Matt_D

Oh wow Meg, Wally is just ADORABLE :D He'll definitely be one of the smaller pooches at puppy school tonight...he's tiny! Thanks for posting the cute pix - loved them. Let us know how you get on in the early weeks. Matt

Good work, great to hear little Walter is sleeping by himself. We have so far resisted the temptation to letting her in our room at night, but at least it's taught her to be comfortable in her OWN bed and keeps at least a few rooms in the house 'doggie free'!. You'll love puppy school. Dasher just graduated from her 4 week puppy school sessions last week. We went to one at Stafford (Bris Nth) and found the trainer was great and very aware of different breeds & more importantly SIZES mixing with one another. It's more an education for the owners really, so expect it to be lots of pup socialising rather than anything too physical or demanding on little Walter. Please do us all a favour some time soon and post some pics of your new little Dachshie :D Good luck tonight, Matt

Hi Meg & welcome to the forums :) I've been in the exact same boat as you with our mini-dachshie puppy "Dasher". I'm not sure if you've had a hunt around on this forum yet, but I would highly recommend giving my thread a browse. We've reduced the seperation anxiety by doing lots of gradual exposure to being left alone for periods. The biting we're still getting on top of, but a yelp followed by ignoring her after she nips has helped a lot. Also pork rind bone chewy thing replacements gives our hands & fingers a break :laugh: Have a read anyway & shoot through any specific questions. I'm more than happy to pass on what I've learnt over the few months we've had her. Matt

Thanks again for your comments and replies. Dasher is now 14+ weeks and is settling into her routine well when we go to work. Now that she's had her 2nd & 3rd booster shots (Parvo) we've been able to walk her outside for the last 2 weeks (so exciting ). She also attended her first week of puppy school last week so she's certainly been getting some good socialisation with other dogs and people. She was one of the more timid dogs in the class, but by the end she was having a little play with a Pomeranian that was more her size. The bigger staffies & labs were a little to overwhelming for her. At least the trainer had big dog AND little dog time on the floor separately. We've been spending more time in the yard with her on weekends and finding she's gradually getting longer (up to 20 mnins) being happy by herself before running back up to find us in the house. She has boundless energy it would seem. Took her back to the breeder to see her family again and she wore ALL of them out with still more in the tank . As such she displays the same energetic prowess when walking her and does not seem to mind walks of up to 30mins. I guess the fact we're getting stopped every 2 mins by groups of kids and passers by gives her a rest and a play as she laps up all the attention. We got her to the beach for the first time over the weekend. Was pretty funny seeing her run around off leash (no one else around on a little private stretch near Redcliffe). She doesn't have the tendancy to shoot off like my last Beagle did! She always sticks close by. We're both still considering a second dashie when the time is right. Seeing her play with all her family again proved that she loves the company of other Dachshunds. Here's a couple of pics from last weekend.

We picked up our little hound a month ago and she was sick on the way home from the breeder (after lasting over an hour!). But we took her back to meet her family again last w'end and she was fine the whole way down from Brisbane - Gold Coast & back again. We had her in her bed chewing on her pork bone chew thingy and she was fine. I think they should grow out of it, esp. if you take them on some small gradual trips in the car. We usually go boating / fishing 1-2 times a month so we're hoping to introduce Dasher to the boat in the next few months (OMG...seasick here we come!).

Thanks for the feedback - it's really nice to hear. Good call on the food tricks Polgara. I give her frozen chicken necks on occasions to snack on in the yard, but they usually last about 10mins before she's running back looking for us. I might try some additional liver treats around the yard next time I'm encouraging her to be out there. Just hope she finds them before the bloody minor birds do! (ps look at those adorable paws on Vulcan - they look so BIG for him :) ).

Just an update. Dasha is now 12.5 weeks and has survived the last 2.5 weeks at home by herself while we're both off at work. We've had to change the material around her pen from latice (which she worked out how to climb like a ladder to escape!) to double layered shade cloth mesh cable-tied around the bars of her playpen. She gets a play for 1-2 hours in the morning and then all evening from about 4:30pm. She's now had a double booster shot that includes both her 2nd & 3rd vaccination so we'll FINALLY be able to walk her on footpaths from this afternoon, then by the weekend the vet said she'll be fine in parks and with friends dogs - YAY Due to some inclement weather she has not been enjoying the backyard as much for toilet trips and there's been quite a few accidents off the paper inside (partly becuase of our constant watching her has been slackened a little). So this week we have focused on removing newspaper from the 5 spots she usually wee's, and narrowed it down to one spot by the door and the other when she's in her pen. Poo's are not quite as accurate, but easy to clean. We will keep up vigilance after meals and correct / praise as req'd when she's doing it in the right place. One thing I wanted to ask is about eventually migrating her to our backyard when she's old enough. Right now she doesn't mind being out there & exploring as long as one of us is within sight! As soon as she notices we're not there she'll go crazy and jump over gates and barriers to get back to where we are upstairs. She whimpers & frets and runs from door to back stairs, to side gates until she can find a way in. At the moment she's still so small she can actually fit under the hit & miss batons in our garage and get in that way. I want to train her to enjoy being in the backyard by herself so we can start leaving her out there when we are at work (plenty of shelter and an inside open patio she can get out from the weather etc), but I worry about what her separation anxiety could lead to when she's not contained in her playpen inside. I read somewhere it's normal for pups to be a bit scared of the outside world so maybe it's something she'll grow accustomed to between 6 months - 1yo? Hopefully by then she'll be a bit bigger 'sausage' and won't squeeze so easily around the barriers I try to put up when she's out in the yard. I've also attached a couple of updated wiener pics that a friend who's a pet photographer took of the little hound last week. Matt

I'm now back at work and my wife is at home with Dasha for the week. The seperation exercises are continuing and we're seeing some improvement now when we leave her in the pen and go out. We're in a strict habit of not going to her when coming back home. We find she's usually quiet when we find her after coming home, then she's excited to see us, but we wait until she has calmed before getting her out of the pen (not always easy to do I can tell you ). We've also been encouraging her to play by herself a lot more often, and not giving her attention the whole time just because we're at home with her. Tintin - yep she's going to puppy school as soon as she's had her 2nd vacc. shot. Aussie3 - we do play with her gums to show people her viscious looking puppy teeth (remind me of a pirana!), thanks we'll keep that up. Rosie - thanks for the tales of the other dachsies you know of. The breeder did a great job in paper training her. We've just continued the praise and taking her outside every hour or so (esp first thing when she wakes up & after meals). Obviously she will have to use the newspaper in her Pen when we're at work so I'm not discouraging the use of newspaper in & around her pen. We just making a habit of taking her out on the back lawn and she's already got a 'favourite' toilet area that she does her business. She's very good at walking off the lounge (down her little ramp off the lounge :laugh: ) and going on the newspaper on the floor. There's only been 2 or 3 accidents off the newspaperpaper in her 10 days so far! She really does enjoy the backyard. We left her by herself for 10 mins in the backyard but she soon discovered the narrow side paths leading to the sidegates. We were out in the frontyard and she saw us through the gate at the side of the house then started going nuts to get to us. Ended up digging the loose stones enough to get her neck squeezed under that side gate and got stuck . So I ran around the back and pulled her back through from behind... We may have to install something to block off her view of the front otherwise this could lead to dangerous digging and getting free in the front then onto the busy road... Haredown - thanks for the tips. After what I went through last week, I am now a little more 'immune' to her intense cries. It's not as if it's 3am in the morning so we can deal with a little bit of neighbourhood noise during normal daylight hours. Her sleeping continues to be excellent We put her in her bed in the pen, turn all the lights off, then walk up the hall into our room and we don't hear a peep until I get up for work at 6am. I'll attach a few pics from our playtime when I was home with her last week (I can only post 200k worth a time though...grrr)

Good call thanks Raineth. She's will have met about 10 other people by the end of her 1st week. There's been a lot of time out in the backyard where she can hear next doors Cavoodle barking & carrying on through the fence :) Also she has met 1 child already, and there will be more in the coming weeks. I'll start getting her out for walks as soon as she's had her 2nd & 3rd vaccinations (about 1 month all up). She had a good play in the backyard after I got back this morning, then after a good solo explore she wanted to sleep on my lap. So after a lot of putting her back down I could tell how tired she was so I let her get sleepy then put her in her bed inside the pen and she's been there happily sleeping & watching me for 2 hours - completely quiet!! It's way to early to start celebrating now, but I know I'm on the right track to getting this little Dachie weened off me. I think it's just fabulous that she's been sleeping all night through since her 3rd night in the pen. I'm stoked that we're getting a peaceful sleep without the stress of a crying pup waking the neigbourhood at 3am. I'm playing with her paws a lot to get her used to handling (prepare for clipping her nails) and she's had 1 bath already when we brought her home. My wife & I will just stick to this routine and hopefully we'll end up with a well balanced, but totally cherished little hound

Thanks again for all of your input. I can see the logic behind all of the replies. I went out today for 2.5 hours and came back to find her quiet in her bed inside the pen in the lounge :) She was (as expected) super excited to see me again, but I immediately went downstairs again and waited for her to stop carrying on. 10 mins later I came back up to greet her after she had quitened down and now we're out the back yard and she's doing her own thing wandering around by herself and eyeing the birds flying in/out. I think a few more excercises like this and we will see some improvement to the clingyness she's been displaying since coming home. We'll just continue to ween her off the 5am-10pm shift so by next week we'll be leaving her alone for 4 hours at a time. Good point from Christina too about over thinking the whole process. Just relax and let her be around the house outside of the pen until you really have to go out for a period - sounds a lot less stressful to me. Cheers for now, Matt

Thanks for the re-assurance Clyde. It's upsetting (v. distressing) to hear the little hound screaming at 120 decibels for your attention and to not do anything about it. I think the fact I've been home with her the whole time since picking her up last weekend and spending 15-17 hours a day with her has meant that she's just 'attached' to me or my wife and is desperately clinging to my every move. The pen is not designed for any sort of entrance/exit as you can see: ..so she can't wander in & out on her own. I usually have been playing with her constantly then when she has her regular sleeps I've either let her sleep with me on the lounge or outside in the hammock, or if I've got stuff to do I use her sleep time to put her into her bed in the pen then go and do things as can't leave her unsupervised anywhere except her pen at the moment. We have a lot of play time in yard everyday this week where she's more than happpy to wander around & explore without me next to her The hardest thing is if I'm the only one at home and I need to put her in there for 5-10mins to do something, then she starts crying until I'm finished doing what I have to do and I think "do I get her back with me on the couch or do I teach her to stop crying before I get her again". I feel as if I'm failing the duty if I have a shower then come & ger her when I'm out as she sees me and wants to be out of the pen. But if I go through the screaming to calm routine each time I leave the room for 5 mins, how do I ever get any quality time with her. There's other people on this forum who write that they wait til puppy has stopped whimpering for 30seconds then go & praise her and give her treats. But then I'm told now if I do that then it's just undoing all the pain I've just endured waiting for her to settle... Obviously if she's asleep in there or happy to be in there then there's no way in hell I'm going to disturb her as I want to encourage this behavior. But it's really taking it's toll on me if I have to listen to her howl like a torchered child from 4pm-7pm and upsetting everyone in the neighbourhood- just to try to adhere to the "ignore her until she's quiet for 30mins" each time I go to the toilet or leave the room for 10 minutes. But all good. Dasha is asleep with me on the lounge now between my legs after enduring hours of playpen anxiety. We shall persevere.. :)

But by that stage she had already spent an hour in her playpen, so we felt - what's the point in staying at home with her if we're just going to sit stressing as we listen to her cry during her last hours of daylight. I wasn't disturbing her as such, but I felt that as an 9 week old pup it was long enough to let her spend screaming for one afternoon and we wanted to play in the yard before the sunlight was lost. You can't say that I've undone all the good work when I'm keeping her in there for hours of sleeping, and many durations of hysterical crying. I've got to play with her some time. It's just turning the whole experience negative if I feel bad everytime I pick her up from the playpen I did in fact leave her sleep for an hour in her pen after the second time I put her in there. I've now woke her up to feed her dinner in her playpen(as it was getting way past her dinnertime), and she's now howling again after finished eating as I'm downstairs typing in this forum. But it seems like I've been torchering her all afternoon (well for the last 4 hours anyway!) and I really need some together time with her. It's probably better if I actually have to go out legitimately for an hour tomorrow so I'm not actually in the house. It's prob less heartbreaking than being here listening to the scream / calm / sleep for 1-2 hours in pen / play , then repeat all over again. There's got to be some balance whereby you can limit time in the playpen to a few hours otherwise what's the point of taking 3 weeks off work to be with her. It's not to sit stressed for the whole time as your new puppy just screams the neighbourhood down, and you're a mess yourself as you want to calm her. All I'm saying is balance. Fairness & consistency is what I've always thought.

Some good points you've made there thanks Showdog. I came back inside after 45mins, walked right past her pen and ignored her even though she was exicted to see me and was expecting the usual 'pick me up & play with me' but I kept on walking past and went downstairs. She absolutely screameed blue murder, louder than anything I've heard come from her lungs before. It was just heartbreaking.. It sounded like she had her little neck or leg caught in the pen mesh and was in serious agony. I had to stick my head back around to make sure she hadn't hurt herself, but it was just extreme distess. I walked past her pen again 10 mins later and went back outside on the deck and again she was absolutely screaming at me when I ignored her pleas. Her hysterical cry was soo loud it echo'd across the whole neighbourhood, dogs started barking - it sounded like a puppy was being torchered. After 10 mins the noise died down, it turned to whimpering, then some silence. So we went in and rescued her from the playpen and took her out in the yard for a play. Trying to re-assure her that we hadn't stopped loving her through ignorance. After 30 mins of playing I put her back in the pen and sat down on the lounge near her. She howled and whimpered knowing I was only meters away and she can see me through the pen. But I held firm, ignored her except a couple of times yelling "No!". She's now sulking quietly and curled up & went to sleep on her bed in the pen (bless!). But far out it's hard to deal with hearing her like that. Almost makes you cry walking past her and ignoring her after leaving her alone for 45mins, then STILL ignoring her. NO wonder her cries were deafening. It leaves you feeling on a real downer, but if this is how it must be, then we must both toughen up on playpen time. It's still confusing to know what to do & how to treat her when you do take her out of the pen. You can't help but show her genuine love & adoration when she's clearly so happy to see you. How can you not make a fuss when she's like that? Anyway, we're buying a little plastic kennel tonight so that eventually when it gets warmer here in Brisbane we can do what an earlier poster did with her Airedale and have an open crate inside of a run in the yard that she can leave her in when she goes shopping & runs errands. I would love nothing more than let her loose in the backyard (even in a run with a kennel for protection from the elements). That was she gets to see all the birds (yum) and hear all the sounds of suburbia instead of being inside. I'll keep you posted. For the mean time I'll leave her asleep in her playpen and wake her up for dinner soon.

Thanks for your input and ideas to the nice folks who have replied so far. The plan for the first 6 months would be to leave her in the playpen in the open-plan lounge during the day whilest we're both at work. We've got a perfect size fully fenced back yard (10m x 15m) that I would like to start using when she can. But it's too big while she's still so young. I also had ideas of introducing the playpen outside with a little kennel/crate for protection from the weather eventually. We're both outside on the rear deck right now & she's inside howling loudly Is your suggestion to ignore her until she settles down, then go inside and keep ignoring her when she's jumping up trying to get out of the pen to be with us? When do you actually start paying attention to her? It's pretty distressing on us too but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make it less of a shock when we both go back to work in a few weeks. The main thing I'm after is some simple routine steps to perform while we're home in order to prepare the little hound for 7-9 hours by herself. It sounds like we should be trying to give her less attention when we're here with her, and playing with her less than we do.... It just seems wrong and counter intuitive for why we got the puppy in the first place. But maybe you have to be cruel to be kind? Any further methods or preparation we can try? Purina.com.au suggests not making a fuss when you leave or come home **except if they're a puppy you should pay them attention when you come home, and also praise them for being quiet after you've left her by herself for periods. It's the nature of the beast that everyone will have different opinions - I guess that's the beauty of forums. Cheers, Matt

Thanks for the feedback Tintin. hee hee we also fell in love with her little wrinkles. She's got a lot of skin to grow into that's for sure (little rolly dog in parts!)