Puppy Advse

[thomo84]

Hi Everyone,

We have got our new Golden Retriever Puppy and been home 2 days now. First day was very timid as taken away from his family into a new home etc. but the 2nd day he was much more playful and puppy like.

Few questions and hopefully some advise would be great.

1. Ideas or way to train your dog to be ok outside on his own, if you go out etc.

2. To stop your puppy from trying to chew furniture and/or anything else

THanks for your help

Thomo

[persephone]

Hi I will suggest you go to THIS SECTION of the forums (click on that text) There you will find answers to any puppy question you have - even those you haven't thought of !!

Post your questions there, too, then you can find them easier later on .

Welcome to your new life !!

[dee lee]

1. Ideas or way to train your dog to be ok outside on his own, if you go out etc.

2. To stop your puppy from trying to chew furniture and/or anything else

1. I have always given my dogs a treat when I have left the house.

My previous dog (staffy x) was left always left outside and got a bone or a kong; if my current dog (3 yo GR) is left inside she gets a (less messy) pigs ear, if outside, a lambs neck.

They have always been so excited about me leaving because of the treat. :p

2. is trickier. What you need to know right away is that if you leave something chewable out, it WILL get chewed and it will be YOUR fault!!

My best tip- Shoe baskets are great for protecting shoes.

As for furniture, you can get bitter apple spray that you can spray on anything your pup may have its eye on.

And if you cant trust your pup not to chew furniture, put it somewhere it cant harm anything if you cant supervise.

If I had to leave my staffy x unsupervised for even 5 minutes as a pup, I would pop her outside with a chickenwing.

I found as she got older I could trust her inside unsupervised (but NEVER when we werent home!!! ).

Oh and yes, go to the puppy forum like Persephone said!!

[jamesanddean]

Congratulations on your new GR puppy...they are the beautiful dogs.

We were first time dog owners when we bought our GR puppy home 2 and a half years ago and I was only reflecting last night while we were at the park how far we had come from the first few weeks at home to the dog he is today. Here are some of the things that worked well for us:

My advice to you is that the first few days (and weeks) can be quite overwhelming (particularly after the first night) where you wonder if you had done the right thing. All I can say is if you do ever feel like that in the early days persevere - GR's are intelligent and adapt quickly into their new homes if done right. The difficult first days will pass quickly and once you get him/her and yourself into a routine it is a breeze, and the love, affection and loyalty you receive from your puppy is amazing and outweighs any difficulties in the first few days.

We crate trained and he took to it straight away and not only helped with toilet training, but gave us somewhere to put him when it was time for a time out or you needed to go out for a while.

I took a week off work when we first bought him home and eased him into us not being there during the day by going out as I needed to for increasing amounts of time. As long as they have toys to keep them occupied and chew toys in particular at that age they will keep themselves busy. We had bought a number of toys and some he palyed with and some he didnt (eg Kongs). He loved pigs ears initially but now couldn't care less about them. You really need to just work things out once you have him/her home as every dog is different and you have to learn as you go. You will find the things that he/she will like playing with. While he is chewing and mouthing just make sure he has a toy or two available as an alternative to you or something less desirable eg couches, clothes, hands, etc

We also created a puppy run in the back yard to contain how much of it he had access to in the early weeks. Like the crate, if you can contain them they tend to feel safer in my experience and he actually liked the boundaries it set him.

Make sure you do plenty of socilaisation while they are young being careful with other dogs until he has had all his shots. I carried him down the street in the early stages before he was fully vaccinated to get him used to traffic, sounds, etc. If you have friends with dogs who you know have been vaccinated then you could let them play together as long as it is in your back yard or somewhere safe. To be safe you should wait though. Puppy pre school is really important where puppies can socialise together before final vaccinations. And make sure you have lots of friends drop over to meet the puppy which is normally not hard to do!

In the early stages is that they grow in size and change behaviourally so quickly. Many of the things you get concerned about one day are gone the next week or month and there is something else to address. So don't get too stressed about things as they will change! Just get ready for the hair on the floor, clothes, etc but it won't be long and you won't care about that because you love them so much.

Good luck and enjoy. Having been in the same position as you I am more than happy to answer any other questions you may have.