Should hopefully be collecting him next weekend after the home visit.

We’ve got a book to do a bit of reading up on (“The Perfect Puppy” by Gwen Bailey) but any real World tips on things we should do and need to buy before he’s arrival?

He’s a 12 wk old male Doberdor and seems fairly relaxed compared to the Springer pups that were there.

Socialise him with other pups as soon as he has had his shots, train care and love. Good luck.

Train him as early as possible before he develops “bad” habits.

Might be worth putting your name down for a puppy training class (local vets should have a list) as there is quite often a waiting list but worth doing IMO.

Will also help to socialise him with other dogs.

Book the VAX from your local Morrisons for a couple of weeks time, start haggling for a pay rise to pay for the extra carpet cleaning products

Teach him to chase deer ala Benton?

At the risk of dropping myself in it…..

If your puppy comes to you for attention never give it. Because he’s initiating the action. He’s in control. If you want to give him some attention call him to you. You initiate it. Now you are in control.

SB

I misread that as:

“Picked out a new puppy today: tits!!”

My tip – take what you want from that book but dont become a slave to it. i freaked out when i read it when we got a puppy. I ditched the book and never looked back. The first weeks will be hard and a big culture shock. Just try to relax and enjoy him/her though!

I would also get him trained via a puppy school or similar, the structure will do him good and it allows you to socialise with others as much as the dog.

Never get angry with him or use physical punishment – if the dog is doing something wrong its because you haven’t trained them not to, or allowed them to develop that habit.If you are patient and train them well theres no need for any kind of physical contact with the dog..

not much useful stuff there but hope it helps.

Edit – note i’ve used him all the time cos ours is a wee boy 🙂

Get brown carpets fitted

recommend ‘The Dog Listener’ and then puppy training to socialise him, like what bigsi said.

But my tip top number 1 tip is this:

Get another one to match! It’s the opposite to double trouble – two dogs are easier than one.

I echo the comment you have about springer pups. Ive got a 9 month cocker and you literally cant tire it out.

Socialise him as soon as you can. its not just with other dogs but absolutely everything; cats, horses, chickens, sheep the list goes on… take him with you everywhere you go in the early days so he gets use to lots of different and new things, things you wouldnt even think of might scare or amuse him so let him get into things (though limited to some extent).

A cage is a good idea too it will save the furnature wherever he sleeps and he will grow to love it and associate it as a safe place where he can go to relax/sleep

Get chew toys and keep getting chew toys! it will save your furnature. For the chewing when they start teething our pup went mad for ice cubes.

Best of luck! you will be tearign yoru hair out sometimes but stick with it its so worth it.

Thanks for all the tips.

We’ve been recommend a local training school by a friend so we’ll be getting that booked up. Just looking at crates, guard for the car, leads etc…

Insurance, I fully recommend it! Tesco and sainsbury. Are the best of the less expensive ones.

Get them on to dry food before they get a taste for the horrible wet stuff. It’s better for them nutritionally and better for you – less nasty smells in the house and less (and firmer) poos too as there is not the crap bulking agents in it like in the wet stuff. We give ours Iams and mix in appropriate leftovers or their favourite: pilchards in tomato sauce! Doggy nom nom nom…

I’ve had 4 dogs in total all from pups.
With the most recent one, a staf, we bought a 3ft cube cage for the kitchen as we knew there was potential for serious chewing.
Best thing i’ve ever done.
Big cushion in the back and a toilet training pad in the front during the night. She was house trained at 14 weeks.

Is it a bitch or a dog? Bitches are generally much cleaner and quicker to toilet train.

Its a dog, no bitches in the litter

We feed ours on the BARM (bones and raw meat) regime. Healthy as butcher’s dogs…that’ll be where the expression comes from.

Many non-chain pet shops hold suitable stuff, usually frozen. Chicken carcasses mainly, that have had the breasts and legs removed for sale, but still have kidneys etc attached.

We feed ours on the patio to keep the raw meat out of the house.

12 weeks seems late to me, presume he’ll come fully shotted up so get him socialised as quick as poss.

1. get a crate. no destroyed house. make it the dogs happy place, feed him in there. best thing we ever did. ours still ate the coffee table when we we not looking however…

2. get insurance.

3. do some puppy classes to get him socialised. a decent place will have years of experience and can help guide you through the challenging moments you almost certainly will have

4. enjoy.

Above all other commands, get the Recall working properly. There will be times when you really really need it to work.

Take him out in the car every day, even if it’s only a short journey. There should be something fun at the end of it. Even if it’s just sitting outside a coffee shop where he is guaranteed to get lots of fuss from people. It’s always good to have a dog who’s happy to travel in the motor.

Echo the socialisation thing. Life with a dog who doesn’t get in with other dogs will not be fun.

Enjoy.

He’s one of 9 from the litter and is still with 4 of them so I guess that covers some socialising? he’s final jab is in a week, we’ve been told around a week after that we can get him out and about, until then we’ll be working on introducing our cat to him (carefully for the dog that is)

As above comments.

Regarding training… I love dog training, dog psychology and working with my dog (4 year old border collie).

What follows is a bit heavy, but take what you want from this – I’ve helped train other dogs, performed at shows and won awards (only obedience related).

The Gwen Bailey book is my puppy bible that I pass to everyone I know who is having a new pup.

It all depends on what you want your dog for, mine was for obedience, agility and heel-work to music – so we trained from 10 weeks old, at least 1 hour each day and an extra 2 hours per week with a trainer.

That’s a lot of training, and you’ll end up with a dog that wants to work all the time – not great unless you have lots of time for him.

I’d suggest puppy classes, once a week – and spend at most 30 minutes a day (not all at once) – practicing what you’ve learnt. To start with you may only manage five minutes as he’ll be tired, or get bored quickly, or just not understand, as he’s so young.

Training in order of preference:

-Recall
-Focus (on you, i.e. watch me)
-Leave
-Sit/Stay/Lie down

The rest of commands is up for your to choose when to train.

As mentioned, a crate is a great training aid.

If you cover the top, and make it into a safe area for the pup, it’ll be a safe haven for him.

So when he’s naughty, you pick him up, without saying a word and pop him in his crate for one minute and leave the room. Then go and get him back, and continue as if nothing happened – you’re teaching him that if he does something that is not right, he has taken away from him want he wants – attention. The key thing here is that he wont see it as a punishment, as it’s his safe haven; its a place for him to have time out.

You’ll have to be quick to do this though – there’s a key 5 – 10 second window to act on anything a pup does wrong – any longer and he’ll have no idea what he’s being timed out for.

Your dog relationship shouldn’t be master and dog, it should be best friend. You do everything you can to make sure your dog can do everything right the first time – they won’t learn correctly from mistakes, they learn best from positive reinforcement – give him every opportunity to get things right, don’t try to make him fail so you can tell him off.

Discipline, not punishment. Remember, the pup will be a blank slate, and he will become what you put in – and a reflection on your personality.

And always end on a high, if you’re teaching him a command and it’s taken 20 minutes for him to get it right, don’t try to get him to do it again. Just give him lots of praise and stop right there – leave him wanting more and he’ll never not want to train.

If you ever want some specific advice, drop me an email and I’ll be happy to help.

Cheers

Ricks

/\Slightly confused, you say to set the crate up as a safe haven for the dog, but you put him in there when he’s done something wrong?
Surely this can only serve to confuse the animal?

Also..need to see a picture of the beastie 😀 😀

Grannygrinder:

Nope, not at all. The idea is that it’s a safe place for him to relax, with nothing to worry about.

The idea is that he doesn’t get punished for anything, you discipline him. If he were with his litter mates and he played a bit too rough, the litter mate would yelp and walk away – therefore he’d have lost the fun game, and the attention.

This is effectively what you are doing by placing him in a safe place, he should learn to understand that when he’s in there it’s somewhere that he can relax. It’s not so much the being there, but the being taken away from what he was enjoying – e.g. biting your fingers, chewing the sofa etc…

It will also serve the purpose of being a place for him to sleep at night – if you lock him away for the first night, he will pee and poo in the crate, and it wont be nice for him (and you).

But…. he wont want to do it again, and it’ll greatly aid him holding his bladder and bowels overnight (one time you can’t help him with toilet training, whatever method you choose).

On another note, Granny – you made a very good point; Consistency this is key to not slowing down his learning and confusing the puppy. If you have more than one person that will interact with the pup, make them aware of how you are training him and make sure they don’t allow him to do something you wouldn’t – i.e. getting on a sofa, or stealing an item.

This flows through *how* you and a partner would train him, differing styles will have differing results – so its important if more than one of you are going to train him to go to the puppy classes together, and swap around in the class.