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Puppy
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
We're getting a puppy in two weeks.
I've had dogs before but my boyfriend hasn't so it's going to be quite an exciting time.
Anyway, I was just wondering what advice anyone can offer about having a puppy? Obviously we've already thought about time / cost committments etc so advice about bringing it home, training it and feeding it would be useful!
I've had dogs before but my boyfriend hasn't so it's going to be quite an exciting time.
Anyway, I was just wondering what advice anyone can offer about having a puppy? Obviously we've already thought about time / cost committments etc so advice about bringing it home, training it and feeding it would be useful!
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You will probably need to feed it every few hours or something
Training wise, you need all the patience in the world, and treats. Don't punish mistakes, ignore them, and reward progress. Puppies are basically like kids. They mostly want to be good, but they are easily tempted and distracted.
If you're bringing it home a fairly long way in the car, bear in mind that a lot of puppies get car sick at first, so don't feed it just before you travel, and consider an old towel or blanket in case of pukage.
There's no magic formula for training, just patience, kindness and lots of praise at the right time. Get the puppy to go on newspaper on the kitchen floor and then once he's used to that gradually move it out into the garden. Then encourage him to go out straight after meals, when he wakes up and when you see him circling. Go with him and give him lots of praise when he performs. Don't expect miracles, he's not likely to be reliably housetrained until he's six months or more.
Consider buying a Dog cage. Now whilst this may seem cruel, it is actually very beneficial to the dog. They are territorial animals and thus by giving them a cage means that it's their territory. Line it with newspaper and the dog, because it's his bed, is less likely to want to piss in it for fear of messing up his bed. Thus they learn self-control. Normally puppies need to relieve themselves every hour and a half/two hours.
Naturally accidents happen, just like with kids but having the cage and shutting it at night meant that our two dogs were house trained in a matter of weeks.
If you don't go for the cage option, lay down newspaper in the kitchen or wherever the dog will predominantly be. Then each week, reduce the amount of floor space covered by the newspaper, retreating towards the door or the nearest exit to where the dog can relieve itself. This is another psychological trick that works. The dog will associate the newspaper with going for a piss so hopefully as the newspaper retreats, the dog will continue to piss on the newspaper if it needs to.
Incidentally, what kind of dog are you considering?
We've already bought a cage. When I was younger and we had dogs mum and dad always had a cage. Often the puppy feels safer and today when we visited the puppy he was squealing to get back into his!
He's a lurcher - both parents are greyhound / saluki crosses. We wanted something energetic and non-cutesy to take on really long walks and camping trips.
He was shaking with fear when I took this picture, poor mite, but with some gentle coaxing and stroking he soon perked up and was a bundle of furry fun!
Incidentally, if anyone can suggest a name that would be great. We're arguing like cat and dog about it at the moment!
Hogarth!
Dunno just looks like a Hogarth to me
and raise you a
i say call him smudge or charlie
Thirded
fourthed
Hopefully. I'm supporting Smudge too. Guess that's fiftheth
Rubberskin, that cat pic is adorable! Looks a bit like my kitty.
Bumblebee, don't forget to keep us updated on puppyness! :hyper: Hope you have a great time with him.
My dog is called Holly, and a lot of people don't like it cause it's a bit common, but I'm not the one looking like a dickhead yelling it out in the park, unlike Trixie-Boo's owner. :thumb:
That said, I've always wanted a dog with a really human name. Like Steve, or Brian. I'm easily amused. Otherwise, I'd entertain myself with names like Elvis or Otis.
we have an alfie and a mollie. we used to have a mabel too - but we didn't name her. cute name though!
We used to have a dog like the one in the picture who was called Taz.
About 8-9 years ago, we were going to adopt a dog who was called Tin-Tin.
In the running we have Barney, George, Monty, Indy, Furious D (don't ask :rolleyes: ) and Emo (because he looks so sad!)
Although you might kick yourself for missing out on Steve the dog
I can picture the scene now; local park walking Steve, Steve runs off, I shout "Steve, here boy" and a burly man in tight white vest pops up from nowhere!
if not smudge i like barney out of the list you posted. barney sounds like a good dogs name. please dont name it furious d :no:
Barney is my fave too. I'm hoping my boyfriend threw in Furious D as a joke :nervous:
Furious D sounds awful for a dog's name. Currently, we have dogs called Ty & Sammy.
You may laugh, but I was walking my brother's dog in the park a few years ago, and he did a runner. So of course I wandered around a bit yelling 'ALF! ALFIE! GET HERE IMMEDIATELY!!'. Then a couple appeared from nowhere and gave me a right earful for yelling at their son.
I didn't yell back, 'Well, if you will give your son a dog's name....', but I wanted to.
Bumblebee your puppy is sweet
Nice!! (sarcasm)
I liked Smudge :crying: RIP Smudge. Lol, anyway, Barney's good! (by the way, does anyone else get a mental image of a big dancing purple dinosaur every time they hear that name?) but its a cool name for the dog. Can you imagine yelling out "furious d" in the park? I'd keep the dog on the leash the entire time purely to avoid that embarassment!
Glad you're not gonna call him Smudge..He'd be a laughing stock.
A smudge is a stain anyway. Not a nice message to give dawgie.