Puppy Advice (merged)

glitterycloud

when we got our lab pup at 9 weeks we went out with him during the night, luckily dh was in a job where he had to be up really early so he would take him out.
Dont worry it will get better you just need to continue to take him out during the night so he learns that the toilet is outside and as he gets older he will learn to hold it through the night.

Raksha

OK - with regard to bite inhibition, you can't rely on a 5 month old pup to teach him. In all honesty allowing him to play with a 5 month old pup is a recipe for disaster - the nastiest puppies I ever had in my puppy classes (when I ran Gwen Bailey's Puppy School classes that is) were the ones who were homed with a litter sibling or had an older dog at home - they learnt to play very rufty tufty, or they learnt to be bullied They did not learn bite inhibition with regard to humans from either their litter mates or other dogs - they learn it from humans - here's a great link to explain how to teach bite inhibition while the puppy is still young - http://www.jersey.net/~mountaindog/berner1/bitestop.htm

I would also suggest you get your hands on one or both of these books - After getting your puppy by Ian Dunbar, and/or Puppy School by Gwen Bailey (Perfect Puppy by Gwen is also good, but make sure you get the 2008 edition, it has be re written to place less emphasis on 'dominance')

ladysparklexx

Hi

Good luck with puppy, our puppy is going to be 11 weeks tomorrow and a little monkey with the christmas tree at the moment. With reguards to helping with the bed situation we got a crate and then went and bought loads of pet fleece blankets from the pound shop. Everytime (though not very often now) his blanket is wet it just gets put in the wash and another put in, as they are thin fleece they dry very quick. It might be worth you trying this just while he is tiny as it will save you washing a bigger bed or him ruining a bed. We will buy our puppy a bed when he gets to old for his crate then he will have his bed instead of his crate.

jay11_2

We got our pup at 7 weeks, it was the middle of the foot and mouth crisis, so a choice between driving into farming country twice (all advice was against driving near farms wherever possible) or picking her up first time. We may have been lucky but she went 6/7 hours at night without problem, and reward-based training had her house trained in a couple of weeks, and otherwise very well behaved in 3-4 months. She's never looked back, and is a placid, laid back 7 year old now. So it is possible, with lots of love, consistency, and attention, to train a young pup.

Milford_Cubicle

jay11 wrote: »

So it is possible, with lots of love, consistency, and attention, to train a young pup.

You've just managed to sum it up in one sentence.

It's very hard bringing a puppy up 'correctly', getting them to do x when and where you want them to, but if you follow the rules above then it'll all be fine.

Remember, there are good days (when you're tearing your hair out and swearing - many's a time I've uttered ****'s sake recently!) and they get you through the bad ones.

supermezzo

It is possible to get them at such a young age and train them yes ( we train asistance dogs who come out to us at 6 weeks) but it is so much easier if they a) come from good stock and b) have very patient and kind breeders who start the whole process off in the correct manner which sadly, puppy farms and dodgy breeders don't tend to do.
The only thing I might add is not to make a fuss when you let the pup out at night when he has a wee as he will, in my experience, learn to wake up and ask to go out in order to get the fuss/treat from you.

galacticgreen

well I posted to quickly last night. After 4 "dry" nights, we got up this morning to a "poo present" and a wet patch too! Didn't do anything differently so back to day zero and start again. Arden Grange food arrived today and she was very happy with it tonight

foreign_correspondent

galacticgreen wrote: »

well I posted to quickly last night. After 4 "dry" nights, we got up this morning to a "poo present" and a wet patch too! Didn't do anything differently so back to day zero and start again. Arden Grange food arrived today and she was very happy with it tonight

Have you changed her diet to Arden Grange suddenly? - ideally you should introdce it bit by bit over about 10 days - a sudden change may well give her a jippy tum, so if she poops tonight that may be why!