First time raising a puppy, have questions

[ICNJess]

Hi all,

A girl my mom works with has two labs, and they bred and had puppies. After a vote of 3 to 1, my dad caved in and said, "okay" to bringing home a pup. We already have a dog--a 15 year old Sheltie--but when we got her I was 8, and she was 6 months old--and already had formed some of her own habits, and my parents just let her keep them.

Anyway, today we went and looked at the litter...and I picked out the runt, this sweet little light colored lab. She's smaller than my dwarf rabbit right now, since she's only 3 weeks old. I held her and she licked my face for awhile, and then fell asleep in my hands. She's so adorable! We had to leave her there, though, so she can nurse off of mom and be raised by mom for another month or so.


So now I need some :help: !!!!

I need suggestions on potty training and what not. I worked for a pet supply company for a few months and know about other things, but for some reason, bladders are outside my area of expertise. :biglaugh:

[Betsie]

As you know, we are there and running puppy "jail". Here is an excellent site, one of millions, I am sure. A catalog store, but also they have great tipson different aspects of raising pets etc.

OOOOH Charlie has a cousin now...:)

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/category_summary.cfm?dept_id=0&siteid=12&acatid=358

[ICNJess]

LOL I gave you that link, remember? I used to work there LOL

[jaime15]

New puppy sounds sooo cute! What's his/her name?
Do you need ideas? :)

[ICNJess]

Jaime,

Do you know the puppy on the Cottonelle toilet paper commercials, that pushes the rolls around the house? That's what she looks like.

Her name is...Kiki! She's so cute!!

[jaime15]

Well that fits! Now I'll think of you guys when I see that commercial. :)

[trytosmile]

Oh, a puppy...i want a new puppy. Don't think my dog, Mickey would go for that. He is already having to adjust to my new kitten who is a bugger !!!

Love animals of all types. I'm in the midst of gutting and redoing an 85 year old farm house that sits on a 50 acre horse farm. Can't wait to get finished and get out there. Family farm and I'm the lucky one to end up there :woohoo:

[ICNJess]

I wish I could bring Kiki home today! I have to get her a crate, though...the vet says that gives them a sense of security, and helps train them. A bunch of people my mom works with swears by that approach. Anyone try it?

[Betsie]

tis the only way to go!!! get one they cant chew through @ petco or that place you worked. ;)

[ICNDonna]

When we had litters of dal*****ns, we kept them in our sun room with a huge cardboard box with a door cut in it and a little fenced area out there. We put cedar chips in the fenced area. The puppies just instinctively left the box where their "bed" was located (soft blankets that we could wash daily) and used the cedar chip area. When we sold a puppy, we advised folks to put cedar chips on a newspaper at first and show the puppy where it was. We heard back from lots of folks that our pups were easier to house train than any they had seen.

Mostly, when I'm potty training a puppy, I watch it very closely and the instant it starts to squat, grab the puppy and put it on the paper --- and when they go on the paper, lots of praise and pets so they get the idea it's a good thing. And if I can't watch the puppy, the crate is a good way to go, with a newspaper in one corner so there's a place for puppy to go.

At night I will put the puppy in a huge box beside the bed and when it cries, get up and take it outside --- again lots of praise --- "good girl, etc."

Our "puppy" is almost five years old now and a real cuddler.

Donna

[Betsie]

Oh Donna!
Could you please come East for awhile? We have a cute little pup, who has us all snookered, but has the speed of a gazelle...so if we see him squat and he is never out of our site, we can't catch him....he is too smart for me. This morning he ran so fast from my sunroom, one step up to my FR, that he slid and wiped out like a hockey player into the sideboards....LOL, he came right to me for some TLC and hugs....but I still laugh that he literally went down so fast I lost sight of him...Poor baby.

He is a wee wee pad pup for now, and at a whopping 5 pounds, he is fast and can really get us all into chase mode. We are a sight to behold, when this tiny guy has us all acting like toddlers.

HELP.........his cuteness is killing me!! Jess, get out our running shoes! :)

[hoping4acure]

:woohoo: Congratulations on the new puppy. I am trying to talk my husband into getting a puppy. We lost our Rotti 3 years ago, and I miss him so much. My NP told me that it would be thereputic for me to get another dog! Any way, I can not stress enough how important crate training and solcializing are. these two things are very important in having a well behaved dog. My dog was so well trained, that I could call him back in a split second. He knew hand signals, I didn't even have to speak to him! Ohhhh I am so jelous! I want a dog so bad. Good luck and give em lots of love! :)

[ICNJess]

Well tomorrow I go out and get a new pair of sneakers so that I can lace 'em up and have fun! :D

I'll have to talk to the vet some more about the crate training...the problem is, I'll want to cuddle her and have her running around like a half crazed maniac...but that's what we had with our 15 yr. old Sheltie, and to this day she's barely house broken, and gets away with murder!

I think I'm going to drag my husband to PetSmart on his day off...though I shouldn't drag, because this grown man has developed quite a soft spot for our little Kiki. :D

[dancemomof2]

Cool Jess, I love dogs, and it will be so much company especially when you feel lousy, they just seem to know. I bought the runt outof alitter of Golden Retrievers and she ended up bigger then all theothers and even her parents. Go figure I would get the one that wanted to be godzilla. We crate trained her and she is 3 years old and still uses the crate without any problems, and so does our Brittany. They will sleep in them at night with the doors open tyo them.

[hoping4acure]

to funny Leslie reading your reply...you know my Rotti didn't want anything to do with that crate after he was trained. Everybody else I talk to say that after training, their dogs loved the crate. One thing he used to do though was stick his head under the bed, coffee table, (anything) when he was sleeping. LOL.

Louann

[carolynyeo]

hi we are crate training and it is working well. We have a 16 week old aussie. She has a urine infection right now so she is on antibiotics for 10 days. Poor thing. She started having accidents and peed three times in her crate in the last 24 hours. So we brought in a urine sample to the vet for testing this morning. lol have you ever tried to get a urine sample from a puppy?. Anyway I feel so bad for her knowing how bad it is to have something wrong with your bladder. I have to wash her with hot compresses four times a day, give her lots of water and cranberry juice (watered down) and amphcillion twice a day. But before that she was perfect, she only had like two accidents from week seven when we got her till last week at week 15.
We put her in her crate when we can not supervise her at all.
When we take her out to pee, we take her to her special spot. Put her down and say "hurry up" (this is so that she associates these words with peeing so that she can pee on command in the future, useful for trips!) When she actually goes we praise her with "good puppy", "good outside" and give her a treat while she is actually peeing...this is important!!! Because if you do it after she won't associate it with peeing in that spot.

A typical day follows for a 8 week old puppy which is when more than likely they will let her go to you:

7:00 am - get up take her out of the crate to her place to pee.
7:15 am - back inside in the crate again so I can shower.
8:00am - breakfast time put her food out for twenty mintues. Anything she doesn't eat thats it. She will have to wait till lunch. This is so that she can develop a predictable bowel pee time for you to take her out.
8:20 am - take back outside to pee.
8:30 am - 9:00am play for a half an hour. Fetch, work on sit..ect
9:00am - 10:30 am crate time
10:30 - pee time again
10:30 - 11:00 play time
11:00 pee agian
11:00 - 12:00 crate
12:00 - lunch
12:20 - pee time
12:30 - 2:30 crate time
2:30 - pee time
3:00 - play time
3:30 - pee time
3:30 - 5:30 crate
5:30 pee
6:00 supper after this take away food and water for the evening
6:30 pee
6:30 - 8:00 crate
8:00 - 9:00 play
9:00 pm - crate
10:30 pm - pee time last one for the night. No matter if she is tired or not take her out at this time for one last pee.
11:00 - 2:00am crate
2:00am pee
2:00 - 7:00am crate

So as you can see your life revolves around puppy for the first week or so. After around a week your puppy will be sleeping through the night from around 11 till 7 the next morning.

Now our schedule is as follows and we have been doing this since around nine weeks.

6:30 am - pee time then crate so I can shower
7am - pee/ breakfast
7:30 am - pee again
7:30 - 8am play time
8 - 11am crate time
11am - 12pm pee/play
12pm - 3pm crate
3pm - 4pm pee/play/pee
4pm - 5pm crate get supper ect.
5pm - pee supper pee
6pm - 30 min walk then a pee
7pm - play for half an hour
8pm - crate
10pm - pee play pee
crate for the night.

Since my husband and I are both working this is about as good as it gets for playing with her. When the weather starts getting better we are going to add a walk in at breakfast and maybe a sort one at lunch.

Anyway good luck.

[hoping4acure]

carolynyeo: to funny you mentioned "hurry ups" that's how WE trained our dog! I haven't heard anyone use that but us. That was part of our training with our dog. The trainer said it was good to have them get used to it for the purpose you said--to pee on command. LOL... :biglaugh:

[Michelle in KC]

Oy Vey! I remember the puppy days. My Daisy Mae (Chocolate Lab) is ALMOST 1 year old. She'll be 1 on the 27th of January. She was awful to get to sleep through the night. We were crate training her, so she didn't like it.

I do highly recommend crate training. Our dogs eat and sleep in their crates. Other than that they are outside or running loose through the house. I am a crate short right now, so we have a 75 pound yellow male lab hogging my bed. He snores all night. :rolleyes:

Just keep constant watch over your new puppy. Puppies have to pee a lot, like we do! :) When she eats, take her out. When she wakes up, take her out. But, you'll have better luck if you take her out QUICKLY, not let her stretch a little first. And, you might need to carry her out to not have an accident on the way.

Praise her outside successes and tell her NO to her Oop's inside. Don't smack her and don't rub her nose in it. Buy some Mature's Miracle. It's great for pet smells and stains.

And The Dr. Foster website is good, but I also recommend the www.petedge.com site. Heave them send you a catalog.

Good Luck.
Michelle in AR
(Mother to 2 kids, Emilee and Justin, 3 dogs, Zack, Daisy Mae & Kaden, and 4 cats, Bubbette, Static, Noisey & Chatty - soon to be Mommy-Kitten)

[carolynyeo]

Hi again I forgot to also mention for the first three - four nights I would keep the kennel or crate by your bed so if she wakes up you can put your hand down through hte crate and touch her to try to get her back to sleep. If she keeps whinning get up and take her out. All business no play!!!! Do not talk to her besides hurry up and good outside or good girl. NO fun!! or else she will think 2 am is time to play. After a couple of nights let her sleep out in the family room/living room or where ever else her crate will be around the family.
Some people set their alarm for 2 or 3am if they are sound sleepers. You really don't want her having a accident in her crate..that is harder to correct. Anyway we have a amazing breeder who is a k9 trainer. Here is her website...im not sure if its ok if I do this but since she doesn't sell anything besides help in training and only to those in the area im sure it is fine. You can read her articles and others on the website. our dog is AuxAucs MyDuckie. We are on upcoming litters or past litters I believe.

http://www.k9station.com/obedience.htm

Great trainer....I swear she gives me the best no nonsense advice.


Also if your dog has a accident which 9 out of 10 she wll. If you catch her in the act startle her...startle not scare...with ahh ahh ahh and pick her up and bring her to her spot right away and praise her when she finishes in her spot. There is no point to get mad at her, get mad at yourself for not watching her! lol.