Moving House With A Puppy

[koalathebear]

We're moving soon - from the house that we're renting into a house that we've bought. It will mean some very big changes. Because this current place is a rental, Elbie has been confined to the kitchen and the backyard. He's wandered through the house very briefly but under supervision because the rented house is carpeted and we just didn't want to risk any damage to the landlord's carpet and furniture.

In our new place, there will be some Big New Things:

- floors are laminate not carpeted so in theory, Elbie should be able to have access to more of the house (under supervision of course)

- we'll have a dog door in the kitchen

- neighbours on three sides have dogs. Out of interest does anyone know what kind of dogs these are? They're very noisy and howl all the time

What we've done so far:

- we're puppy-proofing the yard still. The fences are standard height colour-bond so we're considering going to Bunnings to make the fences higher given that kelpies can jump fences. At this stage, Elbie doesn't seem like a jail-breaker and seems pretty happy to hang out at home but we have no idea how he'll be in the new place

- we've identified a suitable toilet spot in the yard. At present, we were just so relieved to have him eliminating outdoors that we weren't too fussed where he pooped but alas, that leads to time-consuming poo-patrols and Stinky Land Mines when we were going out in the yard in the dark :p

- we have taken him out to the new place a few times to slowly get him used to it. He's wandered around once in the yard on a lead and once off lead but with us following close behind. We put a puppy pad in the place we want him to use as his toilet and so far he's gone there a few times so he seems to realise that's where he's supposed to go

- we have let him explore the house (before any furniture's in there) on his leash

When I was cleaning the kitchen, he was running around crying a lot in the new kitchen and seemed a bit distressed but we're hoping that once we have his crate and dog bed there, he'll be more settled and won't be so anxious.

When we move in, we'll be keeping him on a leash even inside until we're sure that his house-training holds up.

Does anyone have any cautionary tales or suggestions that they can give me from when they moved house with their puppy? I know he'll find his first night in the new kitchen quite bewildering even if he is in his normal crate so we'll make sure he has his hot water bottle and toys.

My other concern is that the neighbours' dogs do bark and howl a lot and they kind of set one another off. At present, our neighbours have fairly quiet dogs so there will be the occasional patch of barking and then they all fall silent again. How do I stop Elbie learning the bad habits of the new neighbours' dogs? I don't want him to be an annoying barking dog. Sometimes he barks at his own shadow because he's a dope

[Dogsfevr]

will your dog be able to see these dogs or did you stand on something to get this shot??

[koalathebear]

will your dog be able to see these dogs or did you stand on something to get this shot??

He won't be able to see them. That photograph was taken from our carport out the front of the house.

[koalathebear]

Well we moved in yesterday and it's been ... interesting ...

Elbie was very, VERY unsettled yesterday - hurtling around the new house like a lunatic, clearly very anxious. We made sure one of us was with him at all times and that his explorations of the house and the yard were in our company.

We kind of guessed that we might have to repeat crate training/house-training with him in moving to the new house and let him relearn old skills. Yesterday he cried for about an hour at bed time - he had no problem going into his crate but he cried when we left him. It wasn't possible to have him in our room. By the time I woke up at 4am for his toilet break, he'd settled and went to 'poo corner' very nicely and then whimpered for about 5 minutes after I left him with his new hot water bottle.

Today,he was much better and toileting in Poo Corner of his own volition although he did go renegade and poop in two other locations. He can be pretty fast so it's hard to direct him to the right spot in time. Today, he also started going to the kitchen door and barking to be let out to relieve himself which shows that he's getting used to the house. Unfortunately he's still getting his bearings around the house so when he was in the lounge, I think he got a bit confused and wasn't sure how to make his way back to the kitchen door and we hadn't showed him the sliding door from the lounge so before we knew what had happened, there was a number one on the lounge room floor and a number two in transit as my OH grabbed Elbie and tried to run towards the door with him He is settling much more today, though and tomorrow we will show him the sliding door in the lounge so he knows that he can ask to be let out of that one, too.

Today he dozed off willingly in his crate and in his dog bed, he was also less frantic in his explorations of the house. He is interested by the yard, but the neighbours on all three sides have dogs and they bark a LOT. He's in the yard supervised for now - we thought we had puppy proofed it until we looked at him and went: "Where did he get that metal spike from?"

He won't be left alone in the yard this week - we'll try to get him settled in more. I felt so bad at how anxious and worried he was yesterday - you could see how bewildered and confused he was about being in a brand new place but I'm sure he's going to end up loving it because our old place was a rental and Elbie was never allowed anywhere except the yard and the kitchen and here we can give him access to more of the house (always supervised of course!)

[KumaAkita]

good to hear elbie is settling in ok, we had the same thing earlier this year. We took Kuma around the neighbourhood as much as we could before we moved in. The other thing we did was set areas he wasn't allowed to go for the first little while, only let him access to certain areas of the house. This let him get used to the place little by little.

good luck with the neighbourhood dogs...

[koalathebear]

good to hear elbie is settling in ok, we had the same thing earlier this year. We took Kuma around the neighbourhood as much as we could before we moved in. The other thing we did was set areas he wasn't allowed to go for the first little while, only let him access to certain areas of the house. This let him get used to the place little by little.

good luck with the neighbourhood dogs...

Thanks! And wow - you have an Akita and in Canberra of all places I just watched Hachiko's story and was blown away by how beautiful the Akita is - I already adore the Shiba Inu and having both in the same movie was so great. He must be a lot of work though - any photos?

With the dogs ... we really don't want Elbie barking. Last year there were poisonings in Evatt (next suburb) and it's always a bad thing to have a constantly barking dog in the yard annoying the neighbours.

[KumaAkita]

Haven't seen the movie - know the story though...

He's not that much of a handful, hitting his "i'm ignoring yooouuu" stage tho!

Photos...

as a baby (8 weeks and 8 kg ish)

couple of weeks ago (6 months and 35Kg ish)

We're in Franklin - should organise a doggy meet and greet!

Edited June 16, 2010 by KumaAkita

[koalathebear]

Oh gosh he's so beautiful! And getting big! :D He must shed a lot. A woman I know with a shiba mentioned that her neighbour contacted her recently, convinced that an animal must have been killed in her yard because there was all this fur there - it turned out it was the fur from her shedding shiba inu.

We'd love to meet up - Elbie has JUST finished his last set of vaccinations. He'll be starting at doggy obedience classes at BDOC at the end of the month each Sunday morning - does your doggy do obedience? :D Alternatively, where does one go for a doggy meet up? We have a decent sized yard but not as much as grass as two dogs might like, alas.

[KumaAkita]

have pm'd you