New puppy questions...nails, hair, treats & training...oh my!

[Lego]

Hi.  Our new puppy, Lego, has been with us for two weeks now.  We love her and she seems to fit right in with us.  I do have some questions for you wise doodle owners...

 

1)  It's so hard to get her to hold still to clip nails and the hair in her eyes (I personally like the hair covering her eyes but feel bad that she might not be seeing the best).  Is there any trick to get her to hold still?

 

2)  Food doesn't appear to be her thing.  All the training books I've read reward based on food which seems great, unless food isn't their thing.  She does seem to like to lick up the crumbs under the table that my boys leave behind so maybe I just need to find some dog treat she loves.  Any suggestions?

 

3)  Did you do puppy kindergarten before all vaccinations?  It seems like a great thing to do and I'd like our whole family to go but then you hear they shouldn't be out until they are fully vaccinated.  We are introducing her to everyone we can and I really think the puppy kindergarten is for her people (me, husband and two boys).

 

Sorry these are such a random set of questions.  Thanks for any help you can give me!  Take care, Lisa

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

We went through the same thing with food with Lucca. He was horribly picky. I probably went through 6 different foods his first year.
I agree with you, I DID fall into a trap with Lucca. Now, he is doing just fine but I spoiled him rotten just to get him to eat!! We doctored his food with cheese, canned buffalo meat, anything I could do to coax him to eat:) He definitely had my number!
We are getting another one (to be born next week)!! in Nov. I sure hope I don't fall into the same food trap again. It's pretty easy to do!!!!

[Leigh & Allie]

Hi Lisa, my Allie is 25 pounds. You can look at my page to check out the progression of Miss Allie. Lego should be similar. I did want you to know that Allie is not food oriented either......AT ALL. I do give her Zukes' and she seems to like these but she does not LOVE them. I have tried EVERYTHING and still have not found anything she loves just likes. I will say Allie LOVES my praise. When I was potty training her, I would throw a PARTY when she did her business. I think that is her thing. I would not get discouraged because she does not love food. There will be something she loves and my guess is it will be you. I have found a food she likes but we kept her sister over Labor day and she liked her sisters' food MUCH more. I have decided though that I am going to stick with one food and rotate the flavors. Lego is a great name. My 11 year old would have loved it if I had thought of it. He is a huge Lego fan. He could sit upstairs for hours and create his own "models" some were better then the ones you can buy. Have fun the puppy stage will be gone way before you are ready!! (Well maybe not)

[Lego]

Hi Leigh. Your Allie is so cute. She sounds a lot like Lego and your son sounds a lot like my son. Thanks for sharing this information and I took a peek at your darling pictures...I do wonder how they are going to turn out in the end and I'm always wondering what 25 lbs will be like. I should look into the Zukes as several people have mentioned them.

[BG and Gavin]

This is the easy way out, but until I became confident in my abilities and knew that Gavin could stay still, I clipped his nails while he was asleep. I mean at night, after a long day, when he was passed right out. Nothing could wake him. Like others I was afraid of cutting the quick. But you will get the hang of it, by only nipping the very tips off at first. I would also recommend using the plier type instead of the guilotine type of clippers. I still wait till he is relaxed and laying down at night when I do this chore - although he dosen't put up much of a fuss. Handling ears and paws is great advice.

Our puppy K class required that the pups had all of their shots as well as a clean fecal test.

[Jaime and Barley Barker]

1.) Barley's nails are dark so I don't do them myself. However, he would wriggle and squirm when I used to brush him. I'd give him a toy and that would calm him right down. So I'd brush why he cuddled and chewed his toy.

2.) Barley is very toy-oriented. In puppy class, I would sometimes lose his attention even with food rewards. I started bringing a squeaky toy to class. If I started to lose his attention, I'd squeak it. His reward would be a brief game of tug. It was especially useful when training him to "Come".

3.) I started puppy kindergarten when Barley was 14 weeks old. He had most of his shots, minus his last series and his rabies vaccination. All puppies in the class had to have at least started their series of vaccinations and be up-to-date, so there were no unvaccinated puppies. Having said that, I think I waited until he finished his series before taking him to dog-friendly stores and parks where he might run into other dogs, just to be on the safe side. You need to do what you feel comfortable with. If you are in doubt, ask your vet.

Whenever you choose to do puppy K, stay away from any puppies that show signs of illness such as coughing; also don't bring your puppy if he seems a bit off. This probably seems logical but I had a bad experience once. I noticed during class that one of the other puppies was coughing. My puppy was fine and never presented any symptoms; however, one of our adult dogs came down with kennel cough even though she is never around strange dogs and never leaves our property. My vet said that my puppy may have picked up the virus at puppy class and became a carrier, infecting our dog Daisy. I don't know why that person brought a coughing puppy to class. The trainer or I should have spoken up. =(

[Adina P]

1) I agree with putting puppy on a high surface like table or grooming table. Or on top of her crate if that works. That worked for us..but before that I used a bully stick when Rosco was a pup. He would ONLY get it when I had to groom him and he was so focused on it he could ignore me a little more. Also work on training puppy to associate the sight of the nail trimmer with something really yummy.

2) If you're going to use treats for training..it helps to train when puppy is hungry. Hold off her meal and then train. That way you can even use kibble sometimes. Otherwise pea sized bites of stinky treats like cheese or freeze dried liver.

[Lego]

Hi Everyone! Thank you for all the information and thoughts...I really, really appreciate more than you know. Now that it's the weekend I think we will try and tackle some of these things. I'll let you know our results!

On another note, we took Lego to visit my husbands work today and one of his co-workers is really good with dogs. She was able to get Lego to do "down" right away (one of the commands we had no success with so far). She showed us the amount of reward we should be giving her and it's so small!! I think maybe I was filling her up on liver treats when she went potty. I thought my reward was small but hers was really, really small. I guess when you are 5 lbs you don't really need more than a lick!

Thanks again!

[Lisa {Zoe's Mom]]

Congrats on your new addition to the family!

while trimming the nails have Lego lie down in a comfy position and have a mellow family member keep his attention. If he pulls away or you feel him pull away tell him no in a firm voice and continue. If you are using a grinder make sure you are tapping and not actually grinding with the tool. It may get to hot.

As for treats, try making some homemade all natural treats. I'd be more than happy to send you some in the mail. I freeze them first so they ship well. My kids are crazy for them. Apple bits, cheese, all natural peanut butter, oats, honey you name it....I can send you a variety. Find one he likes and use them for jobs well done.

Socialization is the key. Once he has all his immunizations take him down main street, to Lowes or bass pro shops and get him used to traffic, humans, shopping carts, etc. Always praise when a good job is done.

Training, look up your local kennel club, they probably offer reasonable training cheaper than those big brand name stores....they are usually half the price and offer more one on one.

Good luck and keep us posted and if you have any more questions, ask away that's how we learn!

[Patty, Roxy & Spencer]

Hi Lisa and congrats on your new puppy Lego. What a sweet face! We're in the Santa Cruz Mtns., so fairly close to you. When we got Roxy (@16 wks) we enrolled her in "Sirius Puppy Class" in San Jose. They have several locations around the bay area. They are very good and qualified trainers and monitor the health and aggression of the pups in their classes very closely. I think they may have classes in Palo Alto. You may want to Google them. I think you have to have most of your vaccinations. If I remember the cut off on age for puppy class was 18 wks. When we started nail trimming, I would have some small bits of liver treats or turkey hot dog and my husband would trim the nails. We started out only doing maybe one or two at a time so she would get used to it. If you trim a couple every day, you have them done fairly soon and Lego will get used to it without too much stress. Roxy has the light nails so you can see the quick easily. We bought a dremel type but never have really used it. Our vet and groomer also trim her nails. Spencer has dark nails and they are harder to trim because you can't see the quick.

I like the idea of getting a beard trimmer to trim the face, feet and bum area. I have blunt end scissors that I use for the face. I haven't had poo stuck to the bum area on either pups until this am. Spencer kept circling and trying to licks his rear. I checked it out and yep there is was! He is 10 months old and Roxy is 15 mos old, so I quess I've been lucky with not having that problem. We also go to a professional groomer several times a yr. We use Groomers Extraordinaire in Willow Glen. He specializes in Bedlington Terriers and has gone to Westminster as an attending groomer several times. He grooms our pups beautifully, but can be pricey when you have two to do!

Keep some canned pumpkin (plain not spices) on had also. You use only a small amount and it really can help stop diarrea. It is in short supply right now, so if you see it pick up some.

Doodle romps are great fun. the IDOG romp around the world happens once a year in the spring. We went several years ago to the one held in San Jose when Roxy was just conceived. Even though we were dogless, we met lots of Doodle owners including Lucy Rasmussen who is the Bay Area Doodle Owners Group (BADOG) group leader and also a memeber of Doodle Kisses (she is a Nor Cal gal). You can get info from her on Facebook (BADOG) about upcoming romps. We attended this years IDOG romp with two Doodles, Roxy and newly aquired Spencer. Watching all these Doodles play is sooo much fun! We met Lynda several weeks ago in Carmel and ran around on the beach there. My pups love the water, so the beach is a great place for them to play.

Enjoy your new little pup. They grow up so fast. Take lots of pictures if you can and post them. All of us here love to see those cute puppy pictures.

[Lego]

Hi Patty. Thank you so much. I read about the Sirius dog training and it looks like they have them really close by to me. You are so lucky to live in S.C. I grew up in Santa Cruz county and most my family is still over there. Miss it all the time...it's my get away and I can't wait until Lego is old enough to go to the beach! I will try and post pictures, but it's so hard to capture her...she's so fast!

[Lego]

Hi Everyone! thank you so much for all the advice. I got a real bad cold last weekend and i'm just starting to feel better yesterday so I'm just trying to start using your recommendations. During this time Lego has started to eat more and be a bit more interested in food. I've decreased the size of treat by a whole lot so I think she was filling up on the liver treats I was giving her and/or she just starting to feel more comfortable here.

This morning I tried to tackle the nails with your suggestions. I was able to do it by myself! It went so well. I was only going to do two nails but was able to do all the front nails! I'm so excited...I'll try the back tomorrow.

We tried to find trimmers for her face last weekend but it got too complicated...so that will be this weekends project. New issues have come up so i think I need to do another post. Thanks again so much!