I'm finally getting a dog!

RedRabbit

I had my annual review at work recently and managed to negotiated more time working from home so I could get a dog.

I've found a breeder that's not too far away and have arranged a visit to see a litter with the parents.  All being well, I'll be bringing a beautiful, 10-week-old basset hound home in a couple of weeks.

I know there are loads of dog owners on here, so I'm looking for tips, resources etc for looking after and training a puppy.

My family always had dogs when I was at home, but it'll be over 20 years since I last had a puppy to look after and they were working collies so treated quite differently to one that'll be 100% a pet.  

I've got a book by Adam Spivey, though I've no idea if he's respected in training circles.  It was just highly rated on Amazon and was included in Kindle unlimited so I thought it was worth trying.  If there's anything better out there, I'd definitely be interested.

I've started making a list of basic equipment needs - lead and collar, food and water bowls, crate (x2 one for the house another for the car), toys and rewards.  Am I missing anything?  At least to begin with, I'll be getting the same food she'll have been on at the breeders (Royal Canin, I think).

Also, I'm after recommendations for pet insurance.  I've looked at Pet Plan as my boss recommended them - a bit on the pricier side but they tend not to hesitate when it comes to making a claim.  They have two options, on-going treatment cover or an annual claims cap.  The latter being about half the price.  I'm not too fussed about the price but I'm just wondering if the annual claims cap would be better with the difference going into a doggy emergency savings account?

Offset

Congrats!  

Both our doggies are covered by PetPlan - not the cheapest but they've paid out every claim promptly.  It goes straight through our vet - we don't have to lift a finger.  We have the lifetime care option on both - it's worth it for the peace of mind.  I know people who have hit their annual cap and have faced huge nills.

Pics when the pup arrives please!

boogieman

Congratulations, looking forward to pics too, puppies are so cute. The only thing I can see missing from your list is puppy pads to help with the toilet training. 

S56035

Pictures immediately please!

Dominic

Bassett ........You're bold
We are very 'doggy' ....bred Irish Wolfhounds for 20 years and have 5 Wire Hair Dax( hunting Dax not miniatures...same size as small Bassetts .
We look after a Bassett .....he came to live with us for 4 months when owner had to work abroad.
Lovely nature but stubborn and a bit barky.
Smellier than most breeds.
Biggest issue is walking ....as a scent hound they get their nose down on a line and if ,off lead, there is zero recall ;it'stheir nature and what they are meant to do.......beligerent isn't the word !

RedRabbit

Dominic said:

Bassett ........You're bold
We are very 'doggy' ....bred Irish Wolfhounds for 20 years and have 5 Wire Hair Dax( hunting Dax not miniatures...same size as small Bassetts .
We look after a Bassett .....he came to live with us for 4 months when owner had to work abroad.
Lovely nature but stubborn and a bit barky.
Smellier than most breeds.
Biggest issue is walking ....as a scent hound they get their nose down on a line and if ,off lead, there is zero recall ;it'stheir nature and what they are meant to do.......beligerent isn't the word !

I know, but it's all part of their character and I've got experience with hounds (including a rescue from a stud farm who was the most stubborn dog I've ever known) so I've got some idea of what I'm letting myself in for.  I was torn between a beagle and basset but I think the basset is more my speed of dog.

@boogieman - I purposefully left puppy pads off the list.  Having read various pros and cons (and having never used them with any of the farm dogs) I've come down on the side of not using them.  I get the idea, but it just seems to me that they are encouraging the pup to make a mess inside.  I'd rather put up with a few accidents while training her that she does her business outside.

boogieman

RedRabbit said:

Dominic said:

Bassett ........You're bold
We are very 'doggy' ....bred Irish Wolfhounds for 20 years and have 5 Wire Hair Dax( hunting Dax not miniatures...same size as small Bassetts .
We look after a Bassett .....he came to live with us for 4 months when owner had to work abroad.
Lovely nature but stubborn and a bit barky.
Smellier than most breeds.
Biggest issue is walking ....as a scent hound they get their nose down on a line and if ,off lead, there is zero recall ;it'stheir nature and what they are meant to do.......beligerent isn't the word !

I know, but it's all part of their character and I've got experience with hounds (including a rescue from a stud farm who was the most stubborn dog I've ever known) so I've got some idea of what I'm letting myself in for.  I was torn between a beagle and basset but I think the basset is more my speed of dog.

@boogieman - I purposefully left puppy pads off the list.  Having read various pros and cons (and having never used them with any of the farm dogs) I've come down on the side of not using them.  I get the idea, but it just seems to me that they are encouraging the pup to make a mess inside.  I'd rather put up with a few accidents while training her that she does her business outside.

Fair enough, whatever you’re comfortable with. We encouraged our Lab to wee/poo outdoors of course but there were always the odd accidents and the pads saved the carpet several times. 

digitalscream

PetPlan are great - we've never had an issue claiming. On top of that, every vet we've ever used has dealt directly with PetPlan, which removes a big headache; they don't do that with all insurers.

EDIT: Your vet can't make recommendations on insurance, but there's a way round that - you can ask them who they insure their own pets with.

HUGELY important point - do not get annual cover, make sure it's lifetime cover. The difference is that if your dog has any health issue that requires long-term medication or treatment, annual cover will just cover it for the rest of the year and then you're on your own. Lifetime cover will, obviously, cover it for the rest of your dog's life.

TTony

RedRabbit said:

I've started making a list of basic equipment needs - lead and collar, food and water bowls, crate (x2 one for the house another for the car), toys and rewards.  Am I missing anything?  

Poo bags.


And - continuing the theme - a suitable outside toileting area. 

You really don't want a dog running around doing its things on a nice grass lawn (which soon becomes a less nice muddy patch when it rains) and then trotting back into the house to clean its paws on your floor / carpet / rugs.  We've put down an astro turf area purely for the purpose.  Easier to clean too.

TTony

digitalscream said:

Lifetime cover will, obviously, cover it for the rest of your dog's life.

Albeit at a commensurately higher premium ...

EricTheWeary

I wouldn't listen to me on dog training but I knew someone who kept Bassets and they had a lovely temperament. The downside for the owner was that the dogs had such a big Ahhhh factor that people tended to ignore him. 
We've had insurance for Cheddar although not for previous dogs. The thinking was that puppies can do quite mad things or he might have developed some previously undiscovered genetic defects or something. The premiums go up a lot every year so we will probably change to the savings account approach this year. 
We have a long (5m I think) rubberised lead that was useful when first going over parks,etc. Got it from a company called Swaggerpaws and also got his regular lead from there, been very robust and we still use the long lead when we borrow my in law's Retriever/elephant. 

Offset

TTony said:

digitalscream said:

Lifetime cover will, obviously, cover it for the rest of your dog's life.

Albeit at a commensurately higher premium ...

Yep.  Last time I looked we were paying around £2500 pa for both mutts.  However given one of them is on monthly librela jabs for life and is getting on a bit, it's money wisely spent from my perspective.

Funkfingers

Try not to name your hound Bertie. 

Offset

Funkfingers said:

Try not to name your hound Bertie. 

...sadly missed on here 

matt_sefton

Just another thumbs up for PetPlan. Used them for 30 years and they’ve never refused a claim. As others have said they’re not the cheapest but you get what you pay for 

digitalscream

TTony said:

digitalscream said:

Lifetime cover will, obviously, cover it for the rest of your dog's life.

Albeit at a commensurately higher premium ...

True - however, in our experience...it's well worth it.

Coco had a complication which is relatively common after being spayed, which led to her not being able to completely control her bladder while asleep. The medication for that alone would cost 90% of the current insurance premium, and that occurred 9 years ago. On top of that, she's about to have her third surgery in the last three months, and that's going to take us to within £500 of the annual claims limit...

Sure, we pay about £2k/year on insurance for all three of them, but - to me, at least - it's money well spent to not have to care about finances when we want to be focusing on our dogs' wellbeing.

Of course, I know you're already in the know on all that (only saying it for the benefit of the newbies...). It's one of those "Oh, it'll never happen to me" decisions that it's easy to make when the dog's young and healthy, and even easier to regret when they're older and start needing a lot of vet attention.

PolarityMan

Don't think I ever posted here before t we got a goldrador pup back in late November, he's coming up 9 months now.

Toilet training was incredibly easy and the breeder had made a good start when he arrived. Think we have one solid accident and maybe 5 liquid ones in total. Way easier than toilet training children that for sure!

Soner bought pads but never ended up using them in the end.

My biggest piece of advice is to jump in with off lead training and socialising with other dogs as soon as possible. Loki's recall is not perfect but he is manageable off lead and early socialisation with lots of other dogs means that there's never been any drama and he has learned quickly to read signals from dogs that don't want to interact.

Other big tip is if you are crate training don't give up on the first couple of nights. We had 2 nights which he had us up every hour when he first arrived but since then sleeps through in his crate without fail.

We've also been pretty lucky with chewing, we supervise pretty closely so substitute things he's allowed to chew and because we ate generally pretty on top of it we've only had a couple of things destroyed (although one was a chunk of dry wall ).

Dominic

RedRabbit said:

Dominic said:

Bassett ........You're bold
We are very 'doggy' ....bred Irish Wolfhounds for 20 years and have 5 Wire Hair Dax( hunting Dax not miniatures...same size as small Bassetts .
We look after a Bassett .....he came to live with us for 4 months when owner had to work abroad.
Lovely nature but stubborn and a bit barky.
Smellier than most breeds.
Biggest issue is walking ....as a scent hound they get their nose down on a line and if ,off lead, there is zero recall ;it'stheir nature and what they are meant to do.......beligerent isn't the word !

I know, but it's all part of their character and I've got experience with hounds (including a rescue from a stud farm who was the most stubborn dog I've ever known) so I've got some idea of what I'm letting myself in for.  I was torn between a beagle and basset but I think the basset is more my speed of dog.

@boogieman - I purposefully left puppy pads off the list.  Having read various pros and cons (and having never used them with any of the farm dogs) I've come down on the side of not using them.  I get the idea, but it just seems to me that they are encouraging the pup to make a mess inside.  I'd rather put up with a few accidents while training her that she does her business outside.

Obviously you know what you are letting yourself in for ........Bassetts are very loyal and very loving but they are stubborn gits and do like to howl/bark 
I agree puppy pads are great buy counterproductive 

Axe_meister

They may have bad recall but at least you can keep up with them. Unlike my Beagle, although she has become very lazy these days. I love scent hounds, despite being "hunting dogs" they don't seem to have a bad bone in them. (Which is why Beagles are used in animal experiments).
Have fun. 
We recently inherited my daughter's cockerpoos, so now have 4 dogs.

barnstorm

Agree with the other comments re. no-stress insurance cover given that Bassets are more likely than the average mutt to have health issues. This might be useful for when you’re checking out the breeder and the puppy’s parents: https://www.hsvma.org/assets/pdfs/guide-to-congenital-and-heritable-disorders.pdf

Nick67

Bassets.
Great fun.
Hard work.