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Post by smilesbetter on Feb 24, 2014 16:05:43 GMT
She gets on okay with the cats, mostly doesn't bother with them but has tried to chase Carlotta a couple of times. Mieze is more of a "sit and hiss" type of cat so it's going better with her. She sits right at the puppy pen and watches her play quite happily which is great. Mieze is really cuddly and Carlotta never lets her snuggle with her so we're hoping she might snuggle Rosa instead Thanks!! I'll give citrus a go and hope for the best! She hasn't been back at it today but I'd rather put her off the habit before it begins to get a hold haha. Been doing some training with her in super short bursts, and she's a really fast learner! She's virtually perfect at "sit" (except when she slides on the floor and ends up accidentally lying down haha!), and is already getting quite good at "paw" and "lie down"! So proud
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Post by smilesbetter on Feb 24, 2014 18:19:38 GMT
I *think*, but not sure as I wasn't in the room, that Rosa has just had her first scolding from a cat. Heard a loud, shocked bark and saw Mieze slinking off. I don't know if she went in the pen or what happened but both seem fine.
One of my family cats has the dog very well trained and slaps her across the face if she crosses the line, so hopefully it will just make her respect the cats boundaries and not have too negative an effect.
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Post by McCuddles on Feb 24, 2014 19:23:10 GMT
O dear I know the feeling of chewed skirting boards and corners of walls etc, Dotty liked to do this until she was about 9 months old then grew out of it as her teeth settled down, then we set about repairing the damage lol. This is what we used for her... www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?dept_id=477&pf_id=53434and it worked great, has a bitter taste. I tried it myself, tastes yuk! Anyway she soon knew not to chew, good luck with your little one!
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Post by Pawsforthought on Feb 24, 2014 23:54:49 GMT
Definitely don't use punishment to stop her chewing. Since it is most likely to be associated with the discomfort of puppy teething, giving her a frozen carrot could be very beneficial. If you notice her chewing. I'd redirect her attention onto a nice frozen carrot, or get her to come and sit by you immediately once she has started chewing. Redirecting behaviour can be the best answer sometimes, and using a discouraging spray will help. Finn, our Setter, used to wee on the door (inside!) when he wanted to be taken into the garden...only, he'd sometimes pretend he wanted to go out but would instead dart into the kitchen and lick the dishes in the sink! To crack this horrible behaviour, we started to ask him to lay down as soon as he looked intent on weeing on the door. It then progressed that when he wanted to be let out, he'd go and lay by the door and stare at us, and now he doesn't do it at all. If every time she starts chewing you ask her to lay or sit down, and give her a frozen carrot as her reward (and it will soothe her little gums,) I can imagine that clever little sausage will soon learn if she lays by the chew-spot, she'll get frozen carrots and laying next to it is preferable to chewing it! And it sounds like Mieze is putting her in her place! There's no harm in that, if a cat will teach a dog to respect it, you should let it! Unless fights are breaking out of course. My breeder had a cat and the dogs grew up around her, she was VERY bossy but would let them play with her tail, to a certain extent! She never caused them any harm, they just learnt not to push her.
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Post by smilesbetter on Feb 26, 2014 11:27:49 GMT
Rosa is 10 weeks old today! Thanks! I'll put down the gross tasting stuff in the places I know she chews while I'm away, and try the frozen carrot thing as a reward for stopping chewing when I use out new "off" command we've been practicing. Decided to keep "no!" For only when the "leave" (which currently always results in a treat) doesn't work in a more serious situation, i.e. If she was jumping up at a baby. The "off" thing is going great, she's a really fast learner. We've started using a clicker, mostly me standing clicking it while she's eating so she can start thinking of the noise as something awesome, and also now doing a click-and-reward for the basic training we've been doing. Now when I say "off" (which is in a non-scolding tone of voice), she stop what she's doing, and as soon as she hears the clicker she comes trotting over to me for her treat haha! Maybe not so great if I'm training her to "stay" in future haha but we'll get there! She's been meeting Mieze a lot, today she got hissed at for giving Mieze a fright, and so she's being more gentle with Mieze than she perhaps would with another dog or a person. She hasn't tried touching her or anything yet, but she quietly approaches her and they sniff nose-to-nose which is very cute. Mieze growls or hisses when she's had enough and Rosa happily leaves her alone after that. Seems to be going well! Carlotta, our other cat, hasn't been very interested in Rosa yet, but she takes far longer to warm to new creatures in the house. She's also not been well recently so she's spent most of her time curled up in bed. The two cats still chase each around the living room at night when Rosa is in her pen as they did before she was here, and she's now got used to the monumental noise they make thankfully. Even when they wake her up, she is now very quiet at night and does very little whining unless she needs the toilet. We discovered she'd been having accidents in her surprisingly absorbent bed. She always sleeps on the floor so for now we have removed the bed and put in a training pad (which we had before but she'd use the bed instead). I'm going to have to try to train her not to pee in the bed but she only does it when I'm not around (I think at night) so I can't do the grab and take her downstairs thing. I've heard removing her water bowl three hours before bed helps them get through the night, should I do that or am I better leaving her with water? I always thought dogs should have constant access to water, but then she is on the raw diet and doesn't actually drink so much water due to that anyway. She gets out very regularly and is always praised for doing it outside, and she will whine if she needs the loo in her pen unless her bed/blanket/puppy pad is there, for done reason she thinks soft things are okay to wee on. Also, she swallowed a whole chicken neck today. She bit it a few times and then, to my horror swallowed it whole. I had read before that this is okay as they are soft and don't splinter, and are easily passed even in small dogs but it was still a shock. I'll keep an eye on her for the next 24 hours to make sure she continues to have normal bowel movements. She didn't finish her breakfast after that, but has had some treats for training happily. Her remaining breakfast was the veg pate stuff that she's not very keen on, and I think liver (would need to double check the box) which I don't think is her favourite either. Any ideas on how to get her to eat these things in future? Oh, she had her first bath with us yesterday. We only used water in the tub and didn't try the shower this time, as we want her to start associating it with good things. And of course she got quite a few treats (dried meat so not too bad for her!). I know it's not great to give them too many baths but we want to try again next week and slowly introduce the shower, as I think it's best for her to get used to these things from as young and age as possible. Maybe I'll try having her in the bathroom and putting on the shower without her in the bath so she can get used to the noise first. Haha sorry for the enormous update!! It's all just so exciting! She's learning much quicker than I thought she would and I'm confident that I'm putting in as good a groundwork as I possibly can for our lives together. I've made a few mistakes already but I'm sure that's totally normal and I'm a quick learner too Any advice is, as always, very welcome, and thank you guys so much for your help so far! I'm good at training bad habits out of dogs, and helping a lot of behavioural problems, but bringing up a puppy from scratch is a totally huge new challenge for me. It's awesome!
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Post by smilesbetter on Feb 26, 2014 17:06:52 GMT
Pawsforthought ohmygosh!!! The frozen carrot is more popular than anything else in the world with Rosa!
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Post by AnnaAmber on Feb 26, 2014 17:15:52 GMT
Rosa is gorgeous! I've always found puppies seem to toilet on soft things so I would take anything that she keeps peeing on and keep it away from her for now until she is more reliable with her toilet training. The only thing is, are you washing the bedding with biological washing powder? Otherwise it will still smell of pee, hence she will toilet on it again. I wouldn't worry about her swallowing the chicken neck - dogs are designed to only chew things into swallow-able amounts - which is why their jaws only move up and down - unlike us omnivorous humans. Some of mine don't like chicken liver, but love beef liver. So maybe it's worth changing the animal liver you're feeding, if possible, and see if Rosa might prefer that? Can you mix the veggies with ground meat so that she doesn't really notice them? That's great that you are getting her used to being washed. What I do with puppies is either just wet them (and don't use shampoo) or diluting the shampoo so that they don't get dry skin as otherwise you take away the natural oils in the coat, and then I can wash them once a week or so. Enjoy her, they grow so fast!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2014 21:59:15 GMT
Oh, dear and wonderful Rosa! It seems like she's opening up to her new home and her cats siblings
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Post by smilesbetter on Mar 2, 2014 23:05:50 GMT
Well the chicken neck incident turned out fine haha, thank goodness. Was quite a shock, but they seem to be her favourite food so I'll have to get used to it!
We've taken her bed out her pen which feels a bit cruel but as she never slept on it anyway I suppose it's fine. She likes to sit in it and chew toys when she's out in the rest of the room for supervised play. So hopefully she'll learn that it's not a toilet!
Our first week has been mad and stressful and awesome fun! Puppy class was great and she seemed to be the star of the class, she always came back when called and was pretty good with the other puppies. There was a huge podenco puppy in the class which was hilarious haha, as all the other puppies were tiny, short little things and none of them could keep up with her! Didn't stop them from trying though. Rosa slept pretty much the whole day afterwards so it must have been quite tiring. She wasn't as interested in the other puppies, and played with them but was happy to lie on her own with a toy too. She has her mad moments but is generally pretty calm and is already learning not to jump up at people.
Today we met the beautiful 9 month old German shepherd (must be farming stock based on build) who lives across the road and I always see on her balcony watching the world go by. In a few months Rosa will be on this side staring back at her haha! Rosa is certainly getting me lots of German practice meeting other dog owners and dog lovers!
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Post by Pawsforthought on Mar 3, 2014 20:28:19 GMT
Glad the carrot proved popular! Puppies love a frozen carrot ...and older dogs too.
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