[Katanga]

Folks

I finally got my King Charles Spaniel...and it is adorable.

We have only had it for 3 days and here are the few challenges given I am a first time owner:

-it is shitting and peeing everywhere quite often. How to stop though it is finding the pads I bought from the pet shop.
-it does welp in the middle of the night seeking attention. This is stressing me out in case the neighbours complain.
-it is adorable but is a cheeky bugger looking for attention all the time.

Questions:

1. what is the best way to train the dog ?
2. can anyone recommend a professional dog training place and when is the best time to send the dog there ?
3. How do I stop it from waking up at 1.00am seeking attention. It is yelping/barking and I am concerned the neighbours will complain, hence I am giving it the attention at 1.00am.

All advise and help much appreciated.

cheers

[jlongboard]

How often do you take it out? A puppy should be brought out 15 minutes after it eats. Anytime you notice it sniffing around take it outside. Not long walks if it's still a pup, but at least 5 times a day.
A tired dog is a happy dog.
The middle of the night barking and whining, have you got a crate? I would try crate training it. Just bring the crate in your room with you when you sleep. Don't let him out when he wines, put a lot of blankets in there for him and wrap up a clock that tick-tock's. It helps for some reason.
Do you mind if I ask how old it is? And has he been to the vet to be checked up?

[Katanga]

jlongboard

We have been told by the vet not to take it out until it has had a few more of the vaccinations. Yes, it was taken to the vet for a check up before being bought. The vet has told us he'll tell us when its good to go a few walks. Its got another check up next week (has a bit of a cough)


I don;t have a crate but am using one of the metal frames to house it in most of the time. Its pretty big. Its happy with its little bed of blankets and has one of those poo trays at the other end. It hits the mark most of the time when in this metal frame thingy.

A mate just told me about the clock ! Will give it a shot soonest.

The puppy is 3 months old.

A couple of things we have figured out today:

1. its pretty tired after playing with us for about 30-40mins of running around the apt,
2. it is bloody manipulative and does bark asking us to take him out of the metal frame but after a few minutes of ignoring it does settle down.

I thought that I would only need to take it out twice a day ? 5 times sounds rather a lot ?

cheers

[Monde]

I can't remember the exact numbers but a rough guess is that a pup can hold off going to the bathroom about an hour per month old it is. If it sleeps as soon as it wakes up put it in the place to go to the bathroom. If it plays and stops take it to the bathroom.

The Ticking of the clock is like another animals heartbeat so the pup does not feel alone. A radio that is very soft also sometimes helps but some dogs go looking for the people and then it is counter productive.

The pup will slways push the limits and try to get you to do what it wants. The happiest dogs are ones that know there place (without yank and smack) and are trained. Even at this age you can start training to sit etc. Short trainng sessions do help.

[carang]

first off....

a puppy is like a child. it needs to relieve itself much more often than an older dog. i would say that 5 times a day is being conservative. when our puppies were that young, we took them out every 2 hours, even at night. this way the dog became house-trained faster and there was no need to crate-train and then train again for going outside. some dogs actually get to the point that they refuse to go outside, even if you walk them. this is why i prefer to skip the "crate/pad training". this going out all the time will only last a couple of months until the puppy is old enought to hold it for longer.

second...
yes, a good trainer is excellent to have, BUT it will do you absolutely NO GOOD if you "send" the dog. the training is as much for YOU as it is for the dog. YOU need to learn how to deal with the dog, and the dog needs to learn what YOU expect of him.

third...

for the barking... get a small plastic empty coca-cola bottle or similar. clean it out and put 3-5 coins into it. whenever the dog barks, give the bottle a shake. dogs HATE the sound and eventually they learn not to bark/whine. BUT you must do this EVERY TIME the dog barks/whines. even in the middle of the night, keep the bottle by your bed and give it a shake. it may take a few weeks, but it works very well. (we've used this method on over 50 dogs).

lastly...
you need to realise that your dog is just that, a dog. many people, especially first-time owners, and for some reason, women, they are treated like a human. this is very bad for the dog. dogs are pack animals and are happiest when they know the heirarchy of the pack. this means that YOU must be the ALPHA influence. it is YOU that decides what is acceptable and what is not. if you tell your dog not to do something in a "baby talk" voice, your dog will not respect, and will not listen to what you are saying. you must be commanding when you deal with the dog.

if you are unsure of what i mean, i strongly reccommend that you order the dvd's of "cesar milan, the dog whisperer" from amazon.com. he has a tv show on national geographic in the us. my husband takes care of dogs for a living (but he is not a trainer) and he swears by these dvd's. he tries to get all of his clients to watch our copies so that they can see in practice, what some of the behaviours are that we end up having to deal with. it also gives you great guidance as to how to deal with these behaviours. i think if you order from amazon it takes about 2-3 weeks to arrive in HK.

if you wish to discuss this further, please feel free to PM me.

good luck!

[thewongs]

Congratulations on the new pup! It's a lot of work training a puppy so be prepared to put in some time at the beginning. Depending on how your pup does with training will determine how much time you need to put into in the future.

Usually, dogs are okay out of the city sidewalks at 4 months. When we got our dog, we would take him out to the rooftop of our building to play and help with house training. There are some diseases like parvo that your pup can get out on the sidewalk and can be fatal at such a young age so see if you can't find another play and potty area outside that isn't visited by other dogs. We first paper trained our dog and then at 4 months we house trained him, it only took us a week to house train. We were diligent and we took him out 6 times a day when he was young. We paid someone to take him out while we were at work. Also, giving a dog lots of room to roam around in isn't good for his house training. You need to confine him into a small area as dog by nature don't pee where they sleep. If you give him enough room to pee or poop and still sleep then it will be difficult to house train. Don't feel like guilty about it, it's not mean. In general, dogs feel safer in cozy little spaces which is why they tend to curl up underneath furniture or in corners.

Carang has lots of good points so I won't repeat those.

Hope this helps. Take lots of pictures bcuz they grow so fast.

[Katanga]

folks

thanks for all the important advise.

I have sent you a PM Carang - need desperate advise on when I can start taking him out for a walk. Unfortunately, I can;t think of anywhere I can take the dog where there won;t be other dogs.

I have to persevere another 3-4 weeks indorr only.

What about a muzzle to stop the barking - sounds very harsh but I am worried sick of complaints from neighbours - in building its 2 strikes and the pet has to go.

thanks

[jlongboard]

Please don't follow everything Cesar Milan says, a lot of the public think that what he does is a quick fix for a dogs problems. In a lot of the dog training worlds opinion, the man is a "crank and yank" trainer. He has no credentials at all, just observation of dogs he has, and has grown up around. Most of the dogs he "helps" are bad case dogs and are a temp. fix. Not a permanent one.

And yes a puppy should go out every few hours

[carang]

have you tried any of his suggestions? we have and they work(at least the ones that we have tried). i say this from personal experience.

as with anything, you need to decide for yourself if it is suitable for your situation. we have also dvd's of many other programs. we have found cesar milan to be the best, for our situation and oprah agrees!

[carang]

double message... sorry... deleted