Kelpie Puppies: For How Long Are They 'puppies'?

[koalathebear]

Elbie's 3/4 kelpie and 1/4 border collie. I have introduced him over in the "Photos Photos Photos" thread here so you can see lots of photos taken by us as doting owners

At over 13 weeks old, almost 14 weeks old (my signature is wrong for some reason :D, he now weighs 6.5kg. He was about 2.5kg when we got him at 8 weeks. He eats 3 meals a day with little snacks in between when doing his informal obedience training. I know that puppyhood varies per breed so I was wondering how long puppyhood is supposed to last in a kelpie? The main reasons are:

1. I'd like to know at what point we can switch him from 3 meals to 2 meals - most people seem to say 6 months but I'd like a kelpie-specific answer if possible. My partner and I will both be returning to full-time work soon and so being able to give Elbie 2 meals a day would be great.

2. He's had his first vaccinations and first booster and is scheduled for his second booster in June, which is when the vet says it will be safe to take him for very short walks. Any suggestions on how long a kelpie puppy that young should be walked each day? At present his exercise is running around the yard a lot and playing with us.

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ETA: We have been doing some informal obedience training with him. We're not dog experts so we haven't had much luck getting him to stay yet but hopefully that will come in time. This is what he does so far:

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. He can do a more sedate spin but I love his athletic, crazy dog spin here :p

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) Edited May 30, 2010 by koalathebear

[Black Bronson]

Elbie's 3/4 kelpie and 1/4 border collie. At over 13 weeks old, almost 14 weeks old (my signature is wrong for some reason , he now weighs 6.5kg. He was about 2.5kg when we got him at 8 weeks. He eats 3 meals a day with little snacks in between when doing his informal obedience training. I know that puppyhood varies per breed so I was wondering how long puppyhood is supposed to last in a kelpie? The main reasons are:

1. I'd like to know at what point we can switch him from 3 meals to 2 meals - most people seem to say 6 months but I'd like a kelpie-specific answer if possible. My partner and I will both be returning to full-time work soon and so being able to give Elbie 2 meals a day would be great.

2. He's had his first vaccinations and first booster and is scheduled for his second booster in June, which is when the vet says it will be safe to take him for very short walks. Any suggestions on how long a kelpie puppy that young should be walked each day? At present his exercise is running around the yard a lot and playing with us.

Cute puppy Koalathebear I thought he was a black GSD in your avatar. He looks facially very much like my 13 week old black working line Sheppie

[4Kelpies]

With my Kelpie puppies, I picked them up at about 8 weeks and would spend 4 weeks at home with them. When I had to go back to work I would feed the puppy in the morning, when I got home from work and another feed later in the evening. At about 16 weeks I would switch to 2 feeds a day at the same times as my other dogs.

At Elbie's age he is probably getting all the exercise he needs just playing and he can stop any time he feels tired. It wouldn't hurt to start him on short walks - more from a social/training point of view and to give him interesting experiences than for exercise. He wouldn't need these every day. I'm sure you've been warned of the need to keep a young Kelpie's mind busy or he'll find other ways to entertain himself. You've mentioned informal obedience training, are you doing any puppy socialization classes to let him meet other puppies?

He's a very cute puppy. I 'm sure you'll have a lot of fun together.

[koalathebear]

Cute puppy Koalathebear I thought he was a black GSD in your avatar. He looks facially very much like my 13 week old black working line Sheppie

Hee! Thank so much. He is very cute but a real handful. Do you have photos you've shared of your puppy? I'd love to see them and the search function on this forum sometimes gives me too many hits

The avatar is from when Elbie was a bit younger but he still gets that look on his face when he comes barrelling towards the kitchen door when he hears someone coming in

Edited May 21, 2010 by koalathebear

[koalathebear]

With my Kelpie puppies, I picked them up at about 8 weeks and would spend 4 weeks at home with them. When I had to go back to work I would feed the puppy in the morning, when I got home from work and another feed later in the evening. At about 16 weeks I would switch to 2 feeds a day at the same times as my other dogs.

Thanks very much for the information about that. That will work out just right then because hopefully he'll already be used to just two meals a day by the time we return to work.

At Elbie's age he is probably getting all the exercise he needs just playing and he can stop any time he feels tired. It wouldn't hurt to start him on short walks - more from a social/training point of view and to give him interesting experiences than for exercise. He wouldn't need these every day. I'm sure you've been warned of the need to keep a young Kelpie's mind busy or he'll find other ways to entertain himself. You've mentioned informal obedience training, are you doing any puppy socialization classes to let him meet other puppies?

We received so many warnings about the kelpie/border collie mix before and after we got him that I was starting to be terrified we'd got a monster. This was probably one of the scarier warnings:

We had several ppl who thought that Aussies, Kelpies and Border Collies are totally cute and easy family dogs. Three ended up in the city's animal shelter because the families were totally overburdened. ... One family I know (and have the grounds to do so) bought a small flock of sheep for their Border Collie to herd and now they have the most happiest, obedient dog they could have ever imagined.

Buying a small flock of sheep??

On the downside, he is HUGELY energetic and when he gets into turbo mode he'll race around like a little fiend and used to go into biting frenzies - which have thankfully now stopped. On the plus side, it makes him very eager to learn things so for instance while beg and rollover took AGES to teach him, he learned shake hands and high five almost the first time around (I've updated my first post with links

He's been going to puppy class for two weeks and I think he loves it. Alas, the other dogs are: a very large bull terrier, a VERY large rhodesian ridgeback/rottweiler cross, a HUGE six month old boxer puppy, a terrified Cavalier King Charles that sits there and does nothing and an anxious screaming schnauzer. He gets to play with them but the larger dogs are quite rambunctious and the other two dogs are so terrified they don't interact much. Furthermore, only the schnauzer can sit and drop and the boxer can sit but not drop - the bull terrier won't even sit so the class is still stuck at the sit-drop stage and we aren't going through any new tricks. It has been good for meeting new people, new dogs and a new setting, though. For training, we've turned to youtube in the interim. He has puppy classes for another two weeks and then on 20 June he'll be starting formal obedience classes at the Belconnen Dog Obedience Club.

We're really looking forward to that because we think he has the potential to be very good. His current behaviours that we're really like to address are:

- learning to be calmer at home. Even though we get a lot of visitors, he gets VERY excited when people visit the house and sometimes does a happy wee.

- when he's in turbo mode it's still hard to dial him down except to tell him to 'sit', 'go to his mat' or 'go to his crate' and even though he remains quite keyed up

- he gets anxious in the car and just won't sit still - he is a wriggling, squirming, excited ball of energy. Sometimes he even cries, which is a bit upsetting. I should mention that it's embarrassing at puppy class because while all the other puppies aren't very good at the obedience component of the classes, during the indoor 'classroom sessions', they all sit pretty quietly in their owners laps while Elbie's wriggling and squirming to be let down and almost strangling himself by trying to pull on his lead and collar towards the other puppies. Both my partner and I have had our faces accidentally scratched by flailing claws and teeth

I'm not sure if kelpies can be trained to be very calm all of Elbie's negative behaviours stem from when he's in hyper turbo mode.

He's a very cute puppy. I 'm sure you'll have a lot of fun together.

We do! He makes us laugh all the time and he is super cute even though he's a LOT bigger now than he was when we got him. I updated the post above with a link to his photos

Edited May 22, 2010 by koalathebear

[Black Bronson]

Cute puppy Koalathebear I thought he was a black GSD in your avatar. He looks facially very much like my 13 week old black working line Sheppie

Hee! Thank so much. He is very cute but a real handful. Do you have photos you've shared of your puppy? I'd love to see them and the search function on this forum sometimes gives me too many hits ;)

The avatar is from when Elbie was a bit younger but he still gets that look on his face when he comes barrelling towards the kitchen door when he hears someone coming in

Here's my GSD When his ears were floppy........he looked so much like your boy and is also a handful too

Edited May 22, 2010 by Black Bronson

[tez]

Sounds like Elbie and you might like clicker training. There is heaps of info on it on this forum and other sites and its great for getting a smart dog to use his brain! Really good fun for the trainers as well!

Elbie sounds just like Jane at that age...my god she was a full on pup! We got a Dap diffuser to help her settle inside and it worked wonders. Also, have you tried giving him a "chew' so while he gets through it he is also settled. Sometimes it helps break the cycle of excitment if you know what I mean.

Good luck with him...if he is anything like Jane, the puppy hood is hell but its so worth it in the end! I would never wish Jane's puppyhood back for all the tea in china but I LOVE the dog she has become!

[nicolatu]

I have been bringing my puppies out for walk since he is 12 weeks old. You have to be careful when he meets other dogs though. Don't let him approach any dogs that are not vaccinated and don't let him smell other dogs' pees or poos. So far he has been meeting older dogs and this socialisation had helped him settle down when with other dogs.

He is so well-behaved that he is able to play with my friend's maltese x shih tzu. My boy is 9.7kg and my friend's puppy is 1+kg. The other puppy he play with is 3kg. The other puppies were too tired to play with him though. He play with one puppy and when this puppy is tired, he will go to the next puppy. Its great that I am able to train him a little bit while with these puppies. He still listens to my command and was the best-behaved puppy(out of the 3 puppies).

I think puppies learn to settle down pretty fast though. Now my boy would spend his time chewing on his toys if we are too busy to care about him.

[Jumabaar]

Cute pup!!

I would also suggest clicker training. If you search "101 things to do with a box" it will come up with a game that will get your pup thinking and focusing on you. Focus is the biggest thing with kelpies- if they are completely focused on you they are amazing. When you go to obediance watch for your pup getting bored and do a few tricks or just do a half session- otherwise they work out how to be very naughty for attention (but so very cute)!!!

Good luck- it sounds like you will have a great dog. Heaps off ppl say that kelpies are nutters but mine are all bed/lounge hogs and its only when I tell them they are working that they turn on!! Good luck.

[koalathebear]

Thanks for all the tips! He's doing well so far although we're still having trouble with his 'stay' and 'peekaboo' gesture See here for our current failed attempts at teaching him how to do the 'shy'/'peekaboo' gesture We're really looking forward to starting formal obedience with him.