Any ideas???

ginniebee

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On how to get an only pup to play? Long story but my jr lost three of her pups at birth and was left with one gorgeuos little boy, hes three weeks old today and quite active, just wondering how hell cope without his siblings as there will be no pecking order ect. Just wondered if any of you guys have found yourself in a similar situation and what you did. Thanks.
 

alicep

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he will learn social skills from mum but as soon as hes ready to go out and meet things (once hes vaccinated ect) you can take him to puppy training classes. did wonders for my pup but he wasnt an only pup.
 

ginniebee

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Thats a deffinate!! We are keeping him after such an awfull time, she gave birth to the first one at home it was stillborn, we ended up at the vets in the midlde of the night and the mum having a cesarean, there was another dead pup inside her and we ended up with two live pups to take home. Sadly we had to have one of the surviving pups (a bitch) pts the following day as shed developed breathing difficulties. Poor little chap, but hes turned into a bruiser of a pup!! which is hardly surprising.
 

MurphysMinder

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I had a similar situation with a jr bitch years ago. She had to have a c section and ended up with just one live pup. She was nicknamed the Blob, and it stuck for all of her life (we kept her needless to say). I agree about puppy classes, but also with something little like a JR you can take them about with you everywhere even before they have had their jabs, just carry them and you'll be amazed how many people want to come and say hello. You will probably find that his Mum will spend more time with him, playing etc. than she would with a larger litter, we certainly found that anyway. One tip, do try and get the pup used to being on his own away from Mum. Its tempting with an only pup to just leave them together but you can sometimes end up with a puppy that has no confidence away from its mother. I speak from experience here, I kept a pup from my GSDs last litter and she and her Mum were rarely apart. When her Mum sadly died last year the younger bitch (she was 6 at the time) totally fell apart. It took quite a while to ring her out of it and she is still not the most confident in new situations. Good luck with your pup.
 

JAK

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Years ago, one of our Border Collie bitches ended up with a singleton pup after an emergency Caesarian (he was the only one in there as it happened though! lol)

We carried him everywhere from a very young age, took him to dog club (sat him on a towel on a table) & perhaps spent more time playing with him than usual but were also particularly strict on manners etc. from the start, as he obviously had no littermates to take guidance from, as regarded playing too roughly etc.

He was a precocious little git from the word go but considering his lines, probably would've been anyway, even if he'd been from a litter of 10! lol
He was extremely bright (again, I would've expected this anyway but even so......) & soaked up information like a sponge, on his baby 'training sessions'!

He went on to be a successful agility & potential stud dog & was generally extremely sociable. He was a naturally dominant, strong-charactered dog & could easily have ended up a right little s*d!
Main thing I would say is:
1. Don't 'spoil' a lone pup & follow the correct procedure for teaching 'bite inhibition' early on!
2. Get pup out & about in the big wide world as soon as possible.
Nearly all problem 'lone pups' I have seen over the years are down to breeders or owners not following these two simple rules!

However......don't necessarily constantly pounce on a single pup for being more forward or precocious than they might otherwise have been, as they often are.
Confidence is a good thing, it's over-cockiness you need to watch out for!
 
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