What is it really like having a puppy?

[Nosuchthingastoomuchcheese]

We are hopefully getting a shitzu puppy sometime next year. We are getting it from family friends who have bred them for years so we are reassured that it's coming from a loving home not a puppy farm.

But what's it really like? My kids are 9 and 13 so very much old enough to do a lot with the puppy. I am prepared for sleepless nights and accidents, although we have some flooring that wont cope well with accidents so I was thinking laying duvets down and lots of puppy pads?

We are quite house proud so will need to puppy proof and we havent had a dog before.

Any tips gratefully received. We have thought about this for a long time, definitely not a rush decision.

Your kids won't bother with the pup after a week or so and especially when it's at nipping stage. My kids loved dogs but didn't bother after when reality set in. So I'd make sure it's a certain that you want the dog. I don't like puppy stage personally I prefer dogs. Say goodbye to you show home

It's very hard work. Unfortunately the duvets and puppy pads are a bad idea. It took us a month to housetrain so we were confined to the kitchen for that length of time.

Be prepared for your children to quickly lose interest. My DS is 11 and after a few days of constantly being bitten and scratched he retreated to his bedroom.

The first few months are crazy and I'd lower your standards if you're houseproud. However, they do settle down pretty quickly. Then the adolescent months hit and you're back to square one!

Don't underestimate puppy teeth they are like needles and really hurt. Training from day one is a must.

Be prepared for your kids to not only lose interest but to lose patience with the puppy and start to find it very annoying. Lots of “mum the puppy has eaten my XYZ!” “Mum the puppy is biting me”+tears.

I would also really recommend not putting down puppy pads and just work very hard on toilet training. You also need to accept that toilet training includes accidents indoors.

Ah ok thank you. We have a relative who has puppy from same mum and said puppy pads were brilliant and puppy now never has accidents. What can I do to protect my floor then? It's fine in kitchen and conservatory but we have cheap laminate in dining room that wont cope well with liquid! I dont mind dealing with accidents but do need to protect surfaces a bit.

I'm fine if the kids lose interest as I want a dog as much as they do.

How long does toilet training take usually? Or is that a ridiculous question??

I would read up about puppy pads before you decide. We ultimately decided against them as I read that they can send mixed messages to your puppy and can prolong how long it takes to toilet train. And we already knew the breed we had were difficult to toilet train so didn’t want to complicate things.

Will your puppy have free run of the house? If, to begin with, your puppy lives in the kitchen/conservatory most of the time and only comes to the rest of the house supervised with you then it’s unlikely to have too many accidents on the floor you’re trying to protect. Also if you get into a really good toilet training routine then it’s unlikely to have to many accidents.

@Nosuchthingastoomuchcheese

How long does toilet training take usually? Or is that a ridiculous question??

If you want a realistic idea of some of the things you might encounter I would recommend you read the puppy survival threads on here.

They go back years which says it all . My dog is 4 and I was on lots of them at the beginning when we got him as an 8 week old puppy. I still pop up on the recent threads to give encouragement to those finding it hard.

How long does toilet training take usually? Or is that a ridiculous question??

All breeds are different. Google says 2-4 months for a shih tzu but I would talk to other shih tzu owners to find out if that’s in line with reality. I’m not a big fan of Facebook but I do find it really useful for dog breed groups - could you see if there’s a shih tzu group you could join? I also found the puppy survival threads on here really helpful - mostly for solidarity at times when everything felt like a huge struggle!

Thank you that's really helpful. I'm excited but also a bit worried. Dont want it all to go horribly wrong.

Just to warn you, ours is now 18 months and still sometimes has weeing accidents in the night. He also chewed our kitchen (even though he is never left alone), ruined two lots of carpet (the type wth the loops which are a convenient thing to get little puppy teeth into and pull...) and creates constant dirt to the extent that the floors need to be mopped a couple of times a day.

I'm also house proud and whilst I love him to bits, if Id known about the level of muck in the house I would have put my foot down.

It's hard work but really worth it!

I'd recommend going to see the puppy as often as you can when it's born. That way, you get used to the puppy and they are then familiar with you. Even if it's once a fortnight, that's still some time you'll get to familiarise with your new pup.

You all need to decide as a family what the rules are. Are you allowing pup on the sofa? Will they be allowed in specific rules? You should decide beforehand what commands you're going to use too so the puppy doesn't get confused.

I'd definitely recommend puppy pads! Even if it's just for the first few weeks and then gradually wean them off them.

How exciting! :)

I completely agree with everything above BUT you'll hopefully fall totally in love with puppy and that makes issues so much easier to deal with.

Thank you! Thank you for all being gentle with me.

Honestly?
I didn’t really find it all that hard!

My pup came trained to toilet on newspaper which tbh, I know the breeder thought they were being helpful but it was a bit of an annoyance actually re training her to go outside, they were a few inevitable accidents.

Past the first few nights she settled down and slept through the night very quickly.

She didn’t really bite/chew until a few weeks later when teething really kicked in and even then she preferred to run at you and jump up and hang off you so while I didn’t have a single item of clothing without a hole in it, my skin was largely unscathed.

She’s a collie and she did attempt to herd us until she learnt we wouldn’t tolerate that - she would stare, get in front and her favourite, sneaking up behind us as we were heading into the kitchen and muzzle punching the back of our knees but there was no nipping.

She destroyed one pair of shoes (DH not watching her), pulled some clothes through the bars of the crate and chewed them (DH dumped the laundry on top of her crate) and made some very minor scratches/chew marks on our wooden table (DH not supervising - seeing a pattern here?!)
I can’t remember her ever really damaging anything else.

She slept a lot of the day.
There was lots of puppy zooming around.
She used to take any blankets out of her crate and race around the house shaking and tripping over them.

Our breeder matched our puppy with families based on puppy temperament. Mine was the soft in nature not too unruly puppy. I'm very laid back and not managerial types at all. Another family got the energetic puppy that they wanted and third family got the show dog look puppy because they wanted to enter show completions. You may want to look at matching temperament when selecting your puppy.

Invest time and energy in toilet training and keeping a puppy pen with crate where furniture cannot be chewed when not supervised. It worked wonders for us - photo attached.

Kids will soon lose interest in puppy stage because they need love, care, attention and training. Dog will get attached to whoever cares for it most of the time.

My main bits of advice would be:

• don't rely on your kids to do anything - the likelihood is they'll get fed up with the puppy biting them and peeing on the floor within a week, and they certainly won't want to walk the dog in the pissing down rain or in the middle of winter. Basically, assume that 100% of the dogs' care will be down to you - from vet visits, to walks, to feeding, to training, to getting up in the night, to cleaning up mess etc.

• don't use puppy pads. They just teach the dog to pee inside. Take the puppy out every 20-30 minutes, after meals, naps, training and play. Use a verbal command when they go in the right place and follow with lots of treats and praise. How long it takes will vary massively - ours only had a handful of accidents indoors (less than 10) but other dogs take over a year to get the hang of it. It isn't necessarily down to the owner, either - it's often just luck!

• start as you mean to go on. Practise loose lead walking from day one, crate train, don't let them on the sofa as puppies if you don't want them on there as adult dogs, train them how to behave at meal times, when the door goes etc. It is hard work but the more effort you put in early on, the easier you'll find it as they get older!

Competition not completion - autocorrect!

I'm also house proud and whilst I love him to bits, if Id known about the level of muck in the house I would have put my foot down
Also, I’m also houseproud.
I don’t know how much muck Shih tzu’s attract but I’ve found that walls must be painted in silk, never Matt!
Any mud splotches wipe straight off silk with a damp cloth/sponge.
Flooring should be laminate/hardwood as carpets holds shocking amounts of hair and grime and it can smell..
Sofas should be leather or off limits to the dog.
Trimming the fur inbetween the pads/toes super short, trimming the fur back close up to the stopper pad/hock and keeping the nails as short as you can get them cuts down on mess aswell.

Thank you again.so helpful. It's not me that is actually that houseproud more my husband! Yup I accept I will do a lot, probably all of it, but that's ok. Shitzus tend to have their special person anyway, more than other breeds. I'm happy to be that person.

Can you give them dry food only? Is that an option?

@Nosuchthingastoomuchcheese

Can you give them dry food only? Is that an option?

Absolutely! www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk is a great resource for finding good quality food. Just bear in mind that some dogs may refuse to eat dry food on it's own so you may have to add warm water or other things to it to make it more appetising.

We’ve never had a dog (not enough time) but we do love them and have spent a LOT of time puppy-sitting over the years for various friends and relatives

I was going to say a lot of what has already been said; they are very hard work at times and some days are nothing but chewy and bitey little twats!

But they do also bring a lot of pleasure

Good luck OP

It changes your life to an extent in the same way having a baby does. It’s a massive responsibility and I used to long to have my evenings back where I could sit and relax and not worry about what the puppy was doing/eating/chewing on/peeing on etc. My kids were reasonably willing to watch the puppy while I went for a shower or whatever but the puppy actually only wanted me so would cry at the bottom of the stairs until I came back.
It’s totally worth it, she’s 17 months now and is a lovely dog.

It’s more intense than I ever could have imagined in the first couple of months though.

At the beginning you’ll need to feed them the same food as the breeder. Then you can slowly change to your choice.

RE: raw, wet or dry. I would ask yourself why you’re making that choice. Diet has such a huge impact on health (including dental health) so whatever type you choose, choose a good quality one.

I feed raw because I find dog poo absolutely revolting and raw makes teeny tiny, non smelly poos. (And I feel it’s good for him.)