Anything else I need?

[Wooliewoo]

Counting down the weeks till my lil man arrives... just over 5 weeks now (eeek). Most of the shopping is done, but is there anything else I’m forgetting?
So far I have:
Crate with a divider
Comfy bed
Snuggle toy
Blanket
Balls & chew toys
Dog tag, Collar & lead
Long line training lead
Brush
Toothbrush & paste
Poop scoop & bags
Food & water bowls
Car seat belt - will take him to get fitted for a harness when he arrives
Clean & safe stain & odour remover!!

I’m looking into pet insurance.... any recommendations would be great as it’s a bit of a mindfield.
He’ll be wormed and arrive with 2 more treatments, he’ll be microchipped and a weeks worth of food provided.
I’ll purchase flea treatment when we visit the vet during his first week.

Maybe I’m being a little naive, but I’m not sure whether to by pup training pads, as reading about them it says they are scented to encourage the pup to go to toilet on them rather than on the floor/carpet..... however, I’m taking 2 weeks annual leave for when he arrives and I’m hoping to spend almost all of my time with him & working on toileting too. So would using the pads on my floor encourage him to use them rather than using outside (eventually) ?... if that makes sense?

Thanks x

 

[Caro Perry]

The training pads are not normally recommended as they can confuse the puppy -he won't understand why he can sometimes go inside and sometimes not. If you're taking time off then you will be able to start training him to go outside right from the start.

Having said that I used the pads as giant sponges to soak up the accidents out of my carpet! Much more efficient than kitchen roll.

 

[Wooliewoo]

The training pads are not normally recommended as they can confuse the puppy -he won't understand why he can sometimes go inside and sometimes not. If you're taking time off then you will be able to start training him to go outside right from the start.

Having said that I used the pads as giant sponges to soak up the accidents out of my carpet! Much more efficient than kitchen roll.

Great, thank you, that’s what I was thinking

Fab tip regarding using them as giant sponges..... maybe that’s why I’ll get some!

 

[JoanneF]

I hate puppy pads - they should come with a warning as they do make housetraining much harder for the reasons you have given. If you need tips on toilet training please ask.

I would add some old towels to your list. And if you can, get a pet carrier - that is really useful to take your puppy out and about before his second vaccinations so he can start to experience the world from a safe place - he is at no risk if he doesn't go on the ground.

Insurance - look for one with lifetime cover. That means if your dog develops a long term condition like diabetes for example the payments won't stop at the end of the insurance year. Then, go for the highest level of annual payout that you can reasonably afford. As far as I know only Pet Plan deal directly with vets so if you use anyone else you would need to have the funds available to pay the vet up front.

 

[Wooliewoo]

Great thank you, plenty of old towels and a pet carrier it is!

If you need tips on toilet training please ask.

Yes please x

...... My plan so far.... is to be with him during the day and make sure I take him in the garden at least every hour. If I see him ‘going’ on my carpet, to swiftly pick him up and take him outside. I’ll reward every time he toilets outside. At night time, I’m going to set an alarm for 3 hours after he last goes to get up and take him outside, hopefully the timing will increase. How does this sound?

 

[JudyN]

High-value treats - or you could just use bits of roast chicken or similar.

I'd get more dog beds - one per room you want to spend any time in. Chances are pup will want to follow you around at first and that's fine - having a bed in each room is a great way of encouraging him to settle peacefully while you're doing whatever you're doing (really useful in the kitchen when he's much more likely to want to 'help' you). (I did evict Jasper from the kitchen once he got past the stage where he'd yowl to be with me and got tall enough to reach the worktops if I turned my back, but it was useful at the start.)

No need to buy anything though - you could use old blankets or bedding & maybe pick them up from charity shops.

 

[JoanneF]

Great thank you, plenty of old towels and a pet carrier it is!



Yes please x

...... My plan so far.... is to be with him during the day and make sure I take him in the garden at least every hour. If I see him ‘going’ on my carpet, to swiftly pick him up and take him outside. I’ll reward every time he toilets outside. At night time, I’m going to set an alarm for 3 hours after he last goes to get up and take him outside, hopefully the timing will increase. How does this sound?

Sounds good. Toilet training happens when two things come together - the ABILITY to hold the toilet, along with the DESIRE to hold it in order to earn the reward for doing so.

Ideally you want him to not be in a position where he needs to toilet before you have him outdoors, so that every toilet is outside - as far as possible, there will be accidents! So as you said, you want to set him up to succeed by taking him out even more than he needs and staying with him; and always after sleeping, eating, playing. The time between a puppy realising they need to toilet, and being unable to hold that toilet, is zero. So your aim is to have him outside before he can't help himself. When he toilets outdoors make a huge fuss (never mind the neighbours, act like outdoor toileting is the best thing you have ever seen) and reward him with the high value treat. Do that immediately, thats why you need to wait with him. Don't make him sit or come to you for the treat so he is clear that it's for toileting and not for anything else. The idea is that he eventually wants to earn the treat enough to hold the toilet until he is outside - once he is physically able to control his toileting obviously. If he has an accident inside don't react at all. If you get annoyed he may learn to fear your reaction and avoid you if he needs to toilet - the opposite of what you want. Just clean the area with an enzymatic cleaner to remove any trace of smell that might attract him back to the spot. As he is actually performing the toilet you can introduce words he can associate with it (like 'do weewee' and 'busy busy') that later when he is reliably trained you can use these to tell him when you want him to toilet.

Indoors if you see him circling or scratching the floor, that can sometimes precede toileting so get him out fast.

 

[JudyN]

Beware the 'double wee' - it's common for puppies to wee outside, run back indoors, and wee again. If he does this you need to get into the habit of bringing him in after a wee... and then taking him straight back outside again!

 

[Caro Perry]

Beware also the crafty puppy who on realising he gets a treat for a wee in the right place stops doing his one big wee and chooses to do several little ones instead in order to win additional treats. This is particularly good fun for the owner when it's late at night and raining hard.

We had to drop treats for toilet training as it totally backfired.

 

[Michele83]

Counting down the weeks till my lil man arrives... just over 5 weeks now (eeek). Most of the shopping is done, but is there anything else I’m forgetting?
So far I have:
Crate with a divider
Comfy bed
Snuggle toy
Blanket
Balls & chew toys
Dog tag, Collar & lead
Long line training lead
Brush
Toothbrush & paste
Poop scoop & bags
Food & water bowls
Car seat belt - will take him to get fitted for a harness when he arrives
Clean & safe stain & odour remover!!

I’m looking into pet insurance.... any recommendations would be great as it’s a bit of a mindfield.
He’ll be wormed and arrive with 2 more treatments, he’ll be microchipped and a weeks worth of food provided.
I’ll purchase flea treatment when we visit the vet during his first week.

Maybe I’m being a little naive, but I’m not sure whether to by pup training pads, as reading about them it says they are scented to encourage the pup to go to toilet on them rather than on the floor/carpet..... however, I’m taking 2 weeks annual leave for when he arrives and I’m hoping to spend almost all of my time with him & working on toileting too. So would using the pads on my floor encourage him to use them rather than using outside (eventually) ?... if that makes sense?

Thanks x

I've been making a list of all the things that I've found incredibly useful since getting my whippet puppy 5 weeks ago. Here are some that have become absolutely essential for me, even though I didn't necessarily think of them before!:

Grannick's Bitter Apple Spray (to spray on furniture to stop them chewing it)
Grannick's Bitter Apple Taste Deterrent for Dogs

Buy a few puppy Kongs, fill them all up and put them in the freezer. These will become invaluable to use as de-escalating methods in the evening when he has the mega-zoomies
Kong Classic Puppy Dog Toy, Small

Buy some really really small tupperware containers. Put some chicken stock and other bits (mine likes water with blobs of cream cheese and fruit) and put them in the freezer. Use as dog lollies. They're great to distract them from chewing, keep them busy for a while, and cool them down in this heat!

A flirt pole - I cannot imagine what I would do without this toy! It means you don't have to run around all the time, which can be exhausting, you can just stand or sit there and wave it around. It's mine's favourite toy by a mile. Invaluable for tiring them out. I got the size small.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ANG-Braide...817114&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=flirt+pole&psc=1

A bum bag - Yep! If you can stand being incredibly unfashionable, this is so useful. I couldn't deal with the amount of things I needed to carry all the time and women's clothing has such inadequate pockets...

Emergency ready-meals for humans - for when you think you'll have time to cook and then you mess up your timing and cooking just isn't an option!

 

[JoanneF]

chicken stock

Proper chicken stock from a chicken is fine, but stock cubes have a lot of salt for baby kidneys to process.

 

[Wooliewoo]

Thank you, some great advice.

What’s the best reward treat to give a puppy? I read somewhere that the treats should come out of their food daily recommended allowance? Would you agree?

And @Michele83 .... bum bags are so ‘on trend’ at the moment, I have one & loads in the shops

 

[JoanneF]

Treats can be normal food from their allowance for things that become easier to them, like sit; or higher value for things you really want to hammer home, like outside toilets (to begin with, you can drop down to a 'well done' when he is about 8!) and recall. But if you offer treats, cut back a little on normal food - it's all about calories. Treats can be really tiny though. Like kids, dogs see several very small bits as a higher reward than one piece of equivalent size. Also some treats are full of rubbish and if you can make a piece of carrot exciting, you can use that. Most dogs adore liver cake - if you cannot face liver, a can of tuna can be substituted in the recipe below.

Liver Cake

A pack of liver (supermarket packs are usually about 500 grams)
About 250 grams of flour - I use gluten free as some dogs are gluten intolerant
1 egg
A slosh of olive oil or salmon oil for a glossy coat (optional)

Cut the liver into pieces and use a hand blender to blitz it with the egg until it's a sloppy mess. Stir in the oil if using and the flour. It still should be a sloppy mess.

Turn into a parchment lined baking tray measuring about 6"x9". It should be about an inch deep.

Bake at 170 degrees for about 15 minutes until a knife comes out clean.

When it's cold, cut into kit kat finger sized pieces - half them again for a smaller dog - and freeze them in a freezer bag. They freeze in separate pieces so you can take out one at a time and break into smaller pieces for training.

Dogs love it, it has no sugar, salt or other nasties and lasts for weeks. It also is cheap to make - a recent survey showed some dog treats to be more epensive, ounce for ounce, than fillet steak!

 

[Josie]

Proper chicken stock from a chicken is fine, but stock cubes have a lot of salt for baby kidneys to process.

Strange you say that as tonight Oliver looked at his food track app and noticed his salt levels for the day were double what they should be. We couldn’t work it out but then we saw it was from the chicken stock cube I used in our risotto!! Quite worrying

 

[JoanneF]

Strange you say that as tonight Oliver looked at his food track app and noticed his salt levels for the day were double what they should be. We couldn’t work it out but then we saw it was from the chicken stock cube I used in our risotto!! Quite worrying

And if you think of how tiny puppy kidneys are ...

 

[Wooliewoo]

Most dogs adore liver cake - if you cannot face liver, a can of tuna can be substituted in the recipe below.

Liver Cake

A pack of liver (supermarket packs are usually about 500 grams)
About 250 grams of flour - I use gluten free as some dogs are gluten intolerant
1 egg
A slosh of olive oil or salmon oil for a glossy coat (optional)

Cut the liver into pieces and use a hand blender to blitz it with the egg until it's a sloppy mess. Stir in the oil if using and the flour. It still should be a sloppy mess.

Turn into a parchment lined baking tray measuring about 6"x9". It should be about an inch deep.

Bake at 170 degrees for about 15 minutes until a knife comes out clean.

When it's cold, cut into kit kat finger sized pieces - half them again for a smaller dog - and freeze them in a freezer bag. They freeze in separate pieces so you can take out one at a time and break into smaller pieces for training.

Dogs love it, it has no sugar, salt or other nasties and lasts for weeks. It also is cheap to make - a recent survey showed some dog treats to be more epensive, ounce for ounce, than fillet steak!

Thank you @JoanneF I hate Liver!!! But I shall certainly make this for him. This may be a really silly question.... ...... but do they need to be defrost before giving it to him?

 

[JoanneF]

Thank you @JoanneF I hate Liver!!! But I shall certainly make this for him. This may be a really silly question.... ...... but do they need to be defrost before giving it to him?

Yes, I do but they just take a few minutes because they aren't dense. I pop one for n a (reused) poly bag in my pocket. By the time I need it, it is ready to feed.

 

[Wooliewoo]

@JoanneF I made your liver cake treats and OMG he loves them!! They are his reward for super special things! Thank you so much.... any more recipes you’d care to share?

 

[JoanneF]

@JoanneF I made your liver cake treats and OMG he loves them!! They are his reward for super special things! Thank you so much.... any more recipes you’d care to share?

I have one for tuna fudge (and you can also substitute tuna drained from spring water for the liver in the cake recipe).

150g tuna or salmon in spring water, undrained
2 beaten eggs
1 sachet instant mashed potato

Mix together well, turn into a parchment lined tray, bake at 170 for about 20 minutes.

I actually had a nibble myself, it's quite nice!

 

[Wooliewoo]

Fab, thank you, I’ll have a go and see how that one goes x