Fostering lurchers...

Lobelia_Overhill

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www.mymiscellanyhome.net
Found this post on another board, poor guy's not getting any answers, so I offered to post it on here for him
Myself and my wife have fostered two ten week old lurcher puppies from the DSPCA. They are a boy (Woodstock) and a girl (Snoopy). They were found in a cardboard box with five other puppies about a week and a half ago, in a village outside of Dublin.

We've had them since Saturday and i'm looking for any advice people may have.

In particular, regarding toilet training. Woodstock will not go to the toilet outside. He has no such issues with going inside. Our kitchen was unpleasant this morning. We've been bringing them out when they look like they're ready to go and praising them when they do, which Snoopy has caught onto. Anything I can try to help teach Woodstock?

They are also quite a lot of work, especially when only one of us is home. We got them these bone things that they like and it usually calms them down for a while, but there is still a lot of the day where they are wild. They get on really well together, they wrestle but they rarely fight and they sleep wrapped up in one another.

I want to make the next three weeks as easy on them and us as possible. Help!

Can anyone offer him some advice?

Thanks!
 
Any rescue that allows 2 puppies to go to the same obviously (by those questions) inexperienced homes needs looking into. IF they cannot cope with toilet training or normal puppy behaviour then they need to be returned to the rescue urgently so they can be placed in a proper foster home with experienced people. They should contact the rescue now and ask the questions to them and hopefully someone there will have the sense to remove the puppies or at the very least take one to another foster home.
 
Agree, siblings can be too much for experienced people sometimes.
They're also making a rod for their own back if they need to be rehomed seperately and agree this is pretty normal stuff, it's about identifying a routine in their toileting and not giving them constant access to food and water at this age.
 
Sorry OP sounded a big snappy in my reply, realise you are just passing something on so I wasn't being rude to you just frustrated when I hear of rescues not doing the right thing. ;)
 
Agree with the above, but the rescue also sounds useless if they are not advising, he can have my ten page puppy guide, even though my rescue posts are shamelessly removed by some grumpit:rolleyes:
 
My lurcher had no idea about house training when I got her at 6 months old - it took a long time for her to catch on. To begin with I was taking her outside every 15 - 20 minutes until I could properly identify when she was about to go. Even then I would take her out every half hour to an hour....mindnumbingly boring, especially when it's cold but we got there in the end. Mind you, that was with one dog not two.

Always clean up using biological washing powder or something containing enzymes to remove any trace of toilet smell from the house and hopefully he'll start to follow his sister. Definitely contact the rescue though as the other posts have suggested.
 
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