Pet Store

[helenb]

As soon as I have a photo I will post it here.

Thanks for offering guidance and support in the future, I am sure I will need it!

Helen

[Jan/Billy]

I agree with everything that has been said, what's done is done - Don't look back, just look forward  

Billy came from there too, we made the same mistake    We didn't do too bad, Billy was kc and was only at that place for 5 days before he came to us, before that we do know that he came from a nice house rather than a puppy farm. Still not a reputable breeder by any means but not as bad as it could have been.

My advice to you at this moment in time would be to socialise your pup as much as possible  . Get her used to as many things as you possibly can. Get her to meet lots of different people & experience lots of things & definately defintely enrol on a good training class.

You don't know how much exposure she's had to life, it could be lots, but its likely to be little   ,now is a critical time for her to get her out into the big wide world , this will reduce the chance of her having any behavioural problems in later life that may be as a result of lack of socialisation as a pup.

Most importantly don't dwell on it, there is every chance she will be fine, just focus on the things that you can do to help increase her chances of turning out as good as a well bred properly reared (pre 8 weeks) cocker  

pm me if you want to ask anything about Billy  

[Joelf]

Ah well,Helen - what's done is done (as my mother would say! )

I think I would try & wean Maddie off the puppy pads if poss.; if you keep a close eye on her you'll probably see her sniffing & circling especially just after she wakes, eats & plays & then I would try & encourage her to go outside & then praise her profusely if & when she performs. I usually say 'Go wee wee' as well in a very happy excited voice so the pups learn to associate the words with the action!!

Once she gets more used to her surroundings she will probably be more keen to venture out in the garden. As she has had a less than perfect start to her life I would spend a lot of time & effort socialising her; it really is very important with any dog but particularly one that has probably been taken prematurely away from her mother & siblings.

Good Luck & don't forget to post pictures of her!

[helenb]

Thanks for your advice Jan and Joelf!

I will take her out in the next few days to meet a lot more people, I might take her to my brothers, he has 2 kids.
I will wean her off the pads, what about overnight? She seems to be weeing twice and the other once over night, without the pad she would make a mess, what do I do?

I am hoping to buy a crate too, not sure if this is the best thing to do, at the moment I keep her in the kitchen and I have bought a radio to keep her company through the night.

So much to learn about how to train a puppy well, I am worried, but it's still only early days for me.
I have her booked into the vets for her next jabs in 2 weeks and I have already insured her and added her to the missing pets protection scheme.

If you can think of anything else I need to do, please let me know.

Many thanks
Helen

[Cob-Web]

If you can think of anything else I need to do, please let me know.

Buy or borrow a good book: Gwen Bailey's "The Perfect Puppy" tells it like it is with a pup    Yes ,they will make a mess, they will bite you, and they will chew your possessions  although some of the behavioural stuff in this book is a bit outdated.

A better one from a behavioural point of view - so you can begin to understand how your pup learns is "The Complete Idiots Guide to Dog Training" by Pamela Dennison which has a section specifically on Puppy socialisation and also crate training (a must, imo  ) There is also an article by her here, all about socialisation 

[Jan/Billy]

Thanks for your advice Jan and Joelf!

I will take her out in the next few days to meet a lot more people, I might take her to my brothers, he has 2 kids.
I will wean her off the pads, what about overnight? She seems to be weeing twice and the other once over night, without the pad she would make a mess, what do I do?

I am hoping to buy a crate too, not sure if this is the best thing to do, at the moment I keep her in the kitchen and I have bought a radio to keep her company through the night.

So much to learn about how to train a puppy well, I am worried, but it's still only early days for me.
I have her booked into the vets for her next jabs in 2 weeks and I have already insured her and added her to the missing pets protection scheme.

If you can think of anything else I need to do, please let me know.

Many thanks
Helen

Socialisation in my opinion is THE most important. Take her out as soon as you can, visit lots of friends & relatives. If you're nipping out to post a letter, or walk to the shops, take her ( although until she's had her jabs you can't put her down).

You never stop learning with a cocker. I've had Billy three and a half years and am still learning   I Love every minute of it though  

Buy Gwen Baileys perfect puppy - You can buy it at pets at home.

[helenb]

If you can think of anything else I need to do, please let me know.

Buy or borrow a good book: Gwen Bailey's "The Perfect Puppy" tells it like it is with a pup    Yes ,they will make a mess, they will bite you, and they will chew your possessions  although some of the behavioural stuff in this book is a bit outdated.

A better one from a behavioural point of view - so you can begin to understand how your pup learns is "The Complete Idiots Guide to Dog Training" by Pamela Dennison which has a section specifically on Puppy socialisation and also crate training (a must, imo  ) There is also an article by her here, all about socialisation 

I wasn't sure about the crate at first, but I am definitely going to get her one, I've seen a 36" one on ebay, it will do for when she is bigger too.

[helenb]

Socialisation in my opinion is THE most important. Take her out as soon as you can, visit lots of friends & relatives. If you're nipping out to post a letter, or walk to the shops, take her ( although until she's had her jabs you can't put her down).

You never stop learning with a cocker. I've had Billy three and a half years and am still learning   I Love every minute of it though  

Buy Gwen Baileys perfect puppy - You can buy it at pets at home.

I'll go to pets at home on mon or tues and take her with me in the car, I'll make sure she meets as many people as possible!
May be a silly question ......... what if she needs to go the toilet when I am out with her?

[Penelope]

Hi Helen
When we got Josie (springer x lab) we had a crate ready and waiting for her.  We put newspaper one end, and blankets the other end.  Every morning we came down to soaking wet (and often messy) bedding, puppy and newspaper!  We were constantly washing pet blankets (lucky we had a good supplier in our local charity shops!) and Josie too.   After a few weeks of this, my lovely mum bought us a huge plastic dog bed to put in the crate.  We added her blankets to that, and never looked back - she never messed or wet in her crate again!
Having learned from our experience, we got a crate for Buffy and put a plastic dog bed with toys and blankets one end, and newspaper the other side.  So far - we have had her for 5 nights now - she has never wet or messed in her crate, not even overnight! 
Best of luck with your new pup.

In the past we had a Westie - we got her from the kind of house sensible people would run a mile from!  (7 filthy kids, filthy house, filthy pup, 12 weeks old, no socialisation etc etc etc)  We bought her because we felt desperately sorry for the little scrap and couldn't leave her there.  She turned out to be the most fantastic dog - and although she sadly had to be PTS at the age of 9, it was cancer and nothing to do with her terrible start in life.  So it just goes to show, that sometimes dogs with bad starts in life end up OK in the right home - and I am sure your pup will be fine, especially if you keep logging on here for advice!

[Brimbeck(Dyllan)]

I wish you well with Maddie.
The people on here are very helpful I've learnt a lot for this forum.

[Cathy]

Socialisation in my opinion is THE most important. Take her out as soon as you can, visit lots of friends & relatives. If you're nipping out to post a letter, or walk to the shops, take her ( although until she's had her jabs you can't put her down).

You never stop learning with a cocker. I've had Billy three and a half years and am still learning   I Love every minute of it though  

Buy Gwen Baileys perfect puppy - You can buy it at pets at home.

I'll go to pets at home on mon or tues and take her with me in the car, I'll make sure she meets as many people as possible!
May be a silly question ......... what if she needs to go the toilet when I am out with her?

I wouldn't take her to Pets at home with you, there is likely to be other animals there, and at 9 weeks, shes not been inoculated, so you risk infection.

Just take it slow and think through everything you do.  Is she needs to go to the toilet whilst you are out, she will go. At 9 weeks, i wouldn't let her out for a another week accept your garden, and then start to carry her places only, until clear of the injection time. I know its exciting and you want to get her out and a bout, I felt the same, but its NOT worth the risk.

As for making a mess without the puppy pads, yes she will, but shes a puppy and thats what they do, if you carry on using them, it will make it hard to train her off of them.

Best take her outside every 30 - 60 mins and when she goes say something like "hurry up" and try to train her to go on command its the best thing i ever did. She won't be fully toilet trained for AGES !!  even at 12 months they can relapse. So don't expect it.   

Enjoy your young pup and have fun !! nows the time to start socializing, but in a sensible way.

Please do not take her to pets at home !!

Good luck !!

[Joules]

I agree with Cathy - far too many potential infections somewhere like PAH.  There will have been lots of other animals in there some that have not vaccinated.  Not worth risking your pup's health for the sake of a couple of weeks.  At that age they can pick up things so easily 

What I did with Coco was to carry her everywhere with me until her vacs were complete and let her play in the garden.  I didn't put her on the ground - just took her for short trips in the car and into town to get used to seeing traffic, people, noise etc. Actually she did not have any accidents - I just made sure she had done a wee/poo before we went out.

With the housetraining, I gave up on the puppy pads except at night in the crate.  Just took her outside every half an hour - it is far better to get her used to going outside than train her to go on a pad then try and teach her to go outside.  It did seem to take ages to work but I was doing it from October so could not leave the doors open.    Just use a cue word - I use "Quick" or "Quickly" and she will eventually learn to go when you tell her - this is very useful when you are out    You could take a bit of wee pad outside so she can smell the wee and it will encourage her that that is the place to go.  Then praise madly and give her a treat when she performs.

Good luck - just relax.  It will all come in time.  Once I stopped stressing about it all, I found it all fell into place much better 

[Cob-Web]

One of Molo's first trips out was to the pet store - they don't sell kittens or puppies, so is the risk of infection that great if the pup is kept in arms and not allowed on the floor ? 

[Cathy]

I would personally wish to air on the side of caution. In our pets at home, there are always quite a lot of dogs in there, not for sale... just other owners... and for me I would be too worried about them getting to close, or even jumping up.

I guess some stores are busier than others.

[PennyB]

I will take her out in the next few days to meet a lot more people, I might take her to my brothers, he has 2 kids.
I will wean her off the pads, what about overnight? She seems to be weeing twice and the other once over night, without the pad she would make a mess, what do I do?

Also carry her out and about down the street as well so she gets used to traffic noise etc. I used to take mine to the bank with me (followed by the petshop) and also the park (but didn't let them go down). Get yourself a small backpack or similar and carry it round the front (I also put a collar or harness on the pup as they can get quite wiggly in there and its easier to grip hold of to stop them coming out). In fact I used to just go out specifically just to socialise the pups.

Get hold of a copy of 'The Perfect Puppy' by Gwen Bailey and make sure as soon as you can you take her to puppy classes to continue socialising her.