happy new year

At this stage I'm still missing the puppies and still worrying about how they are doing, although I know that their owners are getting on with puppy stuff and barely giving me a thought.  As it should be.  Or, that's what I keep telling myself.  I try not to email/text/phone everyone daily to make sure all is well, you understand, but still it's nice to get updates.

Around about the 10-week mark the house training is going well, the first vaccinations have been done, there have been lots of experiences with new places, new people and new dogs, and everyone is getting ready for their puppy classes to start in a week or so.  The main questions that everyone has are:  (a) how do I get him to stop biting me? (b) is it ok when I do X, Y or Z? and (c) how do I get him to stop biting the lead?

Lots of biting-related questions at this stage, and everyone is always relieved to hear that it's all perfectly normal and necessary.  Although, to be fair, that probably doesn't help with the scratches, torn sleeves and various other puppy-teeth-related injuries.  It is an age where puppies must learn that it is never acceptable to bite people and they must learn what it is ok to bite (i.e. toys and chews - not legs of anything, whether they belong to humans, other dogs or even tables).  And it is an age that the humans must survive.  As with all puppy-related issues, time and gentle, consistent guidance will see you through.  Leather gloves come in handy too.

Wishing all my friends, readers, visitors and puppy owners a very happy new year!  May 2014 bring you all you wish for and more.  And may it see the back of what you wish would bugger off.

I will leave you with a couple of photos of some grown-up puppies that were sent to me in honour of their recent 3rd birthday.  Incidentally, Daniel tells me that Kuura has had another phase of calming down and maturing - there you go, Pippuri puppy owners, only two-and-three-quarters-of-a-year to go.

Kuura looking gorgeous with a little help from the wind

Bo with her rosettes

Bo looking so much like both mum and granny!

how to give a Lapphund a bath

Now that the Riemu puppies are 6 months old, their owners might find it useful to have a step-by-step guide to bathing a Lapphund.  I've conducted 1 or 2 Lapphund baths, but do let me know if I miss anything out.

If possible, put a nylon or other waterproof collar on your dog.  Or an old collar you don't mind getting soaked.  If your dog will stand in the bath without being held, take the collar off altogether.

As far as shampoo goes, I like Doreen Paige products.  I use one for Harsh Black Coats that enhances the depth and shine of dark coats without making them soft.  I also have Royal Jelly & Evening Primrose Oil Shampoo which is said to be "coat-encouraging".  Needless to say, I did not use this one on Taika.  There are also blue coloured shampoos designed to enhance white coats, and if you have a well-behaved dog who will happily stand in the tub, it's worth the small additional effort to use one of these on the white bits like paws, chest and bottom, for example.  

• Collect at least 3 clean, dry dog towels.  Wear something you don't mind getting covered in dog water & hair.  Naked works well.
• Close the bathroom door so your dog doesn't make a break for freedom before being towelled off - or, even worse, covered in soap.
• Put 1 towel in the bathtub, spray with shower to dampen.
• Lift dog carefully into bathtub with paws on wet towel.  Hold by collar until settled.  If necessary, be firm about the fact that he has to stay there.
• Keep one hand in the collar to keep the dog from moving or trying to jump out.  Using the shower attachment, thoroughly wet the dog's belly and legs (I prefer doing it in sections).  Use your 3rd hand* to smoosh the water through the coat (that's a technical term).  i.e. massage the fur firmly using small circular movements to manipulate the water through the fur. 
• Turn off water, pour shampoo into your hand, rub your hands together and massage into the dog's fur.  Be sure to cover every inch, especially right into the "armpits" and between toes.  This will allow you to discover any mats, seeds, ticks or other problems.
• When the area has been thoroughly shampooed, turn on the shower, taking care to adjust the water temperature away from the dog. 
• Rinse all the shampoo out of the fur, using the smoosh to "push" the shampoo out.  Then rinse it again.  When you're absolutely certain there is no shampoo left, rinse it one more time.
• Repeat the wetting, shampooing and rinsing (don't forget smooshing) to the rear and tail area, then the body and back, then the neck and head. 
• Do the head last because it is getting this area wet that makes it absolutely irresistible for dogs to shake the water out of their coat.  Up until getting their head wet, they are relatively comfortable.  
• To wet and rinse the head, tip the dog's head gently back and be careful that no water gets into the ears by covering each one with your hand as you go.  
• Turn off the water.  Cover the dog with a dry towel and give a good rub, especially the face and neck.
• With dog still covered in towel, carefully lift him out of tub and stand him on another towel on the floor. 
• Stand back because he will really need to shake now.
• Towel dry as much as possible - don't forget the paws and tail.
• Remove the collar (if you use one) until the fur is dry and brushed.

* You can see where a second person would be a big help in this adventure.  If you're on your own, be sufficiently firm with the dog and you should be able to withdraw your hand from the collar.  But keep a watchful eye for any body language that suggests he's about to try and escape.

Remember:

Use lukewarm water - too warm would be very mean and, believe it or not, they don't seem to like it cold either.

Wet the head last and carefully protect the ears from water.

Smoosh the water into the coat - and the shampoo out of the coat.  It makes a big difference to how easy or difficult it is to penetrate through to the skin.  Shampoo can be very difficult to get out of the thick fur - this type of manipulation with your fingers really will help.

Rinse, rinse and rinse again.

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Edited:
Some of my Facebook friends have made excellent points that are worth adding here.
1.  Susan, mum of Tippi, uses an old rubber bath mat to stop the dogs slipping.  I have no such useful item, but it's a great idea.
2.  Mary suggested diluting the shampoo in a litre of water before applying to the dog.  I should have mentioned that my shampoo is also pre-diluted.  Most shampoos are unnecessarily thick and strong and can be safely diluted and still do a good job.  Other shampoos (like the Doreen Paige ones) actually have dilution instructions on the label.

Mikko growing up

The last of the puppy updates falls to Mikko.  He is a boy who, right from the earliest days, looked so much like his mum - he's exactly the same colour and also with Keksi's sweet expression.  I dare say he will grow into a big brown bear of a boy too. 

You can tell my his knobby knees that he has a lot of growing to do yet - and filling out.

 Sweet boy with his well-worn bear (or whatever it was...)

 Loves tennis balls, like all Lappies.












In a few days the puppies will turn 6 months old and then a whole new world of experience starts for them and their owners.  For the girls, it's hormones, hormones, hormones with their impending first seasons and perhaps a bit of moodiness from time to time.  For the boys, it's... well, hormones too, as they start to realise what the opposite sex is all about.   There might be some humping.  Er, possibly a lot of humping.  I always recommend to everyone to treat youthful humping just like any other unwanted behaviour - nip it in the bud.  Firmly and quickly.

They all will settle into their adult height over the next couple of months, and they will slowly start to mature and fill out.  They will lose their puppy coats and grow a new one.  And in about a month from now, they will all start to find their feet and try out a little more independence.  Time for owners to be vigilant and strict with the training.  The formerly well-behaved puppies will morph into monsters for a few months, by comparison.  Deep breaths, lots of training, and maintain your nerve and they will all come out the other end.  Eventually.

pup tip - house training II

Before I get completely caught up in the wonderfulness of new puppies in the house, I must finish the entry about house training puppies.  Following on from the tips published earlier,  I thought it would be worthwhile to mention a few more additional toilet training ideas.  Advanced house training for puppies, if you will.

1.  Did you know that you can train your puppy to just do his business in one corner of your garden, for example?  It's true.  When you begin the training, always put your puppy on lead to take him out, and always take him to the same spot.  Wait for him to go, give the action a command ("Have a wee/have a poo/get busy") and then give praise and treats when he does his thing in the right place.

2.  Having said that, be very careful to make sure you train your puppy to happily go on many different surfaces.  Without giving it much thought, I took Neka out to the grassy park next door to do all her wees when she was a puppy.  Everyday there was always plenty of grass in the places where we walked.  What I didn't realize was that I was teaching her to wee and poo only on grass.  One night when we were in a city with not a blade of grass to be found, my poor frantic and bursting 6-month-old puppy was desperately searching for somewhere suitable to have a wee.  Eventually she gave in and did it on a pile of leaves.  After that night I made a point of teaching her to go on lots of different surfaces.  Now she will wee on pavement, gravel, mud, whatever.  But her favourite surface is still grass.

3.   Remember to catch your puppy before he has a chance to get it wrong and show him how to get it right.  Always praise your puppy for getting it right but never scold him for getting it wrong.

4.  Finally, one thing you need to know that everyone always forgets, is that dogs don't generalise well.  In terms of house training, this means that while they might be perfectly clean and trained at home, they won't necessarily equate that with being clean and trained in someone else's home.  So when you go to visit the mother-in-law you will definitely need to keep an eagle eye on that 12-month-old puppy who has been reliably house trained for more than 7 months. Treat it like starting all over again and catch him before he has a chance to do anything.  Don't say I didn't warn you...

So, what happens when an adult dog starts to soil inside the house for no apparent reason?  Take him to the vet.  In my experience, this only happens when a dog or cat is ill and needs to get your attention about it. 

Sometimes, of course, there is a perfectly apparent reason, although you might not spot it straightaway.  For example, the pair of year-old brothers who both (separately, in their separate homes) wee'd on their owners beds after coming home from their first stays in a kennel.

Today,  here is a row of sweet little tails and an illustration of how the holding box (where the puppies go while I'm cleaning out their box) won't be big enough for very long.

Row of tiny tails

Gonna be needing a new box very soon...

pup tip - house training I

This is also known as "toilet training" for dogs, although it doesn't actually involve toilets, as such, just toilet-ing.  In American publications you might see this referred to as "house breaking".  Basically, it means teaching your dog where it is and is not acceptable to wee and poo.

Start house training as soon as you bring your pup home.  As with all training, timing is the key to early success and you will need to be committed to the cause in the early days.  Remember the consistency I'm always banging on about?  Well, that applies here too.  Big time.  If you catch your puppy in the act of getting ready to wee indoors every time and you say no every time and quickly hustle him outside to do the deed every time, then he will learn very quickly that that is what he must do every time.  If your puppy manages to do an indoor wee without being stopped, then he will learn that he can wee indoors.  Even if only gets away with it sometimes.

So, what happens if you scold your puppy for weeing or pooing indoors?  Even worse - what if you punish him for doing so?  What will happen is he will hide away from you to do it.  That's a fact and that is why you should never, ever scold or punish your puppy for relieving himself indoors.  He has to go somewhere and he simply does not know any better.  It is up to you to teach him where is allowed to go.  You simply show him what he is allowed to do rather than telling him off for doing what he is not allowed to do.  That means you need to keep your eye on him and take him out a lot in the beginning.

Taito squatting for a wee in the garden, aged 8 weeks.


















And what do you do when your puppy does his business outside?  As with all training, you give him praise and treats. You act as if he just accomplished the most outstanding feat of puppy amazingness.  Make him feel good about relieving himself in the correct place. 

It's up to you to know when your puppy is likely to need to relieve himself. And, in the beginning, it will be often.  Very often.  These are the times to take your puppy outside for a wee and/or poo:

• As soon as he wakes up
• As soon as he finishes eating
• Every 20 minutes while he is awake or playing
• If he is busily walking around sniffing the floor, particularly when going in circles
• Every time he asks to go out

You might need to have a bit of an eagle eye for recognising that your puppy is asking to go out.  They start asking really surprisingly early on.  Even the little 6-and-7-week-olds start asking before they ever leave us here.  But it doesn't necessarily mean your puppy will go up to the door and bark or scratch.  That comes much later.  At first look for the puppy just hanging around or sitting next to the door.  Or keep a watch for your puppy gazing at the door.  Or just barking frantically for no apparent reason.

Neka gave us a challenge.  She was asking to go out really quickly in her training, but her way of asking was a casual glance in our direction as she strolled across the living room towards the back door.  Funny girl.  It took us a while to catch on that this was her sign, but once we spotted it, we had the house training cracked.

For more on house training, have a look at this later post.

pup tip - start as you mean to go on

Right from the first day in his new home, a puppy should be exposed to the normal daily routine he will be expected to abide by for the future.  I always recommend that people take some time off work when they bring their new puppy home.  You need time to sort out the house training, do some bonding, spend a few hours puppy-worshipping, get him sleeping all night, do lots of short and fun training sessions, and prepare your puppy to spend time alone.

First Night

A puppy's first night or two away from his mum & littermates will probably be absolutely awful for him - and for his new owners.  He will cry and howl and be quite pitiful.  There are other methods, but I recommend the tough love approach - keep him awake in the evening so that he's really tired, put him to bed with a few bits of food and some safe toys, and then turn out the lights and go to bed.  And put in your earplugs.  And don't return to him no matter how heartbreaking his cries.

Ukko at home in his crate during his first week home.











 
Because you know what happens if you return to him and give in, right?  Yes.  He will throw a tantrum everytime he wants something, secure in the knowledge that if he barks and howls for long enough, he will eventually get his own way.  And he will do the same thing every single night when he goes to bed...

It usually only takes a couple of nights for him to give up and go to sleep.  Then once he is happy sleeping at night, if he then wakes up and calls, he almost certainly needs to wee and/or poo.  In the interest of his house training, it's then a good idea to drag yourself out of bed and take him out to do his business so he's not forced to do it in his sleeping area.  He would rather not soil his bed, but if he has no choice, then he will do so and will thereby learn that it is acceptable to do so in the future.

Alone Time

The other routine your new puppy must learn is to spend time alone.  Again, being alone will be all new to him.  Each of my puppies gets to spend a few minutes alone as part of my socialisation programme, but that's very different from learning to stay at home while you go to work for a couple of hours.

So, whatever you do, don't wait until the day before you go back to work to start worrying about leaving him.  Start the alone routine straightaway on his first morning with you.  You take him out for his morning ablutions, give him his breakfast, take him out for more wees & poos, do some playing, more house training, and then when he's tired, put him in his crate with some toys and leave him alone.  Get him started on what is going to be his normal morning routine.

Even if you don't work and you plan to spend most of your time with the puppy, he will still need to learn to be left alone, so it's a worthwhile exercise regardless.

Furniture, Chewing, Upstairs

Finally, you need to decide what your adult dog is going to be allowed to do and what he is not going to be allowed to do and then apply those rules to the tiny, adorable puppy.  If you don't want your big galoot of a wet dog to lie on the sofa, then don't let the irresistible 8-week-old ball of fluff on the sofa either.

Neka wasn't allowed on the furniture, so she would sleep with her head on our feet.  So cute!

And then we decided that having the animals on the furniture was actually ok with us.  Just as well.










If you don't want your dog jumping on people, then don't let the tiny puppy jump up either.  The same goes for letting the tiny puppy chew your fingers.  At first it's quite cute.  Then it really isn't.   In fact, the same goes for chewing anything.  Decide what your puppy is allowed to chew, which rooms he is allowed to use, whether or not he is permitted upstairs, and then enforce the rules rigidly.  Rigidly.  Don't make exceptions - ever.

Why not?  Because the important thing with all matters of successful dog training and raising a well-mannered, well-behaved adult dog is consistency.  Do the same thing everytime and demand the same behaviour of your dog all the time and at all occasions.  The bottom line is this: your dog will do whatever you teach him to do, and whatever you allow him to do.  If you allow him to do something once, he will think he can do it forever.  So be careful to only ever let your puppy learn what you want your adult dog to be.  

Sounds, easy, doesn't it.  Uh huh.

pup tip - 1st day & night

When you first bring your puppy home, everybody is going to be excited about the new family member and all your friends and neighbours will want to visit.  Resist the urge to show off your puppy straight away.  Plan for your puppy's first experiences of his new home to be quiet and calm.  Give him the opportunity to get to know you and your house, where his things are and what his new routine is going to be without the comfort and security of his mother and siblings.

Keep in mind that it's a big, new, scary world for your puppy; ease him into it.  Let him find his feet and feel at home before bringing in the well-wishers and puppy-cuddlers.  Once he is feeling secure and at home, then bring on the visitors. Keep numbers down to 2 or 3 at a time, though, so that he is not overwhelmed.

While he is being visited and fussed, be sure not to neglect his toilet training needs and always allow him to get sufficient sleep.  He'll be excited and enjoying the fuss, but it's up to you - the parent, as it were! - to enforce quiet time.

Neka at 8 weeks old, a couple of days after arriving.