Advice for new puppy owner

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Bodie

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Hi all. Last Tuesday, I brought home a 8 week old puppy - Bodie. I'd post pics (he's cute as hell), but I can't seem to figure out how to do it.

Anyways, I grew up with shelties but seem to have forgotten how we got them trained so well. I hope some of you can give your thoughts on the following topics for me.

(1) At what age do I start serious "come", "sit", "stay" etc training. I suspect Bodie's a little bit lacking in attention span right now and he'd vastly prefer playing with me than getting treats at this point.

(2) I think we're doing well on crating. He sleeps from 10 to 7:30 (with bathroom breaks at midnight and 5:30 am) without accidents. Doesn't make a peep in his crate either as he loves it. He has never pooped in the house, but there's been about 6 peeing accidents which were all due to getting over excited while playing (I saw 3 coming but didn't react quick enough). So, my question is: Will these play time accidents be serious set backs for housebreaking? I credit the short but hard play sessions with him sleeping so well through the night, but I am concerned about the occurrences.

(3) It's super cold here. Any ideas on good indoor socialization activities? He's nervous outside of my room, but warms up really well once he spends 15 or so minutes in other's houses. I only have so many friends and dogs to take him to and outdoors doesn't work because he gets super cold quickly.

(4) Anything the little guy comes in contact with is probably going in his mouth. Inside, we're puppy proofed (other than my hand), but outside he's goobling up leaves and mulch. Any suggestions on discouraging this? He's non-responsive to corrections short of taking the stuff out of his mouth.

(5) How often did you all crate during the day? I've been trying a 2 hour in, followed by 1 hour out, with a longer in and out session mid day.

Thanks so much for any advice.
 
Bodie said:
Hi all. Last Tuesday, I brought home a 8 week old puppy - Bodie. I'd post pics (he's cute as hell), but I can't seem to figure out how to do it.

Anyways, I grew up with shelties but seem to have forgotten how we got them trained so well. I hope some of you can give your thoughts on the following topics for me.

(1) At what age do I start serious "come", "sit", "stay" etc training. I suspect Bodie's a little bit lacking in attention span right now and he'd vastly prefer playing with me than getting treats at this point.

(2) I think we're doing well on crating. He sleeps from 10 to 7:30 (with bathroom breaks at midnight and 5:30 am) without accidents. Doesn't make a peep in his crate either as he loves it. He has never pooped in the house, but there's been about 6 peeing accidents which were all due to getting over excited while playing (I saw 3 coming but didn't react quick enough). So, my question is: Will these play time accidents be serious set backs for housebreaking? I credit the short but hard play sessions with him sleeping so well through the night, but I am concerned about the occurrences.

(3) It's super cold here. Any ideas on good indoor socialization activities? He's nervous outside of my room, but warms up really well once he spends 15 or so minutes in other's houses. I only have so many friends and dogs to take him to and outdoors doesn't work because he gets super cold quickly.

(4) Anything the little guy comes in contact with is probably going in his mouth. Inside, we're puppy proofed (other than my hand), but outside he's goobling up leaves and mulch. Any suggestions on discouraging this? He's non-responsive to corrections short of taking the stuff out of his mouth.

(5) How often did you all crate during the day? I've been trying a 2 hour in, followed by 1 hour out, with a longer in and out session mid day.

Thanks so much for any advice.
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1. You can start working on basics like come, sit, lay, etc, immediately. Shelties are smart, even as puppies. You are correct about the attention span thing though. Just do it in short sessions, maybe 5 repetitions at a time, and then go back to playing. I had the same issue with treats too.. I had to experiment with a couple different things and even now I have to rotate with treats because my dog will get bored with the same thing every time. The smellier the better.

2. I think you're fine. I would be a little more diligent about taking him outside right before and after a play session to reduce play time accidents.

3. Socialization is important, but it's not as important as having all vaccinations first. You didn't mention anything about his vaccinations, but I'm assuming at 9 weeks he's not fully vaccinated. Socialization isn't all about meeting dogs, but people as well. You can take him to a pet store (carrying him, don't put him on the floor until he's fully vaccinated). The more people and "things" he's introduced to the better.

4. Remember he's just a baby.. babies are bad about putting everything in their mouth too. You can start working on a "leave-it" command to try and discourage him from picking "bad" things up. But yes, for a while you're going to have to just take stuff out of his mouth. If possible, you can use another toy as a re-direction, like, "oh Bodie, don't eat that piece of trash, here's a squeaky toy!" If he likes to fetch, that's even better.

5. I brought my girl home at almost 10 weeks, and got to stay home a few days with her before I had to go back to work. She stayed in her crate for 3-4 hours at a time. I am lucky enough to live close to work, so I was able to come home during lunch breaks and let her out and play. By the time she was 6 months old, she was fine staying in her crate for 8-9 hours by herself no problem. She didn't initially like her crate, so we had to play a lot of crate games with her. Now she likes it and sees it as a safe place at home and at dog events (flyball and agility).

Enjoy you're new guy! I think I was in a similar place bringing my girl home. I hadn't had a puppy in a while and she was the first puppy I had to take care of 100% all by myself. I think she turned out okay :wink2:.
 
Welcome to you and Bodie! He is a cutie! There's some mischief in that face...you'll have fun with him.

Jess has given you some great guidelines. Just as a frame of reference, my four-month-old puppy has just learned to tell me when she needs to go out (that started around 14 weeks). Before that, it was hit or miss if we didn't get her out every 30 to 45 minutes. She never pooped inside, but she would puddle near the door when we weren't vigilant, especially after play. :uhoh:

Our puppies sleep through the night in a crate, with no bathroom breaks, from about 8 weeks old. They go from around 10 p.m. to 5 or 6 a.m. Bodie should be able to do that soon too. During the day, mine can go 4 to 5 hours in her pen comfortably. :sleepy:

Puppies' systems aren't developed enough to control elimination until around 6 months of age, so you may see accidents until then. It sounds like you're on the right tract though! Thanks for the pictures. Keep us posted on his progress. :smile2:
 
Congratulations, and welcomes to the forum. Bodie is very lovely.

Every dog is a little different, but we started "training" Sammy as soon as she was home with us at 8 weeks, obviously nothing serious, and there was little expectation. These session pay off when we first took Sammy to an actual training class, we could see how much better behaving she was compared to others.

You can start teaching the leaving it and drop it command, which will come in handy during situation you described, though don't expect them to be immediately effective, it takes time to build up.

Sammy is always created except when we have time to spend with her. When she gets out of the crate, the first thing we do is taking her to the potty, she is either rewarded with treat or play time immediately after she has done her business. She's very good with the indoor potty, we even makes sure she does her business we go out for our walks.

She used to have accidents (and that was our fault for leaving her inside too long) when she was younger, but has become very rarely now that she is older (just turned 1) except when she eats something (wrong) and has diarrhea.

Sammy's Daddy.
 
Ann said:
Welcome to you and Bodie! He is a cutie! There's some mischief in that face...you'll have fun with him.

Our puppies sleep through the night in a crate, with no bathroom breaks, from about 8 weeks old. They go from around 10 p.m. to 5 or 6 a.m. Bodie should be able to do that soon too. During the day, mine can go 4 to 5 hours in her pen comfortably. :sleepy:
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I will add that Hanna was also going through the night in her crate right from the beginning. Most nights that meant from about 11 PM to about 6 AM with the very occasional night where I had to get up mid evening to let her out. She has never soiled her crate. It was kept next to my bed and I could hear her easily. Now she's just over 7 months and easily goes from midnight to about 8 am.

For a while it seemed like were were always cleaning up accidents (often just 5 minutes after she'd been taken out) - but that seems like ages ago now.

Welcome you little fellow is a sweetie!
 
omg how cuuute
he is so witttllle adorable times ten!
Missy gave you bang on advice, can't add more n that

Socialize in your arms, let him see other people n dogs and everything, people with hats, different cultures, different genders and shapes and sizes and ages... in raincoats and umbrellas and so on and on
Definitely take him to a petstore and other places a few times a week, for sure.

check out appropriate positive puppy classes, too

I like Ian Dunbar and this website, dogstardaily is chock full of good stuff:

http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/sirius-puppy-raising-initiative-prospective-and-new-puppy-owners
 
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