katchambers Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 Hi everyone, I just wanted to introduce myself to the boards, as already, before I was able to post I took a lot of great advice from all of you, so thank you already!! Me and my husband have wanted a dog for years, probably about 8 years, the entire length of our relationship, but there was always something stopping us, such as my University degree, living in a small flat, both working full time (unfair for the dog) etc... But now I have my own business and work from home and we live in a bigger house, so it seemed like the perfect time to get a dog. My husband has grown up with 2 dogs in his life, both were mongrels (cross-breeds) and therefore he had no idea what a pedigree dog was like. Growing up I had the following Togsy - Border Collie (died when I was 4 years old) Tia - German Shepherd (died when I was 15 years old) Then my mum got a a cross bread puppy that we only had for a few weeks before she got rid of it. Then we adopted an agressive Border Collie from a friend. Basically Bruno was a Border Collie who had an owner who worked all hours and hardly had any time for her, and therefore she was agressive towards most people, she wasn't socialised, however, he completely loved me and warmed to me straight away, which was confounding to the owner since she normally hated everyone, so we took him in. We kept him for about half a year before he became a real problem and so he went away, my mum said to live on a farm, but you never know what that really means! So, when we were trying to decide on a dog, my husband wanted a small cross breed and I wanted a German Shepherd or a Collie, and since the Border Collie seemed to fit both our personalities and was a smaller dog, we decided to go for that. My husband loves to walk, and I am not even kidding. He really loves to walk and often walks 10-20 miles when the mood takes him, and of course that is a dream for a Border Collie. We are both very intelligent and love to learn, and get bored really quickly, which is also similar to the Border Collie, so I believe we can understand her. I also love to train, as I trained Tia and Bruno pretty well, so hopefully our new puppy Cali will love us and be great for us and have a happy life. The picture in the Avatar is Cali aged 4 weeks - so cute! She is now 8.5 weeks old, we have had her home for only 5 days so everything is very new to us, and since this is our first dog, for both me and my husband (in adulthood) we are very unsure, and really want to do the right thing, hence why I found these boards. So far, life with her is great, a bit up and down, good and bad, but she is lovely and we love her to pieces already. The bad stuff, sounds like normal puppy or normal border collie stuff, for example: She chews absolutely everything she can get her paws into She bites us She bites our clothes as we are walking She cries on car journeys She cries when we put her in the crate (although only for a short time) She pees and poos all over the house We have bought her loads of different toys which keep her really busy most of the time, and keeps her mind away from the wires and our slippers, mostly. We are trying to housebreak her straight away, but I know it will take some time to do that, so we are being patient. We praise her when she does her business outside, and only tell her off if we catch her in the act, in the house, which is rare. She is still very young and has a weak bladder I assume, so I guess it will take time. She is sleeping in her crate at night next to my husband as he gets up first. 2 nights ago she slept through, or at least kept quiet right through, last night she cried at 2am, so husband took her outside, she did her business, went back into the crate and was silent the rest of the night. She had her first injection on tuesday and this monday she has a puppy party which our Vet does. 6 puppies all had 1 injection but not the second and therefore cannot leave the house for socialisation, so this is supposed to socialise them early with other puppies. We thought it would be a good idea and we are looking forward to seeing 6 cute puppies running around! We have also enrolled her on some local Puppy classes, which starts after her second injection. The classes help us to train our puppy, and also teaches us about housebreaking, how to stop biting etc, so that should be very useful. That's about it, I have gone on far too long!! Hello everyone again! Thanks Kat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tea Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 Welcome! I am new too! Sounds like you have your hands full Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninso Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 Welcome! Sounds like you are off to a great start. You will find some great advice here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShoresDog Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 Welcome! You are going to have a lot of fun with little Cali! As to all the things she's doing, I bet she won't be doing them too long for you. My little puppy Juno is just 13 weeks old, so I have just been dealing with the same kinds of things. My comments -- mind you, I'm no dog guru -- are these: She bites us -- Squeal and take your hand away quickly if she bites too hard. She needs to learn to have a "soft mouth" so she needs feedback from you or other pups as to when she's biting too hard. It's important for her to learn this, so don't try to make her stop mouthing you entirely. She bites our clothes as we are walking -- I haven't dealt with this, probably because I wear pretty crummy clothes! -- but I don't think I would tolerate it. When Juno does things I don't want her to do, such as jumping up, I make the angry pirate noise "Arrgghh!" and don't give her the response she wants. She gets love and petting only when all four paws are on the floor, and I've noticed a big improvement on the jumping up. On ME, anyhow. Everyone else is a sucker, until I remind them that she will be a 40 pound dog at some point. She cries on car journeys -- Poor baby! No help here, sorry. She cries when we put her in the crate (although only for a short time) -- try to make her crate as wonderful as possible. Initially I gave Juno dehydrated liver treats (only a dog could love them, but dogs really, really LOVE them) when she went in her crate, and I tried to put her in it when she was tired and going to nap anyhow. I put all kinds of puppy chewie things and toys in there too. Four weeks later, she seems to like her crate very well. The past few days, when she's tired, she's trotted right in there on her own initiative and settled down to sleep. She pees and poos all over the house -- Take her outdoors very first thing upon waking or coming out of her crate, first thing after eating, and just on general principle if she hasn't gone for a while. Praise her extravagantly and give her loving and a high value treat if she goes where you want her to. Again, dehydrated liver convinced Juno that way around behind the house was worth the extra steps. We haven't had any indoor messes in two weeks, but I'm sure that is because I myself am now well-trained! Though the pattern of going outdoors is becoming well-established. I take Juno out in the middle of the night (I always wake up once in the night myself...) so she is able to stay in her crate till a reasonable hour in the morning, 7:00 or so, when I have had a chance to take my 4-year-old BC for her own walk and frisbee play session. Good luck! Post some pictures please. We loves us the puppies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixie_Girl Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 Welcome to the board! Good advice so far, and it sounds like the puppy classes are a good start! And yes, please, pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katchambers Posted May 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 I have never uploaded pics before as I am new, but if it worked, these are some pics of her at 4 weeks. I am just off to get some more recent ones of her from the camera. So cute! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha J Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 Hello and Welcome Kat, Cali is little cutie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katchambers Posted May 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 Here are the most recent pics of Cali taken this week (8 weeks of age). The one with her head up on the table she is actually fast asleep! Can't believe she slept like that for at least 30 minutes - so cute! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixie_Girl Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 She is too cute! And yeah, they can find weird places/postions to sleep in! Seems they sleep as crazy as they act! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dali Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 aww , she's a cutie !!! I'm a new BC mum as well , ours is 15 weeks now. It's a good thing puppies are cute...they get up to so much mischief, but one look at those cute little faces and all is forgiven . advise , don't look at me ...that's why I'm here too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanillalove Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 It sounds like you're doing a wonderful job. Having a puppy can be scary, and very frustrating if you aren't aware of how puppies are before you jump in. It's great to hear someone dealing with puppies, like the pooing and chewing, and not FREAKING out, but rather, trying to improve and teach lessons. You'll have a lovely girl because of this! Good job! Also, she's a heck of a cutie! Feel free to post more pictures, we love them here! Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet808 Posted May 16, 2008 Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 Welcome to all the new members! Well it sounds like you know your BC, and patience is the key as I found housebreaking Misty. There were times I thought, what have I gotten myself into, when all of a sudden it just seemed to happen. She was housebroken. Congrats, and look forward to pics and more stories. Also, congrats on getting her into puppy classes, that will definitely help. I wanted to do that w/ Misty, but never got around to it. I'm fortunate enough to have friends with dogs, so she gets a lot of people & doggie interaction. Training seems to be a breeze with the BC's I have no complaints. Good Luck, and again Congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katchambers Posted May 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2008 Thanks everyone for all the lovely welcome messages, glad you liked the pics, and yes she is very cute, but then I think all the pics on here are cute! Kat x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.