Frequently asked questions about your new puppy
I get a lot of very good questions about the care, feeding and training of a new puppy, so I have put together some questions and answers to help with your new puppy. I will be adding to this page as I get new questions.
1. What do you feed your new puppy? We feed Kirkland brand puppy food. I have fed it for years and I think it is one of the best puppy foods out there. But you might consider an all raw diet for your puppy. Read all about it at www.leerburg.com, they call it the BARF diet.
2. Do you believe in crate training? I crate train all of my puppies and adult dogs. I travel quite a bit and this crate becomes their safe place. They love it. At home, around 8:00 pm every night, the dogs will go into their crates, on their own, and go to bed. A crate is worth it’s weight in gold for your puppy. If you buy a medium size crate, you will never have to buy any other size.
Get the crate with the "screws" in the sides, don't get the ones with the plastic handles that connect the crate top and bottom, they are not strong enough and you could drop your puppy or dog if they let go.
3. I have heard that potty training is very hard for small dogs? I really believe that 99% of the time anyone tells you that it is hard to housebreak your puppy is a person that has not been consistent with the potty training. Consistency is the key to housebreaking (and really any training). When your puppy wakes up, either after a long night or after a nap, use the command “outside” (or whatever word you chose to use) and take them outside to do their business. Play with them and take them “outside” and crate them. Feed them, take them “outside”, play (if you want) and crate them. They will be housebroken in no time. DO NOT allow your puppy the run of the house for the first few months. Yes, I said months, you can allow them outside the crate, UNDER SUPERVISION, as long as you want, but no unsupervised play in the house. I cannot say it enough, “CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY”.
4. How hard is it to obedience train your puppy? Check out the Puppy Marker Training at www.leerburg.com. If you follow their guidelines for training for just 3-5 minutes a day, you will have your puppy obeying commands within 2 weeks. Honestly, you will think you are the Dog Whisperer! I have had people who have never owned a puppy or dog before who have followed the marker training and have had fabulous results. Don’t be put off by this website, it is geared towards Schutzhund dogs, but has a lot of good information for pet owners. One thing to remember is that it takes AT LEAST 30 times of hearing a single command before a puppy really understands what you want. So if your puppy has successfully obeyed the “come” command once and then runs away the next time, please don’t say “He knows what I mean”, he really doesn’t. These little babies just live to please you, so be patient.
5. My puppy doesn’t seem to understand what I want from him/her. Again, these babies just want to please. So if they don’t seem to be “getting it”, you need to rethink what you are relaying to the pup and how you are relaying it. If they are looking at you blankly after several attempts or you are getting frustrated (after all, we are not perfect), don’t say a word to the pup, just pet it and put it in the crate until you rethink your training technique or cool off a little.
6. My pup has been training now almost daily for 4 months and I am losing his/her attention. Again, don’t say a word to the pup. If you have repeated the training for 4 months and your pup has successfully obeyed the command over 30 times, then yes, he does know what you want and is bored or just has gotten distracted. Don’t get mad, just put him in the crate and put his favorite treats that you are training with in a bowl in front of the crate, so he can smell and see it but can’t eat it. Leave him for about 30 minutes, then try training. He will get it!
7. I have heard that if you train with treats they will only obey when you have treats. Absolutely not! I also have a 4 year old male Rottweiler and haven’t regularly used treats since he was 8 months old. When we train now, I only use treats once in a while, just because I love him, not because he won’t obey me without them.
8. I don’t want a male dog because he lifts his leg in the house. WHAT!!!! I had never heard of such a thing until last year and now have had several people make the same comment. I really haven’t done any research on why this would happen, but after raising dogs almost all of my life, I really believe if this happens, it is because you are not the pack leader for your dog. I have never had a male dog lift his leg in my house. I set rules when they are puppies and always expect them to obey the rules. They rely on me to obey the rules. I think this goes back to consistency. Everyday, we have the same rules. They are not allowed on the couch one day and allowed on it the next day, you see what I mean.
9. My puppy is biting, how can I make it stop? Puppies are like babies, they put everything in their mouths, unfortunately, they have very sharp little teeth. So when your puppy starts chewing on your hands or more specifically, your fingers, just push your finger into their mouth, instead of pulling it away. They really don't like things pushed into their mouths and will stop quickly. Just be consistent and don't allow it one time and the next time, it's a no no. Always offer the pup something that is acceptable to chew on. This should be a very short term problem if you are consistent.
10. To crop or not to crop. I have so many people ask me about ear cropping, so here is my take on it. I happen to love the way the Schnauzers look with their ears cropped.
The cost is usually prohibitive....very prohibitive, (except with my vet, I think his prices are very reasonable and he uses laser, which I will talk about later). There is also so much bad press about ear cropping, you very rarely ever hear anything positive about ear cropping. There is so much bad publicity that I think people feel guilty about wanting their pups ears cropped. Well I wanted to find out myself exactly what goes on when the pups ears are cropped.
I am so fortunate that my vet actually asked me if I wanted to view the surgery. I said YES! So the first thing they did was give Mattie something to relax her, yeah relax, she went sound asleep. So when they started clipping and cleaning her head, she slept right through it. She was then intubated, monitored and the vet came in and marked her ears, consulting with me the whole way.
She went into surgery and the doctor used a laser to clip her ears...NO BLEEDING! It was great. He checked size again, stitched her up and woke her up. The whole process, clipping, cleaning, laser, suturing took about than 30 minutes. Within minutes of being placed in her recovery crate she was waking up. I left her to be monitored by the staff for a few hours, called back 4 hours later and she was awake and playful...still a little sleepy.
I took her home with antibiotics, pain pills, instructions on when to water and feed her and of course, the vets phone number at hand.
7 1/2 hours after surgery she was starving, I fed and watered her according to directions. Let her take another nap, she was't sick (after effects of surgery sometimes), so fed her some more. She wanted to play, but has to be still for a week or so.
Mattie slept all night, was up playful (hating the cone and little hat she has), ate good, went out to do her business and kicked back in the house with me today. She doesn't seem to be in any pain, but I gave her a pain pill anyway.
This afternoon, 24 hours after surgery, she has adjusted to the cone and hat and is acting like my sweet little girl.
So, my opinion is if you want them cropped, do it, yes it is a surgery, but didn't the term "elective" surgery become popular within the last 20 years or so because there was so much "elective" surgery being done? I just can't see anything wrong with the procedure, she was well taken care of and extra care taken to see that she was in no pain. I plan to keep on cropping ears. Will post pictures so you can see what she looks like. Maybe the vet will let me film the procedure next time! Dare I ask?
I get a lot of very good questions about the care, feeding and training of a new puppy, so I have put together some questions and answers to help with your new puppy. I will be adding to this page as I get new questions.
1. What do you feed your new puppy? We feed Kirkland brand puppy food. I have fed it for years and I think it is one of the best puppy foods out there. But you might consider an all raw diet for your puppy. Read all about it at www.leerburg.com, they call it the BARF diet.
2. Do you believe in crate training? I crate train all of my puppies and adult dogs. I travel quite a bit and this crate becomes their safe place. They love it. At home, around 8:00 pm every night, the dogs will go into their crates, on their own, and go to bed. A crate is worth it’s weight in gold for your puppy. If you buy a medium size crate, you will never have to buy any other size.
Get the crate with the "screws" in the sides, don't get the ones with the plastic handles that connect the crate top and bottom, they are not strong enough and you could drop your puppy or dog if they let go.
3. I have heard that potty training is very hard for small dogs? I really believe that 99% of the time anyone tells you that it is hard to housebreak your puppy is a person that has not been consistent with the potty training. Consistency is the key to housebreaking (and really any training). When your puppy wakes up, either after a long night or after a nap, use the command “outside” (or whatever word you chose to use) and take them outside to do their business. Play with them and take them “outside” and crate them. Feed them, take them “outside”, play (if you want) and crate them. They will be housebroken in no time. DO NOT allow your puppy the run of the house for the first few months. Yes, I said months, you can allow them outside the crate, UNDER SUPERVISION, as long as you want, but no unsupervised play in the house. I cannot say it enough, “CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY”.
4. How hard is it to obedience train your puppy? Check out the Puppy Marker Training at www.leerburg.com. If you follow their guidelines for training for just 3-5 minutes a day, you will have your puppy obeying commands within 2 weeks. Honestly, you will think you are the Dog Whisperer! I have had people who have never owned a puppy or dog before who have followed the marker training and have had fabulous results. Don’t be put off by this website, it is geared towards Schutzhund dogs, but has a lot of good information for pet owners. One thing to remember is that it takes AT LEAST 30 times of hearing a single command before a puppy really understands what you want. So if your puppy has successfully obeyed the “come” command once and then runs away the next time, please don’t say “He knows what I mean”, he really doesn’t. These little babies just live to please you, so be patient.
5. My puppy doesn’t seem to understand what I want from him/her. Again, these babies just want to please. So if they don’t seem to be “getting it”, you need to rethink what you are relaying to the pup and how you are relaying it. If they are looking at you blankly after several attempts or you are getting frustrated (after all, we are not perfect), don’t say a word to the pup, just pet it and put it in the crate until you rethink your training technique or cool off a little.
6. My pup has been training now almost daily for 4 months and I am losing his/her attention. Again, don’t say a word to the pup. If you have repeated the training for 4 months and your pup has successfully obeyed the command over 30 times, then yes, he does know what you want and is bored or just has gotten distracted. Don’t get mad, just put him in the crate and put his favorite treats that you are training with in a bowl in front of the crate, so he can smell and see it but can’t eat it. Leave him for about 30 minutes, then try training. He will get it!
7. I have heard that if you train with treats they will only obey when you have treats. Absolutely not! I also have a 4 year old male Rottweiler and haven’t regularly used treats since he was 8 months old. When we train now, I only use treats once in a while, just because I love him, not because he won’t obey me without them.
8. I don’t want a male dog because he lifts his leg in the house. WHAT!!!! I had never heard of such a thing until last year and now have had several people make the same comment. I really haven’t done any research on why this would happen, but after raising dogs almost all of my life, I really believe if this happens, it is because you are not the pack leader for your dog. I have never had a male dog lift his leg in my house. I set rules when they are puppies and always expect them to obey the rules. They rely on me to obey the rules. I think this goes back to consistency. Everyday, we have the same rules. They are not allowed on the couch one day and allowed on it the next day, you see what I mean.
9. My puppy is biting, how can I make it stop? Puppies are like babies, they put everything in their mouths, unfortunately, they have very sharp little teeth. So when your puppy starts chewing on your hands or more specifically, your fingers, just push your finger into their mouth, instead of pulling it away. They really don't like things pushed into their mouths and will stop quickly. Just be consistent and don't allow it one time and the next time, it's a no no. Always offer the pup something that is acceptable to chew on. This should be a very short term problem if you are consistent.
10. To crop or not to crop. I have so many people ask me about ear cropping, so here is my take on it. I happen to love the way the Schnauzers look with their ears cropped.
The cost is usually prohibitive....very prohibitive, (except with my vet, I think his prices are very reasonable and he uses laser, which I will talk about later). There is also so much bad press about ear cropping, you very rarely ever hear anything positive about ear cropping. There is so much bad publicity that I think people feel guilty about wanting their pups ears cropped. Well I wanted to find out myself exactly what goes on when the pups ears are cropped.
I am so fortunate that my vet actually asked me if I wanted to view the surgery. I said YES! So the first thing they did was give Mattie something to relax her, yeah relax, she went sound asleep. So when they started clipping and cleaning her head, she slept right through it. She was then intubated, monitored and the vet came in and marked her ears, consulting with me the whole way.
She went into surgery and the doctor used a laser to clip her ears...NO BLEEDING! It was great. He checked size again, stitched her up and woke her up. The whole process, clipping, cleaning, laser, suturing took about than 30 minutes. Within minutes of being placed in her recovery crate she was waking up. I left her to be monitored by the staff for a few hours, called back 4 hours later and she was awake and playful...still a little sleepy.
I took her home with antibiotics, pain pills, instructions on when to water and feed her and of course, the vets phone number at hand.
7 1/2 hours after surgery she was starving, I fed and watered her according to directions. Let her take another nap, she was't sick (after effects of surgery sometimes), so fed her some more. She wanted to play, but has to be still for a week or so.
Mattie slept all night, was up playful (hating the cone and little hat she has), ate good, went out to do her business and kicked back in the house with me today. She doesn't seem to be in any pain, but I gave her a pain pill anyway.
This afternoon, 24 hours after surgery, she has adjusted to the cone and hat and is acting like my sweet little girl.
So, my opinion is if you want them cropped, do it, yes it is a surgery, but didn't the term "elective" surgery become popular within the last 20 years or so because there was so much "elective" surgery being done? I just can't see anything wrong with the procedure, she was well taken care of and extra care taken to see that she was in no pain. I plan to keep on cropping ears. Will post pictures so you can see what she looks like. Maybe the vet will let me film the procedure next time! Dare I ask?
Here she is, 24 hours after surgery. I woke her from her nap. Sorry Mattie
