Teri are you dittoing your own post :)

No Sara, it's a reply to my post. :)

Well I've just got off the phone from the local puppy class leader, recommended to me on this site. We got on to the subject of housetraining and not being dry at night. Her first advice was to remove pups water from the cage.
I guess this is one of those topics where opinions are polarised and a compromise isn't possible, you either do or you don't.

:D :D

lab lover please chill out on this.  I did say my post was not intended to offend you :)  As for

>some people on here take themselves far too seriously   

What's that all about? 

>Nobody on here is "qualified" to give advice, its just about our own experiences

Some people on here may well be "qualified" to give advice in certain areas - so perhaps best not to make sweeping statements.  However advice given based on personal experience can and does vary dramatically in it's quality depending on how experienced individuals are :)  Which is not to say that any of us, regardless of length of time served in canine husbandry, are not able and open to learning more.

You seem to have taken offence at being offered advice that is in the best interests of your puppy - this being a dog forum, it's the interests of the dogs which most of us try to serve by posting.   Ensuring fresh clean water is constantly available is hardly a new concept .....

regards, Teri

I coped by thinking at least it doesn't last as long as the sleepless nights with the children when they were babies/toddlers :D

lol Teri

>The good news is it really does pay off in the end and there is a life after the sleepless nights,

not in this house....  I cant remember what it is like not having anything under 2 years old    Only just getting to grips with The She Devil and The Spawn of Satan,(AKA Ollie & Xanthe) who have just turned 4 months, I have only just realised, that all that went before, simply lulled me into a false sense of security :D  At the tail end of last year I realised I had 5 under the age of 2years who were soo easy I hardly noticed.....now, these 2 have shaved 10 years off my life and are on the verge of losing their own ;) now where did I put that rubber mallet ;)

lol Kayc!  You have made me feel so much better knowing there is someone out there living with more chaos than us.....thank you!

It is hard work but you have to savour those moments when it all goes well. When you suddenly realise that you are only going out into the garden once every hour instead of every half hour, when they choose to go into the crate for a sleep, they sit automatically when you get the food bowl out. If you can see any setbacks as a temporary blip and keep on plodding along it does get easier. We had never had a puppy before, only older rescue dogs, so that stage was all new to us and we found it was really hard work. The good bit about it being hard work is that it shows that you really care about your new puppy - if you weren't a caring owner you wouldn't worry about him and be trying to do your best for him.Our pup is 5 months old now and starting to get the hang of things and we rightly feel proud of what he has achieved in his short time with us.Keep on smiling and enjoy!

Feebee, she settles down at 9ish, but as I am a night owl I do let her out again, usually around 11-11.30, so don't worry I definately don't have superpup!! I've actually got the crate inside a puppy pen so cheating a bit really as I don't normally lock her in the crate - too worried at the thought of her messing in the crate at night and lying in it - yeuk.
anyway got to go to go and grab some sleep....

Yep, when we got our new puppy I'd forgotten what hard work it was in spite of the older two only being 3 years old. Mind you, we got them as puppies on the same day, so keeping up with 2 puppies was a nightmare! Wouldn't lose them for the world now (most of the time!) :-D

Oh I remember those new puppy days so well! It was just like having anew baby in the house but with out the luxury of nappies and being able to put them somewhere they cant move from! After a few nights of sleeping on the settee so that Alfie could be taken out in the night for a wee, my daughter who has always wanted loads of kids suddenly decided babies were not for her if that was what it was like!
It does get better as everyone has said, before you know it you will be reminiscing about how sweet they were as a puppy and forgetting the broken nights and general chaos that bringing a puppy into the house brings! :-)

alfredo wrote
"It does get better as everyone has said, before you know it you will be reminiscing about how sweet they were as a puppy and forgetting the broken nights and general chaos that bringing a puppy into the house brings!"

How true we had a 14 year and a 7 year old (both dogs) when we got JJ aged 8 weeks in 2004.  Luckily i am at home all day and my hubby works a 4 day on 4 day off shift so he was at home a lot as well.  We were both like zombies for a few weeks :-)
JJ seemed to be a full on piddle machine, once though we left them for 30 mins and when we came back we thought he was ill because the kitchen was completely dry, no a drop of piddle.  It felt (at the time, LOL) like we'd won the lottery :-)

Hmmm now though we are talking about getting another pup in the next few months or so.

hi all. just reading through your threads and thinking we must have been very lucky. our staff is now 15 months old. we only had 2 bad nights. when we first got her. toilet training was quiet easy just put paper down and she went on that. had to follow her around when she wanted a poo.never chewed anything. was clean through the night when she was about 3 months old. slept no probs in her crate all night. don't know what all the fuss is about. we are picking up our male staff on sunday. oh by the way we got our girl early at about  5 and half weeks old. i know this is bad but we didn't find out until latter . they told us she was 6 and a half weeks. the one we are getting on sunday is 8 week's . off the same person it will be her brother. i will let you know how we get on. all the best steve

Hi Feebee,
This all reminds me of an old song
"It's only just begun"

Don't worry to much about the water thing, we have always taken the water away last thing at night, after last wee. I have never not had a dog in my life and usually at least 2 together. None have ever suffered any adverse effects in fact apart from accidental death, they have all lived good long happy lives. I think sometimes like new mothers, we can be OTT about animal care and we need to give them credit, they are not braindead and they'll soon let you know if your not getting it right.

I agree with you spiritulist.  you should have been around when I posted on page 1.  I was slated for taking my 6 month old pups water away.  I felt like Id done something drastically wrong - she now has a water bowl, drinks out of it during the day and the water thats left down for her in the night is still there when we get up!:rolleyes:  All dogs are different and its not like the weathers hot here

Lablover you weren't "slated" - you were advised for the sake of your pup's health and comfort to provide access to water at all times  :rolleyes:

While temperature obviously can have an effect on overall conditions, centrally heated homes in the winter are every bit as likely to expedite increased thirst and physical needto quench same.  Over and above which, if you've continued to follow the thread you'll see that it's already been pointed out how dangerous it could be should a dog (especially a puppy) become sick over night and lose a lot of fluids.

regards, Teri

sorry i beg to differ:rolleyes:

Four whole days - sharp as a tack :D :D :D

LOL!

i have other things to do apart from looking at this site every day:rolleyes:

I expressed an opinion, there's no need to be rude. 

Several posters offered help to you by way of advice on best practice when caring for your dog.  At one point you seemed to have followed it and your post to that end  was met with very positive and favourable responses by more than a few members and followed with your invitation to see photos of your dog!  Then, from nowhere I can work out slap, bang, dunk you're on whingeing about being "slated" again :rolleyes:

The way you've subsequently expressed your opinion has been rude - so I'd suggest if you can't take, don't give it out!

Blimey that me told isnt it!  Yes I did eventually take advise but I did feel rather bullied into it.  I didnt mention anyone particular, for some reason you had to butt in and get personal as if I had posted something specific about you!  I think you need to uncoil and take some deep breathes!

I thought this had been sorted

It was not bullying at all it was merely advising you ;) Bullying is making somebody do something that is wrong surely ? Making sure a dog has water at all times is not wrong :)

Just because she hasn't touched it now doesn't mean she won't in the future :) Especially when she is older and you are able to exercise her more you will see her water intake will dramatically increase even in cold weather ;) You can hear my girls throughout the night going out the dog flap to their water bowls for a slurp :)

Now shall we let this one go now as I really cannot see any reason to carry this on anymore ;)

Flogging a dead horse and all that :)

sure ljs - it wasnt me who was being personal

Your posting history says differently :)

Feebee - I seriously feel your pain right now!! We have a 14 week old pup, who sometimes has the best days ever and the next day it feels like a) she's never been to the loo outside b) never learnt to sit and c) can't leave my side. When she's having a mad day we call it 'Having a Tuesday' as our first Tuesday with her was hell on earth. She completely lulled us into a very false sense of security for the first few days - slept like a baby, got her outside all the time, ate like a demon. We made comments that we never realised how easy this puppy thing was. Oh. How. Wrong. On the tuesday she turned into the Devil itself - she pooped and peed everywhere, screamed the house down all day and night and basically let us know what puppies are all about. lol

She generally gets to bed now about 11-ish but we get up at 1, 3, 5 and 6.30 so neither my partner or I get more than a few hours sleep - but this is worth is for the fact that she's only had 2 accidents at night and they were down to us not setting our alarms right and sleeping though.

And we're having separation problems too- any time I leave her in another room or go upstairs she poops and/or pees - either in her crate or not :rolleyes: So Ive spent the best part of about 5 hours over the last few days leaving through various doors with my coat on or off, giving her very tasty treats and her favourite toy (which  coincidentally is a small very hard plastic coke bottle - minus lid and sleeve - so sod the 50 quid I spent on toys lol) to 'bribe' her. I've also started to train the stay command - I managed to make her stay at the bottom of the stairs and went up and  back down last night without so much as a wimper. Result.

I did expect that once she got the hang of something that would be it - puppy trainied, but it seems that it happens in small, almost unnoticable steps. We do remind ourselves to enjoy her being a puppy though- she'll only be little for very short period of time and she's the cutest most loveable thing I've ever seen. Even covered head to foot in pee and poo sometimes!!!

There should be a helpline for new puppy owners.....lol

Karen

My helpline was my friend who bred my Henry - poor woman had me phoning all hours of the day and night with the most ridiculous panicky queries! She was very patient with me though! :-D

I don't forget the days where I sat in my dressing gown till 10 am every morning for weeks, because I had to wait till puppy fell asleep, after attacking and playing with its favourite toy (me), so I could sneek out to have a shower and get dressed.  I felt so trapped in my own livingroom/kitchen and garden for that matter.  When I took her onto my lap sitting on a bench on the  Highstreet for socialisation when she was 11 weeks old, once a woman came, petting the little cutie and wishing me lots of joy with it.  I really wondered what she meant, because it was more of a nightmare then anything else.  I concluded, that I never wanted a puppy again, and that I can't understand how people want puppies (esp. when they had puppies before sometime in their life.  For me it was first time).
She is now six and a half months old and I keep saying to my husband, whether he remembers how sweet :rolleyes:she was as a little puppy...and that she wasn't that bad at all.

They grow so quick.  I would have another one sometime.

Keep smiling, it will get better, it's a question of time (and training of course).

Oh that brings back memories, bagpipe! I remember wondering whether it would ever be possible to have a shower and get dressed without shutting myself in the bathroom - with all my clothes and in particular my socks!!! He's so unbothered now, as he comes up to 7 months, that it all seems kind of unbelievable!

I don't mean to sound cruel - but it makes me feel so much better to hear there are so many other people out there who are going through, or have gone through, the same stuff as us!  Thanks for all the postings... and good luck to those of you who are suffering with us at the moment.  No doubt we will all be back on here again soon reminiscing about how lovely they used to be as puppies!  Incidentally, ours went from 11pm to 6.30am this morning without a peep....I am hoping this is a sign of the good times to come....but I suspect it is probably a step of two steps forward, one (or even 3!) steps back!

OK girls, a bit of perspective needed here. The initiator of this topic (Feebee) ....who happens to be my other half ....has once again disapeared for the day to the terrible burden of 3 hour corporate lunches, strategy meetings and lots of deep thought. Muggins here (who had planned an early retirement consisting of lots of golf, lunchtimes at the pub and sundry leisure pursuits) has now become the full time hand maiden to a 4 legged fluffball from hell. I feel the urge to sue but can't find an appropriate target. The puppy's mother was left destitute at the rescue centre by the bounder of a father (who ever he is). Why isn't there a dog equivalent of the Child Support Agency?. ...oh oh - must dash; Osama Bin Pup is sniffing the floor and circling again.

Who allowed a man onto this board?  And more's to the point, you don't have time to be writing messages - you should be training the dogs or cooking my dinner!

LMAO!!

Oh man - it's a hard life isn't it LOL
Keep going and rest assured we've all been in the same boat :D

Debs

LMAO?  I don't know that one!

it means: Laugh My  Ass  Off

:D :D welcome Mr-pheobe and lucy!
you dont fool me!
My OH tries this one too: he mercilessly takes the mick out of me for my fluffy moments with my dog,arms wrapped round him saying "who's my Wuvverly ickle boy" (you know the sickening kinda thing! ;) )
   But when Storm came back from the vets after having his stomach cut open. all wobbly,shivery and whimpering... OH burst into tears!!!
ah, your just the same as us girlies really ;) you like to moan but you love 'em as much as we do!
do feel for you on the golf versus poo patrol front though :D

A man in our midst - you're brave :D  A doggy CSA - love it

i'm a man, and a house husband. my wife is a nurse . i look after the house, 2 conure parrots, 1 14 year old xbreed mongrel bich on 2 heart tablets a day, 1 15 month staff, 1 3 year old boy,the other 2 i walk to school. boy 7 girl 8. anothe pup staff on sunday. and we are expecting our 4th child in march. ahh easy life?. all the best the man steve.

Oooh, you'll be in demand - stick around :D 

a man that can multitask, what a pedigree!

Yeah but they all say they can! It's one of those competitive man things y'see...;)

yes roz. but i really do do it.yes i can multi task.i can make a brew while my son is clingig on my leg, and a parrot on my shoulder. ohh forgot to add we also have a budgie. it's my daughters but guess who look's after it ME.  all the best the multi tasking man steve.

You are one in a million, steve! :D

thank's roz. nice to be appreciated .  all the best steve