Help me prepare for the homecoming of my shorkie puppy!

[mylulu]

My shorkie, Lulu, is currently 3 weeks old. She is coming home May 15th and I would love any advice on how to prepare for her!

[Ann]

Well this is sooooo exciting congratulations.
 Now how to perpare, well this does depend on you alittle as it depends which way you wish to go with training.

One thing I do suggest is to get a konk this is a toy that your puppy can chew on and you can put treats in it so when you are away you can put something in it and it will keep your puppy occupied while you are away. Also get a soft toy not a new one but something it can cuddle up to but just make sure it only has a sponge stuffing not beads as your puppy may chew it and it could choke on it. If possible at night put a small clock in it's bed cover it with an old jumper of yours.

If you go to our training posts you will find heaps of help with toilet training etc.

Don't forget you can always post us and we will help you if we can.

I can't wait to see it's photo's when you get it.

Take Care
Ann

[mylulu]

Thanks for the advice! Also, did you indoor or outdoor potty train your shorkie? I live in a condo and work so I thought that indoor training would be more realistic for our life style. What do you think? How long did it take you to potty train your shorkie? Any and all advice is welcome!

[Ann]

I out door potty trained but I don't think it realy matters as I beleive that what ever way you decideyour puppy will adapt. It just takes patients and time. There are lots of new training equipment out now such as traing pads etc. I trained Toby to go out side so he will ask to go out side. We have left him in the house for a full day and came back and he had not had an accident. Offcourse this was once he was fully trained. I have heard of peole training their puppies to in a cat litter tray. I guess it is just a case of showing them. There is also the crate method which alot of people do and seem to have alot of success with. If you go to our training posts and put a post there I'm sure you will get many more examples and advice.

Take Care
Ann

[tons_911]

Hey!

Here are my recommendations, based on my experiences. As you, I live in a condo and planned on training my puppy Jolie, indoors and outdoors.

This is what I did and it worked for me.

CRATE TRAIN! They will LOVEEEEE the crate in days, I promise. Jolie is 7month's old and she still naps in her crate and sometimes sleeps in it. She also uses it as her omfort zone, like when she gets in trouble, not feeling good or hiding something in her mouth she runs to the crate. It's her little home. Her crate is a small metal one that is open all around. put a comfy bed inside and make sure your puppy has no room to pee in it. So inside the crate should ONLY be, a doggy bed or blanket and a few toys.

Toys wise, she loved it all, the kong she only really likes it now, before it was anything that was soothing for her teeth, so little stuffies, the rope toys she LOVED those, and small sqeaky things oh and her absolute fav toy till this day, WATER BOTTLES. I give her a new one a day, with the lid off, label torn off and obviously no water. Now she can bite into it and rip the plastic, but as a puppy all she did was pounce on it and liked the noise it made. It's cheap and I promise they will love it.

To start training, I would do outside or balcony. In the morning and during the day I would encourage the balcony or her pee pads. There was 2, one in the bathroom and one by her crate. In time the puppy will prefer the outdoors. As the weather got cold, I started shifting her indoors. So I only had one pee pad and it was in the bathroom in time she knew to ONLY go there... Till about 5 month's of age you will have accidents. Now, we leave the bathroom door open and she will go on her pee pad whenever she chooses to do so. If the door is not open she will let you know by growling at you to follow her or whine. Well that's what Jolie does. I also remove her food after 7pm.

Just keep in mind, dogs are animals and even if you train them indoors they want to go outside and they NEED too, they need the excerise and to start forming a connections with other dogs. Very important to introduce your puppy to EVERYTHING, young people, elder people, kids, adults, other dogs, cats, and so forth.

Brush the puppy daily, I cut my dogs nails, but if you don't feel comfortable you can easily take them to petsmart and they will do it for you. It's personal prefrense.

Also, in the future be aware of the teething issues, it ends at about 6 months, when the adult teeth are in. Scooting, which can happen when the oil glands get full and need to be released. Anything else just ask away.

[mylulu]

First of all, thank you for the detailed advice! Second of all, Jolie is adorable! Question about the training, did training Jolie inside and outside ever confuse her? Because I've heard that you should pick one or the other, how did you reinforce both? Also, how old was she when you got her and how long did it take you to fully potty train her? Did she respond to the pee pads quickly? We are planning on crate training Lulu, did you leave Jolie inside her crate when you were away or did she have full run of the house? Thanks again for the great advice, I'm looking forward to hearing more !

[mylulu]

One more thing... what kind of brush do you use to brush Jolie?

[Mai Tai]

That is so funny about the water bottle.  Mai Tai loves them too.  If he finds one on a walk, he goes nuts.  Also to help you prepare, I found Mai Tai, unfortunately, just developed (at 6 mos.) a taste for wood and chewed up a corner of a cabinet while I was right there with him in the kitchen.  I heard him chewing away, and thought he was chewing on his teething keys, but when I looked down, I was horrified to see he had chewed a corner of my cabinet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I sprayed Lysol on it and he avoided it because he did not like the smell.  I then went to the store to buy bitter apple to spray on things I don't want him to chew, as I do not want him licking lysol.  The bitter apple works, but only while it is still wet.  As soon as it dried, he went right back to the wood.  I tell him "no" firmly and give him his chew toys and gradually this is working.  The vet says that teething can be an issue up to a little more than a year, so I guess I will have to watch him closely.  If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know. 

Good luck with your adorable puppies.

[tons_911]

Np! Glad to help!

So i got Jolie at 9 weeks. She already was pretty pee pad trained and crate trained. However required work. I think she became really trained around 3-4 months.

You are right, you need to start with one and then bring in the other,I started with training Jolie outdoors, it was summer time so i found this no issue at all, as well as the balcony. Around 4-5 months, i took the pee pad inside the bathroom and slowly helped her to going inside the bathroom. Eventually she got it and it stuck so if she can go outside she goes happily and if not she goes indoors, it's very helpful if you will be gone long hours or it's late at night or even a really cold or rainy day.

As for crate training, this was very simple, the first 2 nights were very tough, I brought the crate right by my bed and put my fingers in when she would cry and eventually she stopped. In literally a matter of days jolie fell in love with her crate. I would do what the breeder recommended till she was about 3 months old. So if i can FULLY watch her she would be out of the crate if not, it's 3 hours in, and 1 hour out to go pee, play, eat and go back in. You will notice she will start going inside herself when she gets sleepy or sick or anything, it becomes her comfort spot. She ate something around 2 months and got really sick and had serious runs so I learned at that point to keep her in her crate unless i can fully watch her. After 3 months, I slowly gave her more freedom and more and now at 8 months old I don't ever leave her crate door closed and when i leave the house she wonders around the whole condo, she is old enough to know what's bad and what's not also at this point they stopped teething which is the worst part i think, and as well they only care about human food and if that is available. LOL, things change sooo fast it's insane.

so to recap, pee pad no matter what till full trained, start with outdoors/balcony when  you puppy picks that up, and has been in a pattern for some time slowly start the pee pad in the bathroom and only that. Eventually she will be able to do both but probs will always prefer the outdoors. You can reverse the steps if you choose too by doing indoors first then outdoors but this may be an issue as she may no want to go back to going indoors.

For crate training, till 3 months keep her in it whenever you can not watch her it should always be no more then the month +1, so if you puppy is 2 months old add +1 and it will equal how long she can hold it in so at 2 months only 3 hours. Once she passes the whole 3 months stage start slowly giving her freedom, Jolie had all the freedom she wanted at 6 months and up. I would leave her out for 2-3 hours by herself to see what she would do and slowly extend that and extand that and before you know it she was totally fine all by herself. When you are gone they mainly sleep any way.

First of all, thank you for the detailed advice! Second of all, Jolie is adorable! Question about the training, did training Jolie inside and outside ever confuse her? Because I've heard that you should pick one or the other, how did you reinforce both? Also, how old was she when you got her and how long did it take you to fully potty train her? Did she respond to the pee pads quickly? We are planning on crate training Lulu, did you leave Jolie inside her crate when you were away or did she have full run of the house? Thanks again for the great advice, I'm looking forward to hearing more !

[tons_911]

I use this one that is pretty prickly, it helps with matting. She hates it, because it can hurt her. So, I am gentle and sometimes I use a human comb for the hair around her face.

One more thing... what kind of brush do you use to brush Jolie?