How Is My Puppy Management Plan Coming Along?

[Lucy's mama]

I am getting an Australian Shepherd pup in 5 weeks!! I'm very excited and have been reading lots on puppy training. I thought I would run some plans for managing the pup by you lovely people and see if you can troubleshoot it for me before the trouble actually begins.

There are several situations I a planning for.

Firstly, as a compromise for my partner, puppy will only have free access to the living areas. He is a one pet only, outside pet only, seen and not heard pet kind of guy, and already I have 2 inside cats, and a dog who has free range of the entire house and a flock of chickens, so I feel this request is more than reasonable from him.

So I plan to put a baby gate at the hall way so he will only have access to the living area's, and once he has learnt sit/stay, I will remove the gate for short training sessions a few times a day. I will ask him to sit and stay at the hall entry. Then I will walk down the hall. He will be praised for not following and corrected by 'ah uh' and being put back at the hall entry untill he is reliably staying in living areas only, when I will remove the gate alltogether. Does that sound like the right approach?

Sleeping - I will set up a bed for me in the end room, which is as far as possible away from my sleeping partner and children and have puppy in a crate beside me, taking him for toilet breaks throughout the night. How often should the breaks be at 8 weeks, 10 week, 12 weeks and how old till no breaks? As he will be sleeping in an area he is actually not allowed in, I will crate him and carry the whole crate down rather than let him walk down.

Intro to cats - Our younger cat is very relaxed, likes strangers and rubs up against our older, very calm dog, so we will start with her. I'm thinking letting him sniff the cats crates/ bedding first would help reduce excitement as less of the incoming stimuli would be brand new? Or would it likely make him more excited because he has found where the smell comes from? For the intro I would put him on lead and have my daughter holding the cat. If he is reasonably calm the cat can go down and let them check each other out. If he gets excited, back into a sit and wait for calm or try again later? I'm really unsure on this one so help and ideas would be appreciated.

Intro to chickens - let him in their pen on lead while they are out free ranging. Let him sniff around till he is bored with the smells. Do the actual introduction at dussk when the chickens are already perched for the night, first from outside the pen, then inside on lead when he can remain calm, then when they are free ranging with him on lead till he can remain calm before we risk letting him off while they are out.

Intro to existing dog - No ideaa ??? I don't anticipate any problems but maybe both onlead or pup in crate for Lucy to see and sniff before we do on-lead intros?

Day to day - I plan to use a crate, puppy pen and long lead attatched to my belt. We will do toilet - play/train, toilet, crate, with some play/training time actually being spent tethered to me while I do daily chores. I can hav him sit or down or stand etc befor ad after I move from one area to the next, so he will get lots of short training sessions while I get my work done. He will be left behind the baby gate If I need to cross that 'no-go' line.

He will come on school runs, in a crate in the car till he is reliably toilet trained, but be left outside in a puppy pen with his crate, kong or large bone, and water when I am shopping or banking or where ever I need to go where dogs aren't allowed. He will be free in the yard when I am outside, but will not have free unsupervied access till he is too big to fit through the dog wire.

Interaction with the kids will be fully supervised at firstt. I will try to teach my son non-contact or low-contact games to play with him. I don't want rough-housing with humans to be encouraged. Any ideas for this would be appreciated.

He will start puppy preschool hopefully about a week after he gets here, depending on what I can find. He will start obedience at 4 months. We will start short (10 -15 min) walks as soon as he is fully vaccinated, and at first just concentrate on getting him to ignore all the dogs barking through their fences. I willl attempt to do this by having a treat by my side that he will get for paying attention to me not them. I will also take him to the laggon behind our house for swims if he will get in.

I'm not a very social person, but I will endeavour to have a few BBQ's in the first few weeks and ask guests to bring their vaccinated dogs along for a play. Most of our friends have babies or toddlers, and some have older kids, so it should help get him used to a variety of people sizes and behaviours.

PLEASE! Pick my plan to peices, let me know what problems I may be causing, or what I have forgotten to account for, am I expecting too much, not enough etc. I really want him to grow into a fantastic, well behaved, socially acceptable boy who is a pleasure not a pain!

[corvus]

Sounds like you've really thought it through!

With the cats, I would put the cat in a crate or cat cage if you have one. I don't know what your cat is like, but I like bars between potential prey animals and dogs to begin with. Just that added safety. I think the important thing is to not let your puppy chase cats or chickens. If he gets a chance to learn that it's fun, you'll have a lot of trouble convincing him it's not! If they were my chickens, I'd stick to at least one physical barrier between dog and chickens at all times.

For toilet training at night, he will probably wake you up when he needs to go. Both my puppies started sleeping through the night quite early (by about 10 weeks).

If you don't anticipate any problems with your current dog, I would introduce them with puppy in my arms so he feels safe while the adult dog can come and sniff him. Lots of supervision to begin with. Make sure you're handy to rescue pup if he gets frightened.

We put up baby gates when we got our last puppy 18 months ago and we just left them up. Really makes life easy.

If I were you, I would write down the things I'd like my dog to learn, especially life skills stuff. Then you've got a bit of a training plan. Puppy preschool is good, but doesn't involve much training. I like being a step ahead of the class, but that's just because I like my training methods and I think it's hard for puppies to learn in such a distracting environment.

That's all I've got. Good luck.

[Lucy's mama]

Both my cats have crates. Wee can do tthe initial introduction that way.

I completely agree that it is imperative he never starts chasing in the first place.

We can't leave gates up full time as my partner is an amputee and moving around at night trying to hop over baby gates after he has his prosthetic leg off would be annoying, and if he is half sleep, dangerous.

I will start on that list and have my partner put his 2 cents in as well. Thanks.

[kiesha09]

I would also suggest putting together a list of rules for your pup - such as no jumping on the lounge etc. and go through it will the entire family to make sure you are all consistent with what is appropriate and what is not.

Another suggestion would be to create a training dictionary. I have found this to be extremely useful. By deciding on the cues you will use for certain behaviours, discussing them with the family and pinning them on the fridge it will help you all be consistent. For example I found with my first dog that when asking the dog to lie down I would say drop and my ex partner would say down because he used drop to give up a ball when playing fetch while I would use 'give'. FOr the dog it must have been VERY confusing.

The training dictionary worked really well with the second dog and we really didn't have any confusion.

[Lucy's mama]

Great idea thanks Kiesha.

[Cazwah]

This is all really helpful for me too, so thanks Corvus and Kiesha for your input. I think the training word dictionary is a really good idea. My partner and I are going to write a list of all the situations we want our puppy to be comfortable in. So for example walking past traffic, walking past construciton sites, on the beach, being around boats, being around other animals, being in the car etc etc. Are you thinking of doing this Lucy's Mum? We're going to write down all these things and then set a schedule so we can (hopefuly!) achieve them all. I've got to say this limited timeframe of the pup's 'socialisation period' makes all this training a bit of a time challenge! All the best Lucy's Mum, I'm sure you're as prepared as can be!

[Parkeyre]

Lucy's Mama.

I'm an owner of Three amazing Australian Shepherds.

My best piece of advice for you is to treat the puppy like an adult.

If you don't want the full grown aussie on your lap on the couch in full coat, don't let it as a pup.

Feel free to PM me anytime.

[Parkeyre]

Please give this a read.http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=117592

I found it very informative, and makes a lot of sence

[poodlefan]

Both my cats have crates. Wee can do tthe initial introduction that way.

I completely agree that it is imperative he never starts chasing in the first place.

We can't leave gates up full time as my partner is an amputee and moving around at night trying to hop over baby gates after he has his prosthetic leg off would be annoying, and if he is half sleep, dangerous.

I will start on that list and have my partner put his 2 cents in as well. Thanks.

I'd suggest puppy on lead and cats free or behind the baby gates. A caged cat cannot escape and may be more stressed/reactive.

Most baby gates are easy to open and close. .your partner need not have to climb over them.

Edited October 12, 2009 by poodlefan

[luvsdogs]

Introduce the 2 dogs on neutral ground. Maybe you can use a friend's or family member's yard?

Introducing dogs to cats.http://www.thecatsite.com/Behavior/50/Introducing-Cats-to-Dogs.html

[Dogsfevr]

Will your current dog follow the same rules of living area only & learning to stay when asked??

If not your pup may find the what are you doing & why cant i confusing especially latter on

[Lucy's mama]

Hmmm... I know she could learn to stay in the living areas, but not sure I want to make her. I will give it some thought. It wouldn't bother her or me to ban her from the rest of the house during the day, but she likes to sleep at the foot of my bed or between the kids beds at night and we like having her there. Could we teach 'by invite only' sort of thing? Or on her bed only in our room, and teach pup the same? If I start now she will have it down pat before he arrives. She knows 'GO' means go through whichever door you are pointing at and 'on your bed'

Poodlefan - perhaps 'baby barrier' is a better dscription of what we will use. It doesn't swing open or anything. I think you are spot on about the cat.

Bonnie P - Thanks! I have read that thread and linked article a few times. I do have some q's I will post in that forum latter.

Luvsdogs - I haven't read it yet, butt will shortly. Thanks.

Introducing on neutral ground is something I have thought about, but I'm not sure where. I'm worried about the puppy picking up a virus or something. BUT I do plan to take him out a lot before he is fully vacced to keep his time alone to a minimum and socialise him bfore the first 'fear period'. So I am a little confused and conflicted on that atm. His breeder says it only takes 10 days for the vaccine to kick in, soI may speak to her some more on that.

If I can get over the fear of him catching something I could dropp my partner and Lucy at a park not far from the airport, pick pup up, then go back and do intro there. Maybe pup on a lead on a big blanket??

Thanks everyone!

[Dogsfevr]

Ina ll the years of bringing new dogs home we have never done the nuetral ground stuff nor do we recommend it.

What we do recommend is always in the yard where everyone is safe & you can deal with the events as they happen.

We ususally suggest shutting the established odg inside 7 allowing pup to ha ve the yard to sniff,settle & just Get use to things & then we all seems good bring the older dog out for a quick squizz.

Whay you do with your older dog is your choice but you need to consider what the exact rules will be for both & then train accordingly

[poodle proud]

After getting a second dog this year Ive learnt some good lessons.

I'm not sure how your established dog will react to a newcomer but whatever you do don't pander to your dog if he gets jealous. It may feel harsh but walk away and let him get over it.

Also others have posted on here that times apart (as in you taking one dog out at a time sometimes) are good so they don't become too attached and fret as much if they ever have to be separated due to illness etc.

Also if your pup is overly exhuberant tire him out first before bringing the two together. It can be a bit overwhelming for the established dog with a pup getting up in it's face, biting ankles etc, even for the most tolerant dog.

Good luck and enjoy your new addition!