New Puppy!!

[Southerrrngirrl]

So I think its pretty much confirmed (without DNA testing of course) that our dog Bob, is the father of the neighbour's dog's puppies.

I've been wanting another dog for a while now, although much preferring a smaller dog such as a Jack Russell or Fox Terrier. But anyway both hubby and I are feeling partially responsible for this lot of puppies, and had agreed to take one of the puppies if there was a girl available. So turns out there is a wee black girl and I think she's being dropped off to us in the weekend.

Never had a puppy before, Bob came to us as an adult dog. But we're going to take her to puppy preschool/obedience training and all that so hopefully she turns into a well behaved dog.

So what do I need? I've got a couple of toys, some puppy biscuits, and will get a collar/lead and bedding after work. I know that she needs to go to the vet for check and vaccinations and to be microchipped and registered with the DC.

But what else? Any tips or advice would be great.

[lmsmith]

Remember, obedience school is more so you can learn how to train your dog, not so they can learn to be good. A dog is only as good as their owner, so as long as you're strict with them and treat them well, they usually turn out ok.

Make sure you expose the puppy to children and other animals (easy, cuz you already have a dog!) early on, that way it's a normal thing for them.

What kind of dog is it?? How old are they? You can start obedience training right from about 4 weeks old - just simple things like sit, stay, lay down. Try to start the training away from your other dog, that way they don't get distracted. Dogs can only recognize 2 syllable words consistently, so make sure your dogs name isn't long, and teach one word commands.

[phoenix44]

depends on what you want him/her trained for. pm me if you want advice on specific areas of training.... potty training is easy enough.... depends on if you are in a house or a rural property with (a presumably) massive back yard.

what sort of dog is it? what is the other dog? large dogs - particularly labs and similar are prone to hip dysplasia. little little dogs are prone to low blood sugar....

any and all dogs however are intelligent and can be trained to do almost any thing. I have two harlequin great danes (guard dogs) who are trained for verbal and non-verbal commands. and do everything from sitting to going to the left and right to forming guard stances etc....they even have an attack command that can only be executed by one of the family.

you can teach them not to accept food from strangers etc....

you'll need to tell us the breed though. oh and with that lead - get a short lead - the ppl at your local pet shop should know what it is (hopefully lol).

hope this helps. :bounce:

[Rozski]

You never said you had great danes!!!

I demand photos! :lol:

[Gannet]

food, if ou can get it onto some good puppy food, hills or eukanuber. (sp) both really good foods, there is others as well, dont go for the cheap stuff it ends up costing more because you are feeding more.

when you introduce you new pup to ur older dog do it in a neutral place. that way your older boy wont get upset with a new girl on the block, etc.

any way congrats on the new pup. now all we need is pics

[Southerrrngirrl]

Well our dog Bob is Black Lab Heading dog x (we're not 100% sure about the heading dog but, but he is definitely not a full lab). And Mum I believe is a Bull Mastif. Will clarify that when the neighbour comes over. So she's probably going to be a medium-large dog. I don't know how old puppy is yet, I haven't seen the mum for probably 3-4 weeks so I assume she's around that age.

I think we are reasonably strict owners. We never let Bob roam the streets, if he's off his chain, he is supervised. We don't tolerate barking incessently. We've managed to train Bob to know that if he's barks excessively, we knock on the window and point, that means to shut up and get inside his kennel. He knows "up" means to jump up on to the deck of the ute. He knows "off" is to get off the deck of the ute.

Exposing the puppy to kids could be a problem, we don't have any! But we have plenty of cats so thats not going to be a problem.

We have a house on just over 1/4 acre in a small rural town, is that big enough?? We often take Bob to the reserve or the river for a big run around though.

In regards to the training, I guess i want her to just be a well behaved dog. Not barking constantly or destroying things all over the show. Toileting in appropriate places, behaving while out walking etc.

A short lead is one that is short?? I don't like those long ones that basically let the dog go all over the show. I like them to walk beside me.

[Southerrrngirrl]

food, if ou can get it onto some good puppy food, hills or eukanuber. (sp) both really good foods, there is others as well, dont go for the cheap stuff it ends up costing more because you are feeding more.

when you introduce you new pup to ur older dog do it in a neutral place. that way your older boy wont get upset with a new girl on the block, etc.

any way congrats on the new pup. now all we need is pics

Thanks, of course I'll have pics as soon as she arrives!

By neutral do you mean off our property?

[imsweet]

puppy kindy is a good place to start, usually run thru your local vets/ dog obedience etc.

[Southerrrngirrl]

puppy kindy is a good place to start, usually run thru your local vets/ dog obedience etc.

Yeah our local petshop runs them.. once a week for four weeks.

Not sure what I'm going to do with puppy. We live about 50kms from Invercargill where I work, and where the petshop is. Going to have to bring puppy in with me and find somewhere for her to stay while I'm at work... hmmm.

[phoenix44]

Neutral means - not in a place your current dog calls its own. like in hiis kennel for instance. bad move

[Southerrrngirrl]

Neutral means - not in a place your current dog calls its own. like in hiis kennel for instance. bad move

Oh... what if he call the whole back yard is own?

[phoenix44]

YOUR bedroom would be a good place. that is presuming he does not sleep on the bed, lol

[Gannet]

yea not where your dog calls home, even the bed room as it is still where he lives even if he dosent go into that room.

take them both down to the park would be good.

are you going to creat train her at all??

also you will need to be strong with her if she has bull mastiff in her, the bull mastiff is an awesome dog, but can be head strong.

[Southerrrngirrl]

Ok perhaps not the bedroom. Bob is very rarely in the house. He knows he's not supposed to come inside the house so maybe the kitchen will be alright.

Creat train???

Yeah I know they bull mastifs are strong. Sammy (the mother) often comes over to our place for a visit, she's a lovely friendly dog but has a tendancy to jump up on you and nearly knocks you over in the process!

[livingart]

are you going to creat train her at all??

did you creat train yours?

[phoenix44]

crate train.

not needed for farm dogs at all. just teach them to go poo and wee in the 1/4 acres you have, lol.

crate training is great for house dogs and apatrment dogs. teaches them to do their business outside the house.

if you do crate train them remember to keep the pup in the crate for 10 minutes after pooing or weeing. lol. generally with training, any thing less than 7 minutes is short term memory and over that long term. so more than 10 mins will take less time to teach. if done right crate training should not take more than 2 - 3 days at most.

and i think you will find - if your dog is the father - he will bully the pup but will more or less get on fine. please let him do that within reason - he is establishing dominance. do not ignore or give too much attention to the pup in front of your older dog.

[Southerrrngirrl]

Ahh crate train, no I don't that will be necessary.

I got to see pups today, they're still very small only 3 weeks so won't be getting it this weekend like I thought (didn't know how old they were prior to seeing them)

They sure are cute though, two boys and a girl. The girl is black with a little white patch on her chest, one of the boys is a sort of light chocolate colour, the other is a much lighter tan, more like mum with the black muzzle, ears and eyes

I'm torn now, cos I really liked the chocolate coloured boy.. but didn't want a boy. What really guts me though is when the neighbour came over with the two boys she says "oh these two will be going to puppy heaven". Because apparently she can't find anyone else who wants them. I must have looked shocked because she backtracked and said "nah I wouldn't do that". I'm not convinced..

Anyone else want a puppy??

[fishtv]

Hi there we have just made it through the puppy stage with our Beagle.

I am a very firm supporter of crate training. We couldn't have been without it. He would use it as a 'safe place' when he was unsure of something and we could ensure that he was safe if we needed to be away from him. It made toilet training a piece of cake and ensured that my furniture stayed chew free. I was unsure to begin with but my sister who is a vet nurse convinced me.

He slept in it at night and he loved it so much that would go to it to nap during the day also. We also used it in the car to encourage him to feel safe when traveling.

You cannot ALWAYS be watching a puppy and the world isn't really a safe place for a small pup so at least in a crate you know they are safe and can't eat or play with anything they shouldn't.

Flynn no longer has a crate as has since grown out of it, but his bed is used the same. Honestly for your sake and your puppy's think about crate training.

Here is a pic of Flynn in his crate when he was a wee pup...

[Southerrrngirrl]

Ok so it sounds like a good idea.. how do I crate train puppy then??

Oh btw Flynn is a real cutie, love the name too!

[farmchick]

I'm torn now, cos I really liked the chocolate coloured boy.. but didn't want a boy. What really guts me though is when the neighbour came over with the two boys she says "oh these two will be going to puppy heaven". Because apparently she can't find anyone else who wants them. I must have looked shocked because she backtracked and said "nah I wouldn't do that". I'm not convinced..

Anyone else want a puppy??

The best thing you could do for your new puppy is to get a calender and as soon as 6 months is up, get it fixed. Perhaps you should talk to your vet and see if they would provide a discount to get Bob done at the same time.

There are way too many unwanted puppies and dogs at the local shelters without adding to them

[Southerrrngirrl]

Oh no don't worry about that. Puppy will be spayed as soon as she is able to be. Last thing I want is for her and Bob to inbreed! As for Bob, I do honestly feel really bad that we hadn't had him fixed sooner, for a long time there was no need as he was all by himself on a farm with no other dogs around for miles so I guess it was never a priority. And then when we moved to where we are now, the neighbour wasn't there at that stage so again, I guess we never saw it as a priorty. When she did move in and noticed the female dog was displaying in heat behaviour, we did warn her that our dog wasn't fixed yet, but she didn't make any effort to stop her dog from wandering on to our property.

I hope to get Bob in to the vet this week, its just a bit tough at the moment with the way things are at work.

[Southerrrngirrl]

Saw puppy again tonight, it sounds like mummy dog has had enough of the pups. The neighbour was talking about having to start bottle feeding them. I think she's just keen to get rid of them myself. So hubby said we would bring the puppy home this weekend. Not exactly what I had in mind! The neighbour couldn't even tell us the exact day or even say what week they were born, she thinks they are 3-4 weeks old already. Sounds like she doesn't really care. Thats too early to take a puppy away from its mother right? But what happens if the mother stops feeding them? What else can you do?

[Ira]

6-8 weeks is pretty much the standard.

[lmsmith]

If the mother has stopped feeding, it's probably because she's getting hassled by not having a private space for her and the pups, or because the pups are being handled too much too young. You can get them feeding off mum again, but it's a lot of work, and if you don't think the neighbors committed, then there's no reason why you couldn't take it now. It sounds like you'd take better care of them than they would anyway, so you could just bottle feed it until it can eat solid foods.

[fishtv]

We got our pup at 6 weeks and I would not go any earlier than that. They need all the care and attention they can get from mum up until then.

It is terrible that she is trying to farm them out already. Mothers don't tend to get 'sick' of their puppies and are generally really caring. There can be exceptions but I would try to observe the mum and her pups and see if it really is a game to get you to take her early.

We had our Beagle de-sexed before he was 6 months old which was possible due to his rapid weight gain and growth. After a full vet examination they may be able to do her a little earlier? We had aggression problems with Flynn and my parents stud Border Collie, after de-sexing them both they are good friends.