luvsdogs

Giving no attention means absolutely NO attention e.g. looking at, pushing down, speaking to except to teach bite inhibition. You need to say 'ouch' in a high pitched voice similar to another puppy that's getting bitten by its litter mate & stop whatever you're doing with her for a minute. Use the 'sit' command for every interaction with your puppy. She must sit for food, walks, cuddles, pats, b4 putting on the lead, b4 getting into the car etc. She's a baby & will lose interest quickly so make training session no more than 3 mins at a time spread throughout the day.

That is a lovely photo, worth blowing up & framing. I'm glad you've decided to have him inside. To prevent mistakes don't give him access to the whole house yet, only one room at a time with an easy clean floor. When you can't watch him put him in the laundry with bed, toys & water or for short periods in his crate. Before you let him out take him outside to toilet 1st. As he becomes more reliable you can give him access to other rooms, one at a time. Here's a link that may be useful http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/housesoiling

I think it's more like don't punish the pup for mistakes. It's a normal body function. By punishing pup, the next time he may do it in a place not easily seen & be afraid to go in front of you.

Congrats on yr new puppy. What do you mean by wimping? Do you mean whining or winging?

He's gorgeous. Have you got him plenty of doggy coats.

Hi & welcome. You can find out heaps of info on puppies/dogs on www.dogstardaily.com You can download the books Before You Get Your Puppy & exerts from Aftr You Get Yr Puppy by Dr Ian Dunbar. There's articles fron Ian & other behaviourists, videos & radio programms on i-woofs. I would take the door off the doggy door if you can until Vinnie knows what it's for then put up a piece of thick clear plastic for him to go through. When he's happy with that you can put the door back. To get him to go through at 1st lure him with a food treat at each stage. When toilet training I always take puppy out to where I want them to go, use a phrase such as hurry up, & treat & praise when he's done. Take him out after eating/drinking, after play, after waking up & every hour in between. If he has an accident you haven't watched him closely enough. Clean it up with an enzyme cleaner & don't let him see yr upset with him. Until he's reliable don't let him out of yr site & only let him have access to rooms that have easily cleaned floors. When outside put up all garden implements, hose, shoes, boots, plants. It's amazing what they find to chew up. Tilba would chew up twigs, pegs, hose, sneakers, cardboard which is ok if you want him to have fun tearing up. Look up the plants that are dangerous to dos such as azaleas, lilies, grapes. A lot of breedersgive a bag of the food the puppy is on. If you don't want to feed that, you can change him over slowly to prevent tummy upsets while you still have what he's used to. Good luck & don't forget piccies.

When I was a girl I didn't know many dogs that slept inside. I had 2 dogs of my own & they were locked in the garage while babies & when older had a kennel to sleep in. When I married my oh had a dog & when she came to live with us at 5 y/o she slept outside. So did our next dog but he was 5.5 mths old when we got him. My next puppy was April. She came to live with us in the May & always slept inside. Sooty came to live with us in Nov 2000. She's my son's dog & he wanted her to be an outside dog. But while she was a baby she slept inside until she was fully grown when she slept in her kennel for a few years. She has slept inside for the last couple of years. Sooty was the easiest of our 3 last dogs to house train. She has never made a mistake inside since she was 10 weeks old but my son got her at 6 w/o. She was taken outside to toilet after waking up from sleeps, after eating & drinking, after playing & every hour in between. If you put your puppy's crate next to your bed & you had followed the above suggestions, you will hear him stir during the night & can carry him outside to toilet. While he's going use a word or short phrase to let him know what he's doing such as potty, hurry up, & he will learn to go on command which is handy when you need him to go b4 going out in the car or b4 coming inside. As said go out with him & when he does praise & give him a treat. By the time the weather starts to warm up again & he's grown you can then put him in the shed to sleep in his kennel & have the crate inside for when he can sleep inside.

When Tilba had her heat she didn't bleed much at all. Not as much as I expected. It was only drops here & there a couple of times a day & not every day. The last spots were about the end of the 2nd week. Keep in mind that every dog is different & if she had had a 2nd heat it could have been heavier. I waited 4 weeks b4 taking her outside for walks. If it were me I wouldn't let her have a 2nd heat & get her desexed in 2-3 mths time when everything has settled down inside her.

Many yrs ago now April was scratched on the nose my a mother cat. It left her with a sore nose with loss of pigment. I was worried about it at the time because it took a long time to get back to normal. But it did colour up again & you'd never know there had been anything wrong.

I'm glad to hear you're taking on board the suggestions made to you. Little dogs have a way of making their owners pander to their wishes, so you're not alone. As said it's best to put the food down & take it up after about 15 mins & feed again the next meal. She'll eventually eat when she realises you're not going to fall for her cute feed me face. And eating raw meaty bones is a big plus in keeping her teeth nice & clean, as little dogs are prone to bad teeth. Here's a link to a raw feeding site & there are many others. On this one you can watch videos of Dr Lonsdale on various TV programs in the media archive pages. http://www.rawmeatybones.com/ Although I know that feeding a raw diet is the best you can do for your dog, I feed my dog Advance. My son's dog was brought up on Purina One & as well as the Advance still gets PO on occasion. I also add yoghurt, sardines, cottage cheese, raw egg to her diet as advised to me by her breeder. Plus she get rmb twice a week. I have also been told that adding apple cider vinegar to their diet does wonders to them. I'm glad you're not going to bathe your little dog so much as it dries out the natural oils that are needed for a healthy, shiney coat. I have actually found with my dogs, that when you bath them often they get that doggy odour quicker than if you let them go for a month or more. In the winter I only bath my dog if I'm taking her to a special event or outing. As to the desexing, I decided to let my dog have one heat b4 getting her desexed. Lucky for me she was 10 mths when she had her season & was spayed at 14 mths. The reason I did this was because of this link. http://www.caninesports.com/SpayNeuter.html I asled the vet about it & she agreed with me, but advised not to let her have a 2nd heat as the odds go up greatly for mammary cancer, its something like 8% after 1 heat & 26% after 2 heats & the odds increase more quickly the more they have.

He should be fine with the steps. I have 6 steps to my house & my last 3 puppies have managed them reasonably well & the 1st 2 were just on 6 weeks old when they came to live with us.

I was thinking along similar lines. Get involved, become an instructor. That way you can do things the way you like & see how the other members react.

I used to have the same problem with April. When I 1st started doing obedience with her she was very good at staying. As time went on & we advanced through the classes the instructor would get us to do very long stays, sometimes longer than a football field. So she started breaking all her stays. I would have to put her back 2-3 times. After a time she started to get a little better when the instructor got us to do an out of sight on the other side of the clubhouse. Needless to say she followed me. I never did get her out of it, but then I never did any trialling. Perhaps you too progressed too quickly before he had a chance to build confidence. The only thing I can suggest is to go back to the very beginning, one step at a time.

I have always resisted having the dogs on the bed. At night my dogs are locked in 'their' room. Not to say that Tilba never gets on the bed, but its only for a few seconds when she runs in to say hello to oh some mornings as he's a shift worker & sleeps late.

I don't know of any puppy pre schools in that area, but just did a rally o workshop at the Sutherland Dog Club. Maybe give them a ring & see if anyone knows there.

I think she was running 3 dogs on the day. Sorry I don't know your name.

Here, here, Noella did a wonderful job putting it all together.

I'm glad I didn't buy them often. I never noticed the age on the puppy pack.

Very good pics. I liked the one of me, all blurred, it actually looks like I have control of Tilba. :)

Most puppy preschools take puppies from 8-16 weeks of age. You want one that will only let a couple of puppies off lead at a time & not have a free for all as bully puppies have the reverse effect that you want, whether your puppy is the bully or the one being bullied. Tilba went between her 2nd & 3rd vac. All the puppies are in the same boat. When he bites you should give out a high pitched "ouch" like a puppy would if one of his litter mates had bitten too hard. Play stops. Let him think about it for a minute & play with him again. You need to be consistant. As Dr Ian Dunbar says, puppies bite & thank goodness they do. http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/puppy-biting

Will look forward to seeing them. I only took a few distance shots. Tilba's curled up in bed asleep. You'd think she'd been out herding sheep all day. :cool:

You got your wish. The way it rained overnight! I purposely left my hat at home, so it would be sunny & it worked. Well, what fun we had. And such a busy day. Everyone was tired & so were most of the dogs. Tilba embarrased me in the last round but it turned out to be our 2nd best score. She refused to sit when needed & looked at me blankly as if I was speaking a foreign language. The rain held off until the end, thank goodness. Thanks Heather for a great couple of days & giving us a new way to enjoy spending time with our dogs. :cool:

I carry my puppies when I take them out for walks. It's important that they meet as many different types of people b4 they are 16 weeks old. Puppy preschool at this time will get them used to being around like vaccinated puppies. http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/socialization

One day down & one day to go. What a packed day we had. Heather made it sound like a lot of fun.

Get rid of the curtain & replace it with something else.