Posted on 09/13/2008 4:13:38 PM PDT by garbageguy
Haven't had a puppy in years, but am getting one for my boys. Appreciate any reading material or personal thoughts on all the fun stuff: potty training, etc.
The dog is a male English Lab, FWIW.
Cute - how bouncy is he/she?
Get a German Shepherd! Get a good 1 and you’ll never want another.
(Very biased here.) ;-)
Seriously, use a CRATE for the house-breaking.
Keep the pup in there much of the time except when you can specifically supervise the puppy (for that, you might want to block off a room for him to play in while you’re there - and use a lead, possibly just a small kitty lead or show lead). Keep him in the crate always at night while you are in bed.
When he wakes up (whining or not), pick him out of the crate immediately and go outside and let him potties. Praise him when he potties outside. (Give him a chance to do all possible; maybe 10 min.) YES, YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE TO GET UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT MANY TIMES AND GO OUTSIDE, EVEN IN THE COLD AND MUD. BE READY FOR IT.
Do this essentially the same way during the day, too, but of course, there will be times you just plain are outside, or when he’s just “free” of the crate you must watch for signs. A good “NO” if you catch him starting to go or he did will often do the trick, but in any case, then take him outside to show him where potties should be.
Doing this avoidance thing for house-breaking often helps them learn very fast, and with the crate, they can’t do much damage (of any kind) to anything in your home.
For the crate, be sure to give a portion of it a nice “cushion”, a toy, and definitely water. You may want to feed him food in it, too.
BTW, he doesn't need the doggy diaper now.. That was temporary until his injection for pain kicked in. He has muscular degeneration in his hind legs. The vet told us he had maybe a month to live. A week later she checked him out and said 6 months would be a gift.. Five weeks later she said he could go well beyond 6 months!
He's my ex-boyfriends dog, but I offered to take him since he can't make the steps at his house. It's a Privilege taking care of this noble animal!
Well, I'll be a son of a sea cook- maybe that explains why he's a little ball of lightning!
And he's a little pickpocket, too- he steals stuff, including money, out of visitors pockets. And ours.
“the con artists at animal control insisted he was a Collie, but it turns out he’s 90%, maybe pure, Golden Retriever”
Who told you he was Golden? Do you have bigger pix of him? Because in the small pix I see Shepherd. Or some other similar racoon-faced dog.
Animal Control isn’t a con-artist place; they’re just NOT experts as they believe themselves to be. Neither are vets. Nor many other “animal experts”.
You’ll have to use your judgment and sift through some junk but there is a lot of good info to be found at:
http://www.dogster.com/
My Cooper and I are on there too:
http://www.dogster.com/dogs/751284
Say hi!
The animal control people just wanted to move him out of there- first thing he did when released was bite everybody's ankles...
Then, he go out the door and made a beeline to US 17 and heavy traffic... Miss Emily didn't finish writing the check until they got him back in unmashed condition.
Sorry - I thought he was a new pup - but it’s good you’re taking care of him. My Border Collie is approaching seven. She broke her front shoulder joint when she was six months old and on cold days she limps - doesn’t slow her down though
Regards,
Jane
(Now if only this screen that my husband traded with me would lighten up - yes, that’s why he traded with me!)
Anyway, yes, I’d guess at least part Golden, but wouldn’t be surprised at part Collie either with that face. Especially “biting the ankles”! Or GS for that matter (again, the latter comment), or some kind of husky.
The behavior of nipping at the ankles does sound more like a herding dog, although I HAVE known field type Goldens who were a little on the nippy side (including one who actually drew blood from his owner!)
If you observe herding behavior (it's really funny when they get started on a group of kids, or you can try him with runner ducks on a long line) that would pretty much confirm the Collie . . . although one of my Labs does herd a little, she spent too much time in her formative years doing Agility with a bunch of Border Collies.
Again, wish I could see pix better on this damned dark monitor (husssbaaannnnd!), but I’d definitely say he looks alot Golden - but could also have Collie. I’ve seen Collie/Golden crosses before, although they’re quite rare. (Weird to think Collies are rare, yet until recently, I’ve not seen 1 since I last went to a dog show 15 years ago.)
But when we were very active in Agility and working on her titles in 2 associations, we spent about 4 years in active competition, probably 3-4 weekends out of the fall, winter, and spring months at trials -- and in all that time I remember seeing ONE Rough Collie and ONE Smooth-coated Collie. Lots of Border Collies, lots of Aussies and Heelers, lots and LOTS of Shelties, but only two full size Collies.
I think part of that may be that the "Lassie" craze resulted in overbreeding, which bred herding instinct and brains out of a good number of the breed. Hopefully there are enough good Rough Collies left that the breed will be able to recover. It's been steadily declining in popularity (AKC registrations) from 30th in 1997 to 38th in 2007, well behind a lot of breeds you never heard of.
Labs of course are No. 1 and have been No. 1 forever . . . . :-D
You take a cheek swab, mail it in, and a few weeks later get back a rundown of the percentage of different breeds in your dog. They can test for 104 different breeds at this point - Collies and Goldens included.
I did a related genetic test for my younger Lab, to determine which coat colors she is carrying. I suspected from her pedigree that she is "tri factored" - throwing all three colors of Lab - but the test confirmed it, which is nice. I still have to have her hips, elbows, and eyes tested before we can consider breeding her (foolishly I had my first Lab spayed at 7 months, when I thought I had a pet and didn't realize what an outstanding all-round athlete with a great personality was hanging out at my house!) I don't know if Lab No. 2 is an all round athlete, but by golly she is Death to Flying Things and I have never seen a Lab quite so fast.
It just amazes me that all these years later, Lassie is still virtually a household name - and hence people know what a Collie is (and still don’t know that a Shetland Sheepdog is NOT a “miniature Collie”, despite the relative mismatch in popularity). Yet almost none of us in “real” life (never mind dog trials) can think of a genuine Collie we’ve known in say 20 years.
Thanks for incidentally mentioning the ranking, as I have been very curious. Last I recall in the ‘80s they were about 15. Actually I’m almost surprised they’re as high in registration as they are.
If you want forever (and we’re only talking AKC registrations, incidentally), how ‘bout dem Poodles? They were #1 so long (25 years), the 1st Trivial Pursuit apparently put them down as an answer to the “most popular dog” question since it seemed it’d never change. Of course, by late ‘80s it did, to the Cocker Spaniel.
Just Damn! That's amazing, and I appreciate the info.
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