Cocker puppy on the way

[cerbfan]

I've got this handsome chap arriving in 2 weeks time, what are peoples thoughts on the whole cage or no cage way of bringing up a puppy? Most people seem to advocate a cage however we also have 2 kittens (will be 13 weeks old) and wonder if he might get upset if he's locked away in his cage at night and they are sleeping in a cozy bed and free to roam around. The other thing making me err on the side of no cage that whenever we had dogs as a kid or my parents have had them they have never used a cage and all turned out to be nice, well behaved dogs.

[cerbfan]

That's a great photo of your pup Dan. Sounds like there is a real mix of opinions however very little negative about the crate so think we'll go ahead and try it and hope he doesn't dislike it like your pup Ray.

We do have 2 kids as well, not that young at 8 and 10 but at least if he goes into his crate we can make a rule that they are not allowed to disturb him so at least he has that space to himself. If we can keep the kittens out is another matter then again they sleep about 18 hours a day anyway!

Can't wait to get him home and part of the family.

[cerbfan]

LordHaveMurci said:

He is gorgeous, are to going to work him?

We never crated our working cocker, he ate the kitchen lol

Our current rescue sprocker has had 3 or 4 pairs of shoes & he IS crated, he loves it like our old one did when we finally got one for our Westie.

Part of the reason we crate our two is because we aslo have 2 cats, it allows them to come in & out at night without being bothered by the dogs. The smallest cat used to sleep on top of the old (smaller) crate!

Use them properly (not for punishment) & the dogs love the security of them.

Not going to work him but plan to have him well trained and stimulated and take him on lots of walks and runs. Me and my son both run so once he's older plan to take him with us and hopefully tire him out a bit. Think you're meant to wait until they are at least one before giving them to much exercise.

I really hope he doesn't go eating any of our furniture, we've only just finished the extension part of the house we're living in and everything's new!! I can find many old pairs of trainers for him however!!

[cerbfan]

Cheers for all the advice, especially on the chew toys and not giving him old trainers, definitely don't want him to start chewing our good shoes..

He is from the working dog line so I will try and train him up as though he would be used as a gun dog as has been said sure he'd appreciate it as it keeps him stimulated and can be fully trusted off the lead so would end up having more freedom.

What are people's thoughts on diet as well, I'm thinking about using a raw food diet as I've been reading good things about these as its the closest thing to a natural diet and is not full of all the cereal fillers and rubbish that you get in both dry and wet dog food. I've been looking at Nature's menu and the like, also thinking about transitioning the kittens onto the same as well.

[cerbfan]

Thanks again for all the advice, its great and I'm taking note. I've ordered a crate and also ordered some food samples from Millie's Wolfheart after speaking to them for both the puppy and the kittens. Decided against raw feeding as to many scare stories about Ecoli and nutrient deficiencies if you get it wrong at all even though loads of people seem to do it successfully.

Also ordered the training book you recommended 'Never you mind' so can hopefully start off on the right foot and not get him into any bad habits...

Back onshore on the 30th and then picking him up the day after, can't wait....

Photos to follow then.

Also do they generally like swimming?

[cerbfan]

Thought its about time I gave you a quick update on Jet, he's been home now for 3 weeks and is doing great and completely part of the family already. The kittens were initially wary but now they all seem to get on fairly well although Jet plays a bit to rough with them and thinks they are just like his brothers and sisters and not less than half the weight and size of him.

Sleeping arrangements we have gone with a crate and put that inside a large play pen which has worked great. the crate door is never shut and he just goes in there when he wants quiet time and to sleep. At night and when we go out we just close the door of the play pen so he still has quite a lot of room to move about in. We only had 15 mins of crying the first night then 5 mins the second and that's been it so very lucky.

Food wise we went down the Millies Wolfheart route and he seems to like it and thriving and we have also swapped the kittens onto the cat version as well and they also seem to like it.

Toilet wise he's still having a few pee accidents inside but generally he's going to the door and telling us he's wanting out. Through the night he's clean probably 75% of the time which seems pretty good. Most of his accidents seem to when the weather is crap and he does not want to go out into the cold!

Other than that training has not been as regimented as I first hoped as we're all being to soft with him but find it hard to resist but we have got his recall pretty good now and sitting no problem.

I'm offshore now so 3 weeks away and gutted to be, also missed his first walk now his inoculations are all done but that's life I suppose but can't wait to get back that's if he remembers who I am..

A few photos of him below:

[cerbfan]

This is the one that we bought https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00MU2F1BY/ref... although it is now saying out of stock however there are others on Amazon that look very similar.

We are really pleased with it, very robust and bigger than I expected. We just have it set up permanently in the kitchen with his crate in one corner and water and food bowl in another. His crate door is always open and he comes and goes as he wants. When we go out and at night we just close the door of the playpen and he has plenty of space to play and cannot get to anything outside to chew or make a mess. Unless you have a fairly big room though you might find it a bit big with all the panels set up but you can easily remove and add panels as required to get it the right size for you.

I'll get a photo of it up next week as offshore just now and don't have one handy.

[cerbfan]

The Moose said:

cerbfan said:

This is the one that we bought https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00MU2F1BY/ref... although it is now saying out of stock however there are others on Amazon that look very similar.

We are really pleased with it, very robust and bigger than I expected. We just have it set up permanently in the kitchen with his crate in one corner and water and food bowl in another. His crate door is always open and he comes and goes as he wants. When we go out and at night we just close the door of the playpen and he has plenty of space to play and cannot get to anything outside to chew or make a mess. Unless you have a fairly big room though you might find it a bit big with all the panels set up but you can easily remove and add panels as required to get it the right size for you.

I'll get a photo of it up next week as offshore just now and don't have one handy.

Thank you. Our puppy will be here in a couple of months and a similar sounding setup sounds perfect. Just a matter of where to put it

Here's the pic of the pen set up complete with Jet and 2 kittens, they're in it as much as him.

[cerbfan]

Zed Ed said:

Hi cerbfan,

I have a springer pup arriving in 2 weeks and am planning to follow something similar to your set up.

Just a couple of questions if I may; how long is you dog in the pen at night and how are you managing little accidents then and more generally?

During the day, I was planning to combine pen/crate time with regular toilet trips to the garden, as i’ll be at home with the dog most of the time. Is this the right approach?

Thanks

Hi Zed,

I'm far from an expert as this is our first dog but this is what we've found. At night initially when we first got him at 8 weeks old we put him into his bed at around 9 ish as he was wanting to settle down at that time and sleep anyway. We did get him up and take him out for a pee before we went to bed but it was a struggle to get him up some of the times. We were then up sharp at 6ish to let him out although he would have often done a pee. We put a pee pad down in his pen at night and he was good most of the times and pee'd onto that (you can get boxes of 100 from Costco for a good price).

During the day he did pee in the house quite a lot at first although he was good from day one and would go to the door when he felt he needed the toilet but a lot of the times I think he just did not realise or got too excited. We are lucky that we have all hard floors in our house, not sure how you would get on with a puppy if you had carpet as I think it would just get ruined! We also had a fair few poo accidents however these did not last long, maybe the first 2 weeks only.

He's now 13 weeks old and he's a lot better, has hardly and pee accidents at all and no poo so we are very pleased. We only ever put a pad down now if my wife is working and he's going to be left for 4 hours or so otherwise he does not need them or over night now. We tend to let him out last thing at 10:30 and then up by 7:00.

Good luck with the puppy, it will be a fun, full on time!