Rufus is cute, what is he?

Goldie, must be. He’s Just. So. FLUFFY!!!

He’s a Golden Retriever and also our first puppy. We had a Greyhound called Benny but he died during the winter. He was a retired racer who we had from two years old so puppy training is a new experience. We’ve found that as long as we are consistent with him he learns fast. Lead training and being a bit mouthy are currently the current objectives to improve on but he’s getting there.

Unklehomered – I can confirm that he is fluffy squared.

loving the bouffant!

Loving the picture of Rufus I had a Golden Retriever for 15 years and he had the most loving temperment and was a character. He died 14years ago and I still think of him.

Wolves are pack animals, dogs are not.

Ignore the whining, it’s the only way.

This advice will be no use to anyone who’s already brought their puppy home, but might be helpful for anyone who’s planning on keeping a pup; A week or so before we collected her, we slept in old t-shirts for a couple of nights and then took these round the farm where she was growing up. These were then left where she liked to play, so she grew to associate our scent with safety and happy times.

I hope this helped her homing experience… five years on I still feel like a bit of a bastid for taking her away from her family, but she’s our furry daughter and I can’t imagine being with out her, even if she did roll in dead stuff earlier in the week, and still smells rancid after three washes.

We got our Duck Toller at 12 weeks old and have been quite lucky with her. We read Gwen Bailey’s book The Perfect Puppy and it was a huge help as it was our first puppy. The Victoria Stilwell videos on YouTube are a great resource too.

Whatever you do don’t cave in! My wife called me at work in tears one afternoon as the puppy was wailing like a banshee for her and the cries were getting to her. She held off rushing to her and we only ever go to get her from her crate when she’s good and calm. We only had a couple of days of it.

We taught her very quickly that the crate was a good place to be and not a prison. We used a clicker to train her to go into the create at bed time and now we just have to say “Teal,go to Bed” and she heads there. We also fed her in the crate so she got used to being enclosed and having a great time eating in there.

We did two toilet stops each night for the first few weeks,11pm and 3 am, then just midnight and 6am. We’d always open the door before we got her out of the crate because she’d be bursting to go and we didn’t want to delay her and cause and accident inside. Add mentioned above, no fuss, when she was weeing we gave it a name, quick-quick, and rewarded her once complete then straight back to bed. After a few nights she was on auto pilot and would take herself back. She was always on the lead too so we could control her every move.

If you can, start using a clicker to train your puppy. Teal took to it very quickly and being food oriented helped. You can quickly teach the puppy all sorts of useful good behaviors: sit, stay, leave it, down, up, go to bed, etc We were amazed how quickly she learned.

Lovely puppy by the way!

I might look into a clicker.

Had a great night last night. Got her in the pen with the crate (She doesn’t like the crate that much at the moment but we’re working on making it a fun place she wants to be in) and turned the lights off and sat there for 5 mins in the dark on a chair giving her no attention but just being there. She calmed down after 2-3mins. I went to bed about 11pm (left a light on in another room she could see it) and 6am I’m up and she’s out in the garden doing a poo. Admitedly there is a wee on the paper but if I can get her settled to be quiet at night then once she is used to the crate I can confine her in there and get the toilet training sorted with her whining more when she wants to go to the toilet than just for attention.

Lazgoat – When you did the toilet stops did you get up at those times and take your pup or did the pup wake you up?

Bushwacked, we set alarms to get us up for her toilet stops and we woke her up to go out. She spent 12 weeks at the breeders kennels and could go whenever and wherever she liked in the yard there, so we had to break her out of that habit and into ours.

We had a couple of accidents when we changed her to midnight and 6am toilet stops but she soon increased her bladder control and was dry thereafter.

She’s almost 8 months old and we take her out between 10 and 11pm when we go to bed and then again when we are up at 7.30am.

Cool, cheers for that

Bit of an update (was gonna post one sooner but thanks to a lightening strike we’ve been without Broadband for a week and still waiting for BT to pull their finger out – currently using a mobile phone hotspot)

She’s now sleeping through the night locked in her crate and not wetting her bed from 10.30 until 6.30am 🙂 Few issues with weeing on the carpet in the dining room and play biting but otherwise everything is going really well.

She’s definitely got a bit of Lab in her as she will eat anything and everything – including dried cat poo which is an absolute joy to forcibly remove from her mouth.