Rosaline

Our girl has been relatively ok and hasn't been too destructive, however, we've just had school holidays where she had loads of fun and attention. We spent the first week at a farm, complete puppy heaven. However, now with my daughter back at school and me busy catching up on work and things, it's back to regular routine and she is having to be left alone for longer periods. She seems to be objecting to this and wanting to destroy as much on the back deck as she possibly can - she managed to completely destroy the chair she uses as an outdoor bed, and pretty much everything else that she has ignored for the past few months. Wet revolting weather isn't helping. At the moment she is attacking a plastic milk bottle which I put a few bits of dry food in, but I imagine that won't last long. Any other suggestions of things I can put outside to amuse her? She is booked to be desexed next week as well, not sure if that's going to calm her down at all! I'm also interested in suggestions for a bed she can have outside on the deck during the day, something that she can't destroy.

Even though at 4 months our welshie puppy is bigger than a CKCS, people still ask if that's what she is. Or better still, "what breed is she, some sort of spaniel cross?" Have also had Beagle/Cocker cross. Nobody seems to have heard of a Welsh Springer Spaniel, apparently it's a "regular" Springer Spaniel crossed with "something welsh". Oh well, I wanted something a bit different, and whatever the comment is, it's always followed by "she's beautiful" or "she's so sweet". One person did, in all seriousness, ask what she had been playing in that left all the brown splatters on her legs :laugh:

Wow! He's so big now! It looks like he had a lovely time. I should take Scout to the beach.

I'm now rather biased, but love my Welsh Springer pup. She's starting to chill out now and currently asleep at my feet.

Oh for goodness sake! This add is just so cute - surely all anyone is thinking is how cute the dog is! And what "young person" is going to be watching Antiques Roadshow? I'm a lover of antiques, but that show puts ME to sleep, let alone a person of impressionable age! :laugh:

Our neighbour told me the other day that his 6 year old dog still does this when certain people come over (family that are known to make a big fuss over the dog). He said it's the fault of the guests not the dog and he's trying to train the family.

Just when things are going smoothly, something new happens! Scout has been sleeping in her crate, now in our ensuite, overnight, typically back to waking at 5:30, she barks, husband gets up. During the day she is on the back deck, when we're home we spend a lot of time out there and take her down to the lawn regularly to play and pee. When not home she stays up there and if she happens to pee on the deck, no big deal, easy to clean up. We move the crate out there during the day and she has free access to it, door is left open. She naps in it, sometime we give her a chew in there. BUT, randomly, twice yesterday she walked into the crate and peed. She's never peed in it before, but suddenly decided that she would use it as a toilet. Luckily the mat doesn't absorb, so I cleaned it, used vinegar etc. Later that day she did it again, same clean up. We had been told at training that if you want to stop your pup peeing in a place, to feed them there, so we gave her dinner in the crate. 5am this morning, she barked, husband went to take her down for a pee, and she had gone all over the blanket in the crate - she barked AFTER the fact. How on earth do we get her out of this odd new thing? 3 times in less than 24 hours! So far the two things we've been told have failed (a. They won't pee where they eat and b. They won't pee in their beds).

How has Zitch been going over the last couple of days?

Did you have a size in mind at all? Does it have to be a puppy or would you be interested in a grown dog? Awwww! My parents love their Wheatens!

Are you using a Nikon camera? 50mm 1.8 is a great starter. You'll probably find after a while that you want to upgrade to the 1.4 though, so if you afford it, I'd go for that! Otherwise, IMO it's a big improvement on the kit lenses. HTH :)

I'm sure it won't be like this forever, right! I am fine to let her throw her little tantrum, and TBH, I can probably go back to sleep, it's my poor husband I'm worried about! He's getting really stressed about it and can't handle the racket, and keeps saying that if she's doing that he might as well just get up. We bought a few pigs ears so might try that, thanks. I might be nice and let him sleep all weekend. ;)

They do know that shorter coats are going to shed too, don't they? Common misconception amongst folks, that if they get a short coated dog they won't get dog hair everywhere!

This morning it was 4:45am. My poor husband...I took a polaramine before I went to bed ;) She didn't need to go to the toilet - she had just been outside and had a wee and a poo, this was on the return to the crate. The crate is in our bedroom, she never has an issue at any other time and happily sleeps in there from 10pm until 4ish, we always take her out and down for a wee when it's required. There was no issue or distress, she wasn't upset, simply had decided that 4:15am was time to start the day and was objecting to being put back to bed. What I'm after is suggestions to help her figure out that sometimes she has to go back in the crate whether she likes it or not. She is not put in the crate at any stage during the day, could this be contributing? That she thinks it's strictly for night time? When we are out (the longest has been about 3 hours) she is left on the back deck. Would I be better to crate her for these periods? The other option is that was just bring her back to our bedroom, but leave the crate door open. Is this just going to create a bad habit?

Those were similar to my 'desires' and we ended up with a Welsh Spring Spaniel :)

Our 9 week old pup has been pretty good overnight, for the first few nights she was waking at 1ish for a wee, then going back to sleep in the crate. Then we had 3 nights in a row where she was quiet until 5:30am - which is still too early, but hubby was coping with it. This morning she woke at 4am, hubby took her for a wee then put her back in the crate. She barked and bashed and howled, getting progressively louder until he gave in after 30 minutes and got up, took her onto the back deck and he tried to snooze on the couch. All this woke the cat, then our daughter, I started sneezing, so we were all up by 4:30am and not very happy about it! I thought she might have been hungry, but he didn't actually feed her until 6am anyway, and once he took her onto the deck she was fine. We can't really continue with this, and if we left her on the deck by herself she would most likely wake the whole neighbourhood. Any suggestions as to how we can prolong our sleep and sanity?

Have you got some way to record your pup while you are out? Or have other neighbours confirmed the relentless barking claim? The reason I ask is that a friend had complaints from a neighbour about her dog barking "non-stop, all day". She set up something to record, and in a 6 hour period there was about 3 minutes of barking. She went and asked the neighbour if the dog had barked much, neighbour said yes, all day, driving them insane...friend didn't say anything about the recording. Next day she took the day off work and took the dog out for the day, came home, went over and asked the neighbour again..."Yes, barked all day"! She called him on that one and hasn't had a complaint since.

Glad to hear you had a better night, I think consistency is the key and you'll have a great sleeper soon! He's adorable, I love welshie freckles.

Our crazy pup is also Scout, from To Kill a Mockingbird. It really suits her too.

Oh gosh, didn't realise I had committed such a faux pas by being on more than one list! We had missed out on a puppy from one breeder last year and really didn't want to miss out again, especially given females in our carefully chosen breed seem to be more popular!

It sounds like something you'd buy at Bakers Delight!

Just read that you've only had Zitch since Friday, so 4 nights. That's not really very long, so I'd say he'll settle down soon. Pick the sleeping arrangement which suits you best and stick with it. Once he knows the routine and what is coming then I would guess he will become comfortable with it after several days. It sounds like you've been given conflicting advice and he's a still a bit unsettled. Personally, I don't think it really matters where he sleeps, as long as it's consistent and he knows that's where bed is! My family have had dogs for 30+ years and this is the first time anyone in my family has used a crate. We've always just put our puppies in a laundry or similar with lots of newspaper on the ground and never had a problem in the long run (just a lot of morning mess to clean up!). Our first family dog always slept in a big shed! I was rather sceptical about crating but the breeder said the pups were used to the wire crates so we went with that. If you are going to stick with the crate, the only way we have been able to cope is for my husband to go to bed at 8:30pm, then me later after the last toilet trip. That way he can cope with the early wake ups. Pay off is that I have to take her down the stairs every hour in the evening. (And glad someone realised the connection with Scout - I've had so many "I though it was a girl puppy?" comments!)

Hi Nat, I'm guessing you got your pup from the same breeder as we did :D (Our girl is one of Indi's and only 9 weeks though, so you must have one of Meg's pups?) Our girl has been here a week today, but aren't having any issues though. I read lots on crate training and routine and am treating her a bit like I did when putting my daughter to sleep in a cot! Most of the stuff I read says it's best to have them in your room until they can go all night without needing to go to the toilet. Here's our routine: - Dinner around 5:30pm - Free access to water until 7:30pm - 9pm I let her have a final small drink of water - 10:30ish she goes to bed when I do (husband is long asleep by then!). Before I put her in the crate I give her a big cuddle, encourage her to walk in herself, pat and stroke her until she lies down. If she makes any noise I give a loud "Shh!". When we are at home, she is inside or on the back deck with us. We have a highset house and she can't manage the stairs, so pretty much every hour until bedtime if she is awake, we take her down to the yard for a wee and a little play. Just before I go to bed I take her out for a final toilet. We got a big wire crate with a divider, and a firm mattress with a polar fleece blanket. She seems to prefer this over anything soft. She has a couple of soft toys in there as well. The crate is in the corner of our bedroom. We got a zipup cover for it, at night we put the side and front flaps down but leave the back one up. I don't get to read in bed anymore though, as if the light is on she gets a bit cranky, so I'd say definitely lights off! The first three nights she woke around 1:30am and again around 4:30am, both times we took her straight out for a wee. The next 3 nights she only woke 4-4:30am. At the 1:30 wee she was going back to sleep, but by 4:30 she obviously thinks it's breakfast time, so although he puts her back in she whines, yaps, scratches etc, although not in a distressed way, just in a "Hey! I know you're there and I want out of here, dammit! Get up and feed me!" kind of way. We stick our heads under the pillow for as long as possible, but usually by 5:30 he gives in, gets up, feeds her and tries to snooze on the back deck. This morning she didn't wake until 5:20am I'm mostly home during the day, but leave her on the back deck when I go out. Our neighbour says she whines a little bit when I first leave, but otherwise she's ok. I'm not sure about the hotwater bottle, I worry more that she is too hot. They are such delightful puppies though, aren't they! Scout is so naughty, she will drag away anything she can find on the floor, taking teatowels out of the washing basket is her favourite, and she tries to drag my rugs all over the house.

If I can actually get her to be still for 5 minutes! She's either tearing around or sleeping, usually at my feet. We are all in love, she's delightful and such a sweetheart.

Fletcher is adorable, so big and fluffy I pick our little girl up on Tuesday, I can't wait!