New Border Collie Puppy last week.... Any advice

[lynds30]

Hi everyone,

We picked up our gorgeous new 10 week old border collie pup a few days ago. He seems to be settling in really well. Last night he went straight in in his cage and never whined once and slept until 6 this morning . He has had his first jag and getting his second one next week, cant wait to be able to take him out a walk . Basically just looking for any advice / help to help our boy grow up fit and healthy . what is the best thing to feed a puppy?

Thanks

 

[merlina]

Oh-h lucky you! Puppy!! Sounds as if yours is so good too. As for food the simple answer is feed whatever the breeder was feeding. Any changes need to be slow so that you gradually introduce the food you choose and wean them off the one you don't. Our last puppy came on Royal Canine which I don't think is good- also smelled horrible. But we fed it for the first few weeks till he'd got over the shock of the move (I now realise it took him about 10 weeks to get over that!) and added a better quality food to the mix and subtracted the RC. I feed Vets Kitchen grain free now - they also do puppy food- but I also feed one raw meal and I cook vegetables as well. Other people on here will have their own ideas and suggestions.

 

[JudyN]

If you want to feed a commercial food, look for one that is grain-free with a high meat (not meat derivative) content. https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/ is an excellent guide.

Do consider a raw diet though - people who try feeding raw hardly ever go back as they can see the benefits it has (shiny coat, no wind, small firm poos).

Training/behaviourwise, use positive reward-based methods and always focus on what you want your dog to do and not on what you don't want him to do.

 

[JoanneF]

Good advice above. I would add that even though you can't take him on walks, do try to take him places in a carrier or a sling or in your arms - the benefits he will get from observing the world from a safe place are enormous. And in that respect be selective with his experiences - think quality rather than quantity; every experience should be a good one. The Puppy Plan (online) is a good guide. Also, Kikopup on YouTube has excellent short training videos.

 

[lynds30]

Thank you for all your advice . I hadn't even thought about taking him a walk in a carrier or sling, we have been letting him out in the garden and he has started to love it and want to stay out for a while. He has been so good at doing the toilet outside as well. starting to get to the nippy / soft biting stage, so trying to stop him doing that before it gets worse.

 

[merlina]

As to the nippy phase, you won't stop it- just have to endure it! Try shouting 'ow!' but our latest little blighter didn't care. They experience the world by mouth, I'm afraid!

 

[Ari_RR]

Differentiate between biting and mouthing. Biting is a bad thing, gentle mouthing is not necessarily.

I would start doing daily check-ups, nose to tail, so he gets used to being touched and prodded by humans - teeth, ears, eyes, paws, the entire body.... I would invest into the instruments that vets use during their check ups, and start getting him used to those too - autoscope, stethoscope (the cheap ones online will do just fine).

 

[JudyN]

For me, 'ow' got Jasper even more worked up! What worked for us was keeping calm and quiet but sticking him in a brief timeout (5-10 seconds) every time. Also carrying a toy around to shove in his mouth whenever he got that look - and also, wearing old clothes which made it easier to stay calm when he bit them.

 

[Sue93]

hi there - we got our 10 week lurcher pup a couple of weeks ago, so am crashing your thread to compare horror, ermm I mean joyous, stories
We've been letting her "mouth" but doing strict timeout if she gets too nippy. Interestingly she never nips me, but regularly does so to our 9 year old (who i suspect she see as another pup), and my rather older husband. Not sure what that says about him...
We've carried her out and about a bit and she does seem to love it (except when we suddenly had the air ambulance overhead, but she seemed to cope even with that). She's just been to the garden centre with daughter and husband and was wheeled around like royalty in a shopping trolley apparently. I would probably have had a breakdown about her jumping out, but it seemed to go well (or they are hiding it well if there was any incidents).
What's your collie called - any pics??

 

[lynds30]

My pup hasn't bit me yet either, seems to prefer biting my fiance lol. Have been watchin some training videos on you tube last night so giving that a try. It doesn't hurt when he bites apparently but want him to stop doing it now before he gets worse when he is bigger. Lovely day today so we are going for a walk tonight (finace will carry him and see how he gets on. Wow, how clever. I definitely wouldn't be brave enough to take our pup somewhere like that yet lol. He is called Cosbie… yep plenty, will try upload one .

 

[Sue93]

How did the walk go? Our Molly is getting too big to carry (Dad was a pretty large greyhound/saluki and she seems to be taking after him). I can manage it but daughter disappears underneath her . I've been trying to start recall using a whistle while she runs to her food. My husband looks at me like I'm mad, but if I can do anything to improve her recall in the future I'll do it! Our last 2 lurchers were lovely but errrmmm shall we say had selective deafness.