Hello everyone,
We are very excited on Thrusday we are picking up our two 9 week old springer bitches - if not a little daunted. we have numerous other animals, goats, cast,c hickens but tehse are our first dogs.
As the pups are 9 weeks, we will be straight into the litter training terratory, bhut I wondered if anyone could give us advice on when we should start raining the dogs to sit, stay, down etc, and how often you should do this each day?
Also any tips on getting them socialised with the cats and chickens?
Hope someone can give us a rough tiemtable ( I know every dog is an individual and everything has its time, but we are such novices are we talking week 11 or when they are 2 lol -rhetorical question!)
Hope all you experts can help.
Lots of Excitement
Harry and Jen
Plus the two new pups yet to arrive...

Hi there,

We got our first dogs back last October - two springers 8 weeks old Now, no way am I an expert, lots of folks on here have years of experience, and I only have a few months... but here is my twopenneth anyway :0)

To be honest, training has to start the minute you take responsibility for the pups - decide what you are prepared for them to do as full grown dogs, and train accordingly (ie - don't let them lie on your bed as pups, if you they won't be welcome there when they are big, hairy and smelly ) Just be firm and calm with your instructions, pups soon pick up on the difference between praise, and a command.

My son did alot of the initial training, sit, and stay were quite simple to train (spaniels are very intelligent after all!) - we taught them their names by blowing a whistle, calling a name and throwing that dog a puppy treat. (whistles are very useful for teaching recall too - pip it three times before food, and when on a walk your pup will associate the sound with a treat, and come running to see!) - probably structured training took 10 - 15 mins a couple of times a day. Ignoring the pup, is a good way to deter bad behaviours, such as nipping and jumping up... Oh and we tried to separate them for at least half an hour a day for some one to one training.

When we registered with our vets they invited us to puppy parties, and from there we took them puppy training.

Hope that helps! Good luck - and post lots of pictures please and any problems and we'll all do our best to confuse you further.. err... I mean help


Pol

Hi and welcome, you must post picies as soon as they come home. lol
My 2 girls are 10wks, we've had them from 6wks.
Great advice from polly, and I'm sure others will add to it.

Check out the training pages on the site, some great stuff on there.
Training seperatly is a must as is the whistle, I've found those bits of advise most helpfull.
Spend seperate bonding time with them too, then they wont pine for each other if they need to be seperate at any time.
Good luck and don't forget the photos

Polly and Roz thanks for your replies.
Roz your two look like sweeties.
We were ever so nervous about getting two at the same time but we thought they would keep each other ocmpany and be less likely to have seperation anxiety etc as they got older.
Great tips.
So jobs for today for the impending arrival tomorrow - purchase a whistle - a dog whistel i.e high pitched or ordinary tecahers playground/ref?
I am also off to buy trellace - why? you may beasking, our kitchen is only half linoleum and I want the pups to stay in the lino half to begin with whilst they lay tulips everywhere (if you catch my drift), we also have a large garden and I wnat to fence in a small section so when I carry them out for toilet traiiing, one dosn't run off whilst Im watching the other, I can already feel myself being pulled in two directions lol.
Great tip on the seperation for a bit of training and to get them used to ebing apart and allow for one on one bonding.
Roz what are your two called?
Harry and Jen

Hi, I bought a dog whistle from PAH, one that is audible to humans

I separated off half my hall way to begin with too - we bought a puppy play pen, and modified it to do the job - and we also divided the garden to contain them too. I know have a baby gate at the top of the stairs, and one that stops them going into the front (music) room... two pups and a drum kit/ steelpan?

hi Harry and Jen.
My girls are cookie and fudge.
They are 10 wks and growing fast lol
We have restricted them to the lounge and conservatory, 1 in limits the area of puddles in the morning (tending just to be conservatory now), also gives our 4 cats some safe havens! But also we don't wish for them to go upstairs apart from shower times.

We got just a normal dog whistle, not a silent 1. They love their game of hide and seek, I hide then call them by name followed by 3 pips on the whistle, they get a treat when they find me.

Feel free to chat away and ak questions. I have found ST so sanity saving and a wealth of great support and advise.

Here's a more recent pic of my girls.

Well Jen has been on call today and boy o boy have I had a day....
the simple partioning of the kitchen turned into three trips to B&Q and me fencing myself in because I forgot to put in a gate argghhhh!!!
All done now though and everythig si ready for tomorrow, just need to get a catch for the gate I made and some tupaware to keep the food in - easy street.
Our garden is all fenced in but very large so it may be prudent for me to fence off a section but after today I will need to have a bit of a rest lol.
Our girls were nine weeks on Tuesday so are not too far behind Fudge and Cookie!
I just wanted to know about toilet training, do you carry yours outside or get them excited enough to follow you when they wake up or after meals?
How long should it take to toilet train them? Any useful tips or practices - I have read the stuff online and have some of those training pads, I just assumed it was acse of the dogs getting to know that its good to go in the garden and as their bladders get bigger they can hold more so have less accidents?
I am still confused as to when the puppies will actually start to ask to go out - i.e if they are acrried to the garden everytime you anticipate they need to go how do they get to the front door to scratch etc....
Right now time for a cup of tea and some telly before the chaos of tomorrow...
Keep in touch and no worries I will have some photos tomorrow.
Harry and Jen

POlly forgot to ask what are your dogs called and do you have any pics?

Just wanted to say good luck, it must be like the night before Christmas!!

Cheers Vic,
Im actually feeling very aprehensive now, we are also going away in 6 weeks for a night and a neighbour is coming in to look after the new ones, so I hope any good training I put into practice won't be undone within that 24 hour period!!!
Harry

Here comes the voice of caution (or is that doom !) ......... why are you getting two - and why two bitches ? I am sure you know this, but getting two same sex siblings isn't the grea-*test*-('") idea in the world- and unfortunately more and more people seem to be doing it, especially on this forum. I know I will probably get shouted at for saying this - but no one else ever seems to point out all the downfalls of littermates.
Training them is much harder. They will bond with each other more than they will bond with you. They are more likely to fight in adolescence and maturity. It really really is far wiser to get one puppy, train it properly (most puppies correctly trained do not get SA) and then 18 months or so later, add to your canine family again if you still want another dog.
Apologies to everyone with two littermates but I have seen people fail time and time and time and time again, and every time, it's the dogs that suffer, as one usually ends up in rescue . the success stories are very rare.

do I have pics???

Rufus is the brown one, and Stellar the liver and white...

pics from yesterday, here http://www.doubleard.co.uk/gallery/August_dogs/sunny_field/



pics from November (when they were tiny)

here http://www.doubleard.co.uk/gallery/festive/winter07/


(I'll save the few hundred that bridge the gap for another time )

Hi Harry, well today is the day!
In answer to a couple of your questions...

I carried mine out to start but only for a couple o days, now they follow me everywhere so I go ut with them each time they wake and after food etc.
They have stated to take themselves out more often than not (we leave the back door open all the time we are in) and they have also been popping out through the cat flap. Wonder how much longer they will fit though lol

As for who long, well there's a question I'm not yet able to answer lol Mine still toilet indoors sometimes and still have puddles in the morning. Work in progress

We have sectioned off our garden too, but as yet we only get them going in the toilet place every so often, when they do go here they get a treat or otherwise if it's anywhere else outside they get just praise.

I had never heard of littermate syndrome, and we hadn't intentionally gone for 2 pups. I was so worried when it was mentioned on here to me, but imho if you take the time and effort to train and do stuff seperatly it reduces the problems. I have spoken to many people now who have been through this and have well trained and adjusted pups.

Enough waffle, look forward to seeing pics
X

Polly, just got to say - amazing pictures
Lovely dogs, and wonderfull family.
X

LOL Great pictures Polly - Love them!! Especially in the corn field.
Well thanks for your advice Pennel and it is good to warnpeople but I must say I feel very very aprehensive now, but as Penny and Roz seem to have managed I am sure we will too...right?
We live on a farm and have a host of otehr animlas, plus a host of neighbours with other springers, so the dogs will be getting used to many other dogs so they should be alright. But thanks for the warning it now means I have to be extra vigilant at giving them one on one time everyday.
The hour draws close when they arrive...