I've never had a dog - advice please

[Queenofknickers]

We have a gorgeous 8 week old border collie/lab cross coming to live with us on Monday. DH always had dogs as a child but I have never had one. I'm also a bit worried that he may only know out-dated training methods. Please can I have some advice and/or a book recommendation? To add to the mix we already have 3 cats.....

Ooooh my collie x lab is now 18 months and she is brilliant. She is also our first proper family dog.

I would recommend socialising her a lot, even before her immunisations are done you can carry her everywhere so she gets used to lots of people, places and sounds.

Puppy classes are a good idea too, although my Molly was the biggest there and ended up in the naughty corner several times for accidentally standing on/sitting on other puppies.

Mine has been very easy to train but is also very stubborn when she feels like it.

She sounds lovely

Did you crate train her? I'm confused as where she should sleep - some books say downstairs and ignore the crying and some books say in your bedroom, at least to start with

Socialise them as much as possible!

We have three dogs and all had different methods of training, I'd definitely say the best method is crate training. I would completely advise against letting them sleep in your bed, we did this with our 1st as he would scream the whole night, he now can be very very naughty.

The one who was crate trained is very good at sleeping alone and NEVER has any accidents in the house no matter how long he is in for as he got used to holding it in while in the crate. He also never chews anything and is a lot more calmer and well behaved compare to the other two

Good luck!

*bedroom.

The first was in our room and would scream in our ears until he was allowed in the bed to shut him up

She is the best dog ever lol. Not at all biased!

She slept downstairs in her crate from day one and we never heard a peep. We have wipe able floors so didn't matter about the odd accident over night.

Join the Positive Dog Training Facebook group, the old things about 'dominance', 'packs' and all that nonsense have been disproven, but some idiots still persist in this damaging way of thinking, there's also a load of better ways to teach loose lead etc than strangling them with chains and stuff. Dogs are thankfully proper family members now, not just things to stick in your back yard, like a few decades ago.
Congratulations!

From the little I know about border collies, most of it from this forum!, they need plenty of mental stimulation and not just exercise. You could look for border collie groups online or on FB, who can probably give you good advice, as well as the group evenbetter suggested.

I would join a positive based training class with the dog yourself
It will give you the confidence to deal with the dog and develop a good relationship with her, which I think would be useful for you, considering you have not had a dog before :)

On Facebook there is a group for owners of "boradors" (very silly name I know for border collie x lab)

Apart from the silly name there are tons of amazing photos of our little prince and princesses, and a lot of people with advice on this crossbreed.

Might well be worth joining, if only to see the cute photos

Two things are crucial early on: socialisation and training.

Socialisation: the theory goes that puppies need to be with their mums for the first 6 weeks minimum (ideally a bit longer so 8-10 weeks is a very good time to take home a new puppy). This teaches them doggie manners. Then there is a socialisation window which closes around 14-16wks when the fear response kicks in. Anything they see during that window of opportunity they are likely to not be afraid of later on. So take your puppy to see as many different people as possible, including children, to see cars, trains, buses, to see cows, horses, sheep, to see anything and everything you can think of.

Your puppy will not be covered until two weeks after the second vaccinations so be careful in the meantime to stay away from areas with fox poo and unvaccinated dogs. Personally I vaccinate at 8wks and then take a bit of risk, carrying the puppy when I think there are unknown dogs about and introducing it to vaccinated dogs to gain the benefits of early socialisation.

Training: avoid anyone who talks about dominance, choke collars, scruffing or any hands on training techniques. Find a trainer who uses positive reward methods (clicker) and observe a class before signing up. If they say or do anything you feel uncomfortable with, walk away. At this age there are two types of classes and it is of benefit to go to both. Some places run puppy classes for 8-14wk old pupps (of course they won't be fully vaccinated at this stage). These are fun socialisation classes, but should still be run by someone who knows what they are doing to look after shy puppies. There there are beginner training classes (they start after completed vaccinations or any time beyond that), that teach the basics of training. Both classes should give you advice on common issues, like toilet training.

Crates are a very useful tool for most dogs and can help avoid chewing, soiling in the house and separation anxiety. However the puppy needs to be crate trained, you cannot hope to pop them in there and close the door on the first day. Make the crate as invitin as possible (blanket, chews, feed in there) and leave the door open at all times. A couple of weeks down the line you should be able to close the door.

Which means that overnights are a bit of a problem at first. Personally I put the crate in my bedroom with the door open and most puppies settle in there.