Potential First Time Owner Questions- HELP

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Dizzle

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Well, fingers crossed, if our landlord agrees that we can have a dog, I'll be getting a 9 week old Border Terrier puppy.

Just a few questions:

1. I understand that tinned food and kibble is seen as a very unhealthy way to feed dogs, that a more natural 'raw' meat approach is favoured these days. Where on earth do you buy these sort of foods? Supermarket/Pet Store/Online?

2. What books/websites would you read regarding puppy training? Thankfully classes are held a 2min walk from our house so puppy (and OH!) would be enrolled but what happens if I don't like their methods (I assume that it's like riding instructors, I may not like them all!)

3. What are the costs involved in having a dog on a regular monthly basis? I got as far as insurance for £10 a month!

4. Can you train a dog to use a litter tray? Is this normal?

5. When can you get a dog castrated? How long is the recovery period? When would they be allowed to run about outside with their mates (which is what he would be doing whilst OH and I were at the work, I do though have some holiday off work so could feasibly baby sit him though recovery).

6. Are dog vaccinations starters like horses? Do I need to get him a course first before the become annual?

Erm, I think that's about it for now! :D
 
Hello,

Congratulations firstly! I hope that your landlord agrees.

Right I'm not sure on everything but I'll do the bits that I can!

1. Food. There is absolutely nothing wrong with feeding kibble, so long as you pick your foods carefully. Raw is fashionable at the moment, but it is a lot of hard work (and you need to have space etc) and so if you choose to feed kibble, that is fine. I personally do not feed raw as we don't have a garden and we don't have the freezer space, so I feed Symply pet food. This is because it is a good food, and my dogs look good on it. There are some nightmare foods like Bakers, and lots of good foods, and it might take some time to find a good one. If you decide to go raw, there are a lot of posts on here. Have a look at Symply if you want.

2. We have never used any books or websites - we have played it by ear with the dogs. We are firm and consistent, reward good behaviour and ignore bad, and it seems to work for us! But puppy training classes will be good for anyone.

3. Costs. Er, right. Insurance (£10 doesn't sound like much to me....decent insurers are NFU or petplan, keep AWAY from E&L, tesco etc.. - they might be cheaper to begin with but when you've got a £4000 fee from the vets and they won't pay, its not worth it!!). Also on the note on insurance, you really need a £4000 limit in my experience. Food. Vaccinations. Toys (lots of toys for a pup because they will destroy EVERYTHING). Beds. Blankets. Shampoo. Brush. Leads. Multiple collars because puppies grow. Treats. Chews. Basically, make a budget, double it and you're just about there! ;)

4. I am sure you COULD train a dog to use a litter tray, I just haven't done it. If you work long hours, you might just have to accept that there will be mess until they are capable of holding it. My 20 week old can now hold for 6 or 7 hours (and he always holds through the night but thats a bit different) but for the first month or two we just cleared up mess every day. I am sure you could toilet train to a litter tray - or puppy pads though.

5. Never had a dog castrated, but when Chloe (bitch, obviously) was spayed, she was right as rain again in a week - so long as we were careful she didn't rip her stitches. For the first 2 or 3 days she was super quiet and needed calm rest - and you certainly wouldn't want other dogs leaping around them in case they ripped the stitches.

6. Your breeder will tell you what vaccs have been done, but you will need another set when you get it home, and you will also need to worm it too.

Good luck! Don't panic, the first few days are highly stressful, but it will be ok :) xxx
 
The raw foods you can get from the supermarkets and butcher.
Not all kibble is bad, there are some really good quality in fish4dogs, so if you find you don't want to feed raw there are alternatives, have a read up and and make you own mind up, some of mine are on raw and some on complete dry. (I have 9 dogs)

Puppy training classes are a fab way to go, if the trainer/methods seems outlandish or alarm you, use common sense as to what you think is acceptible and "is this for your dog".
I have a puppy guide if you would like it PM me your email addy (I wrote it for the puppies I rehome from our rescue) it covers the basics of toilet training/crate training, it's easy when you have a little guide to follow.:)

Insurance, flea treatment, wormers, food......for a little dog as you are looking for (not a lot) obs you initial out lay for your bed, collars, food , bowls, vaxes, chip, crate (if you choose to crate train) and training classes.

I personally do not think it healthy to litter train a dog, and its not commonly done, it's very easy to toilet train to be honest, so no, I would never train a dog to toilet indoors, litter tray or not:)

Castration is a minor op i the scheme of things (esp compared to a bitch spay) a dog will recover as soon as it's round for anaesthetic and ready for the off:D I dont restrict exercise after castration at all, becareful of rough play for a few days incase those empty sacks get knocked about:D
You wont need to book extra time off work.
In relation to castration/spay I go by the rate the growth plates close, in a small breed your dog will be near enough fully gorwn by 6 months, but in a one dog household and no hormonal issues, then the 12 month mark would be good:)
You will get manor of opinion re castrate or not, again make your own choice, for me the health benefits of castration outway the argument for not. I have dealt with enough dogs now to make my own and very informed choice, at work, in rescue and my own (literally hundreds). But you will get both sides of the argument.

You will need to get the primary vaxes as a baby and then yearly boosters.
 
Thank you, this is all very helpful! I'll PM you my email address now as a guide would be fantastic!

In regards to castration, during the day he's going to be on the farm with his mother and sister so I'd rather get him cut sooner than later, although his genes are lovely, I'd rather that he wasn't sharing them with the family!

I'll look into feeds, something we could get from the supermarket would be best.

Ooh, one more question!

How do you train your dog to hack out with you? He already walks to heal and is starting to come when called and we have thousands of acres of off road hacking around our yard :D
 
He is far far far far FAR too young for you to even be considering him hacking out with you - exercise is 5 mins per month - so at nine weeks he should only be doing a maximum of 10mins. You also should restrict activities that involve him slamming on the brakes and putting stress on his joints.
 
Lol, if he is running with mother and sister then as you are aware they can do the deed very early;) although some claim not to know this:rolleyes::D
You can either keep a very close eye on the bitches seasons or castrate him as early as will allow, I personally would have no issues castrating a small breed between 6 and 9 months.
He will be fine back on the farm after immediately after castrate as in recovery time, but also bear in mind their will still have some of the reproduction juices:D stored for a little while after castration so you still have to becareful for a good few weeks.

I would may be start off on a bike in regard to training him to hack, and use a lead, then long line, but there are others here who hack out they will give you tips, and im sure you know to becareful with the exercise whilst he is growing, but you can still practice:)

Supermarkets are the worst place to pick up food in most cases, they sell either bakers or their own brand, do you have a local pet feed store?/otherwise online.

I will rummage the guide out and send it, I got the Pm:D
 
Cedars said:
He is far far far far FAR too young for you to even be considering him hacking out with you - exercise is 5 mins per month - so at nine weeks he should only be doing a maximum of 10mins. You also should restrict activities that involve him slamming on the brakes and putting stress on his joints.
Click to expand...

Don't panic I wasn't planning on hacking him out with the horse until he was older, he's not even been on a proper walk yet so I figure he's not ready to hack! :D I just wondered how you trained them for it, I want his recall 200% so for instance although he is too young to hack out can I start off getting him to walk to heel with my horse round a small field next to the yard?

Ah, could potentially get dog food from Countrywide, will have a nose.

Can we all have fingers crossed for good news from landlord next week?!
 
You can do recall in the living room - we play hide and seek where my OH holds Brax in one room, I hide, Bracken comes to find me, we all rough and tumble, yayyy lol. I would imagine that hacking with a horse is just about perfect recall and him being safe with the horses. xx
 
Love the idea of hide and seek! :D

I'm a little bit of a control freak so puppy WILL have perfect recall :D even my horse comes to call (OH not so much so!).

So far puppy is good around horses and horse is fantastic with dogs, so I'm hoping that
bodes well for the future :D
 
Agree with all the advice above, the only thing i can add is that if you are looking for a feed from a supermarket i would recommend Harringtons. My dog's on it and has a lovely coat, enjoys the food (although she is a lab), it is good quality but not too expensive and asda and morrisons sell it (not sure about any others)


Good luck!
 
CAYLA, thank you for the puppy guide, it's fantastic! Sat here sneakily reading it in the office.

Still no word from landlords :( (wish they'd hurry up as I've seen a couple of crates locally on ebay cheap and ending today!)
 
I am training my youngest dog to come out hacking. She has pretty good recall with the help of bribery (treats in my pocket). I have to keep her focused on me and not on the interesting sound in the woods (!) so yesterday when she ignored me, trotted off. She stuck close to me after that. I stop frequently and call her back, ask her to sit and throw her a treat.

My friend is helping me with this as well so I am now teaching pup to "leave" so she leave people, dogs and puddles alone. Doing this by putting treats on the ground. Its a bit hit and miss at the moment!

My biggest problem atm is that she gets far too close to my horses back legs. Now this is fine when I am hacking out my old mare, as she is completely dog tolerant and would never lift a leg. My other horse will though. Annoyingly enough she steers well clear of horses legs when I am on the floor but seems to think hugging a back leg is fine if I am on board.

That and a dummy run to see if I can ride on a large (20 foot wide) verge and keep her with me did fail. I am only trying this on foot at the moment but as we haven't completely cracked the "leave" command, and she has no respect of roads. Either we crack this or I will have to find somewhere to get back to my old mare if I need to get off to keep the pup with me near a road!
 
Thankfully at my current yard I can hack without having to go on the roads, although we do have a 1/4 of a mile drive that I could practice a pretend 'road' on.
 
Hope you get the all clear from your landlord!

Re hacking out training, I started taking each of mine at about 6 months - just for short rides at first. I didn't really do any special training, just made sure they had v good recall and also taught a command for 'get out of the way right now' (easy to do out walking by giving command while nudging them out of the way when they've stopped in your path) because you'll be amazed by how frequently they stop right in front of the horse in the early days! I am now regretting never really cracking 'heel' though...
 
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