Puppy Advice (merged)

Paparika

He's 17 weeks today, i've had him almost 3 weeks, the owners said he was paper trained, and had not done his jabs, so the problem is being restricted on his toilet training outside, not having a garden of my own,

We removed his big bed out of the pen last night so that he couldn't use it to get out of the pen, but made sure he had his duvet on one side of the pen.

5am this morning was howling which was ignored and a damp patch under the duvet.
and he escaped again.

Tonight it will be the crate, even bought one of those dishes that clip onto the side of the crate so he couldn't knock it over.

orlao

Psykicpup wrote: »

a lot of peeps dont trust dogs homes & would rather 'vet' a new home themselves

Also a lot of people are scared their dogs won't settle in kennels which adds to the guilt in giving up their pet, there's also the fear that the dog will be PTS if there's no home available quickly.

OP,

The fact that the new dog is very young and a female while your dog is male and only a little older should help. Also this dog has lived with another dog which is promising because if she hasn't been vaccinated you have to assume that she hasn't been to puppy classes and had any formal training and socialisation. In saying that, there are plenty of people who manage to train their dogs to a reasonable standard without any outside help!

If your boy is greedy about his toys I would remove them before the new dog comes home and make sure that everyone fusses him first when the come to see the new dog......so his nose isn't out of joint.

Call me cynical if you like:o but I would also draw up a very basic letter/agreement with names addresses etc saying that this their dog to pass on and that they can't just demand her back in the future. I don't know if this would have any legal standing but it might if their was ever a dispute.

Best of luck and please let us know how you get on,

O x

suki1964

Psykicpup wrote: »

a lot of peeps dont trust dogs homes & would rather 'vet' a new home themselves..but I agree that a possible multiple homes is not good for the doggy either.

Agree, yet this family are not even taking the time to "vet" the new home, rather they want to meet in a hospital car park.

Many dog rehoming centres do not even take the dog from its home, rather they do home visits to asses the dog and then match it with people on their books. They do the new home assessments as well.

I have been involved in re homing two dogs this way

suki1964

glitterycloud wrote: »

we have had our puppy for 3 weeks and i was certain that he would be put into a routine from the very start. We have a doggy cushion put out in the hall upstairs with all remaining doors shut (so he cant go and do his business during the night) when we heard him awake we would take him out to do his business, this was about 3-4 times a night to start with. This routine has been invaluable as now he goes out for his last toilet visit at about 10 pm - 11pm then he sleeps the whole night through till about 5.30am - 6.30am.
Its a hard to install and i always believe in routine. It maybe that your puppy prefers to sleep on the sofa now you have let him have a nap, it is up to you whether you allow him to continue this or you stop it straight away and have a few sleepless nights while you install it into the puppy.
What ever you decide its always hard work with a puppy!!

Hope you have a stair gate in place as puppies should not be going up and down stairs - wrecks their hips

Smickan

Thanks guys

I do understand what you're saying but I am willing to take the risk and get her - and also get her to a vet the first thing tomorrow morning (or this evening if we can get to the other side of town in time) and we will work hard and try and make everything fair and right for both of them, we won't lightly make the decision to move her on to another home.

She will be our fifth dog (2 girls and 2 boys before including our current dog now) over the years and we've never had to give one up yet and I'm sure this won't happen now.

Thank you very much for all your advice It's much appreciated and anything further will be very welcome.

suki1964

Its a bit of a concern that a breeder hadn't started the inoculation programme when s/he was aware the pup was still going to be with her past the eight weeks.

I hope not having your own garden isnt stopping the outings out and about as pup really does need all the socialising it can get this age - puppy classes and just being carried everywhere you can think off at all times of the day. You need to do this as other wise come when you do finally get to take pup out, it will be a bag of nerves with fear.

The pen is too big for night time. You need a crate. Not sure what breed you have but you need a crate that will allow the dog to stand up and turn around and lie flat out when fully grown. For cockers I use 30 - to 36 inches.

That size of crate will allow you to place bed at one end and paper the other. Its not ideal that you cant take pup out to toilet in the night cos now what's happening in effect is you are teaching pup it cam toilet in its crate and then you have to un teach that when older,

Someone has already posted how best to crate train, it does take a while and patience is needed. Whatever you do do not make the crate a place of punishment - only a good place

Just found the very helpful post regarding crate training
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=982527

suki1964

Smickan wrote: »

Thanks guys

I do understand what you're saying but I am willing to take the risk and get her - and also get her to a vet the first thing tomorrow morning (or this evening if we can get to the other side of town in time) and we will work hard and try and make everything fair and right for both of them, we won't lightly make the decision to move her on to another home.

She will be our fifth dog (2 girls and 2 boys before including our current dog now) over the years and we've never had to give one up yet and I'm sure this won't happen now.

Thank you very much for all your advice It's much appreciated and anything further will be very welcome.

Good luck and do let us know how things go - and updates

Smickan

Will do.

I can promise you all now she will be loved and looked after and have the best of everything we can give her, including vet care and vacinations etc. (Our little boy is already in the middle of his parvo one, bless him...!)

Thank you And will keep you all updated (and put some pics in tonight hopefully )

MissMitch

Smickan, can't really add to the advice given but I have a 10 year old female dachshund and about a year and a half ago I got an 11 month old male from an ad in a local paper and, whilst he does have a few personality quirks, it's been a great success.

I introduced them at home, but I knew how much my dog loved other dogs company and also that the dog I was getting had lived with other dogs previously - as has your new one. Within minutes they were playing quite happily. He was a bit possessive of the toys, chews etc at first but that has all completely calmed down now. He's lovely and I wouldn't be without either of them, and he's given my old girl a new lease of life.

The thing is you never really know how well two individual dogs are going to get on until you get them together, but I think in general, after a lifetime of being owned by various dogs and cats, these things tend to work out for the good. I really hope it all works out as well for you. Good luck!

trampyblonde

Hi,

My Bullmastiff is now 18 weeks old. Maybe someone could help me with a few q's I have about him....

* He does occasionally have a few little accidents in his room at night and sometimes when we leave him to go out for a couple of hours. Is this still normal at his age? We do make sure he's been to the toilet before we leave and before bed and he now wee's on command!

* He's currently eating Beta Large Breed puppy dry food. Is there anything else I can mix in with it to make it a little more interesting for him? Rice etc

* He's also due a new collar. The one we bought as a pup was for medium size dogs. He's getting really big now, is it ok to get the bigger collars that you can get for larger breeds or should I wait?

Hope someone can help me!

Thanks! :j