Pet Thread

[skullman80]

Good luck! Puppies are fun outside of potty training and them trying to destroy things lol.

[genoscoif]

Welp, I guess we're dog owners.

[AuthorTony]

Congrats!

[tifosi77]

Socialization and consistency.

[genoscoif]

Made it to the weekend in Puppyville in the coif household. She's lucky she's cute.

We had a pretty bad first few days. She came with diarrhea, which was a challenge to say the least and made the start of housebreaking pretty tough. To be fair, she kinda knows to go outside, but basically constantly felt like she had to go, so......yeah. Only one poop accident, though, which is a credit to her. She got to meet her vet on Thursday, who got her on meds to address the underlying issue. Nothing serious, but definitely needed addressed.

The foster told us she was crate trained for night time, which I'd say is 60% accurate, and she sleeps through the night, which I'd say is an outright lie. She knows that she should be in the crate, but doesn't necessarily want to stay in the crate. Monday night was horrible, but again her stomach issues didn't help. Thursday night was about as good as we could ask for. Down at 10pm. Cried to go out at about 12:30. Went out, peed, came in and went right back in the crate. Slept til about 6, which is when the Mrs. gets up anyway. Last night...totally different. We washed her blankets, so maybe that was it, but she did not want to be in there. Maybe this is starting to feel like home, but she cry, I'd go check on her to make sure she didn't have to go out, and she bolt straight for our couch and curl up and close her eyes. She eventually kinda went back in her crate, but I'm working on probably 3 hours of sleep. Gotta figure that one out quick. We don't plan on permanently crating her, but too many things for her to get into for now.

All that said, she is an absolute sweetheart. Definitely a cuddler. And now that the squirts are a bit more under control, she's definitely a zoomie puppy. Glad we didn't get new furniture when we talked about it around Christmas. Likely the first time she's ever seen snow last night, and she's a big fan. I'd post some pics, but I'm old and don't know how. lol. Imgur?

I have explained to her, in detail, that the Geneva Convention recognizes sleep deprivation as torture. She, to this point, does not seem to care.

[tifosi77]

With puppy Carlin we were told to put the crate in a different room and under absolutely no circumstances were we to let her out of the crate before morning wake up (unless we were taking her out to eliminate, and then right back into the box). Last lasted 1.5 nights. The whimpering/whining was non-stop and we simply couldn't sleep. So we moved the crate into the bedroom, and cut out like 98% of the whining immediately (she'd make a fuss for like 10 minutes, then fall asleep and stay asleep).

After that, we didn't really have any real challenges with her until teething started a couple months in. And that was not pleasant.

[MR25]

Yeah my dad slept in the family room with Gracie's cage while she was getting adjusted to being in a new place.

[Troy Loney]

Our second dog rejected the crate. Made the worst noise I’ve ever hear for hours. We gave up on night two, and now she sleeps in the bed. But she’s the most perfect being to ever grace the earth, so she’s welcome to sleep where she wishes.

[genoscoif]

So Lucy is getting kinda better with the crate, but her pee schedule sucks. It's about 2-3 hours after going in that she'll start fussing. She does go right outside, do her thing, then back in the crate to fall asleep...but we've noticed that her desired wake up time for the day seems to be around 5-6am. We let her fuss a bit this morning, but we also don't want her to soil her crate. Turns into a battle of wills, and she's a professional evidently. We did ignore the fussing Sunday morning around 5am, and she did settle back down. Thought we won. But about 40mins later she started again. She did pee as soon as she got outside.

During the day, she's perfect. So happy. We got to hear her bark for the first time when she saw her reflection (which was hilarious). That is one thing she has to work on...she's really quiet. Doesn't whine or bark really at all, and makes no noise when she wants to go out. Basically wanders in a way that you can tell. We let her do that to see if she'd whine to go out, but after a couple mins she just squatted to start peeing. We stopped her and got her outside, but, yeah...has to learn that one still.

[tifosi77]

Doggos have a circadian rhythm as well. I've read variously that Science believes they have either adapted their natural rhythm to innately suit coexistence with hoomans, or that they have developed an ability to quickly adapt their rhythm to the hoomans in their world. Either way, when the sun comes up, they want to get up. It will take several days of conditioning to get your puppers used to the way you wake up, but they will get used to it, and eventually associate certain triggers with "get out of bed". (e.g. they'll start responding to your own alarm clock, not because they hear it and are alerted by the noise, but because they've learned that right after they hear it they get out of doggie jail)

[iamjs]

https://www.facebook.com/Foxchasekennel ... LvBPFdhpzl

can you scroll through this thread and like this pic? It's probably about halfway through the thread.


My sister is trying to win a contest where she get a $50 Chewy card and a gift certificate from the kennel itself. Right now he's in second but has a considering amount of ground to make up for first place.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Done.

[dodint]

Voted.

The dog in first isn't even a real dog.

[genoscoif]

Seriously, how is this dog in first place? B&W photo, and it still looks like a spawn from Satan himself. Look. At. Those. Eyes. That's not cute...that's 'subliminal flash from The Exorcist'

[MR25]

You know how people say some dogs have "human" eyes?

Yeah, that dog has human eyes alright...

[iamjs]

We said the same thing about that dog, that it looks demonic.

Thanks for the votes everybody.

[genoscoif]

Had a bad, bad day with our puppy Lucy yesterday. We're working on crating her when we both have to run out somewhere. Saturday, my sister and brother in law came over to meet her, and completely wore her out. We had to run out briefly, so thought it was a perfect opportunity. Crated her up and ran out to pick up some things. Think we were gone for 40mins...came home to her still sleeping in her crate. Perfect.

Yesterday, we tried to expand on that a bit. We crated her up and went out for an early dinner. She was losing her stuff as we were leaving...crying and pushing against the cage. We understand that's part of it, so we left. We have a camera set up so we can check on her. She continued crying the entire time we were gone...about 90 mins. Got home to find that she pooped all over her crate, blankets, toy...everything. She was covered from her belly to paws. We washed everything, drew her a bath, steamed the carpet and floors (she tracked a bunch through the house). Absolutely awful.

Last night when going to bed, she absolutely refused to go anywhere near her crate. The only thing we could do was put her bed in our bedroom and shut her in with us. That went surprisingly well, but now we're terrified of trying again with the crate.

I don't think I've felt that bad in a long time.

[dodint]

Bummer. Lucy has successfully crate-trained you.

[tifosi77]

Yup, good job, Lucy.

[MR25]

Might be a dumb question, but do you give her treats when you put her in the cage?

[genoscoif]

Bummer. Lucy has successfully crate-trained you.

Yeah...treating it as a setback and will keep working with her on it. She's a stubborn little dodint, though. I'm not saying she did it intentionally, but I'm not not saying......

[genoscoif]

Might be a dumb question, but do you give her treats when you put her in the cage?

No. Friends of ours put a frozen Kong with peanut butter in with their dog whenever they go anywhere. I honestly don't know if that's a good idea or not.

[MR25]

We give/gave both of our dogs treats (just one milkbone) when they went into the cage so they would associate the cage with something positive. We also left a toy and an old unwashed t-shirt so they'd have something familiar in there with them.

Though, if your puppy isn't as food-driven as ours, it might not be as effective.

[tifosi77]

Are you doing anything with her in the crate except for periods of separation? (Sleeping in a different room, leaving the house, etc) Like, put her in the boo box and just sit on the couch and watch TV, or clean up, or do your taxes.

[genoscoif]

We give/gave both of our dogs treats (just one milkbone) when they went into the cage so they would associate the cage with something positive. We also left a toy and an old unwashed t-shirt so they'd have something familiar in there with them.

Though, if your puppy isn't as food-driven as ours, it might not be as effective.

She is extremely food motivated, so this makes a ton of sense and we'll try that immediately. She has a toy in there, and has latched on to one of my wife sweaters, so maybe we can try that in there as well. We had the blanket that she came with in there as well...basically her woobie...but that took the brunt of yesterday's festivities. It's in the washer for the second time, so doubtful it's going to retain any smell familiarity. Thanks, though...great suggestions!