new dog :) any tips?

pippixox said:
Although we will rarely need to leave her for long, we are already starting to try and leave her for short periods.
She wines when we leave her downstairs- but does stop more quickly already- just 48 hours in. But we are purposely popping upstairs and shutting the dog gate various times in the day so she has to learn to not always follow us.
We had baby swimming today- out for 1 hour- left her with a Kong shut in living area, and walked out without saying anything. She was very hyper when we returned and had not finished Kong, but no accidents.
She is not keen on even eating dinner while we go upstairs, but will pick at it, and still only very early days. She literally had barely left her house for first 2 years of life so is doing brilliantly.
Walks around the farm today and she is so tired!

Already mastered the boot (and I have a highly Landy disco) as husband sat in it and enticed her in and then just been jumping in fine
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Really good news, I love hearing rehome dogs become happy dog stories. :-)
 
She doesn't seem to understand fetch/ show any interest yet! But we will keep trying. When we got our last dog he didn't play and within a few months if you started a game of fetch he would keep going for hours if you would!

She is currently sleeping on her bed downstairs for the first time while I'm on the sofa- I'm happy to let her on the sofa- but glad she is managing to rest not right next to me for the first time.

I was out last night for a friends 50th so had my parent in laws round to babysit and dog sit and they brought their Pomeranian round. She was very sweet with him and we got sent photos of them on the sofa on my parent in laws laps! Obviously don't want to over do it in the first few days with loads of stuff- but knew about the 50th before our last dog was even noticeably sick.

She is very similar to when we first got Harvey, desperate for love and a run around. but she is also not too similar if that makes sense! I still miss him dearly and cry about him (even though I am not normally a tearful person!) but I know we made the right decision to get a new rescue. No point in mulling over something you can do nothing about and having an empty space in your living room and boot! Every dog we get over the years will be thanks to him giving us 3 amazing years and teaching us so much.

Again sorry I ramble on!
 
That's lovely pippixox. Glad you are making steady progress. A new one never replaces the lost one but it fills a gap, gives you something to think about and creeps into a tiny space in your heart!
 
Hi, well we have a month trial but have decided after 5 days to ask to officially adopt her: she has a lot to work on, but has a great temperament.

making gradual progress with leaving her. No longer howls if we go upstairs without her! Last night she settled on the floor next to our bed rather than on the bed & i have been practicing the 'bed' command when in the living room so she knows where to lie when we need her to (like my last dog, she sometimes prefers the cool floor or rug, but want her to know where to wait nicely when we have visitors) she is a bright spark, but also so full of beans, so sometimes focus is hard! done a bit of recall practice in my friends enclosed field. Again she got the idea very quickly, although of course we will not risk any off lead for a while yet except in a stockproof field!

I left the house for 20 minutes today to pop to the shops with my baby. She didn't eat the food in her kong while we were out- only once we got back, but after a few minutes of manic- you are back! she settled down and I tried to not make a big deal of it. no accidents or damage.

we had a lovely walk on the common on a long line yesterday- she is very good with other dogs. Wants to play, and had fun with my friends dogs, but when we met some that were not playful she was very good at not getting in their faces. It was hard to believe she has barely been out of a house in 2 years- she is taking to her new life wonderfully!

She is very cautious around the horses- which is good. trying to keep that instinct as obviously don't want any accidents or for her to try and herd them.

Husband took her on a little run- she is scared of traffic so had to change route to some quieter back roads, but said she was very good.

so yes, all good, other than separation anxiety, and of course all basic training to learn! she has already made so much progress in less than a week :)

I have ordered her a crate- mostly as I noticed she likes lying under the table sometimes- so may like her bed under a cover. anything to make her feel more comfortable. Also we are taking her on holiday at the end of march and the house my mum has rented says dogs if kept in the utility room. it is unlikely in just a few months that she will feel confident enough in a different place to be kept in the utility room over night- but if she will sleep in a crate i'm sure she will be OK in the bedroom!
 
All sounds really good! PX, last year I took on a Staffy temporarily who had TERRIBLE separation anxiety - if I went to the toilet she would stand outside the door howling! I'm not joking when I say I could hear her halfway up the street like a foghorn if I had to leave for any reason! It was incredibly stressful so I empathise. This one had come from a home with another dog and a cat and she really didn't like being on her own.

I'm not a dog on bed type person, but she barked and howled if I shut my bedroom door at night (she would try to dive-bomb on the bed!). One thing that I found really useful was leaving my door open so she could see me (eliminating the anxiety), but teaching her that she wasn't allowed to step foot in the bedroom. It worked really well and it only took about a day for her to learn that she wasn't allowed to come in.
 
SpringArising said:
All sounds really good! PX, last year I took on a Staffy temporarily who had TERRIBLE separation anxiety - if I went to the toilet she would stand outside the door howling! I'm not joking when I say I could hear her halfway up the street like a foghorn if I had to leave for any reason! It was incredibly stressful so I empathise. This one had come from a home with another dog and a cat and she really didn't like being on her own.

I'm not a dog on bed type person, but she barked and howled if I shut my bedroom door at night (she would try to dive-bomb on the bed!). One thing that I found really useful was leaving my door open so she could see me (eliminating the anxiety), but teaching her that she wasn't allowed to step foot in the bedroom. It worked really well and it only took about a day for her to learn that she wasn't allowed to come in.
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I presume as it was temporary you don't have her any more. So can't really comment on progress?
We have a cat but she is anti-social. So although sky is friendly with cats she won't hang out with her! We are not against considering a second dog in the future (especially as she is half the size of our last dog!) but also know that may not fully solve the issue- but as she is used to living with another dog I do wonder.
 
Also we would try bed on landing with door open- but the landing is the cats domain and she then hisses at her and sky runs off and panics as she is stuck downstairs due to grumpy cat! (Stupid cats! I love her really!)
 
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