Wanting A Puppy - After Some Help/advice

[Aztec Gold]

Hi everyone

We are a small family in North-West Tasmania, myself and my partner are in our early 20's and we have two young daughters, 19 months and 5 months. We also have a lovely moggie kitten.

We have been thinking for a few months that we'd like to get a puppy soon, and have researched a lot of breeds, narrowing them down to either a greyhound, labrador or golden retriever. We found a lovely breeder down south of Tassie that breeds golden retrievers and she is expecting puppies anyday soon. So we have decided, after a lot of research and sleepless nights weighing up the pros and cons, that we will go ahead and get one of her pups. We want it to be an only dog, and plan on keeping it inside our house and raising it with the girls (will always be supervised), getting it desexed asap for obvious reasons, and training it with an obedience school close to home, from as soon as we get the pup, until it passes all the classes they offer, up to the super elite. The obedience school encourages us to take our children as they believe getting them involved is crucial to the pup's training which is great.

Anyway, I have a few random questions, and would love any replies, advice or comments.

1. The mother's hip scores are 5:7=12, which I understand is lower than average for the breed, and the father's hip scores are 3:3=6, which is fantastic. These would be fine for a pet wouldn't they? Both parent's elbows, heart and eyes are clear also.

2. What size crate would be best to begin crate training the pup? Should we get one suited to an adult size, or do you cease using the crate once they are adults?

3. What types of bones are best for the pup? Are chicken wings ok? We know never to feed cooked bones. Our cat eats raw chicken necks, however these maybe too small for the pup, and it may just swallow them whole, thus not having any advantage to their teeth lol!!

4. I want to eventually have the dog as my walking/jogging companion, and eventually work up to either one long walk (60-90 minutes) or two short walks (30-45 mins) each day, rain, hail or shine. But I have read that pups cannot go for long walks until they are in excess of 12 months old, due to their skeleton not being mature. Is this true? At what age can I start taking the pup on walks?

5. After previous experience (my neighbour owned two golden retrievers whom I used to play with and walk nearly daily, as she was elderly she couldn't walk them as they were not trained to use a lead so they would pull until they began to tire, and they were both obese, which we will be doing everything in our power to avoid) I know that they are a mouthy breed, as are all gundogs, and I have read conflicting advice on whether to let the pup mouth you gently, or to not allow it at all, and to flick the pup's nose gently when it does mouth you as to curb this behaviour. I am starting to think, with such young children, that we will try to curb the pup from mouthing us, so just a flick on the nose when it does it should be adequate? Should we also say a stern NO when doing it, or ignore the pup for a matter of seconds?

I will appreciate any advice on my questions, and please, I know it will be hard to raise such a high energetic puppy with two young girls, as it will be very busy and a testing time, however my partner and I have gave it a lot of thought and really have researched everything, and we will continue to do a lot of research on the topic, as we want to raise the pup as best we can to ensure the health and safety of both the pup and our girls. So please don't reply with advice of waiting a few years, as we really do think now is the best time given our situation.

Thank you all very much

[Aztec Gold]

Also, I forgot one more thing!

Is there much difference in temperament, trainabilty and energy levels between a girl or boy dog? Is either sex preferable to have with children?

Thank you

[aussielover]

Hi everyone

We are a small family in North-West Tasmania, myself and my partner are in our early 20's and we have two young daughters, 19 months and 5 months. We also have a lovely moggie kitten.

We have been thinking for a few months that we'd like to get a puppy soon, and have researched a lot of breeds, narrowing them down to either a greyhound, labrador or golden retriever. We found a lovely breeder down south of Tassie that breeds golden retrievers and she is expecting puppies anyday soon. So we have decided, after a lot of research and sleepless nights weighing up the pros and cons, that we will go ahead and get one of her pups. We want it to be an only dog, and plan on keeping it inside our house and raising it with the girls (will always be supervised), getting it desexed asap for obvious reasons, and training it with an obedience school close to home, from as soon as we get the pup, until it passes all the classes they offer, up to the super elite. The obedience school encourages us to take our children as they believe getting them involved is crucial to the pup's training which is great.

Anyway, I have a few random questions, and would love any replies, advice or comments.

1. The mother's hip scores are 5:7=12, which I understand is lower than average for the breed, and the father's hip scores are 3:3=6, which is fantastic. These would be fine for a pet wouldn't they? Both parent's elbows, heart and eyes are clear also.

Personally I think its a bit high for a breeding dog, but HD is such a multifactorial disease that you can get pups with it even from 0:) parents.

Maybe ask them why they chose to breed with a dog with relatively high hip scores- she might have never produced pups with HD before...

You can't really "even out" a bad hip score (not that a 12 is bad) by using a father with a lower score.

Its up to you but defintely raise you concern with the breeder

2. What size crate would be best to begin crate training the pup? Should we get one suited to an adult size, or do you cease using the crate once they are adults?

Get a large crate to suit adult size. You can partition it off when they are little. It is up to you how you want to use your crate. I still use mine for travelling and at home sometimes if we have guests etc.

3. What types of bones are best for the pup? Are chicken wings ok? We know never to feed cooked bones. Our cat eats raw chicken necks, however these maybe too small for the pup, and it may just swallow them whole, thus not having any advantage to their teeth lol!!

Depends on the puppy. If they are a greedy gulper (like mine) then chicken wings are too small. I used lamb flaps instead.

As a young puppy chicken wings/necks are probably ok though.

4. I want to eventually have the dog as my walking/jogging companion, and eventually work up to either one long walk (60-90 minutes) or two short walks (30-45 mins) each day, rain, hail or shine. But I have read that pups cannot go for long walks until they are in excess of 12 months old, due to their skeleton not being mature. Is this true? At what age can I start taking the pup on walks?

Yes it is true. The general guideline is 5 mins per age in months. So when your puppy is 4 months ols, it can do 20 minutes of leash walking.

I would not start ogging a goldie until they have stopped growing (around 12 months)

5. After previous experience (my neighbour owned two golden retrievers whom I used to play with and walk nearly daily, as she was elderly she couldn't walk them as they were not trained to use a lead so they would pull until they began to tire, and they were both obese, which we will be doing everything in our power to avoid) I know that they are a mouthy breed, as are all gundogs, and I have read conflicting advice on whether to let the pup mouth you gently, or to not allow it at all, and to flick the pup's nose gently when it does mouth you as to curb this behaviour. I am starting to think, with such young children, that we will try to curb the pup from mouthing us, so just a flick on the nose when it does it should be adequate? Should we also say a stern NO when doing it, or ignore the pup for a matter of seconds?

Best to not let them mouth you at all. Do not flick it on the nose to discourage it.

Depends on the puppy as to what works for you. Some puppies are ok with being redirected onto a toy, some learn by having a "time out" by you walking away/ceasing interaction/crating them and some need a firmer correction such as pressing your finger into their mouth- I am not sure how to do this but perhaps someone else will explain?

I will appreciate any advice on my questions, and please, I know it will be hard to raise such a high energetic puppy with two young girls, as it will be very busy and a testing time, however my partner and I have gave it a lot of thought and really have researched everything, and we will continue to do a lot of research on the topic, as we want to raise the pup as best we can to ensure the health and safety of both the pup and our girls. So please don't reply with advice of waiting a few years, as we really do think now is the best time given our situation.

Thank you all very much

Good luck with your pup.

Goldens are lovely dogs and make great family dogs with the right training!

[luvsdogs]

I would suggest you read Dr Ian Dunbar's books Before & After you get your puppy. Both are available as a free download.

http://www.dogstardaily.com/free-downloads

There are lots of other links on the site to look at plus videos & i-woofs radio programs to listen to. There's also a good article on bite inhibition.

I would not desex a large breed dog until it was mature to give it's joints & bones time to grow properly. There are threads on dol that give links to the reasons for & against.

Edited June 16, 2011 by luvsdogs

[whiskedaway]

1. The mother's hip scores are 5:7=12, which I understand is lower than average for the breed, and the father's hip scores are 3:3=6, which is fantastic. These would be fine for a pet wouldn't they? Both parent's elbows, heart and eyes are clear also.

Personally I think its a bit high for a breeding dog, but HD is such a multifactorial disease that you can get pups with it even from 0:) parents.

Maybe ask them why they chose to breed with a dog with relatively high hip scores- she might have never produced pups with HD before...

You can't really "even out" a bad hip score (not that a 12 is bad) by using a father with a lower score.

Its up to you but defintely raise you concern with the breeder

The breed average for Goldens an 18-20 though. It hasn't shifted much in the last ten years because inheritance is actually lower in a GR so it makes it more difficult to lower the hip scores. So a dog with a 12 is actually okay for the breed.

[aussielover]

i would prefer to get a pup from parents with less than half the breed average- but thats just me.

[Sooky]

I just wanted to say good luck with your new pup its so exciting and remember to post lots of pics if you get a chance your going to be one very busy lady :D I've got an 8 1/2 mth old baby and a 5 month old pup and its not easy but I wouldn't have it any other way.

[stonecutter]

I would suggest you read Dr Ian Dunbar's books Before & After you get your puppy. Both are available as a free download.

http://www.dogstardaily.com/free-downloads

There are lots of other links on the site to look at plus videos & i-woofs radio programs to listen to. There's also a good article on bite inhibition.

I would not desex a large breed dog until it was mature to give it's joints & bones time to grow properly. There are threads on dol that give links to the reasons for & against.

I found his books a good read - but again, differing thoughts on mouthing. Someone also recommended The Focused Puppy to me (is it still free shipping on the Clear Run website?)

[GeorgieB]

I found his books a good read - but again, differing thoughts on mouthing. Someone also recommended The Focused Puppy to me (is it still free shipping on the Clear Run website?)

I bought The Focused Puppy a day or so ago from clean run and it was still Free Shipping