New puppy, the first few days…

My deceased working Springer, looking as though she’s seen a ghost or taken copious amounts of drugs.

And another where she looks as though she’s thinking “wtf, I’m not amused”.

oooo Ill enter the cutest puppy competition. Hard to beat a big dog as a puppy.. its the skin!

on the way home from breeders

cuteness

You’ve pretty much got all the advice you need, you just need to pick whichever works best for you and stick to it! They grow up so quick!

Golfchick, what is that? Nice dog!

Golfchick- Rogue waves his paw to say hi 😀 and your not wrong about growing so fast, it doesn’t seem 2 minutes ago he looked like this:

Now look at him

Bwaarp she’s a rhodesian ridgeback!

Try the hot water bottle and ticking clock as someone said on here earlier. I have it on good authority that is helps a lot! Stick ear plugs in and leave dog in cage until you get up. Try not to feed the dog too much later on too. If the dog messes in the cage it will be a last resort for it as they tend not to want to mess there sleeping area up. If you have a big enough cage it will probably do it in the corner anyway. If you do wake in the night go let it outside as soon as you get up to get it used to going outside as soon as possible. If you don’t wake up just worry about it in the morning and let him out straight away.

The approach you are adopting at the moment seems too mollycoddling to me and the dog will be pining too much for you and become too dependent. I think its good to get dogs independent as soon as possible, or they can become a nightmare when your not around them!

Some dogs are harder than others though most good dogs are sound after a few weeks I have found though as long as you don’t pander to them all the time as that just slows the training process down in my opinion. Nice dog though nothing cuter than a little puppy they do grow up quick though!

I tried the same as gravitysucks last night, the cage is in the back hall so i closed off the doors and left the cage open and left her a few toys to play with. I put down training pads at the back door, water beside her cage and went to bed at 10.30pm. I woke at 6.30am and went down the stairs to a big steaming shit on pad 1 and 2 patches of piss beside the pad 2 😆 i put that down as being a nearly successful night and gives her the peace of mind that she hasn’t messed her bed.. 🙂

I would try and get away from the pads as soon as possible, we have friends who used them for their puppy and even now that it’s 2 years old their dog will pee on any newspaper/magazine/blanket that is left on the floor.

We crate trained our pup, we thought the fact that you have to get up during the night for the first few weeks far outweighed the fact that you have to un-train the peeing on paper pads behavior.

UPDATE: So last night was hard times for him. no more coddling him. wee and poo before he went down and just left him in his bed. He went friggin batty, ear plugs are a god send!!!!
went down at 3am to a dry area and let him out for a quick wee then straiht back to bed. queue battyness again at 3am. Anyway this morning we went down to a calm dog that was still alive (until the neighbiurs get hold of him).

Im laid in bed typing this and heard the mrs take the kids to school before, a little whimper from him but he’s quietened down after a minute so seems to be doing the trick!!!

Nice one Stevie, good fun ain’t it! Mines just 7 weeks so will be nearly 4 weeks before we can get him out!!

Some seriously cute dogs on here.

Mines just 7 weeks

😯

Its brilliant mate, wish i done it years ago, hard work but very rewarding.
Tonight i’m putting a pad out, but i will get up in the night to let her out, hopefully get her into the way of thinking the pad is only for dire emergencies rather than habitual?
I’m only a week ahead of you age wise and i’ve been thinking its going to be a long 3 weeks til she is out, as her energy levels are growing each day.. 😯 😆

Does make you laugh how they go from a sleepy docile baby to a coiled spring in about 10 seconds.
Luckily we’ve got a massive garden which we got rid of most of the borders so the kids have more grass to go at, so at the mo he’s got about 500 sq ft of grass to play on / eat and a whole lot more to explore.

I’ve wanted a dog for ages but left it until the kids were old enough to not be phased and get involved.
It’s worked out pretty well as I’ve taken this week off work and the mrs will be off with the kids for the the next three weeks. Hopefully within a month we’ll have broken the back of getting him sorted.

Today’s task is to dig out and bin all the bark mulch and replace it with slate chippings. It seems the local cats have been using the border as a giant litter tray and guess who’s discovered all the poo!?!?!

It seems the local cats have been using the border as a giant litter tray and guess who’s discovered all the poo!?!?!

This morning on our walk my lab gorged himself on a nice big pile of cat crap, then proceeded to lick me in the face as soon as we got home.

I was not impressed.

When our Lab was first home we had her house trained in 3 days.
Used a crate, Have used one for the last 3 puppies.
The method we used was the same as Toppers.
For the first week we got up at 3 am the first night for toilet outside. then the next day 3.30am, day after 4am etc. Worked for us

A really good book to get is ‘The perfect puppy’ by Gwen Bailey.

A really good book to get is ‘The perfect puppy’ by Gwen Bailey.

I read that book before we got Dottie. It made the process so much easier knowing what we needed to do before we got her.

What a gorgeous puppy! Breaks your heart to hear them cry, but you have to be consistent with puppies!

Are you planning to take this little one to a puppy training class? My mom’s a dog trainer and her first advice is to always always always go to puppy classes, to get the basics of sit, stay, down, discipline, etc under control. It’s best to be coached by a professional on these things, even if you’ve had a dog in the past! That way, you’ll set the foundations for a happy and healthy relationship with your puppy. He’s such a cute little guy! Good luck.

3 days later and were good to go!! Excellent night last night went down without a fuss, I got him up at 3.30 for a wee then came down at 7 to a dry happy pup.
A little whimper when he went back in at 3.30 but that was it.
After two nights of ear plugs it was an awesome feeling.

Blanket over cage, a hot water bottle and ticking clock works wonders!

So 5 days after getting him he’s hopefully house trained (no accidents in 2 days now), happy to spend time chilling in his den, and hopefully now is not a whingy pants when left on his own. Still another three days until he’s 8 weeks, can’t wait to be able to get him out and about!!

Happy boy this morning!

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww puppy!

glad things are improving at nights 🙂

It’s amazing how quick they change. What seems like a never-ending nightmare just stops.

Our puppy’s final remaining failing is chewing stuff (our old dog when a puppy never ever chewed anything he didn’t ask for first). Highlights of stuff destroyed so far are an iPad and a light flex which tripped the house.

Still another three days until he’s 8 weeks, can’t wait to be able to get him out and about!!

I don’t think you should be taking him outside (aka public areas) until the couple of weeks after the 2nd vacination. I would check with your vet.

BTW enjoying this thread, keep it going. 😉

Not sure if this will work.. 5 months ago..

I don’t think you should be taking him outside (aka public areas) until the couple of weeks after the 2nd vacination. I would check with your vet.

You should certainly be taking him outside well before this. Just don’t let him wander round on the floor where there have been lots of other dogs so that you minimise the risk of parvo… Carry him about with you and let him see things. 8-12 weeks is crucial for socialisation…

Most vets do a puppy socialisation class for the exact reasons Helios has given. They are controlled and low risk of catching anything.

Yeh I know he won’t be able to get out for another 3 weeks.
Got his 8 week injection on Tuesday then it’ll be another 3 weeks before be can get out after his 2nd one.

Luckily we’ve got a big garden so at least he can run around like a loon!

great looking pup 🙂
puppy party’s through the vets are great and good value for money .
hi from Colin , when he was 8/9 weeks old

Cheers for the heads up Helios. Was thinking we were restricted to the garden for the next 4 weeks!

Time to head out and find the doggy friendly areas of this world…

Good thread that. Our Lab pub (now nearly 5, how did that happen!) was 16 weeks nearly when we had him. He was in a cage. First night he’d managed to snaffle loads of food from the breeder and was properly sick. Dog ownership at its’ finest 😉 Next few nights whined a lot.

In the end my better half decided to approach the problem through the medium of a) a rolled up newspaper and b) the pup’s nose. Never had a problem again. I want another pub, rest of family says no

[/url]
Murphy (15 of 15)[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

First time out with the big dogs tho, he got done over!

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Murphy – 8 months old and stinky[/url] by Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

gravitysucks – Member

Cheers for the heads up Helios. Was thinking we were restricted to the garden for the next 4 weeks!

Time to head out and find the doggy friendly areas of this world…

As I undertand it – you need to be worried about parvo from other dogs if you don’t know whether they’re vaccinated, and from any dog or fox poo… So letting them on the floor isn’t a great idea until they’re vaccinated… But that doesn’t mean they can’t leave the house…

When we got our pup I carried him round for walks each day so that he saw bin lorries, skateboards, kids, other dogs, cats, policemen in hi-viz, sirens etc etc… I also let him meet friend’s and family’s dogs which I knew were vaccinated – in fact – here he is meeting my father in law’s dog at the tender age of 10 weeks:

Dogs in bedrooms is just not right. Dogs are ment for outside living, cage and run outside with a heat lamp for the colder nights is the way forwards…