suziwong66

Norty Brown Dawg Wilbur loves his Holee Molee - he thought it was the best thing ever when i stuffed strips of fabric into it. I bought it to help him stop ripping the stuffing out of his softies; it worked a treat. He hasn't ripped the guts out of any of his stuffies since we got it.

bugger; i can't go!

a mound of chocolate!

I've been considering purchasing a pet stroller for the same reason. I want to get puppy out and about as soon as possible and a pet stroller appears the only way i can do it safely and with some level of comfort since i'll also be taking Wilbur (3yo chocolate lab) out with me. I want to order the stroller now so i've got a few weeks, before pup arrives, of exposing Wilbur to heeling with me pushing it. I'll feel like a prat but at the end of the day i'm more concerned that my pup is safely socialised during the period that she's not adequately covered with vaccinations than i am about feeling stupid. I carried Wilbur everywhere until he was adequately covered by the second vaccination, but that's not possible with this puppy even though Wilbur has excellent heel/leash skills. Like you Roova, i'll be doing a lot of positive association with the stroller and puppy before we leave the house.

if she's easy to talk to and you genuinely like her then you're halfway there imo - our breeder is just lovely too and the relationship clicked the first time i spoke to her on the phone (i'm in Adelaide and she's in Ballarat). Much of our first discussion was about the depth of my grieving after losing our 14yo labby boy and how i thought that our home was empty without a labby . She asked me to follow up via email and it gave me an opportunity to continue develop a relationship. Over time we connected on facebook and via phone sms. Here we are three years later and we've still got a great relationship and another one of her puppies is coming to us in 3.5 weeks. Once or twice a month just send your preferred breeder an email catching up or continue to catch up in person at shows every now and again - it shows you're committed and serious about her dogs and most breeders are very proud of their line. Perhaps if you're at a show and don't have any face-to-face contact, email her afterward and let her know you were there and comment on her dogs' performance etc If you don't get a pup from the next litter and are prepared to wait for the following litter, ask her to keep you abreast of the litter's progress with a photo when she's sending pics to the chosen owners and certainly let her know that you're in for the long haul and are willing to wait. If she agrees to send litter pics then that gives you a chance to send follow up emails on how lovely the litter is.

that's not always an issue so don't lose heart...if you build a good relationship with the breeder they often bump you because you've bothered to develop a relationship with them. This was the case for us with Wilbur; we kept in close contact with the breeder; short emails to touch base and engage in conversation etc. We wanted a boy; there were others ahead of us in the list that wanted boys but when the litter arrived and there was only one boy we were given preference

YM those winter nighttime toilet training visits are a bitch lol Wilbur came home early Aug & lordy it was cold!! This time round early Oct will be much more acceptable - not exactly Jan weather but better than August!! edited to add video https://vimeo.com/106250044 Boskyrhomb Laiken Scout

with pups, i put a travel crate, at bed height, right next to my bed (remove the bedside table if possible) so that pup can hear and see me at night and i can reach over and put my fingers through the bars. I've had wonderful success with not even a peep out of Wilbur when he came home. I guess i'll find out if it works a treat again with another pup coming in 3.5 weeks

it's actually two litters: 4 and 10. the 10 litter was 11 with a sad loss of one early on.

https://vimeo.com/106078370

insert >norty brown dawg Wilbur knows< >scratching session<

What breed are you getting Asyla? it's going to be a long week for you

As a child we had both male and females and i don't remember any big differences. Only one of our boys was a soft cuddly more clingy type. As an adult i've only ever had dogs - I admit i prefer males. In 3.5 weeks we're getting another pup; this time a girl. Although i would prefer a dog, i chose a bitch to help make it more harmonious living between my 3yo dog and the new bitch.

Today, the extra large outdoor wire ex pen arrived for our new pup arriving in 3.5 weeks. I've been looking at ex pens in a wide range of pet stores for weeks now and haven't at all been impressed. Three years ago i bought a 42" crate on wheels from Vebo after having a look in-store while i was in Sydney and was impressed with its quality. I bought it and had it freighted to Adelaide a few months later when Wilbur was finally ready to graduate to a 'big boy' crate. It's been a sound investment; the only thing i don't like about it, is the plastic coaster wheels. We haven't found a way to replace them with metal wheels when one broke - nothing was compatible. Lucky for us Vebo happy send us a package of replacement wheels The ex pen is sturdy; the wire is 4mm thick - i think it will hold up to a labby pup with no problems. Anyone else use Vebo wire products and are happy with the quality? Or are there other brands of crates/ex pens etc around that i've missed that you can recommend?

The ex pen for the newest family member arrived today; norty brown dawg has decided he likes it and played a game of 'yer out, yer in' with me :) Gotta mention every wire product we've bought from Vebo Pets has been excellent quality! The next big purchase is a crate: we're getting a 36" for the pup for when she grows out of her travel crate. She'll then migrate from sleeping in the travel crate next to my bed, to a big girl crate in the lounge room.

thanks Huski - this is exactly what i'm aiming for. I've worked hard to help him self regilate and don't want him to lose any ground because we're introducing a new family member.

Our breeder had both litters snuggled up together while she cleaned the bedding.

you may want to check that - I always thought parvo stays active!! you are correct in reference to parvo; when we had the discussion her comments about 'wet materials' were in general and not specific to parvo - we'd already discussed parvo and how long it can be active in the soil.

everything has the potential to be a learning experience, including mistakes for both dogs & people.

thanks SG and also thanks for your reply to my thread about introducing the pup and Wilbur; your post was particularly encouraging. Re Nobivac: i had a chat to my vet a few days after posting and got some interesting info. She said that the manufacturer claim a 95% success rate with Nobivac but the international vaccination data regarding Nobivac told a different story - an 85% success rate. We both agreed that a 95% success rate with a failure rate of 5% would be an entirely suitable risk to take however an 85% success rate with a 15% failure rate isn't a suitable risk. After a great deal of discussion regarding acceptable risk vs the birth to 16 week socialisation window with both Nobivac and Protech we both agreed to stay on the Protech protocol and schedule of C3 at 6 weeks and c4 at 10 weeks and then socialising in low risk areas from 11 weeks on. The final Protech C5 would be delivered at 14 weeks with full coverage expected a week later. High risk areas to avoid include dog parks (i don't frequent), beaches and parks. Vet said to stay on paths where possible and avoid wet deposits on the ground like vomit, spit etc as the organisms are alive as long as the deposit is wet; once dry the organisms die. So my plan is from 8 weeks onward is that new puppy will be taken, in arms, out and about until 11 weeks. From then on, pup will be on foot but in low risk areas until 15 weeks. We carried Wilbur EVERYWHERE until 15 weeks which nearly killed me; he was a porker of a puppy He was the largest puppy in the litter and the only boy and he knew how to muscle in for feeds...fatty boombah clearly never missed a meal!

thank you all very very much for sharing your experiences; it's given me more to think about how I want to introduce the two To clarify - Wilbur was bought as a family pet with thoughts of perhaps doing obedience or Rally-O at some point, so he's well trained; well and truly above average. We spent the first two years at a training club and when that no longer suited me (for various reasons), we left and now train independently. He's an incredibly over friendly labby with both people and other dogs and during the first year of training at club we were encouraged to let the dogs socialise together and with other people; it was a disaster for him as he's found it difficult to self regulate ever since - he seemed to think that he had permission to be social with anyone/dog at any time. His socialisation and neutralisation is constant and vast; i take him out to the city, pet stores, florists, bbq store (anywhere we are welcomed) several time a week so that he can continue to learn to be calm and confident in any situation. He can now walk past a dog that is calm with no problems, but if a dog is barking when very close or lunges too close into our space, (like when sitting at an outdoor cafe and passing dog lunges into where we're sitting to get to him) when we're out he will break from behaviour and find it difficult to disengage when recalled. I've spent the past two years (after realising that letting him socialise with other dogs at training wasn't helping us) diligently training him to try and ignore other people and dogs when we're out. Generally when we're out, if approached, i ask people to ignore him. By doing this over time it's given me the opportunity to lessen the value of other people and mark and reward him ignoring people. With an enormous amount of consistent neutralisation work he's made progress in leaps and bounds in terms of self regulating. My idea of having the pup in the ex pen with miss21 distracting her while i try and distract him from the pup and keep him focussed on me was born out of getting the most out of the experience as possible. I thought that i may be able to use it as an opportunity to extend his training in self-regulation. I don't want him pulling on the leash from excitement...and I am anticipating that he will be very excited as he's still an over friendly dog. Having a puppy in his backyard might be asking just that bit too much of him to self regulate and keep calm. He is not an out of control dog in need of a behaviourist or trainer - but due to his exuberant labby nature will more than likely get super excited about having a puppy in his backyard. I don't frequent dog parks; i'm not a fan. Lots of people and dogs get a lot out of them and that's fabulous but I am not one of those people. I don't believe that we need to consult a behaviourist or a trainer - my aim is to introduce Wilbur to the new puppy with as little stress as possible to the puppy and as little excitement as possible for Wilbur. Reading many of your experiences has given me confidence that, while he may be initially very excitable he'll possibly settle fairly quickly. Wilbur was crate trained using SG's Crate Games and i'll be doing the same with this puppy. Wilbur had to earn his freedom in the house and so will the pup. I hand feed for the first six months and evacuate on lead to teach evacuation on command. They will not be left alone unsupervised in the back yard for quite a while; that too is learned and earned. For the first month or two pup will sleep (as Wilbur did) in the travel crate beside my bed and then will graduate to a larger crate in the lounge room. Wilbur has full access in the house and sleeps in his bed next to ours. His crate is outside and he willingly sleeps in it if he's outside during the day at all. I spent a lot of time and effort in making sure there were/are lots of enrichment toys and experiences in our back yard - both interactive and unsupervised for Wilbur; this puppy will have the same: stuffed frozen kongs, tug play, digging play in sand filled clam shell, supervised water play in water filled clam, lots of recalling games, crate games etc. I am somewhat confident i'll raise another fabulous four legged family member that fits in well, isn't overly destructive and is trained and socialised well above the average - I'm not a new dog owner or first time puppy owner...I am new to introducing a second puppy to an over-friendly (well trained) dog and am using the time before pup comes home, to carefully consider how i will do this, so that the new pup's introduction is as seamless as possible AND Wilbur's experience is as calm as possible. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences; you've given me some more insight into how I might proceed to best advantage Wilbur and the new pup.

In Four weeks time we bring home our second puppy; a female chocolate labrador retriever. She comes from an established breeder of registered chocolate labbies and is the half sibling of our current boy Wilbur; a 3 year old desexed chocolate labby. I've been doing a lot of reading about the best way to introduce the two dogs and how to raise them together - Wilbur is an over-friend doggy and i've had to do an enormous amount of work trying to neutralise him in public places as I just followed along the advice that is 'out there' about socialising your dog. As it turned out a very friendly pup with both people and other dogs is better off following neutralisation process while out and about. After the first year of him having a great deal of difficulty self-regulating in public we decided that he would no longer socialise with other dogs and people in public - it's taken a great deal of time and effort but he's pretty good now unless another person or dog approaches into our personal space and then he finds self regulating difficult. I'd like to hear your experiences on how you've introduced a second puppy to the original dog and how you went about training and developing focus so that both dogs keep focussing on you the handler. My thoughts are to have puppy in an ex pen with miss21 while she treats puppy for focus. I will at the same time, put Wilbur on-lead and try and desensitise him to puppy by walking him past the ex pen getting closer and closer with each passing - treating him frequently with a very high value treat for eye contact and focus with me. When both dogs are not centred on each other, I will allow puppy and Wilbur to greet each other through the wire of the ex pen and when/if things are kept calm I will allow them to meet without the wire barrier between them but both of them on leashes. I will be bringing them in and out of the greeting circle and treating them both good behaviour when meeting each other and engaging with their handler (me and miss21). Have you got any thoughts, suggestions, ideas about my plan. Puppy has been raised in a large litter of chocolate labs and the breeder has about 10 bitches of various ages that puppies have contact with so I don't think she'll be overwhelmed with meeting Wilbur, but i know without some direction, distraction and structure, he will be very very excited to meet her.

Your baby is so very young - i wouldn't be ignoring it at all at that age; in fact the opposite - spending as much time as possible to develop a strong relationship. I spend a good six months hand feeding a puppy to help build a relationship. I also toilet on lead for the first six months so i can teach evacuation on command. The only time i ignore pup is for bad behaviour and it's a very limited 'time out' of a couple of minutes and then i immediately engage them in play again. Every interaction with your puppy is an opportunity to engage with it and then treat for wanted behaviours. One of the first things i teach is "look" and also the pup's name and how to engage in play so that it engages with me willingly. It will come to you willingly if you're fun to be with and your hands are the food source rather than the bowl. A flirt pole is ridiculously fun-filled play for a puppy and a controlled game of tug (teach it an out like 'give' first though), fetch with squeaky toys (use a light weight long line to help it come back to you rather than running off). The flirt pole is good because you can let puppy catch it and then gently reel it in, all the while saying 'come' and then when it arrives say "YES" and then start the game all over again. A couple of weeks of that and puppy will be coming happily. When your pup is a few weeks older than it is then you can consider short 'time out' periods for whining when you leave the room for short periods of time to teach it to separate. Your puppy is very very young to be home with you. Don't forget to reward it for short frequent periods of alone time to teach independence and don't make a fuss when you come back into the room. good luck and enjoy this time with puppy; they grow up so very fast.

One month til our baby arrives. Despite still having most of what i need I find myself puppy shopping I've ordered a ex pen from Vebo and will get a second crate from them later on too; Brown Dawg's 42" crate on wheels has been brilliant over the last three years. I also love grippa leashes and got a couple of the finer 3/4" ones. I've got really light webbing ones for initial on-lead stuff like toileting. The girls have yellow, pink, white and purple collars.

Bec (Bindi eyes) has been trying to get this group up and running and developing machinery for a while now...and now they're being posted! Talk about frustrating