Hubby surprised me with a new baby tonight. I’d been hinting not-so-subtlely that I wanted one, and I was thrilled when he came through the door with our new family member.
My adult dog (almost nine years old) is pretty unhappy about it, though. When we first showed the pup to her, she started salivating heavily-- something she never does. She growled at the puppy, barked once at her, and has avoided the puppy like the plague. She’s acting like she’s afraid of the puppy. Well, she’s never seen one before, and she can be somewhat hostile to outsiders.
Advice would be welcome. It’s been a while since I raised a puppy. I know a good deal about training, but it’s the details which escape me. The puppy is only five weeks old, and very tiny. Is it too soon to start housebreaking? How often should she eat and how much? How often should she go out? How should she be given water? (All that she’s had since I got her home a few hours ago is a few tablespoons of dry food soaked in water to soften it. She took to it pretty well.)
You can start housebreaking the puppy now, the best way is to use a strick feeding schedule and then immediate trips outside.
Our Vet said to feed it 3 times a day with 1/4 food each time, and to only put down the food for 10 minutes at a time so it learns when it’s time to eat.
Yayyyyyy!!!
Finally a dog-lover. All these cat (ughhh) people here were starting to worry me.
Actually, it would help if you told us the breed of puppy. Different puppies have different needs. Haha, and say goodbye to your favourite pair of slippers. Unless you don’t mind a slobbery pair with toothmarks in it.
Oh my, that’s really too soon to even remove her from her mother. (Six weeks is the minimum I’ve heard, but eight is even better.) Why was she taken away so soon? (Foundling? Mother ill/dead?)
No puppy advice to give at the moment, but please be sure to reassure your older dog that she is still top dog. Lots of loving and attention.
To answer you and Scarlet, we just don’t know the breed or exact age. Hubby went to the shelter and found this one for me. They estimated 5 weeks, but no mommy was there so we could not discern the type. We are taking her to the vet tomorrow so maybe they can tell us.
I will see if I can upload some pictures somwhere and link. We took some tonight.
I know that knowing the breed would be helpful, but I am still happy my husband chose to rescue a dog from the shelter. The hardest thing on him, he said, was choosing which one. There were three litters of puppies that were overdue for being “put to sleep”.
She looks like she may have some Lab in her, and maybe a smaller type dog. Her paws are about a inch long and I was wondering if at 5 weeks we could expect them to get bigger to indicate the final size of the dog.
Yay puppies! It’s never to early to start housetraining. Take her out right after eating, right after she wakes up, and after she’s been playing. Use a cue word (“hurry up” or something like it, unless you’re like us and don’t mind saying “Let’s go pee-pee poo-poo!”) and praise lavishly when she does it right.
Crate training is also a good idea.
I hope she’s older than 5 weeks, cuz that really is pretty young. After she’s had her shots, take her out and expose her to lots of different things and people. Go to parks, and encourage other people to pet her. This is easy, because people LOVE to pet puppies.
I hope Elenfair will drop by this thread. She’s the expert, and has a new puppy of her own (as do I.)
mrAru and I use crap already, will you and it seemed to work fine.
Personally, I detest puppies and kittens and would already have an adult animal. We get pretty much all our critters at a shelter and go for adults. in general adults already are housebroken and understand NO fairly well.
Well, there is definitely a certain amount of PITA associated with young of any species. On the other hand, I’d hate to have missed the way Jasper does a Tigger pounce on his toys, or the general enthusiasm that he tackles everything. That, to my mind.* pays for lots of puppy accident cleanups.
Well, we all survived Hell Night. Hubby took first shift. The puppy (whose name is Polaris because of the white star on her head) woke every 45 minutes. It’s amazing that something so tiny can make that much noise.
This morning, when I took over, I managed to get her to eat a little, and drink some water. The poor thing has diarreaha, but we haven’t had any accidents on the rug yet because we take her out as soon as she looks like she’s sniffing. (Quite a few false alarms that way, but despite the cold, it’s worth it not to have to scrub.)
I haven’t been able to interest her in a toy. She mainly stumbles around, staring at the world from her little blue eyes. She seems to have a very calm and placid nature-- she’s content just to be held.
Is it normal for one so young to not really understand how to play? She did yank on the fringe of the rug last night, for which I gently corrected her. She, of course, returned to it immediately, so she must have thought it was fun. However, I can’t get her to play with my older dog’s toys. (Though the fact that the toys are just about as big as she might have something to do with it.)
She’s VERY young. I’m not a puppy expert, but I’m guessing that at her age she’d still be learning how to play with her littermates. Since she’s a rescue pup, who knows what happened to them, but it sounds like she’s in good hands. I wonder why the shelter let her go that young, though.
She does sound absolutely adorable, and I bet she’ll pick up on playing and other puppy things fast. I’d give her a few days to get used to you guys before worrying much about anything beyond seeing that she’s fed and loved on.
I wouldn’t want to deal with raising a puppy myself, but I gladly fuss over them. They’re so cute!
Sounds to me like the puppy is way too young to be away from its litter/mom, but there is lots you can do. Look up tactile stimulation in puppies and raising litters to find out what the developmental stages are. The seventh week of life is particularly important in a puppy’s development. Unfortunately, your puppy may have a hard time relating to other dogs later in life, as this is behavior that is usually learned with siblings when the start playing at 5-6 weeks.
As for your older dog, the best advice is to let it be and let them sort it out. I’ve had many pups who were told off by my puppy-loving older male. It’s a matter of the older dog setting down the rules, and the puppy understanding what they are. Later, they’ll likely be the best of buddies. For now, your older dog needs to establish the rules, so to speak. Let them be. Give your older dog attention on its own.
With a puppy this young, be ready to be up a lot at night. I strongly recommend crate training already. To help puppy with the whole “being orphaned” thing, I HIGHLY recommend getting a “snuggle puppy” (this is an actual product name) - it’s a stuffed toy with a warmer and a “heartbeat” mechanism. It helps a great deal with younger orphaned dogs, especially when it comes to settling for the night.
Keep a real close eye on this. It may be stress or change of food, or it may be something more serious. Whisk her off to the vet right away if you have ANY doubts, or if she seems to be depressed or running a fever.
With the pup I had before Jasper (my Sasha), we figured it was 2 weeks before we got a full night’s sleep. And she was 7 or 8 weeks old when we brought her home. So you’ve got some Challenging Times ™ ahead of you.
How well socialized is your older dog with other pooches? It might not just that it’s a new puppy, but rather that it’s another dog. Of course, it’s your older dog’s home turf, so there’s bound to be some territorial and dominance issues, but it seems there’s more hostility than one would expect.
When I got a male dog from rescue as a playmate for a female dog I’ve had since she was a puppy, they hit it off like littermates. There was some dominance humping for about a week, after which the female put the male in his place.
Sound advice, that. If you’re in an area where Parvo is a problem, please please please just take the puppy to the vet. In the meantime, keep it isolated from your other dog…
Polaris has a bacterial infection which may be causing the diarrhea. I have a liquid antibiotic which I’m supposed to give her daily.
The lady at the Humane Society told Hubby that some of the puppies in the shelter had Parvo, but the litter that Polaris is from didn’t seem to have it. The vet said that it could be up to fourteen days before we know for sure. She said that the “seven way” shot given to her by the Humane Society could give a false-positive on a Parvo test, so there’s really no way of being certain except for watching her closely until the incubation period has passed.
She does not have a fever, and judging from what happened at the vet’s office, her appetite is good. I had fed the pup some moistened kibble given us by the Humane society, which Polaris nibbled at, maybe eating a couple of tablespoons. The vet gave her a little canned food, and the pup went nuts. She loved it. Unfortunately, she threw up about 20 minutes later-- all the excitement on top of that rich food, no doubt. What I plan to do is give her a teaspoon or two at a time until she’s used to it.
The shelter is packed right now. There were three large litters of puppies, and Polaris’ litter was, as the lady told Hubby, already “overdue” to be put down.
That’s what we’d decided, too. Bean (that’s the adult dog’s name) has always been the Queen of the Castle. She has the full run of the house, sleeps on our bed, and is generally spoiled rotten. We’ve kept Polaris in the living room so far, letting Bean feel like the upstairs is still entirely hers, which will continue at least until Polaris is big enough to navigate the stairs. (Considering she’s only 1.6 lbs, this may be a while.) We’re going to let Bean decide where Polaris is allowed.
I’m giving Bean extra treats, lots of hugs and snuggles. I’ve also given her some calming pills to try to help soothe her stress. It seems to be helping. She laid down within five feet of Polaris’ crate earlier, when last night, she wouldn’t go in the same room as the puppy without growling. I’ve also put a bell on the puppy, so Bean won’t be startled by the puppy sneaking up on her.
Polaris is very curious about Bean. I think it’s simply because Bean is an adult female-- a Mommy Dog. It’s hard to keep her from following Bean around, but I have to restrict her, because Bean growls and barks if Polaris comes too close or Bean feels cornered by her.
She’s not well socialized-- I made a mistake while raising her with that, and she’s gotten worse as she’s gotten older.
A couple of years ago, we had to temporarily live with my grandmother while we were buying a house. Bean was raised at my grandmother’s, and after we moved out the first time, Grandma got another dog. Needless to say, Bean was not happy to find an adult male dog in what she still considered her territory. Luckily, grandma’s dog was a very placid, friendly pooch who was deeply in love with Bean, else there probably would have been bloodshed. She was very dominant. She never really hurt him, but she would pounce if he tried to play with a toy (even his own!) or got too close to her. He thought she was playing, and never retaliated. It was a long time before an uneasy truce was established.
I had asked on the boards about this a while back, and the general concensus was that the instinctual reaction to the “puppy smell” would keep Bean from harming the puppy. I’m hoping that through a slow, gradual introduction, and the fact that Polaris seems to be of a submissive personality, that Bean will accept her, as long as she knows she is still Top Canine.
I do have someone willing to take the puppy if Bean totally refuses to accept her. However, I think some progress has been made.
Puppy maybe 3/x, my Shih Tzu is 8 yrs. and 2x/d.
Large enough crate for bedding & to turn around in plus room for food, water, and newspaped area to do business on. If you leave crate open at night paper just outside. Dogs do not want to mess their nest.
Fresh clean water available at all times.
Ask vet about spaying at about 3 or 4 months.
With a puppy/dog it isnt the initial investment, it’s the upkeep.
Consider dry food. Not as expensive, keeps well and easy to handle, feed, and no cleanup after meals.
Being a puppy she needs lots of love, handling and reassurance, but give the older dog her share too.
Never having had a dog before and this one thrust upon me at 6 weeks I’ve learned a lot by minor mistakes, and listening to the vet, and other dog owners.
Good luck with Polaris.
About twenty minutes after we got home from the vet, she vomited. I called the vet to see what should be done about her medicines: had they been absorbed? The vet told me to give them (wormer and antibiotic) to her again. About an hour later, she vomited again, and I was horrified to see worms in it.
I put in a panicked after-hours call to the vet who said that this was normal and not to worry unless the vomiting continued through the night. He warned me not to worry if I saw worms in her stool, too. I’m glad he thought to mention that, because I probably would have freaked.
The poor baby must have been chock-full of them. She was was very sleepy last night, which scared me a little. She’d never slept for such a long period of time before, and I didn’t know if this was dangerous lethargy or normal after having such a rough day. It was a long night.
This morning, she seems much better. I got her to eat about a tablespoon of wet food (I’ll give her more once I’m sure she’s keeping it down allright), but I can’t really interest her in water. She lapped a little out of my palm, but walked away from the little bowl I put down.
Is it because of her age? I have a syringe (no needle, of course) that her medicine came in-- should I inject some water into her mouth? Or is she just not thirsty? When should I worry she’s not drinking enough?
One more item on toys.
Look in the cat toys section.
My TzuTzu has a little plush teddy bear and rabbit that are almost as old as she is and she still likes to have one near her on the rug when sleeping. They are about 4" high.
An older puppy might like the little spiny things about the size of a golf ball with soft spines all over.
