I'm finally getting a dog!

EricTheWeary

Bilbo was a rescue and just was toilet trained. Don't know why.
Alfie had lived in a shed with a donkey and toilet training took about two days. 
Cheddar about two weeks. Just a lot of watching for signs and hanging around in the garden, praising at the end of the wee. We did 'crate fairy' with him so he had quiet, dry nights pretty much from the word go. Although he is a barky little shite now. 

RedRabbit

EricTheWeary said:

Bilbo was a rescue and just was toilet trained. Don't know why.
Alfie had lived in a shed with a donkey and toilet training took about two days. 
Cheddar about two weeks. Just a lot of watching for signs and hanging around in the garden, praising at the end of the wee. We did 'crate fairy' with him so he had quiet, dry nights pretty much from the word go. Although he is a barky little shite now. 

Did you get Cheddar as a pup?  I remember you getting him (mainly due to the Brooklyn 99 connection) but I can't remember what age he was.

I'm assuming the crate fairy visits quietly in the night, takes him out and (hopefully) returns a still sleepy pup with an empty bladder to the crate?  I was advised to just leave her, but after find a wet crate most mornings I am wondering if leaving her is just teaching her it's okay to pee in the crate.  I'm going to try taking her out overnight now.

EricTheWeary

RedRabbit said:

EricTheWeary said:

Bilbo was a rescue and just was toilet trained. Don't know why.
Alfie had lived in a shed with a donkey and toilet training took about two days. 
Cheddar about two weeks. Just a lot of watching for signs and hanging around in the garden, praising at the end of the wee. We did 'crate fairy' with him so he had quiet, dry nights pretty much from the word go. Although he is a barky little shite now. 

Did you get Cheddar as a pup?  I remember you getting him (mainly due to the Brooklyn 99 connection) but I can't remember what age he was.

I'm assuming the crate fairy visits quietly in the night, takes him out and (hopefully) returns a still sleepy pup with an empty bladder to the crate?  I was advised to just leave her, but after find a wet crate most mornings I am wondering if leaving her is just teaching her it's okay to pee in the crate.  I'm going to try taking her out overnight now.

Yes as a pup. The fairy (the phrase comes from a book we had) is just making sure he has a wee last thing then into the crate by the side of the bed with treats and a non noisy toy. Crate covered with a blanket. Lights out,I’m in bed but can reach him if need be. Dog settles, knows everyone is asleep and settles himself. When I wake up it’s dog out the crate and into the garden until he has done a wee. Lots of praise when he’s finished. After a month moved the crate to another room, kept all the signals and was fine. I was probably getting about six hours sleep a night and then extending that but only one wet night since we had him. Dogs don’t want to wee where they sleep so I guess they need to go to bed with an empty bladder and understand that it’s sleep time. 

Emp_Fab

I absolutely adore dogs.  As a mate says "We don't deserve them".  I'd love to have a furry companion again but losing Pugsley tore my heart out.  I have his ashes on my bedside table and I still talk to him. 

As much as I'd love another, I just can't go through that again.  The late night visits to the emergency vets, the hospital stays, the worrying, then struggling to keep his diabetes under control, then his blindness and then I lost him. 

I can't let a doggy pass me though without giving it a smooth  

Axe_meister

You have a scent hounds. Bloody minded creatures they are. My 8 year old Beagle has had her first winter of not pissing in the house. My other dogs took just a few weeks to train.

RedRabbit

I started on night time trips to the garden last night.  I managed to sleep through my alarm for 20 minutes but it all went well.  Layla wandered around the garden for a second before squatting.  I might be reading too much into it, but it did seem like she was trying to figure out why she was outside and what was expected of her. Anyway, dry crate this morning so I don't need to put her blankets through the washing machine.

We've got her first visit to the vet later.  I was thinking of just taking her on her lead and nursing her while we wait, but having just witnessed how excited she got by nextdoor's spaniel, I'm thinking the travel crate might be a better idea.  The cats have always been dealt with by the farm vet so I'm not sure what's expected in the waiting room with dogs.

mikeyrob73

take her on the lead @RedRabbit ;
sooner she gets socialised with other dogs the better 

digitalscream

mikeyrob73 said:

take her on the lead @RedRabbit ;
sooner she gets socialised with other dogs the better 

Exactly this. If she starts annoying other dogs, they'll just tell her off - adult dogs always deal with puppies differently. Just do your best to keep her from going too nuts, and you'll be fine

Axe_meister

No taking on lead or socialising with other dogs until she is fully vaccinated!

drofluf

mikeyrob73 said:

take her on the lead @RedRabbit ;;
sooner she gets socialised with other dogs the better 

Yes but only once fully vaccinated keep her in the cage or on your lap at the vets. Socialisation is essential but not until she’s vaccinated. 

Emp_Fab

Sorry but this thread is rubbish.  Far too much talking and nowhere enough pictures of the new pup.

RedRabbit

More puppy pictures later, I promise.

I'm going to leave her on her own for a short while for the first time this morning.  It should only be a hour at most as I need to take my bike into town to have a bit of work on it and I can't fit both the crate and the bike in the car at the same time.  I'll take her out for a wee before I go and will give her a some food in her crate and leave her with her favourite toys.  She'll probably be fine as she only really complains about being crated when I first put her in.  She soon settles and doesn't bother until she needs to come out for a bathroom break.

The trip to the vet went well.  She's a good weight and she never flinched when the vet was handling her or gave her the injection.  The only thing that was mentioned is that she may have a small hernia on her belly but they aren't worried about it and correct it at a later stage (probably at the same time as she gets spayed if I decide to have that done).  We went with just the lead but she was carried from the car to the surgery and she sat on my knee the whole time.  There were just 2 cats in crates in the waiting room and she never showed any interest in them.  Next jab is booked in for a months time.

drofluf

Don’t worry about the hernia, ours had one removed when she was spayed as well. Now a fit and healthy 12 year old

RedRabbit

Thanks.  I wasn't worried though.  Actually quite relieved as I'd found the lump and was imagining the worst.

The vet that saw us was great.  Made a huge fuss of Layla once we got her on the table and actually recommended I get ear drops from Amazon as they're half the price compared to what the surgery charges.

All in all a positive experience and I'm hopeful that Layla won't have any negative associations with going there.

mikeyrob73

Axe_meister said:

No taking on lead or socialising with other dogs until she is fully vaccinated!

Apologies i didnt realise she hadnt been Vaxed 

Shrews

For toilet training put newspaper down and each night remove a sheet until there's one sheet left closest to where the entrance to the garden will be. They gradually get the message that you want them to do it in the garden. 

Offset

RedRabbit said:

The trip to the vet went well... there were just 2 cats in crates in the waiting room and she never showed any interest in them.

Now that is a scenario I've managed to successfully avoid in nearly 9 years with our rescue mutt...

  

digitalscream

Offset said:

RedRabbit said:

The trip to the vet went well... there were just 2 cats in crates in the waiting room and she never showed any interest in them.

Now that is a scenario I've managed to successfully avoid in nearly 9 years with our rescue mutt...

 

We thought we were golden, until we heard a commotion in the garden and one of our Chihuahuas had a cat pinned by the throat.

We pretty much thought that was as unusual as it got, until one day a cat was taunting our Akita. Cat jumped over the fence, thinking it was safe.

Said Akita solved the problem by running through the fence.

Cats tend to avoid our garden these days.

Offset

digitalscream said:

Offset said:

RedRabbit said:

The trip to the vet went well... there were just 2 cats in crates in the waiting room and she never showed any interest in them.

Now that is a scenario I've managed to successfully avoid in nearly 9 years with our rescue mutt...

 

We thought we were golden, until we heard a commotion in the garden and one of our Chihuahuas had a cat pinned by the throat.

We pretty much thought that was as unusual as it got, until one day a cat was taunting our Akita. Cat jumped over the fence, thinking it was safe.

Said Akita solved the problem by running through the fence.

Cats tend to avoid our garden these days.

That is pretty much how it would end here.  And our garden is surrounded by a dry-stone wall :-)

I haven't seen a cat in our garden for these past nine years, and there are plenty of them around here.

RedRabbit

A couple more pictures as promised


Also, one very grumpy Esme Cat 


This after Esme entered Layla's part of the front room last night.  She'd managed to climb up the back of the sofa to get in, but wouldn't jump down again.  As I had a sleeping pup on my lap, I couldn't just jump up and help her.  She was "stuck" for about 20 minutes.  She did at one point come and sit on the arm of my chair while I was nursing Layla and we've not had any fights through the barrier for a couple of days.