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I'm new to these parts of SA but this looked like the puppy thread that is newer, so I'll post here. My younger sister and my mother just came home with an 8 week old female Shih Tzu. My parents had a German Shepard 20-ish years ago, but aside from that, no one in this house knows anything about dogs. Right now I'm a little worried, and its mostly because of how ignorant we are. I've read both the OP's on puppies, and the OP on dog nutrition, but this is super overwhelming. We aren't the most active group of people, and so far I seem to be the only one trying to learn anything substantial in raising a puppy. They seem to be fine with what the pet store told them about basic puppy knowledge, but I wasn't there so I don't know how thorough this knowledge was. And my general impression about puppies from pet stores seems to be apprehensive at best. I'd post the store but I'm not entirely sure if name dropping the place is alright. They have a 10 day money back guarantee, which I initially thought was a bit strange for something like a pet, and 4 year coverage of major medical expenses, although I don't know how specific it is, and they cover the first vet visit. From what I've read, I am a little unsure of the health of our puppy and really don't know what do to about it other than wait until she sees a vet, which I guess is all I can do. They are lining up the first vet visit and getting its tags (I assume pets have to be registered, we live in Nebraska) by the end of the week. We've got a bell thing near the door for outside potty training, but I think that is the only training tool we have other than a bag of dog treats. This is kind of a haphazard post, and I apologize for that, but I guess is what I'm asking is where should a family like mine start in trying to not gently caress up raising a puppy? I really don't have that much confidence in my sister, my parents and I work, and I'm a student, but I'm the only one home during the day so I feel like I'm going to be doing quite a bit of puppy work. We have a cage partitioned off to be her size, and I think training her to use it is the first big thing to do, but I am wholly and totally unsure about anything to do with this dog.
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Mar 26, 2012 01:48
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Yesterday, I didn't spend much time with her because of classes and work so she spent a good part of the morning alone. Mostly my biggest issue right now is getting her comfortable in the crate. She doesn't go for any of the treats we have and I have to go to the store to get some cheerios or something, but I can't leave the room because she is literally terrified of the crate. I know that is the point of training, but she is an otherwise silent dog until she is even close to the crate. If we put her in it she spends her time loudly whinning and constantly pawing at the grates and trying to force her way out. Unfortunately we have had to do this since there are times when we are all out of the house or when we need to sleep. Is it normal for a pup to initially have that sort of reaction to a crate? I'm avoiding doing homework so I can spend time with her but since my current resources don't seem to work with her its mostly me rubbing her and watching her be an rear end in a top hat to our carpet and furniture. I'm trying to get her to calm down and nap but I don't really know how and can't crate her so she can sleep. Also, until I find a chew toy she likes, how bad is it for her to chew on the carpet? I've tried getting her into the crate by using toys that she is currently playing with to lure her in. Since she is so tiny, she has to jump in one half at a time. When she does that I praise her a bunch, I think. Lots of happy rubs and exclamations. And pretty much the same thing when she goes all in, but then she will lose interest in the toy pretty quickly and jump out. If I close the door then she freaks out like I described. I even have a kong with some peanut butter in it and she just doesn't give a gently caress about that. Other things I have are a round furry squeaky toy, a big fish ring thing with hard rubber bits, some hard rubber keys, a little tennis ball thing, and a brush. I think its a brush at least. My shopping list has a clicker, chew toy, truckload of different treats, and pretty much anything else I see. With that, any suggestions on how to crate her? I probably can't make it to the store until the weekend or else she'll be alone for a while so it looks like a couple of days of me watching her in the living room. She is seeing the vet tomorrow, so I'll try to let you all know how that goes. And I mentioned puppy kindergarten to my mom on the phone earlier and she thought that was just the cuttest thing. So if I can find one it had a good chance of happening. Sorry for any errors, I had to write this on my tablet. And it looks like she fell asleep on the floor, so maybe I can get a quicky shower in!
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Mar 27, 2012 18:45
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Thanks for the heads up on the carpet. I just overnighted the Nylabones in the OP. Tomorrow I'll try to forgo her midday meal and try the kibble thing in the afternoon. Also, for the record, when you say kibble, are you just referring to the individual pieces of dog food? Just trying to make sure if I have to get something with "kibble" on the side of it. I like the wtftastic's idea about the ex-pen. Thanks for that. I think I'll try to partition off the bit in front of our fireplace so she has a place other than the crate. It is a tile-y bit that should do fine. My schedule for the next couple of days is tighter than today's, so that would be nice if I can get it to work. I'll try those and report back. Thanks alot for the help guys.
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Mar 27, 2012 22:04
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Its Doc's Choice dry for pups, so yeah, kibble I guess. It has 3 stars on DogFoodAdvisor but it is what she was fed at the store and that is what they sold us. And now I have a bit of a problem. These posts make it sound like I'm the only one with the dog, but my mother has a different idea on how to run things. I called my father before I left for work and asked him to get something for a partition and some string cheese, but mom told him no. Her friends that have dogs are telling her that if you just leave the dog in the crate, she'll get used to it in a few weeks and the whining is fine. And she is inclined to believe them. I'm obviously not an expert, but my disagreement isn't really being taken seriously. I don't want to make this any more E/N than it already is, but other than the risk of the pup hating the crate and making training her harder, is there anything else I can tell her? And a couple of things I learned before I left for work. Evidently it is a vet that is in some sort of "partnership" with the store, not one that we (my mom and sister) picked out. I don't know if it is as little as just advertising at the store or something more serious than that, but it kind of rubs me the wrong way. I'm just like that as a person, but I'm a little worried that the vet might already know the background of the dog, and that it might influence something. At the vet's tomorrow, I told my sister to mention the pup licking between her hind legs a lot today and she said it was probably because she has stitches back there that I had no idea about. My sister had called the store and asked why, but they wouldn't answer and just told her to ask the vet. So that's got me worried a bit as well.
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Mar 28, 2012 05:02
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Superconsndar posted:It's crap, just googled the ingredients list. I'd check out the nutrition thread and get her on something better. Yeah, I realized it's crap when I compared the ingredients versus the thread, but I can't get to a store until at least the weekend so it has to make due. Definitely at the top of my list though. Speaking of food though, do the big name stores typically have high quality food or should I be looking for smaller, more independent places?
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Mar 28, 2012 05:13
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