New Puppy

[poodlefan]

There is no reason why (provided the dog door is suitable) the puppy can't be trained to use it very quickly.

In the meantime, it could also be held open to allow the pup to go in and out. If you don't want her toileting inside, don't set her up to have to do so now.

Prop the dog door open, teach her to go through it and set her day area up so that she can go outside if she wants to.

[dogon]

Hi C&D. Congrats you're in for a real treat with your new baby. Call me biased but cockers are the most excellent dogs. Our cocker boy is 13 and a half weeks old and an absolute delight! Naughty too ;)

I did A LOT of research before bringing Rodney home and had all the same concerns as you. I had six weeks of holidays to get him settled in before returning to work but I did make sure I left him each day to get him used to things. The neighbours told me that he would cry for a while and then stop. You'll find that he'll sleep most of the day away so don't fret too much :D Having said this there is a member on this forum who owns a golden cocker who settled in straight away while her owners went straight back to work. So it can be done!

We have Rodney in a puppy pen which is in the kitchen dining area. I wouldn't leave a pup outside (I think that's what your planing- sorry if I misunderstood, only just skimmed) Our boy is still quite leary of sounds etc that go on outside. Can you leave him in during the day, in a puppy pen? I think this is better than a laundry since he can see things around him. We also leave a radio on for him as it helps to mask scary noises. It's important to give your pup lots of other toys (for when he isnt asleep- to keep him busy, as others here have said. One thing I do, to save money, is to use stuff from around the house. As good chew toys that double as treat dispensers fill old water bottles (remove lid and plastic ring) and egg cartons with treats and let him dig them out. The water bottle makes a bloody racket but at least you know pup is entertained. Another really good idea (a puppy school gem ) is to take a square of material (hanky size or a bit bigger) place a tasty treat in the centre (ie. cheese, chicken, liver, whatever) and tie two opposite corners loosly over the treat. Next tie the other corners so that you have a little pouch. Stuff all the spaces in between and under the knot with his kibble. It's a real hit with our pup!. Better than his kong which he barely touches. The best thing about these things is that your pup will get his nutrients- you can even feed his breakfast to him this way if you want.

Cockerlover is right about these dogs needing company. My boy isn't really happy unless he's asleep on my foot.

I have to rush - last puppy school night tonight - so goodluck with your new pup!

Oh, and post a pic too!

p.s Sorry if this has already been mentioned; get yourself to www.dogstardaily.com and download a copy of Before you get your puppy' and 'After you get your puppy' (this one was free in January, not sure if it still is) These are essential reading IMO.

Edited February 2, 2009 by dogon

[catandgrant]

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!!

[Danois]

She'll have toys including frozen kongs with peanut butter, a treat ball filled with kibble and maybe a chicken wing or neck. Oh and of course, water!

Hi!

Personally I would not leave a puppy with a chicken wing or neck because of risk of choking.

[dogon]

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.

Casper really wants to be with you. He's only a wee pup after all. To my way of thinking he's probably a bit sad that he can't just come in and sleep on your foot! Cockers just want to be with their humans I agree that dogs inside can seem to be a handful if you're not used to it, but it's really the best time NOW for you to let him and teach him to be calm and settled when he's inside and with you. Just because a dog is inside does not mean it can just roam around and destroy the place. Plenty of people can have calm, well behaved inside dogs. You just have to train them

Good luck with it. He's worth it

[fudge]

Personally I would not leave a puppy with a chicken wing or neck because of risk of choking.

Thank you! I didn't think of that.

Would a pig's ear be better or should I just skip that and stick with the kong and ball filled with kibble?

[claireybell]

Welcome to the wonderful world of cockers! Can we have some pictures please?

Cockers are very much a human dog, they love nothing more than to be with their human families. We also work full time and stressed when we had to go back to work and leave our little girl. I had my sister come round a couple of times a day to check on her while she was young. When she got a little older we realised that she was very lonely when we were at work so we got her a puppy! Casper will want to be with you as most cockers do. Bringing him in now as Dogon susgests is the best idea as you can train him from word go about the house rules. Leaving it until later will make training for inside alot harder. Any chance you can put his crate next to your bed a night time? He will feel much happier and sleep better, aswell as you.

Join us in the cocker pages. And again dont forget pictures!

[catandgrant]

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!

[dogon]

Would a pig's ear be better or should I just skip that and stick with the kong and ball filled with kibble?

Pig's ears are

My pup swallowed a chicken neck and it scared the @#$% out of me.He was ok, thankfully. Chop the necks up into little pieces instead.

[dogon]

re: fleas - I'm using sentinal spectrum along with advantage. The sentinal renders the fleas infertile so they won't breed endless cycles of flealets Not sure if it works as he's only just had one dose. Others might know. Also, make sure pup isnt around when the spraying gets done

[Danois]

Personally I would not leave a puppy with a chicken wing or neck because of risk of choking.

Thank you! I didn't think of that.

Would a pig's ear be better or should I just skip that and stick with the kong and ball filled with kibble?

Would a pig's ear be better or should I just skip that and stick with the kong and ball filled with kibble?

Pig's ears are

My pup swallowed a chicken neck and it scared the @#$% out of me.He was ok, thankfully. Chop the necks up into little pieces instead.

Pig's ears are good - don't know about leaving a small breed with a whole one however remember pig's ears are high in fat (and probably salt) therefore should be an occasional food only. Best to stick to kongs stuffed with kibble and peanut butter/ cheese spread etc (sparingly). Other thing to do is to fill the kong with broth bbq chicken or chopped chicken neck and the like and freeze it. Those giggle treat balls are really good too - again with kibble.

[catandgrant]

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!!

[Clyde]

I feel really sad for this puppy. Could you not let him inside with you in the evenings? He is already at home alone all day long. You've made no mention of anyone checking on him or feeding him during the day, as per his age, either. Dogs are a pack animal, it's not in them to be a solitary creature. At least let the wee thing inside in the evening to spend quality time with 'his pack', rather than crying through the door.

Re. the fleas. Advantage is probably the best product on the market. Not seeing fleas on the dog isn't always an indication that you don't have them. Look for tiny black dots under the coat, on the skin. Typically on their rump, above their tail. This is flea dirt, dried blood left behind by fleas (their faeces). The majority of fleas are in the environment rather than on the pet, they jump on to feed. Fleas are exceptionally tough critters and can be very difficult to eradicate. Regular flea bombing of the house and a regular quality prevention (such as Advantage) should do the trick.

Did the breeder chat to you about diseases and taking your puppy out?

Edited February 2, 2009 by Clyde

[luvsdogs]

Personally I would not leave a puppy with a chicken wing or neck because of risk of choking.

Thank you! I didn't think of that.

Would a pig's ear be better or should I just skip that and stick with the kong and ball filled with kibble?

You also have to be careful of pigs ears as well. They become stodgy & if he swallowed a piece it could block his airway.

[schnauzer]

I feel really sad for this puppy. Could you not let him inside with you in the evenings? He is already at home alone all day long. You've made no mention of anyone checking on him or feeding him during the day, as per his age, either. Dogs are a pack animal, it's not in them to be a solitary creature. At least let the wee thing inside in the evening to spend quality time with 'his pack', rather than crying through the door.

Re. the fleas. Advantage is probably the best product on the market. Not seeing fleas on the dog isn't always an indication that you don't have them. Look for tiny black dots under the coat, on the skin. Typically on their rump, above their tail. This is flea dirt, dried blood left behind by fleas (their faeces). The majority of fleas are in the environment rather than on the pet, they jump on to feed. Fleas are exceptionally tough critters and can be very difficult to eradicate. Regular flea bombing of the house and a regular quality prevention (such as Advantage) should do the trick.

Did the breeder chat to you about diseases and taking your puppy out?

Poor puppy. Why can't the puppy be brought inside with you at night - he needs company after being alone all day long. 8 weeks old is a baby, he should be getting fed during the day at this age. Maybe call your breeder and get some good advice.

Edited February 3, 2009 by schnauzer

[VJB]

It is chaotic when pups are young, and tempting to put them outside, but nows the time to train your pup what is acceptable in the home. It won't take forever, but when its all happening it can feel like

a pretty wild time. Your pup wants to be with you. I'd let your pup inside after a good play outside where a few games have been played and the chance to toilet. Then bring pup inside and hopefully

he will be tired enough to settle down for a nap. But, this is not always the case... sometimes they come back inside and pee straight away. He's a baby, with lots to learn.

I've never been in favour of giving chews/rawhides etc unsupervised either. But the kongs are great and I will leave these. Don't make them too challenging to begin with, so that he learns how to

play and get a reward from rolling it about.

Toilet training and accidents indoors are bound to happen. It's a frustrating time, but again, not for long if you stick with a plan. If the pup has an accident, don't blame him, blame yourself for not

picking up on the signals and taking him out. After a week or so of taking pup out to pee, try to call him out so he can figure out how to go on his own, rather than expect you to pick him up and take him.

Once you establish a routine when you are home, it will all start to fall in place. It's not always easy though, I understand that part, but given that you are away from home for a lengthy period of time,

it's quite reasonable that he's crying to be with you. Good luck, keep reading these forums, it's a great way to learn heaps.

And I'd definitely take advice from the other posters about crate training and keeping him inside at night. I've not done it myself, but know that it works well for others. In a few weeks time, he probably

won't even need to go out for midnight wee wee trip.

Edited February 3, 2009 by vjb

[bozthepup]

Hi Catherine

Congrats on your new pup !! We were in a similar position with our lab boy - we'd both had dogs as kids/teenagers but didn't really know what to expect (Mum did all the work back then, plus there wasn't so much information around about puppy behaviour )

Boz is 14 weeks today and is sure to present plenty more challenges as he heads towards adolescence but I've bullet pointed some of our stuff below. One thing I have learned from this great site and other literature is that there seems to be alot of good guidelines around, but not everything suits every pup.

- we put him in the laundry, door closed. We got him at 6 wks (too early, we know that now ) He cried alot, we ignored him totally (I really would recommend this on any behaviour you want to eliminate) .... he would woke up very early, and toileted on the floor of the laundry during the night.

- we took him to the front door of the neighbours' houses, introduced him (and ourselves to the neighbours on one side) and explained we had a pup and apologised in advance for any extra noise. I'm sure your little one is cute enough to help smooth things over with your neighbours and most people are pretty reasonable when they know the extra noise isn't going to last forever (hopefully!).

- at about 9 weeks, we moved him to the crate (and had been crate training during the day), and put it outside our bedroom with the door open so he could see us. He barely cried, and we got/get up twice in the night to let him toilet. We tend to take him out at around 1am then again at 5am. This stops him from waking us at 5.30am ! He knows exactly what to do now.

- we will start graduating him back to the laundry now that he can hold his toilet a bit better, and will let him out once during the night.

- I still use the crate when I want to know where he is (eg instead of running round the house) -and also when he goes to stay elsewhere, plus of course in the car. He doesn't LOVE the crate but he goes in it. I also use it to calm him a bit if he goes loopy in the house.

- he's a lab, so no eating issues

- we've had ALOT of issues with him play biting us, but hard. It got really frustrating and quite upsetting at times; he's a retriever so they tend to be 'mouthy' dogs. However - touch wood - we seem to be in a much better place now. He just finished 4 weeks at pup school, and also 10 days with a friend who has a 15 wk old labbie and they played together all day. I think he learned HEAPS about bite inhibition and also has just gotten a little more mature.

I hope this helps a little bit because there are bound to be other issues that come up; but they are overridden by the joy of owning a pup. Anyway, you can see plenty of great info from the other posts with people more experienced than me.

This was / is just our personal experience.

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!!

hi catandgrant

I actually wake up without the alarm now but, yes, I would suggest going to him before he wakes up needing to go. With Boz at 14 weeks now, I average twice sometimes once a night. So put him to bed at 10, go out around 1-2am, then again around 4-5am. I wake him up, he's very groggy but does his toilet and straight back to laundry and sleep. It seems to work pretty well no accidents for a while now.

[catandgrant]

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

[raeviel]

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

Don't stress mate. You'll get a lot of very opinionated users in these forums. Even seeking the most basic and innocent advice can turn into misplaced accusations. I don't think anyone is mean spirtied but some people here have strict methods of raising their dogs and don't take kindly to any suggestion that you may be doing things differently.

It's so hard when you get contradictory advice from books, vets, trainers, dog owners, family, friends, forums, but I reckon you're doing the right thing just asking advice and your puppy will grow up very happy and loved.

If it helps- we kept our puppy in the laundry and woke up once or twice a night to let her out for the toilet. My baby cried for about 30 minutes when we put her to bed, and sometimes for 15 minutes once she returned after the toilet. It was incredibly difficult but we never went to her and eventually the cries shortened and then, stopped. When she was around 15 weeks we put her outside to sleep and she never cried. Sometimes I think it was the small laundry that was distressing her.

We intended to have an outdoor dog too, but now she sleeps on our bed at night. Oops! Good luck!

[VJB]

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

Don't stress mate. You'll get a lot of very opinionated users in these forums. Even seeking the most basic and innocent advice can turn into misplaced accusations. I don't think anyone is mean spirtied but some people here have strict methods of raising their dogs and don't take kindly to any suggestion that you may be doing things differently.

It's so hard when you get contradictory advice from books, vets, trainers, dog owners, family, friends, forums, but I reckon you're doing the right thing just asking advice and your puppy will grow up very happy and loved.

If it helps- we kept our puppy in the laundry and woke up once or twice a night to let her out for the toilet. My baby cried for about 30 minutes when we put her to bed, and sometimes for 15 minutes once she returned after the toilet. It was incredibly difficult but we never went to her and eventually the cries shortened and then, stopped. When she was around 15 weeks we put her outside to sleep and she never cried. Sometimes I think it was the small laundry that was distressing her.

We intended to have an outdoor dog too, but now she sleeps on our bed at night. Oops! Good luck!

I think your doing a great job too. Its easy to feel ganged up on sometimes when your trying to find a way to make things work for you. Your dog will adjust in no time at all, it just takes a while for them to get use to life without their littermates etc. Plenty of dogs are perfectly fine living life outdoors. Some people do unfortunately leave pets outside to be forgotten, and I've seen this happen before, but it doesn't sound like you are going to go down that path. Some pet owners just need to remember that while they have their whole life AND their dog,,,,,, their dog has just them. You sound committed to giving your pup plenty

of company. You'll find lots of information on these forums. Don't forget to post some pic's too, we'd love to see him.