If you hate cute puppies don’t open this thread!

[BBP]

He’s here and he’s perfect!...(so far!).

He arrived on Friday and fitted straight in. He’s a little super star. I thought he might need some quiet days to settle in but he’s so beautifully socialised so far that he has already met at least 10 new people, plus been carried into pets at home and met a few there. He has been up to the yard a few times (to do a couple of very short car trips to somewhere nice and dog free) and sat quietly in his crate at the yard as I did my chores this morning. I can leave the room for a few minutes at a time without him crying. He’s going out every 2 hours in the day for toilet breaks which has avoided most accidents (first thing in the morning is the tricky one!). He’s a smarty pants and in 2 days has learned ‘sit’ and ‘down’. He is learning to watch the cats quietly from his pen and gets rewarded for quiet behaviour and ignored for anything else. I’m pretty much besotted already! (It will be tough to go back to work and hand over the lead to my other half!)

The only tricky bit is he had his first jabs at 10wks which means he can’t really go out and socialise/do puppy classes with other dogs until he is about 15wks which seems very late given they say the critical socialisation window is up to 16wks? I’m going to see if any of my friends have fully vaccinated puppy friendly sociable dogs that I could introduce him to before his second set of jabs.

Anyway, a few introductory photos:

 

[ester]

He is so cute, and so poofy!

 

[PapaverFollis]

Omg. Adorable! He's going to be a stunner.

Regards other dogs, personally I wouldn't worry too much. My one who us better with other dogs is the one I did less with regards actually allowing interaction, the one who has some issues is the one where I pushed him to interact and he had a couple of bad experiences! Go sit with him somewhere where you can see other dogs and reward him for calmly watching them or looking at you when other dogs are around. You want him to be familiar with the presence of other dogs and have nice associations with them so he isn't fearful but actually seeing other dogs as fun and playtime can just be counter productive! Usually as adult dogs we end up needing to avoid contact with other dogs more often than not, so it is worth keeping that in mind when socialising pup. I'm not sure I have expressed that very well, hopefully you can get my meaning.

 

[Pinkvboots]

What a cute little lovely he is too

 

[Clodagh]

He is gorgeous. Fluffball!!

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Dear me, that is one cute floof munchkin!

 

[JFTDWS]

He's properly a little fluffball! Adorable, and sounds like a very good boy!

 

[AmyMay]

Absolutely scrumptious!!

 

[Equi]

Not a fan of puppies at all if im being honest.


Said noone ever?! Look at his little face ooooof!

 

[TheresaW]

He is beautiful!

 

[EventingMum]

Absolutely gorgeous!

 

[CorvusCorax]

**Hands over floofy crown**

My fella is getting a bit old for that now anyway. Wear it with pride

 

[numptynoelle]

Motherforking shirtballs, that's a positive puddle of Floof!

 

[ester]

**Hands over floofy crown**

My fella is getting a bit old for that now anyway. Wear it with pride

This is why I said poofy! because I'm not sure floofy should give up his title!

 

[BBP]

Haha, thanks guys! He is definitely fluffy/poofy! And pretty all round adorable, he has charmed everyone he has met so far. We’ve had a great day today, the cats are getting bolder investigating him and he has been really good about being quiet around them. He has also just been left alone in the puppy pen for 20mins whilst I made dinner and didn’t cry once, just played by himself, which I think is a good sign. (Apparently giant cardboard tube from a roll of Lino is a great toy!). I chose to sleep downstairs in the same room as his crate/puppy pen which seems to be helping the cats get used to him as one of them came and slept on me last night. So I’ll do that a bit more before moving to sleep back upstairs. Life will never be the same again!!

 

[BBP]

Motherforking shirtballs, that's a positive puddle of Floof!

This made me laugh!

 

[BBP]

**Hands over floofy crown**

My fella is getting a bit old for that now anyway. Wear it with pride

I’ve not been in this part of the forum til now, I need a picture of the current crown holder please!

 

[BBP]

Omg. Adorable! He's going to be a stunner.

Regards other dogs, personally I wouldn't worry too much. My one who us better with other dogs is the one I did less with regards actually allowing interaction, the one who has some issues is the one where I pushed him to interact and he had a couple of bad experiences! Go sit with him somewhere where you can see other dogs and reward him for calmly watching them or looking at you when other dogs are around. You want him to be familiar with the presence of other dogs and have nice associations with them so he isn't fearful but actually seeing other dogs as fun and playtime can just be counter productive! Usually as adult dogs we end up needing to avoid contact with other dogs more often than not, so it is worth keeping that in mind when socialising pup. I'm not sure I have expressed that very well, hopefully you can get my meaning.

That’s really helpful advice, thank you.

 

[JennBags]

Oh my, he's adorable, what a stunner. Wow.

 

[Chiffy]

Oh my goodness! He will be attracting attention wherever he goes! What a coat he has! At least he won’t be cold in this arctic blast we are having. Looking forward to more pictures as he grows.

 

[RubysGold]

He is so beautiful. And definitely poofy

Glad he is settling in well :-D

 

[gunnergundog]

Hope you like grooming! Gorgeous.

 

[planete]

Gorgeous pup! My dog neutral, take anywhere dog did not see anything but his breeder's premises until he was fifteen weeks old. I now take the 'socialisation window' with a big pinch of salt.

 

[ycbm]

Oh oh oh ... AND one blue eye, too.

Is he a border collie? He's got the most hair I've ever seen on one if so, and what spectacular colouring.

 

[BBP]

Yes border collie 🙂 more show than working lines and with some Australian BC lines so maybe some Australian shepherd in his heritage? He is endearing himself to everyone he meets (as puppies tend to do).

He certainly is well prepared for this arctic weather, doesn’t bother him at all!

 

[CorvusCorax]

I have no idea how do to a photo since Photobucket carked lol.

As with others, while socialisation is good, reaction to environmental stimuli, like other dogs, is mostly genetic.
To paraphrase the popular meme, socialisation doesn't mean running up to and playing with every other dog they see, it's more about learning to ignore everyday things and being able to walk down the street without going ape at distractions. When dogs are allowed to run around in a big hooley, bullies get stronger and insecure dogs get weaker.
My dog is completely neutral and will go out of his way to avoid other dogs but if a rude one gets up in his face he will tell it to bog off, partly because he was dumped on his back and ragged around too many times by much bigger dogs during what I thought was 'socialisation' and 'fun'.

 

[ycbm]

Yes border collie 🙂 more show than working lines and with some Australian BC lines so maybe some Australian shepherd in his heritage? He is endearing himself to everyone he meets (as puppies tend to do).

He certainly is well prepared for this arctic weather, doesn’t bother him at all!

Ah, that explains it, maybe. Friend's blue merle also has Australian breeding. I just love that colour!

 

[ester]

I have no idea how do to a photo since Photobucket carked lol.

you can do them off facebook if on pc , right click and copy image location and put it on here with IMG tags. Maybe not one of the ones where he is hanging of someone's arm, he seems a bit less floofy then.