Hannahmania

Where does it say that the owners didn't know where the dog was? Both of those suggest to me that the dog was on their property. I stand by my last statement. I would NEVER imagine that if my dog was attacked once in a seemingly random attack (given they can not isolate any motive or suspect) that if the dog was let out to go to the toilet for a few minutes it was at risk of attack again. Given how the media write-up about Jeds situation had the potential to be interpreted initially due to lack of information, I am surprised to see people so quick to jump on this poor person.

Quick update before I go to bed... lol. Of all the animals in the car, Charli was by far the best behaved! She slept the whole trip there and back at my feet. The kids, on the other hand, were horrid. Mostly the 2.5 year old who skipped his nap, then flat refused to sleep on the trip home! Meanwhile, I am really glad it was a fairly nice day today, as my mother in law made it clear that Charli was not welcome in the house (despite the fact that my brother in laws golden retriever is regularly inside?!) so she was allowed either in the back yard or the laundry. When she gets a bit older, that will be fine, but I would not have arranged the trip had I known that Charli was going to be shut off from us for most of the time we were there. DH thinks it is because she is not happy that BILs dog is in the house so she was making it clear from the start... but I mean, come on, she is a baby! Had it been wet/colder I would have been very unimpressed.

Thanks! We will probably have her traveling at my feet for this trip (me being passenger, not driver!), as both my kids are in car seats, and my youngest is not really used to her yet (he has been in a hip cast until today, and so has not really been able to interact with her save for when she is jumping at him and licking his face when he is stuck unable to move on the ground) so I think it would be more stressful for all involved if Charli was stuck in the back with the kids this trip). Generally she has been traveling in a harness attached to a seat belt for the little trips we have done, though, and will do the same for future trips. ETA - we don't have space in either car for a crate.

Poor puppy. How terrifying for the family! I am a little confused as to why people are throwing their hands up at him being outside. There is nothing that says he was being kept outside - he may well have just been outside to go to the toilet while the mum was putting the kid down for a nap, or they may have a doggy door so he can let himself out for the same reason. Given how soon she found him it does not sound like he was going unsupervised.

Thanks! Are there any things that you need to do to prepare (eg. not eating/drinking for x time before hand, or similar?)

We are possibly going to visit my MIL sometime in the next couple of days. We can arrange for my mother to take Charli (9.5 week Maltese X) but I would like to take her with us if possible. It is a 2 hour trip, and we would be doing the trip there and back in the same day, so 4 hours all up. She has been on a few short trips (like literally 2 mins tops) to my daughters kinder, and has coped fine, but I am concerned about motion sickness issues on a longer trip. Is 9.5 weeks too young for a puppy to go on a longer trip? If so, how do you build up to a long trip like this? Thanks!

Teebs - Charli goes into the ensuite (where she sleeps at the moment) whenever I am too busy to watch her - but she sneaks off to wee/poo when I am in the same room as her, just busy (usually getting her food). I am now keeping her on the lead when I think she is due for a poo so she can't sneak away! (BTW - I keep giggling at Atlas in your sig! Too cute!) I just FINALLY found the bite on her leg. It is on the inside of her leg near the knee - the area is (now) kinda swollen, and there is a white spot where the bite itself is, then red around it. Poor thing Good news is that it is not some kind of injury, as the way she jumped away I thought she may have been chasing something at first, so I was wondering if she had actually hurt herself stepping badly or something. (Which is not as strange as it sounds when you consider that my 2.5 year old is in a cast with a broken femur at the moment which happened by stepping the wrong way and twisting the bone!)

Haha - she just swapped and did a wee inside and a poo outside (I caught her doing the wee, told her off/yelled at her, took her out on the lead, and after a couple of minutes she finally did her poo). She is still not putting the paw on the floor, though. I have felt it right over a number of times, moved it around, put pressure up against the paw, and she has not even flinched, so I have no idea why she won't use it properly! Fingers crossed it will get better overnight! Oh - re: the smell, she generally does it in a different spot each time, and the only place she has done it twice was on the sock pile, in which case the soiled items were removed, so no smell left on the floor.

Thanks for the reply! Peeing she is doing well - no wee accidents at all today (I think partly because it wasn't raining - if it is wet she hates going outside)! It is just the poo that she won't do outside! Tonight we were out there for about 30 minutes with no luck! She is walking on it, MAYBE limping on it very slightly, but it is hard to tell, and she has not walked more than a few paces at a time. No obvious favouring of one leg, though. Just acting generally a bit miserable. Glad I am not doing the wrong thing not making a huge fuss over it though!

Charli has decided pooing outside is really not her thing. Her poo routine seems to be once early morning (the only one she does outside reliably, which is when my husband takes her out first thing). Then around lunch-early afternoon, then again in the evening. Generally (other than the morning poo) I aim to feed her, then take her outside, so as soon as she wakes I will take her out for a wee, and then get her next meal and take her out again. The last couple of days, though, she has either been sneaking off after we get inside while I am getting her food to poo in the dining room, or she will eat, be taken outside for 15 - 30 mins on the lead, walked up and down outside, hang around the yard... do nothing... and then as soon as I let her off inside she will go on the carpet instead. She generally picks the same room, but not the same spot. She gets treats when she goes outside, and if she goes inside she is firmly told no, and put into the ensuite (as we don't have a yard that is safe for her unsupervised at this age) until I have cleaned up the mess. So first question - how do I stop her holding on until she is inside? Secondly... Tonight I was out with her for ages, finally about to give up and come inside. She was sniffing and pawing at something, then suddenly jumped back and bolted for inside crying. Once we got in she started licking her paw, and crying holding it up. I am guessing it was bitten/stung by whatever had her so fascinated? I have felt/looked at it thoroughly (between the pads as well) and can not find anything (and she did not show any pain), and she is using it when she is walking, but she kept cowering into the corner with her paw raised. I am guessing I am best just watching her for the evening and hoping it passes. She is sleeping at the moment. Poor puppy!

I have not been around these forums long enough to know anyone, but to hear of anyone going through something like this is heartbreaking. My thoughts are with Jed, her family and her poor dogs. I really hope they find Mangus soon.

Probably about 3 or 4 minutes? During the day I leave it longer, but it was cold and wet (although a good chunk of the time was spent under the carport where it was at least dry). Last night she went from 10.30 when I put her to bed to 6.30 when my husband got up for work, no crying, and no accidents! Kinda made up for the 4 or 5 accidents she had yesterday! BAH! If I took her out too frequently (like every 30 minutes to hour) she was just mucking around, and not going to the toilet, but if I left her a little longer (like 1.5 hours) she would wee on the floor. One time I picked up her lead, as she had just woken, and she ran off in the other direction and piddled on the carpet! Now I hold on to her until we are out the door! lol. I have generally been taking her out as soon as she wakes, and if she has been more than an hour before her next full "nap" I will take her again, and for the most part that seems to be working. She had her first outing today to my daughters kinder - they have Dog Week on at the moment, so I took her down to talk about what we do to care for her and train her. My daughter showed the other kids how to teach her to sit, and a bit about what she likes to play with, then carried her around the circle for each of the kids to have a pat - so cute!! This is a child who was scared of dogs a week ago! Proud mummy here! She has settled really well into the ensuite. I do like that it means she has somewhere she is used to that I can leave her if we are out, where she has paper to go to the toilet if she needs to. The last 24 hours or so she has taken to complaining when she goes in for a few seconds, or if she hears someone outside the ensuite to remind them she is there, but that is it. The ensuite is small, BTW... there is maybe about a square metre of empty floor space, maybe slightly more. So it is a fairly cosy area.

Thanks everyone! I have been offering her water each time she is up overnight, but she has not shown any real interest in it. Last night she was much more settled in the ensuite - cried a bit the first time she went in, then slept for 5 hours (!!!) from midnight to 5, then went back to sleep with almost no fuss! I HATE leaving her cry - it goes against all my instincts as a mum. She is getting there, though, and I know if I give in now we will be back to square one! Meanwhile, house training has gone down the drain... I stepped on her foot yesterday when she ran between my legs as I was juggling the door and the lead. She wasn't injured (I have closely checked her feet) but she was a bit put out at the time, and now stuffs around when I take her out to toilet. On top of that it was raining last, and she flat refused to go on the grass, so I took her in the carport, wouldn't go there either... then as soon as I bought her inside she wee'd on the carpet, then pooed on the tiles. Thanks for that, Charli! She seems to have improved slightly this morning, though.

This is Charli: She is sleeping in a dog bed with a towel in it (the one we used to hold her in the car on the way home, which she has become quite attached to) and a wheat pack. There is also newspaper down over most of the floor. Our house is kept very warm overnight, as my son is in a cast with a broken femur, and can't wear pants to bed, and being 2.5 he is not good at staying under the covers. So the rest of us sweat away all night, but the ensuite does stay warm for Charli. (Side note: Toby was supposed to be out of the cast this week, but we have now found out it is going to be another 3 weeks or more! Kinda wish we knew that before we got a puppy!)

Ours is in the centre of the house, and we have central heating, so it stays warm enough. She also has a wheat pack in her bed that I reheat every few hours when I take her out to the toilet.

Thanks! I have been taking her for drinks overnigt when she has been out to go toilet, but I will start putting her bowl in with her. She has been awesome so far! She has been home 2 nights, the first night she slept by our bed as she only got here about 8 in the evening. Last night we had her in the ensuite. She was asleep when I first took her bed in, and the second time I stayed with her until she went to sleep. Third time she cried for about 5 mins, and maybe 10 mins the fourth time. She has only had 2 accidents inside, one because I stopped to put my dressing gown on, and she apparently couldn't wait that long, and the other because my husband brought her in too soon from the morning toilet run. Nothing in the last 24 hours, and she is now doing her business as soon as we get outside! I don't know that they did any real toilet training with them before we got her, so I am really impressed!

We have a new 8.5 week old Maltese x Shih Tzu (product of an accidental breeding - I get the impression that this forum is very pure-breed focussed, so I want to clarify that she wasn't a pet store or backyard breeder pup!) Anyway, both my husband and I grew up with outdoor mutts, and so this whole indoor dog thing is fairly new. At the moment Charli is sleeping in our ensuite, and all going well, that will be where she stays overnight until she is housetrained. The one thing I am not sure about... Should we be giving her water overnight, or is that just going to be making it harder to housetrain her? Also, is it better to bring her bed into our bedroom for a few nights if she is crying, or are we best just to leave her in the ensuite to save making a rod for our own backs? Unfortunately the main bathroom and the laundry are berween the kids rooms, so they are not an option if we decide to tough it out. Thanks!