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 :)

Thanks for the poo and bathing advice. I think we will wash him today because it will give the kids something to do while we are waiting in for the Dyson engineer. Yawn.

I have a clicker and training question - just got my clicker yesterday and at the moment my biggest training "issue" is the toilet training. Monty will go outside do a wee and then walk straight back indoors and do another one. I thought I'd try the clicker to reinforce that I'm pleased he's going to the loo outside - but when do I do it? At the start of his wee (or poo) so he knows that I'm pleased but then gets distracted by clicker and food or at the end when he's finished so he's not sure what he's being praised for.

He's not overly bright so I need to get this house training sorted - especially as I've got guests for the weekend and don't want them walking in little puddles.

How old is he alicia ? My pup is not very bright either, but just switched over from peeing and pooing on the floor every single time, to taking himself out, without me actualy doing anything
I didn't try to use the clicker for that because I would like to not have to stand outside all the time waiting for him to perform lol. We have doors straight from the living room to the garden though, so its easier for us that way

He's just 9 weeks tooearly but we too have doors straight from the living room into the garden so he will do a wee in the garden if he's out there, or if I take him out there and stand with him, but just now I've taken him into the garden, he did two wees and because it is actually very hot out there already (30 degrees) he's come back indoors. I walked out into the hall and walked back into the living room and he'd done another wee on the floor. I'm not sure how to deal with it - I've just said no and put him outside, but all he's done now is gone and found some shade and laid in that.

Aww he is so young. I am quite glad that we got Basil when he was 15 weeks. At least he was already paper trained. Alicia I have Pm'd you again.

Yes I've got to remember he's only little but it's so frustrating when you take him out, he does a couple of wees and the minute your back is turned he does another couple in the house - also poos indoors today. He's possibly not quite as thick as we first thought as it would appear he only speaks French. All this shouting "come Monty", "sit" etc wasn't really working until the kids started talking to him in French. They shout "viens monty" he comes, "assis(sp) toi" he sits. So not only do I have to work on house training it would appear that I've also got to work on his language skills .

On a positive note he's pretty good on the lead, in fact he likes to carry it in his mouth as he's walking next to me. I get a bit caught out though when he decides he's had enough and just stops dead.

Pippi I haven't received another PM - can you send again.

Have re-sent, amended slightly for more recent posts.

Took pup to our friends house yesterday and I couldn't relax the whole time. The mum doesn't like dogs (which I didn't realize although I'd checked beforehand and she'd said fine to bring her as long as we stayed outside due to not house trained) and their three kids were all jumpy around her which made pup jumpy too. Could tell she was tired but she wouldn't settle either in the floor or on my lap .

The day before, we'd gone to a dog friendly family to play and she spent the whole time being cuddled or playing by my feet with her toys (on the lead) and I stupidly expected her to be the same.

Got visitors this weekend which should be interesting as they may be bringing their dog with them, as well as a baby (the last baby she saw crawling she thought was a puppy and wanted to play puppy games with... luckily this mum also had several dogs so wasn't bothers at pup barking at her child!)

Pisky I'm jealous, I need more friends with dogs!

I got my pup earlier this week, he is 10 weeks old, and I am still waiting for his vaccinations to become effective before taking him out.
I am keen to get him around other dogs asap, but have suggested to 5 different dog owners I know that we introduce the dogs, and only one said their dog was safe around others That's made me determind to try to avoid this with mine but I don't know where to start.

I can't get a space on puppy classes until September, and don't really want to leave it that long.

The one dog that was ok is a 6 month old pup, and they had a whale of a time, but I would like him to mix with older dogs too.

Morning all. I didn't get up for pup last night. And no mess in the crate. Woo hoo!

Is it a lab thing or a puppy thing that pub keeps asking for food? he's having the right food for his weight, but he is always begging for more. he'd make you believe he was starving.

Perhaps a bit of both? Labs are meant to be awful for it aren't they?

I also had a not too bad night, but don't know if yhe neighbours would agree lol.
I have got up though to a house that smells of dog I have mopped, and fabrezed, and given him a bath. does anyone have any tips? I've never noticed a smell in anyone elses house with dogs, so what am I doing wrong?

Well, we've just dropped pup off at a dog sitters for a week whilst we go on holiday and the house is very very boring without her! I know she will have a ball especially as there is another puppy there for her to play with!

Sorry that was bit of a short message!

Other than dropping her off today we have been having some good days with her. We went on a lovely walk with 2 elderly border collies yesterday and she didn't annoy them at all. She did have a moment when she wasn't coming back with the same amount of gusto as usual and was too busy chasing the leaves! I think that is something we need to address before autumn!

I noticed the dog smell in my house so have bought a plug in for the kitchen and then I have a neutradol thingy near the crate (out of reach).

We have been to puppy training this morning which went well, he was really good. The only bad thing that has happened today is the discoveryn of two fleas walking about on him. Both jumped off. He is a cream smooth coat, surely he can't have any more or I'd see them wouldn't I? Bollocks.

Make that three fleas. FFS.

Pippa if you have fleas on a puppy - you will also need to worm your dog as fleas and tapeworm go hand in hand. I would contact your vet to get the correct flea treatment and wormer for a young puppy.

alicaflorrickRe clicker training for going to the loo - I would not recommend clicker training for toilet training and I am a major fan of the clicker. You are exactly right when do you click? at the beginning of the wee , the puppy stops weeing, at the end of the wee the puppy thinks it is right to stop weeing. So just praise and treat after the wee and no clicker for this.

tooearly I got one of those reed in a jar Yankee Candle things which has helped the doggy smell. So now we have a house that's supposed to smell of fluffy towels!

Vera Our springer is always hungry and eats her food in a few seconds and gets soo excited when it's dinner/lunch/breakfast. She also hoovers under my sons high chair and try's to get the cats food at any opportunity!

Thanks both, I will try all three. The smell of wet dog is getting to me.

More advice if you can.

Our pup has been home now 4 days. He is absolutely lovely and I adore him but we have a problem .
Every poo he has had except 1 has been either sloppy or liquid. I put it down at first to the change of environment, and the fright of the drive home/ being alone the first night, and didn't worry about it.
We did not change his food when he came to us, but were giving him puppy biscuits/treats to help with house training.

From Thursday night I stopped this and gave him just chicken / chicken and rice. hoping this would change to normal poo, There has been no change.

He is totally fine in himself, he is active, he is not pooing more often than I would expect, but when he does it is runny, and there is only a small amount.
He is not dehydrated.

House training seems to have gone out of the window, and he is pooing everywhere. Not because he cant hold it, because he was going outside at first, but I think because he sees no benefit in it as I cannot give him a treat.
I do obviously praise him if in the right place, but don't think it is clear enough for him.

I am starting to gen really fed up with it now

Hi tooearly, our pup went back to going outside once his poo firmed up.

Oh Vera thank you for that, I so hope it happens soon We haven't got a stairgate on the stairs at the moment because I am waiting for an extension for it to be delivered, and he went upstairs earlier and pooed on my (cream) bedroom carpet.

My daughter was not impressed! She wanted to send him back to the rescue

Tooearly - what a pain!!! Arrgghh!! We fortunately were able to block places off so pup was more contained. We did take her out every hour for ages (weeks) which helped a bit but because we did that and have doors open all the time she doesn't 'ask' to go out so we occasionally have accidents still.

It took a while for her poop to firm up too. My husband was even excited when it happened and reported it to me

We had changed her food but I did get to the point of wanting to change it again - it's still early days for you so give it some more time.

Thanks for the reminder alp.
Just realised that I have been really negative today.

We had to leave him today for the first time when I took the kids to a party, His crate was clean when I returned, and he was quiet not what I expected.

He has played nicely with the kids today. He is really gentle with them.
I was expecting loads of nipping at first, but we haven't had any of that yet. He will sometimes mouth my arm, but really gently, no teeth

I was warned by everyone how bouncy a Springer would be, but so far he has been really calm and well mannered. No jumping up, no trying to steal food

So although I am moaning about the pooing, at least it should be sorted soon (fingers crossed)

Tooearly - our springer is jumpy and tries to nick food and would bite waaaay to hard in play with anyone and everyone!

Having said that she's getting much better but on meeting an 8 week old lab today I realised how much of a firecracker we have .....and she calmed down loads!

Alp did she start off quiet and get bouncier, or was she that way from the start?

Jake is really quite calm, but has only been with us 4 days, so could definately change. He's about 10/11 weks old now.

He sits on the floor waiting for me to put a bowl of food down, and didn't even flinch when I sat next to him on the sofa eating pizza

I suppose the first few days were quiet and after a little while she grew in confidence.

I possibly should look at the first few pages of this thread to see what I wrote about it all then!