, on dad's side anyway, though a bit on mum's side back down the line, though the breeders are a family with young teenagers, a couple of labs, a westie(which pup does not like) Breeders do a lot of training with mum though, doing agility work etc. There are a long list of field trial champions on dad's side going back generations. Will keep trying with pm so you can check them out. I think sire was picked as stud as he is such a healthy prime dog-tested for everything within an inch of his life-even DNA tested for narcolepsy!!!

Alp, our behaviourist said NOT to do the pinning to the ground thing. Wags above who has a bit of a devil dog like I have, though is a guide dog pup . She and behaviourist both said that pup to always have a lead on that you can grab if you need to, and give a gentle tug along with a No Biting. Also to hold them gently away from you on the floor, and if they don't settle then tether them to a radiator...

Devil pup, remains devilish. Am deliberately keeping her day very calm and boring, only doing training and brain training in the garden. She's a monkey though and just gives me no peace! Settle dog, settle! And stop biting me!

And why the he'll does she not play with her Kongs apart from retrieval? Doesn't matter what I put in it, it gets left in there to go smeggy...

Happymm-thanks for reminders. I think I have been so focused on other training areas that this has been forgotten a bit. Which is not the right attitude at all especially as DS has 4 marks on arm from teeth but she has calmed a bit and will keep her distance a little. Perhaps the training homework (sit,stand,lie) has used her brain power so has occupied her.

Our pup isn't too keen on kongs - perhaps I'm not putting enough interesting stuff in it.

Have tried marmite, peanut butter, primula cheese etc etc etc. No likey :o except to fetch and retrieve...bloody devil pup!

Oh and dog whisperer said to stick to basics in training: sit, down, wait, and a solid recall, and the no biting. Said can teach tricks when devil stuff done :o

Hi everyone, haven't posted for a few days but have been reading. Daisy, thanks so much, loads of fab advice and more importantly a better insight into it all. Keep re-reading your posts and digesting . My little devil pup has been better but again I have been so focused with it all that I feel slightly drained! She is loads better in the day when the children are at school. After the school run she is happy to mooch, probably helped by the fact that I have had to swap DS's room around so she has had to get on with it herself whilst I have been upstairs. She can settle herself down really nicely, so inadvertently I have done what Daisy suggested - fluke that one .

She reacts much better to actions. A 'no' or 'off' still brings her back for more, although a few weeks ago she wouldn't stop, now after about the 3rd command she will stop the leaping and biting. But ignoring is better and when it all goes pear shaped in the garden, i.e. she starts flying at me or the kids or our legs, I very calmly grab her and pop her indoors and shut the patio door. She then sits and watches me & the kids carrying on our game and a minute later I let her out and we start again. It has really helped the garden behaviour. She had her first proper 'play date' yesterday. Tibetan Terrier from next door came to play. Was fascinating watching her, she was doing to the dog exactly what she has been doing to me. Am going to try the hide and seek but at the moment am not allowed to use treats to train as there has been some choking incidents with Guide Dog puppies. Its been really hard as my excited tones and toys just don't cut it with her. Have slightly cheated and been rubbing my fingers on cheese but it has made things more difficult. She does love her kongs though, so maybe I can hide them with some marmite or something. Will give it a try. Have got 2 training sessions next week so looking forward to that. On the plus side my little superstar (she's not a devil pup when we go out) has been to the shopping mall by bus. Went in several shops, went in a lift, didn't wee until we got home and was generally just marvelous. So its not all bad. Good luck everyone, keep at it .

2 more sleeps until we pick up our working cocker pup. Very excited but nervous too. Think i have got everything we need except collar as not sure on size. Stock piling newspapers as we speak. Does anyone know if those anti chew sprays work.

Heavy, we bought an anti chew spray from Pets at Home - can't remember name but the only one they stocked - and I may as well have basted our furniture in chicken gravy...she loved the taste! Honestly, you could definitely see that she was drawn back only to those areas that had been treated.

At the time a more experienced friend said that they were a bad idea anyway because they didn't teach the dog that biting furniture is wrong, but only to avoid the areas that taste nasty. So we persevered with 'leave it' and super-vigilance and it was sorted pretty quickly. Good luck for Saturday!

Am another with an antichew spray lover! Completely drawn to the cirtronella smell, which I really am not-it stinks, and it didn't work! Welcome to your new home!x

the anti chew spray did work to a certain extent with ours - sprayed it on a drawer handle and it did stop her although she did give it a lick.

My working springer loves nylabones and we've had her about 4 weeks now and has chewed 2 completely!