pets

[Meenah]

Amy (19) came home with an 8 week old minaiture dachsund!!!!
To quote her, "Mom, he is mine you won't ever have to do anything with him, he will be no trouble at all". Well, let me point out that she is in college and she works!!! He has been here 48 hous and guess who has him today? Yes, I am keeeping him today and taking him to the Vet this afternoon. My cats are a little twisted, one ignores him and the other wants to play but they are both afraid of him (he only weighs 1/2 pound and they are at least three times his size). The one good thing is that he (Winston is his name) is so adoreable that my husband and I have already been won over. How do you paper train a puppy? My cats have litter boxes!
Luanne

[houseelf]

Congrats on your newest addition!!! My mom got the cutest chocolate cocker spaniel when her baby (me) left for college. This dog landed in the lap of luxury. Seriously, most children should have it so good.

It looks like Amy suckered Mom on another one! Enjoy!

Kelly

[DCJenn]

Luanne-

Remember when you had a two year old and an infant? Well, welcome back my friend!

There are tons of book on raising puppies. I would go to Petco with the little guy and check out their resource guides. We crate trained (meaning we kept him in his kennel when we weren't home or at night and then the first thing we would do was take him to the backyard when we let him out- when he was a baby though I took him out at 3am as well) Petey and it worked pretty well.

Jenn

[Michele]

OK first things first...the puppy has to pee after he eats, after he walks, after he plays and after he wakes up....so like every 2 hours or so. Fun! The best way is to take him outside, on the grass, and give him a command (ie "go potty" or "hurry up") and then when he goes, praise the hell out of him! Sometimes, he won't go and will only try to play. Be persistant and only give him attention after he's done what you've asked. You may have to learn to time the command just as he's squatting...so he'll associate the command with the action. Try really hard to not let him pee in the house. If he does, give him a sharp "No!" and then take him directly outside and give him the potty command. You can only do this if you catch him in the act. If it happens and by the time you get to him it's over...then you can't really discipline him, because his little brain has alrady moved on.

If you have to leave him unattended, a crate is wonderful. Since he's so small you could probably use one of your cat carriers...but it's best to give him his own space. If you get him a little cage that you want to be big enough for when he's grown, then try to put a partition in it so he only gets enough space to stand up and lie down and just enough to turn around. This helps prevent the pup from peeing in his crate. Dogs (and cats too) are naturally clean animals and won't lay where they've soiled. So if you give him too much space, he'll be able to pee in the corner and lay on the other side and it will be much harder to train him!

The reason I said to train him by taking him outside, is that they learn tactile stimluation to void. So he will get used to the sensation on his feet of grass and then will know that it's only ok to pee outside when I'm standing in grass....if you train him with the paper, he might always associate paper with voiding. You can try to retrain them after that point but it becomes significantly more difficult.

So I hoped that helped...I'm really tired right now from my 14 hour day so I hope it makes sense...and isn't too curt. If you have anymore questions lemme know....I just raised my pup so it's all still fresh...and I'm spending all day with vets so...

Michele

[Michele]

He will have to go multiple times in the middle of the night....for Tui, I set an alarm because I don't have that "hear a crying dog and wake up" mom instinct perfected yet....but it kidna sucks because Tui has associated the alarm now with "I get to go outside and play with momma." The pup might need to go 3 times in the middle of the night for a month or so...then 2 times....then maybe only once.......I imagine similar to teaching a baby to sleep through the night??? The whole potty training may take 6-8 months, so don't get too discouraged if it's not working in a month or so. It should continue to improve though over the six months.

Yikes! I didn't think about the getting up in the night to take the dog out! Good thing your daughter will be home for that, right Luanne!

We crate trained our 11 month old that we got from the Humane Society. It worked GREAT! He only pooped once the first night and never did it again.

It also worked well to take him outside and go to the same area every time and say, "Go potty". We never had to worry about the kids stepping in anything because we had him go in an area on the side of the house that the kids were not allowed to go near. It worked AWESOME. Unfortunately, we didn't take the time to train him that well here in San Antonio. He has taken a bigger area but we are still working on that.

Good luck Luanne. He sounds absolutely adorable!!!

Robin

[Meenah]

Thanks so much for all of the advice. He really is cute. I took him to the Vet yesterday, he weighs 3 lbs 13 oz. (I thought he couldn't weigh more than 1/2 lb. He has an eye infection, but is otherwise healthy. We do have a crate and are working on the toilet training!!!
Luanne

[Michele]

Aww! I love puppies!

One of the things I forgot to mention about Dachshunds....try not to let the little guy jump too much. Pick him up off the grond to put him on the couch, pick him up to put him in the car or on the bed. Since these guys are so low to the ground and long relatively, their backs aren't as good...and they can slip discs. If it happens, you'll definitely know and the pup's entire backend will be completely lame and numb. Don't freak out and panic, but do call the emergency vet in your area ASAP! And get the little guy seen immediately. It's not a super common occurrence, but being at the vet school we see a lot of it. I think it's best to warn Dachshund owners before it happens so they are more prepapred to deal with it if it does.

Lot's of luck with the little guy! Take lots of pictures!

Michele

[Meenah]

UPDATE!!!!
I'm exhausted. Amy went on vacation with her Dad & sister last Wednesday and yes, the puppy is with me. I just got back from spending 4 1/2 hours in the Vet ER. I have truly bonded with this puppy, especially through my checkbook. He has "kennel cough" and they gave him antibiotics, if his appetite doesn't pick up I'll give him suncutaneous fluids at home. Michele, how do the fluids get absorbed!!! it really seems wierd. I'm used to working on people, but they seemed to think my husband & I could handle it!!!
Luanne

[Michele]

The fluids get absorbed through the tissues....kinda like edema...you put fluid in the subcutaneous space, then it permeates into the actual cells of the tissues and into the vascular space and where ever it is needed.

kennel cough...the little guy should be better in a few days.

Michele

We had a mini D and i hope you have more luck with yous than we did with ours. Its a good thing you are trying to train him in the spring or summer. We were in the middle of winter still trying to train him. Our vet at the time asked me what should I expect, he's a German dog and they are stubborn. I'm half German, so I guess we clashed too much, LOL. He barked constantly and we had just moved into our new house= lots of echos in an empty house. He drove me batty, so we ended up giving him away.

Michelle, what do you know about Zinc Responsive dermatitis in Siberian Huskies? Our 10 month old male is going through his shedding season and has bit off chuncks of his hair in a roughly 3" patch near his upper back leg. He constantly licks it and bites at it. I'm not sure if the shedding is what brought this on or something else.

Trisha

[Meenah]

Trisha,
So far we are having better luck, I hope it doesn't change. He really has a sweet temperment. I have two cats, and they have let him know his place is beneath them. He was so sick at first that we have really held him and cuddled him almost constantly. I have to admit I have fallen in love with him. Amy is realizing that puppies are alot of work and she is pretty lucky to have a Mom willing to help, (do most of the work and pay the Vet bills). She will be on a payment plan to me to pay off the Vet!!! As I am typing this he is asleep in my lap!! He has gained almost a pound, he is now 4lb 6 0z. Do I sound like an attached dogowner??
Luanne

[Michele]

Zinc Responsive Dermatits

not a true sinc deficiency...hyperpigmentation and crusts, parakeratosis, especially follicular

Bald spot on your husky? Doesn't sound like ZRD to me...sounds like he may have gotten a flea. One flea (even if you don't see it) can trigger him to bite the area, then once he's done it, it becomes a habit and he will continue to bite and chew the area until all f the hair is gone and sometimes even until; the skin is raw and bloody.

My advice? Make sure you are using flea protection this summer. Put some aloe (from the plant) or bitter apple spray on the area so he stops going after it, and brush him out everyday until his shedding is over.

If it's not just a bald spot, describe all the changes and let me know when and how long this goes on...

Michele

PS: Glad to hear the puppy is doing well.

[twinsmom]

While we're on the dog topic - I have a question about our shepherd/chow mix (looks more like a long-haired black lab). He is almost 2 and still as hyper as ever (they said he would start to calm down after his first birthday - hmmm... still waiting for that one!). we have 3 concerns: 1) he chews up EVERYTHING. We have tried so many different tactics, and the one that seems to work the best is spraying him with a vinegar/water solution. But I don't have time to constantly keeps tabs to catch him in the act (I'm too busy running after our 11 month old kids...). I usually find the 'destruction pile' when it's too late to discipline .
2) he is constantly jumping up on the counter to steal whatever food he can find. He has learned to not do it with us around (the vinegar/water has stopped that), but when we are in another room - he tries in every way possible to get things. We have been storing things up high, and trying to put them out of his way, but I swear this dog has an internal giraffe neck that can stretch to 8 times its normal length!
3) digging pits in the back yard. We tried putting hot pepper in the holes to get him to stop, it just made him move to a different spot. We had to replant a huge chunk of our lawn to cover all of the holes and replant our trampled flowers.
All in all - he is a good dog - great with the kids, etc. We are completely attatched to him, so giving him away is not really in our mindset (although when he chewed through the central air connection cord, I had serious thoughts of packing him up and shipping him to no-where'sville!).

Thanks! Oh- we did all of the things that Michelle talked about with the crate training and it worked perfectly - it worked very fast also. We only has a couple of mishaps in the first week, and then nothing after that. The method she explained is great!

Take care!
Jen

We had our Siberian for awhile and although he was still a puppy he was Mr Destructo. I could never keep him off the kitchen counter while the girls would be up there eating lunch or whatever. He was constantly stealing their food. I swear he has ADHD. We settle on making him an outdoor dog. Lucky we live in Ohio and not back home in Texas. He loved the winter but I think he is already hating the 60-70 degree weather we are having. He also became destructive outside and stripped down two juniper bushes. We installed an underground fence and although I may sound cruel, I believe that this dog really needs shock therapy. If we were to ever allow him to come back in the house, I would have to carry a remote control to his collar. I know that some use this for barking and other behavior. You might want to give it a try.

Ok Michelle, you can scold me for being cruel.

Trisha