I'm Getting A Puppy! What do I need?

One piece of advice I haven't seen here - don't get/use retractable leashs. A good 6' leash does a good job of letting them know to stay close to you. That's what the dog trainers I used to take mine to always said. Also, with a retractable leash, you can't keep them close enough for adequate "correction" when needed.

 

Great point! Plus they Break! Not a good thing & could be tragic.

I also invested in a 6 panel baby playpen from toy r us. It cost $60 but lets you put the dog in there when you can't watch him/her, even for just a minute. Also it breaks down into panels of various sizes & makes great gates for doorways. I used it along with a crate.

Congrats on your new puppy and post up pics when you get em home. My dog is my best friend.

 

Don't feed it cheap dog food, buy a good quality brand from a pet supply store, you are what you eat, and dogs especially. Healthy nutrition is important and also can help improve behavioural problems. Here's a tip dogs get bored easily and don't know hwat to do with their life they look to you for guidance and when giving them commands usually give them simple words, like NO or Come, if you start talking in sentaces it's all mubo jumbo too them. Also their short term memory isn't that great so if you have to punish puppy don't hold a grudge for long dogs forget easily. also expose your dog to new enviroments a dog is only as smart as it's experiences.

I have 2 dogs, 1 is almost 14yrs old and the other is 11yrs (human yrs) I've had dogs for over 25yrs years and all of them have ben well behaved best friends!

Congrats on your new puppy, also a good book for training is from the "Monks of New Skete"

I have a bedrug (bedrug.com) for the back bed of my Taco and the dogs stay in there.

 

Thanks again for all the advice. I have read each and every reply and taken note of it all. I picked up Karma (That's her name) today! Wow is she a handful!! My mom held her for the trip home (about 30 minutes). Got her home for the first time, and she "pottied" 4 times throughout the day :lol: Man, those clean up supplies sure came in handy! Caught her about to, and managed to get her outside, and of course praised her for going there. Anyway, after that, i began getting her on a potty schedule as informed in this thread. No potty incidents since. I've also started training her on the "sit" command and "go peepee" lol. SO far it seems to be working great. She does seem to want to chew on everything, including me, so i'm working on that. Needless to say, today was a VERY tiring day!! BTW, the humane society was feeding her Science diet, and gave me a bag too. I researched and decided to go with Natural balance dog food and treats. She's tearing away at her little moo cow toy, and loves the kong. Anyway, enough chatter, i'm exhausted and going to bed. Pics tomorrow!!!

P.S. Can anyone recommend any good pet insurance? Currently i'm leaning towards Pet Best.

 

Congrats on your new friend Karma!!

Great advice phantom, and everyone else too, definately change them to new food slowly....

.....and of course, can't wait for......

 

Congratulations! I will be a bit tiring until you guys get a routine going and then it will be easier! Also, in addition to gradually introducing the new food, be sure to pick a breakfast time and a dinner time and stick with it! Her internal clock will eventually start to "remind" her when it's time to eat. Can't wait for pictures!

 

As promised, here are pics of Karma!




Destroying the Kong toy



She looks like a frog when she sits like that. :lol:



Playing with her MooMoo cow.

 

Great lookin' pup...love the dark snout, maybe it will get even darker.....have fun and congrats.....

 

Puppy Pads for house-breaking.

I used these on my last dogs. They are great!

http://dogtrainingpads.com/

 

Oh! She's so cute! Congratulations again!

 

Nice looking puppy, now let the fun begin

 

i didnt read the rest of the posts... but i will say take some training classes at petsmart. the chicks there are really really down to earth. petsmart is just an all around place to meet chicks... wait.... WTF we talking about?

all i gots to say is DOGGY DOOR and poddy training... if the dog is gonna be outside than no worries... but if its inside and your not gonna be around all the time (if you go to work or whatever) then teach that sucka to crap outside. im not gonna tell you how many times my malamute (mala-MUTT!) dropped a deuce in my living and smeared it all around while i was at work (i dont work anymore). grrrrr... shes so fucking demanding.... i cant eat in front of her without her getting all barking and shit. she is now outside dog now. kinda sucks. but i got tired of cleaning her ish off the rugs.

get the dog FIXXED!!! they are soooo calm and kicked back (like me) afterwards. when my dog goes into heat she will hump people, and HOWL like a mo-fo in the middle of the night, all wolf style. good grief...

 

x2 Girls at petsmart were relly cute
My dog did a good job of testing my patience while I trained her

 

Pooper scooper-- dog house--purina proplan i find the best dog food for the $ good luck

 

Great looking pup

 

What a very cute puppy! Congratulations on getting her from the Humane Society.
I just want to add that with my pure breed dogs and my rescue dog that it is important to me to have them fixed. There is enough unwanted animals around. Alot of people want their pets to have puppies and kittens but that is just adding to the problem of unwanted animals.

 

I'll only use Natura Brand dog foods. Innova to be exact. I've tried just about every "good" dog food from the chain stores, and this stuff is the real deal. She loves to eat it, coat looks great, stool is good, ect. They have biscuits too.

Innova is a bit more expensive and harder to find, but it's awesome.

 

When I did my dogfood research, I found this to be true--its just that I couldn't afford it! Blue Buffalo and Solid Gold are also good ones, but I couldn't afford them either.