Committed to buying a puppy!

Bes

Bes

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Melbourne
That's the worse advice you could give!

Sleeping in the same room with the dog will just make it think its the norm, start as you mean to go on is the best way.

Put the dog in crate at night downstairs, if he whines or cries don't go down, leave him.
As for letting him out during the night, its not required. All you need to do is place pee/poo pads in the crate so that she/he can do the business whilst your in bed. For the sake of 20p each the cost of the pee/poo pads its literally not worth losing sleep over.
Once hes house trained he wont need the pee/poo pads.


Here's a link to the pads ;

https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/...d-toilet-training/puppy-training-pads-p546--1
Err... bit harsh no?

Worked just fine for us - we now have a delightful and well-behaved 1 year-old whippet. Didn’t cost us too much sleep either as they were happy that they were sleeping near us.

Having him nearby meant we could deal with any midnight toilet trips easily. I am not a fan of pads as dogs need to learn the toilet is outside ASAP and I’ve see so many instances of dogs confusing white rugs/ things on the floor with their pads.

And having dog poo on the floor (pad or no pad) is just disgusting too.
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Mar 2010
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12,305
Well done you are in for an interesting first year, crate train it and do not answer the dogs attention cries in the middle of the night, you will need to take it our for a wee about once an hour!

We crate trained ours as soon as we picked him up at 8 weeks. The first month or so is the most challenging. I remember he used to cry not long after putting him to sleep. I would usually sit in front of his cage as he was falling asleep and then leave. It feels like they'll never sleep on their own, but ours from about 4 months had zero problems sleeping downstairs on his own. To the point i don't even bother putting him to bed anymore, i put him in the kitchen when we go to bed, and he'll settle in his own time.

One bit of advice i can definitely give, is not to let your puppy sleep in the evening. They like to snuggle on you and fall asleep, we made the mistake one evening of letting ours sleep from like 5pm till 10:30pm, cue putting him to bed and he did NOT want to go to sleep. I reckon i was up till about 2-3am that night, as every time you tried to leave he would just cry and bark.

Get lots of puppy training pads, it's not feasible for you to get up every hour or so to take him/her for a wee.

Lots of socialising. Ours is great with people, he's not too bad with dogs - it's more a case that he ignores them when they try and interact, rather than barking at them - thankfully!
 
Associate
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22 Dec 2011
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UK
Err... bit harsh no?

Worked just fine for us - we now have a delightful and well-behaved 1 year-old whippet. Didn’t cost us too much sleep either as they were happy that they were sleeping near us.

Having him nearby meant we could deal with any midnight toilet trips easily. I am not a fan of pads as dogs need to learn the toilet is outside ASAP and I’ve see so many instances of dogs confusing white rugs/ things on the floor with their pads.

And having dog poo on the floor (pad or no pad) is just disgusting too.

Not really its called taught love.

I get it worked for you and your whippet, but there are breeds which are stubborn and if you give them an inch they will take a mile. For example our Bassett Hound, we were told by the breeder never to go down when they are a puppy as they would expect it all the time and wont stop once its worked once.

How are you suppose to deal with midnight toilet trips? Puppy's are not house trained, can't talk either, there's no way you could know he was about to poo or pee unless your watching him all night long.

As for the pads well your suppose fold them up and put them in the bin once they've poo'd or pee'd and then place a new pad down.
 
Soldato
Joined
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12,305
Actually while on this thread, can anyone give me some advice...

Ours is 7 months old (mini dachsund). When we sit down for dinner, he turns into a little monster and constantly barks at me or the mrs for attention (mostly at her). Thankfully he's not too big that he can jump up on the table. Unfortunately our house is rather open-plan with a kitchen/diner, and his bedroom is in the kitchen/diner, so not like we can go elsewhere to eat.

The general advice tends to be to just ignore him, which we have been doing for probably the last 2 months, but doesn't seem to be getting any better.

We try and give him his food at the same time that we have ours so that he's preoccupied. But he'll eat his food in 15 seconds flat, before you can even sit down and pick up a knife/fork, so that's not really possible.

An idea i did have is we've got one of these toys where he has to work to get the food out of it. Tonight i plan to stick a load of his food in that, so that he's got something to occupy himself with whilst we eat.
 
Associate
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Berks+Powys
Careful with labs, they have genetic issues, make sure the parents are healthy have had their eyes/elbows/joins checked and also DNA tested. Not *all* labs are the same and the breed has been overdone in places.

Regardless of breeding, make sure you don't over-exercise it, don't push it (no rugby!), try to not let them use stairs until 6+ months, and CARRY THEM in/out of the car! They'll thank you when they reach 7 or so!

Labs love food, so don't overfeed it! Make sure to *weight* the kibbles to give somethign consistent. You can use the suggestions on the back of pack of food as a base, but really, it's your eyeball which should tell you if it's too fat or a bit wiry; a lab should have a slim waist and not too much fat on the shoulder, it's particularly important when they are young ref: previous point about their joints.

If you want it to exercise without being bad for their joints, teach it to swim early, and play "fetch" in water! Fun for everyone.

To socialise mine, even before she was fully vaccinated I would carry her un a shopping bag over my shoulder, with just the head sticking out. Best Babe Magnet, EVER.

Pup classes are OK, but if you get a chance, also do some gundog training. They were born for this and that'll what they enjoy the most!

Mine is now 15 months, she's been trained as a working gundog so she did get quite a more more training than most pets, but she's lovely and she's definitely our 'furry daughter'.

d3gPxfN.jpg
 
Associate
Joined
11 Sep 2009
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UK
Ensure that you get decent pet insurance that offers lifetime cover. Labs have tendency to hip and elbow displasia and treatment can easily be over £5,000. Our lab's sire and mom had good hip/elbow scores but he still had elbow issues, and first year the costs were £7500, luckily we had £7000 cover.
Been ok for 7 odd years, but now starting to get a touch of arthritis and might need a further op.
As others have said labs are always hungry so make sure that you don't overfeed. If you are giving lots of treats (great way to train them) remember to reduce the amount of dinners.

Just looking for insurance and was worried about renewal prices if they had something expensive like this early on.

What was your initial yearly cost and how much did that go up by after the £7,000 expense?
 
Associate
Joined
11 Apr 2003
Posts
1,516
The initial price was £35 per month, now £70 after 7 years. We went with pet plan. Whilst the majority of owners will not need that much cover, I do think it is a good idea to cover the dog for the first year at least. Any issues with hip/elbows should be seen during that time.

@BusError - she is adorable. Is she fox red? Mine had fox red sire.
 
Associate
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Location
Macclesfield
I use PetPlan, it was ~£350 for the first year. PetPlan is one of the few policies my Vet will charge directly to the insurance company rather than ask you to pay up first and have to claim back later.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 May 2005
Posts
7,049
Actually while on this thread, can anyone give me some advice...

Ours is 7 months old (mini dachsund). When we sit down for dinner, he turns into a little monster and constantly barks at me or the mrs for attention (mostly at her). Thankfully he's not too big that he can jump up on the table. Unfortunately our house is rather open-plan with a kitchen/diner, and his bedroom is in the kitchen/diner, so not like we can go elsewhere to eat.

The general advice tends to be to just ignore him, which we have been doing for probably the last 2 months, but doesn't seem to be getting any better.

We try and give him his food at the same time that we have ours so that he's preoccupied. But he'll eat his food in 15 seconds flat, before you can even sit down and pick up a knife/fork, so that's not really possible.

An idea i did have is we've got one of these toys where he has to work to get the food out of it. Tonight i plan to stick a load of his food in that, so that he's got something to occupy himself with whilst we eat.

My mini-dachshund turned 5 yesterday. In the time that we’ve had her, the one thing I’ve learnt is that dachshunds are too stubborn to be trained.

That said, mine doesn’t beg for human food- maybe try to only give her dog treats (nothing off your plate). It might be too late though.

ETA: get one of the big Kongs if you feed him kibble. Will keep him occupied for 5 mins at least, and make him think that he’s more full.
 
Associate
Joined
12 Jan 2005
Posts
344
Location
Norfolk
Actually while on this thread, can anyone give me some advice...

Ours is 7 months old (mini dachsund). When we sit down for dinner, he turns into a little monster and constantly barks at me or the mrs for attention (mostly at her). Thankfully he's not too big that he can jump up on the table. Unfortunately our house is rather open-plan with a kitchen/diner, and his bedroom is in the kitchen/diner, so not like we can go elsewhere to eat.

The general advice tends to be to just ignore him, which we have been doing for probably the last 2 months, but doesn't seem to be getting any better.

We try and give him his food at the same time that we have ours so that he's preoccupied. But he'll eat his food in 15 seconds flat, before you can even sit down and pick up a knife/fork, so that's not really possible.

An idea i did have is we've got one of these toys where he has to work to get the food out of it. Tonight i plan to stick a load of his food in that, so that he's got something to occupy himself with whilst we eat.

Generally speaking I would say excess barking is either (a) too much energy or (b) wanting attention.

We had a similar issue with our Pointer when he was young. It was a combination of both for us I think - we found it difficult to exercise him off lead (which he really needed) and so he wanted attention whenever we sat down.

My suggestion is to move the walk/exercise to just before dinner if possible and/or put him out of the room when he behaves this way. We consistently did both (and found a way of exercising him by riding our bike with him) and he grew out of it after a couple of months.

Not sure if that helps but that was our experience!
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Mar 2010
Posts
12,305

Ahhh she's gorgeous!

My mini-dachshund turned 5 yesterday. In the time that we’ve had her, the one thing I’ve learnt is that dachshunds are too stubborn to be trained.

That said, mine doesn’t beg for human food- maybe try to only give her dog treats (nothing off your plate). It might be too late though.

ETA: get one of the big Kongs if you feed him kibble. Will keep him occupied for 5 mins at least, and make him think that he’s more full.

Yes i've definitely heard they're a hard breed to train. Without any puppy classes i have managed to get him to sit and stay, and only go for food when i give him the command.

Generally speaking I would say excess barking is either (a) too much energy or (b) wanting attention.

We had a similar issue with our Pointer when he was young. It was a combination of both for us I think - we found it difficult to exercise him off lead (which he really needed) and so he wanted attention whenever we sat down.

My suggestion is to move the walk/exercise to just before dinner if possible and/or put him out of the room when he behaves this way. We consistently did both (and found a way of exercising him by riding our bike with him) and he grew out of it after a couple of months.

Not sure if that helps but that was our experience!

Yes definitely a combination of both. I'm always amazed at how many bags of energy he has for such a tiny dog!

Just an update on my conundrum. I did put his kibble in the ball thing that he has to move around to get the food out, it's actually worked wonders. It keeps him so focused trying to get food out that he doesn't even realise us in the same room as him. I feel like i need to increase the difficulty a touch just to make the task a little longer - i don't wan't to make it too hard that he gets bored of trying.

Anyway, here's a picture of our little monster enjoying some sunshine yesterday.

qeF8pLC.jpg
 
Man of Honour
Joined
14 Aug 2005
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5,241
Location
York
We too have recently joined the fun world of Dachshund training, we have had ours for 4 months now and although she is reasonably well behaved the majority of the time she is very stubborn and some days will only do what she wants to. All other Dachshund owners we have met confirm that theirs are just the same.

jHJw8MG.jpg fongCMR.jpg
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Mar 2010
Posts
12,305
We too have recently joined the fun world of Dachshund training, we have had ours for 4 months now and although she is reasonably well behaved the majority of the time she is very stubborn and some days will only do what she wants to. All other Dachshund owners we have met confirm that theirs are just the same.

jHJw8MG.jpg fongCMR.jpg

Ahhh. Is she brown or black? Can't quite tell from the photo, although our boy looks slightly blacker.

The training pic made me laugh. Although weirdly enough he's actually quite good at staying if there's a treat or food involved.

He's useless at fetch. Not very good at come - he'll run back to you if you've got a treat though. And down... No chance :D
 
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