Golden Retrievers in Cyberspace / Goldentown Forum

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Golden Retrievers in Cyberspace / Goldentown Forum
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Paging Carol in Vegas

I've been wondering how Macie is doing?



Marcy

Re: Paging Carol in Vegas

Thanks for asking Marcy...Macie is doing well. The vet has confirmed that she does not have a UTI ! Thank God. She goes this Saturday for her next round of vaccinations. And because her shots had to be postponed, her socialization has been a bit compromised. She's been out in the neighborhood and has seen other dogs and people but pretty much that's it. I walk her every day, but the our vet has been pretty strict about taking her anywhere public or where other dogs may have been.

She's been sleeping in her crate every night now but continues to get up at 5-ish. (which is killing me) I take her out to potty then it's right back in the crate but I cannot get her settled down again. So I'm usually up for the day by 5:30 or 5:45. If I could get her to stay till 6 without the 5 a.m. potty, that would be great. I'm open to any and all suggestions.

She's such a sweet girl but oh, is she a handful !! She's a counter surfer already....does things my other girls never thought of. I may have to get some type of "scat mat" to get her to stop the counter stuff, for her own safety. We've tried the squirt bottle, she doesn't seem to mind that. Last night I walked her for about 15 or 20 minutes...she loves to walk... the second we walked in the house she P'd on the floor right by the slider...OMG I thought I was gonna lose it. She's a work in progress for sure.

Re: Paging Carol in Vegas

She sounds like a puppy :-) Did she pee on her walk? We had the boys on a potty schedule and we would go out with them, tell them to potty and they would. We took them out in the morning, after they ate, after they napped, played and before they went to bed. As puppies, they needed to get on that schedule. I know what you mean, it's a shock when you get a puppy. Imagine having two!

As far as getting up at 5:00, the boys did that too. I would take them out, come back in and go back go sleep. They were in the bedroom with us and they had their own beds. Is Macie's crate close to you or where she can see you? That might help.

Keep us posted.

Vicki


Re: Paging Carol in Vegas

Sorry for laughing out loud but I had the most hilarious flashback of when Amber was little (and she was a handful much like Macie) and the trainer called me one night to see how she was doing with house training. I was telling him how great she was doing and how smart she was because I thought she was perfect...peeked around the corner and she was taking a dump in the living room!! hahahahaha

This too shall pass - hope you get some sleep!!!

Marianne

Re: Paging Carol in Vegas

My 23-month-old granddaughter Nell and Macie would be a formidable team This, too, shall pass, but you may need to loan her out to a friend or relative so you can get a good night's sleep soon! You might try taking up her water an hour or two before bedtime and give a tiny bit of food right before she turns in for the night... Oh, and if your Home Depot/Lowe's allows dogs, you can take her there in the cart so she can meet and greet people without coming into contact with dog germs.

Re: Paging Carol in Vegas

Carol ... boy, brings back memories. My husband and I put Dakota on a schedule right from day 2. We would get up at 2am, then at 6am for potty breaks. Everybody thought we were nuts, but it worked and she was house broken in 6 weeks. After the 6am potty break, my husband would bring her inside and let her sleep on his tummy while he watched morning TV.

When she got her "puppy" moods, I would get an empty soda can and fill it with coins and shake it. She didn't like the noise and it would stop her from doing something she shouldn't be doing! After a few times, when she saw the can it was like "uh oh! -- OK -- I'll stop!!" Worked like a charm! Try it!

Karen and Dakota (RB)

Re: Paging Carol in Vegas

Abby was a little terror when she was a puppy as well.

Haven't had a puppy since!!!

They're cute and all that but . . . . they're a handful for sure. We subsequently got Keeper at one year of age (Abby was also one at the time) and, in another life, Ruby at 1.5 years and Pete at 2.5 years.

Although puppies are difficult, all those issues, if you're consistent, seem to melt away somewhere between six and nine months. Then you have a long, fun life ahead of you.

I've mentioned it before but neither Abby & Keeper nor Pete & Ruby sleep in the same room with us. They have their own private, spacious, cool, sort of apartment for the evening, complete with leather couches!! We started that practice before we put air conditioning in, giving the dogs better comfort and, ergo, they wouldn't be up all night either. We kept it up as it worked well for the humans especially.

I can tell you, no matter how early I get up - and I'm usually up around 6 a.m. even on weekends - they're waiting for me to let them out. So, they'd be up at 5 a.m. probably if they were in our room. And they snore.

We had a cat that, without fail, would jump on me at about 4:30 a.m. every morning, waking me up . . . and he lived for 15 years!!!

Honestly, I doubt either of us would want to get another puppy. But, I'd be pretty confident it will start working out for you fairly well a few months down the road. Unfortunately, you'll have to wade through those puppy months first.

My two cents.

Good luck with it.

Below, Abby, one of the best friends I've ever had in my life, as an obnoxious, hard-to-live-with puppy.



Rick C
www.goldentales.ca

Re: Paging Carol in Vegas

Well I'm happy to say her vet appt went well on Saturday. Her last vaccination will be tomorrow evening ! Wooo Hooo !!!! She weighs in at 29.6 lbs and she'll be 4 months old on the 26th. She slept for the very first time till 6 a.m. on Sunday evening. I woke up to the alarm and actually had a little panic set in for a second. She sleeps in a crate in our den, just a hallway away from our bedroom. Rick, my husband is of the same mindset as you, does not like to have the pups in the bedroom. Although, Haley would come in and hang out with me until the husband came to bed and then she left to go to her own bed, which was in the laundry room. That worked out terrific. Although I think Haley pretty much had us spoiled.

Our last puppy Abby was not even close to the work that Macie has been. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have even thought of doing this. But she's getting better every day. Still mouthy, but even that's getting better. The potty training on a scale from 1 - 10 is probably an 8. When we take her out she's on the leash even though our yard is fenced in. And we take her out a lot! Sometimes we just don't catch her though, however one day last week my husband said she literally picked up the leash off the end table by the slider and brought it over to him and dropped it...so he took it as a signal, took her out and she pooped! He was so excited about that. She's pretty bad with the counter surfing. Any suggestions to break her from this? We've never had to deal with it before.

So starting this weekend, we'll take her out to some places to get her acquainted with the big world. Really looking forward to that. It's been a very long two months !

Re: Paging Carol in Vegas

Carol, for the counter surfing, don't allow her into the kitchen without a human present. Make her a little bed (even a folded towel will do) and send her to her place when in the kitchen. If you must leash her to a chair or something to train it initially, do that. She will then know that for the rest of her life, when she's in the kitchen, she should be lying down on her bed/towel/mat whatever it is. Fortunately for me, every one of my dogs just lies down in the most inconvenient spot on the kitchen floor but not a one would have or does ever dare put a paw on a counter. Guess they're all scared of me

Re: Paging Carol in Vegas

We've never had a dog counter surf and I think the reason is they have no idea what's up there.

They never get anything really from the counter. Or the table.

Just a general lack of knowledge and never been able to put two and two together.

However, they think the closed door of the pantry contains all the treasures on earth. They try to lead us over there all the time.

You can tell Pete has some history with a kitchen table but he's getting over it.

Just never give them anything they can source back to the counter or the table. Do it once and they might not forget.

I think.

Rick C
www.goldentales.ca

Re: Paging Carol in Vegas

None of my other pups ever did it, so I was totally taken off guard. And she's not grabbing food. We have a very strict policy, no handouts from the table. We made that mistake once with Haley and I regretted all along.

It's a piece of mail, or a sponge left too close, a dish towel, my granddaughters drawings from school. It could be anything. But I do agree with the special place for her to lay down in there because now she's trying to plop down right between the stove and sink, the worse spot she could be in.

She starts "Fun With Obedience" tonight. Looking forward to that.

Carol

Re: Paging Carol in Vegas

She'll be the life of the part at obedience class Let us know how that went!