Advice For New Pup

[parrotpea]

I am planning on getting a new staffy pup and I would like some advice on preparing for her. I am a stay at home Mum to 2 young kids so bear in mind that my main issues are making sure she is supervised when around the kids, and safe from them when not supervised. So, I need tips on:

*good toys for staffy pups

*how to crate train - is there a schedule or some guidelines to follow? ie. how long can she stay in there - I presume not very long for a little pup, so if I'm going somewhere and I can't take her I should set her up in her outside run?

*amount of exercise for young pups

[parrotpea]

Bump - could someone recommend a puppy book for me?

[persephone]

Hi - don't know about staffords in particular..

but there is lots of reading and good information if you CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE for a nifty little ebook

and some more info if you CLICK HERE

Edited October 28, 2010 by persephone

[mackenzie11]

Bump - could someone recommend a puppy book for me?

"the complete idiot's guide to Puppies"

i used this book to train my puppy, it has a schedual in it so you can work out what to do and when to do it, plus numerous other things for learning to train a puppy

good luck

[raineth]

Hi parrotpea,

I can't recommend a good puppy book. But there are some really good sites to visit.

check out these links:

dogstardaily

this one is a really good channel on youtube. have a browse around it has some excellent vids to do with puppies.

kikopup

also I would recommend that you find a puppy school before you get the puppy so you can take him/her right away.

Not all puppy school are equal! A good puppy school will be able to help you along with any concerns you have.

I personally don't like the kind where the main focus is the pups playing with each other.

I think its better for pups to interact with sociable older dogs that will teach them manners, a puppy won't teach another puppy manners.

So I would also be thinking about sociable older dogs that I can socialise the puppy with.

One effective approach is to tether your puppy to you during certain parts of the day. this allows you to be there to distact, reward, correct your puppy's (or your kids') behaviour

It also helps puppy to get used to the feel of a collar and lead.

And it means pup can't get up to much mischief.

I personally found it SO useful during those times when your busy and pup is a bit bored.

I think toys that he has to work to get some food out of are really good for keeping pup occupied.

Most toys will require your participation to be really fun though!

my puppy loved his "giggle bone" which was like a dumbell that when rolled made giggling noises.

I'll leave crate training to someone else

[Aso]

I am planning on getting a new staffy pup and I would like some advice on preparing for her. I am a stay at home Mum to 2 young kids so bear in mind that my main issues are making sure she is supervised when around the kids, and safe from them when not supervised. So, I need tips on:

*good toys for staffy pups

*how to crate train - is there a schedule or some guidelines to follow? ie. how long can she stay in there - I presume not very long for a little pup, so if I'm going somewhere and I can't take her I should set her up in her outside run?

*amount of exercise for young pups

Hi there,

New puppy

We crate trained our puppy as soon as we got him home and it was the best thing we ever did ... besides bringing Tonka home of course

The main thing we did was to make the crate Tonka's favourite place on earth! In the beginning we kept the door open so he can wander in & out and we made sure that he always got his treats in there, he gets his meals, his favourite toys, pats, etc. Then when he looks comfortable, we started closing the door, then opening it straight away, when he's okay with this we close the door for a few minutes then open it again. Eventually we close the door for 30 mins at a time then let him out, but we don't fuss when we let him out and we don't let him out if he's whinging or barking. At this point we take the opportunity to take him out to "potty" too so essentially we do the house training at the same time as the crate training.

Increase the period gradually and your puppy will show you how much by. Although, being a small pup maybe no longer than a few hours at a time, they won't be able to hold their bladder for that long and might soil their crate and they really hate doing that.

All the best ... hopefully not too much longer until you get your pup, it's the wait that's the worst of it

[fuzzy82]

A puppy playing with other puppies is actually the best way to learn bite inhibition, so it's an important part of puppy raising. Any good puppy class should have at least some off leash time.

It's actually good practice, the one I went to last night with my puppy was 95% off leash, they were playing pretty much the whole time, which gave us a chance to practice recalls with distractions, and all the puppies actually did REALLY well, the immediately stopped what they were doing and came running. Good practice for future visits to the dog park I think....

When they weren't playing and we were practising 'go out' and 'come back', they were also off leash, so it taught them to behave well when they are not on leash too, so the leash doesn't become a MUST for keeping the dog under control.

This particular puppy class is at an agility club, and when looking for a good puppy class I would make sure they use positive reinforcement (or even better, clicker training) no punishment, and that they have a lot of off leash time and at least some puppy play time.

We also go to a Dogtech puppy class, and it does have a lot of off leash play time, but hardly any obedience, so for extra socialising I would recommend it, but not if you really want to work on obedience.

My puppy is crate trained too, I worked on that the very first day I got him home, luring him into the crate with treats, encouraging playing in it etc. But we didn't really have time to work a lot on it before he HAD to be in there, because not being housetrained he had to be confined to it from his first night here. But it went really well, the crate was in our bedroom and we covered 2 sides with a blanket, and he has slept through the night since day one. During the day for naps he gets put away in a crate too, and I would stroke him and talk to him very calmly (when I knew he was already tired) and once gain the crate is covered with a blanket on 2-3 sides, and he will sleep for a couple of hours a couple of times a day. The blanket makes him unable to see when I leave the room, so I can quietly sneak out for a few minutes.

He has now gotten to the point where he will go to his crate for naps, and whenever he is put in it he will simply flop down and go to sleep, and that's after only 2 weeks.

Edited October 28, 2010 by fuzzy82

[aussielover]

I am planning on getting a new staffy pup and I would like some advice on preparing for her. I am a stay at home Mum to 2 young kids so bear in mind that my main issues are making sure she is supervised when around the kids, and safe from them when not supervised. So, I need tips on:

*good toys for staffy pups

My puppy liked liked soft squeaky toys when she was little.

*how to crate train - is there a schedule or some guidelines to follow? ie. how long can she stay in there - I presume not very long for a little pup, so if I'm going somewhere and I can't take her I should set her up in her outside run?

Make sure you feed her and give treats to her in the crate: basically make the crate a fun place to be. I would not leave a dog in a crate for more than 2 hrs (unless overnight) but there is some debate regarding this. If you are going out for a long time, then yes, leave her in the dog run.

*amount of exercise for young pups

A general guidline is 5 minutes of forced exercise per age in months. so for a 2 month old puppy- 10 mins.

forced exercise is generally leash walking or even playing with other pups in an uncontrolled situation as the pups can't (or won't in the latter case) stop when they are tired.

Home play in the yard is fine so long as there is no excessive jumping involved.

[espinay2]

One of my favourite puppy books is "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen Bailey. I also highly recommend the Dogstardaily website and the e-books "Before you Get your Puppy" and "After you get your Puppy" (available for download from the site)