catandgrant

Hi again, Two more questions if thats ok ;) I have been having trouble finding a food that Casper likes. He doesnt like dry food. I have tried adding a bit of warm water to soften it a bit but he doesnt like this. I have seen on other forums that you can feed them a lot of varieties of foods. Is he too young for chicken necks? If he isnt do i just give them to him the way they are? What about raw meats like mince etc? I'm so scared im going to give him the wrong thing or something that will make him sick! And the other question. What the best command to get him to release something. Yesterday i had a tug of war trying the get his leash out of his mouth! He ended up growling which suprised me. He just would not give it up. I ended up having to yank it out. Not good i know! Any suggestions?

Casper does that also. He randomly bites at his legs usually. Whenever he does that i inspect him and still cannot see any fleas. I was wondering if its just a biting thing though? Could it just be beacuse he is a puppy and wants to bite everything in site? Thats what i was thinking it was but as i have no idea about this stuff I am not sure!

thanks guys We are going to have a talk tonight about what the best thing to do is. Im really confused now. Thanks

Thanks all for your advice. Many different opions. I just hope that our decision to have him as an outdoor dog is respected. We are not trying to be mean to him by any means whatsoever. It is a decision we made a while ago and we are going to stick with it. I know this is not ideal for everyone and i have copped a lot about it. Pls respect that everone makes their decisions based on certain factors. What works for one does not always work for another. I know a lot of very well adjusted and loved outdoor dogs. We do our best to make sure he feels like an incredibly loved puppy and he certainly is very loved. He will NEVER be neglected by us whatsoever. I will leave this subject alone now as it is making me more upset the more i read. Pls note though that all opions taken into account. Many thanks

Thank you. I might go get some sentinel. Am taking Casper out whilst the place is sprayed. Hopefully this stops the itchy little buggers! Hate the things!!

One more question. Does anyone have a good way of protecting the house against fleas? I have just found a couple inside and some utside. Casper appears to be free of them (from what we can tell). He has had Advantage spot on already. I actually have pest control coming tomorrow for the annual spray but am think more of an ongoing solution. Obviously the leats amount of chemicals the better. Thanks again guys. Am home tomorrow so will try get some photos on!

Thanks Dogon! Everyone here has had such great advice. I really appreciate all the differnt points of view. Casper is only in the laundry at night. During the day he is outside. We have a very large covered area which is where we have a bed for him and also his kennel. Though he hardly ever actually sleeps on his bed. He seems to prefer the floor! This area has a large sliding door which our lounge room connects with so we can always see him and he can see us. We would prefer to keep him outside apart from at night when i think its more comfortable and safe for him to be indoors. The only problem we have is at night when we are in the lounge room he sometimes cries at the door. All we want is to bring him inside but we are being strong and resisting. Should we when he cries at the door like this ignore him though? I have been told to not give in that he will get used to it this way and its the only way to train him. I have found if we go out for a while and come back in it makes it worse. We do definately spend a lot of time out there playing with him though. We just balance it out with spending time with each other without casper at times. Thanks again for all your help and good luck with puppy pre school tonight! Will try get a photo on very soon. He wont sit still for one!!

Thanks for the great advice!!! When you had him in the laundry did you take him out to the toilet when he cried or did you set an alarm to get him up. WE cant decide what to do! At the moment when he cries we go to him and take him straight outside to wee and wait till he has done his business then bring him straight back in and to bed. Its only when we put him down again that he doesnt wnat to sleep and cries for quite a while afterwards. Last night one session went for 30 mins. Pretty much tearing our hair out by that stage!!! Hopefully soon we will stop feeling like zombies and maybe get a bit more sleep. Fingers crossed. All good traing for when we have children i guess!!

Fudge, I'm so glad there is someone like us around!! Will your dog be outdoors as well? We have had some problems with him crying and barking when we leave him so we are quite concerned. Hopefully the neighbours dont hate us too much!! Will give them some warning before tomorrow i think!! I dont think i will sleep tonight i am so worried. As it is i have already taken a sick day to collect him and spend time with him! Fingers crossed. Good luck with yours!

thanks for that advice. Unfortunately due to work we are unable to be here most days. I know thats not ideal but we have no way around that. In regards to food we have found that he is not eating a lot. How much should an 8 week old pup eat really? He seems to pick at it and then go away and sometimes come back for more. Should we be taking the food away after a certain amount of time of leave it there for him to pick at. What about perhaps leaving dry food for him during the day. Is this ok? We are thinking of trying crate training also after reading through all the advice. Perhaps this will help with him being left alone during the day. However the crate would still be in the laundry. The laundry is right next to our room and as it is we can hear everything he does at night.

Hello All, We have just brought our new 8 week old Cocker Spaniel home and are having a few problems. Well, i am sure they arent problems, no doubt they are natural. But we are both new dog owners are are quite nervous about what to do. At night he sleeps in the laundry. It is open to the rst of the house but we have a small abrrier blocking him access to the house. The last 2 nights he has woken us up 3 times with loud crying which left unattended turns into a barking yelping type sound. We have tried our best to ignore him so that he doesnt associate this behaviour with getting attention but it just gets too much after a while. We end up going and sitting with him until he goes to sleep. We also find when we take him outside in the morning he still cries. Even if we are there. This morning he was also shaking quite a bit. Is this normal? Is it just seperation anxiety from his family? We are both scared as we go back to work tomorrow and are worried about how he will get along without us. He will robably bark the house down at this stage! Any advice would be much appreciated!! Catherine