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@canefan said in Happiness Scale:
@booboo said in Happiness Scale:
@canefan said in Happiness Scale:
@booboo said in Happiness Scale:
chilling
There's something comforting about open fire
Incredibly still night with single figure temps. Great night to chill while burning stuff
Just need some strong spirits
Quiet Shiraz does the job
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So picked up an Italian greyhound puppy a week ago, Hemi. Little fluffybunny has run us ragged but he's fucking adorable. Neither of us have had dogs before so all new, man puppies test you eh?
We've almost nailed bedtime and he's really good at heading out for a shit/piss with the very occasional accident. But playtime gets out of hand with escalating excitement including biting and the odd arm hump - as well as the typical fearlessness of the breed in thinking they can jump on/off anything.
I seem to recall there might be one or two Iggy owners on here, any and every puppy training suggestions more than welcome.... please.
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I really think that it depends on what you want for your dog. If it is a pet and part of the family, then all you really need to train is behaviour on the lead, recall and immediate obedience - sit, wait etc. if you want something more you will need some serious, specialist training. Either way, the more you put in to the training at an early age will save you lots of angst going forward.
Oh and don’t forget to shower regularly.
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@Catogrande said in Happiness Scale:
@Bones
Oh and don’t forget to shower regularly.Are you talking about Bones or the dog?
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@Bones said in Happiness Scale:
So picked up an Italian greyhound puppy a week ago, Hemi. Little fluffybunny has run us ragged but he's fucking adorable. Neither of us have had dogs before so all new, man puppies test you eh?
We've almost nailed bedtime and he's really good at heading out for a shit/piss with the very occasional accident. But playtime gets out of hand with escalating excitement including biting and the odd arm hump - as well as the typical fearlessness of the breed in thinking they can jump on/off anything.
I seem to recall there might be one or two Iggy owners on here, any and every puppy training suggestions more than welcome.... please.
We've got a boxer who's around 5 years old now but those early years were wild. At times it was just as hard as raising a kid, he'd shit everywhere, bite, claw at the walls, and he even managed to escape the house at one point.
Despite his wild behavior at a young age, he's very well behaved now because of all the hours we spent lead training, recall, showing him who was boss, little things like making sure he eats last, making him sit before treats etc. I think the most important thing though from my POV was lead training on walks and making sure you get a lead that isn't too harsh but harsh enough to bring them in to line if required.
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Get him snipped
Makes a massive difference
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IG, awesome! Plan for a cat that looks like a dog for 23 hours of the day. I love ours, she can run 5kms in the morning then sleep all day. She’s almost totally silent except when we are playing.
We have an IG bitch and things are a bit different in Japan as we have to train them to pee on mats (apartment living), however the over exuberant play thing is an IG thing. The humping thing not quite so much - that should be fixed when you get him fixed.
Our bitch was a bit bite-y early but we just stopped playing with her (and sometime smacked her nose) when she started getting too zoomy and started biting (hard).
In our experience though, it’s better to be a bit looser rather than stricter as IGs can be pretty nervous dogs.
Our mistake was not socializing her enough at a young age - she loves ppl but kind of hates other dogs. We had trouble finding safe dog parks and didn’t put her in the local puppy school and regretted it. When we went to the dog park, she would run if she was scared and she got run down by an older IG male (which was admittedly a fluffybunny of a thing) and since then she has always found other dogs a hard thing despite a bit of effort later ( which turned out to be too late).
We trained ours to be silent, she will basically only make noise when we are playing. That was rewarding quiet behavior and some negative reinforcement.
DM me with any questions / chat mate. You guys are in for a whole new world - especially if your partner gets into dressing him up ( which will be necessary in winter there). I have some recommendations about winter jackets and definitely get a good slip collar.
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@Canes4life said in Happiness Scale:
you get a lead that isn't too harsh but harsh enough to bring them in to line if required.
Yeah thankfully we just need something light as long as it fits and is escape proof. He's on the small side so is going to be lucky to top the scales at 7kg and I think is made of balsa. Currently maybe 1.5 kg at 11 weeks.
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Beautiful color mate, looks very cute.
7Kg is a pretty good size (ours is 4.5).
Buy a puppy harness for now, then later on another bigger harness, and then when he basically grown buy a slip collar.
Whatever you do, don't let him jump on or off furniture for a while (legs very easy to break), and if you are crate training, strangely enough watch out for them wagging their tail too fiercely and breaking it (doesn't seem much you can do about this, but IGs with a strange bend in their tail is a thing).
If you buy a pillow that he likes, go buy two or three more, so that when that one is buggered you can wheel out a new one. We had a bitch of a time with ours destroying new beds - she had one type of pillow that she loved and only wanted one like that. She thankfully grew out of that.
They are fucking weird little dogs but heaps and heaps of fun.
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@Bones said in Happiness Scale:
@Canes4life said in Happiness Scale:
you get a lead that isn't too harsh but harsh enough to bring them in to line if required.
Yeah thankfully we just need something light as long as it fits and is escape proof. He's on the small side so is going to be lucky to top the scales at 7kg and I think is made of balsa. Currently maybe 1.5 kg at 11 weeks.
Don't need a lead. Probably fits into your manbag?
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@scribe said in Happiness Scale:
@Catogrande said in Happiness Scale:
@Bones
Oh and don’t forget to shower regularly.Are you talking about Bones or the dog?
Bones. He won’t want the dog sniffing his bum crack in public. In private might be a different matter. Who’s to know?
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Nice choice of thread to put puppy in @bones. Oxytocin hit must have kicked in, along with some serotonin and dopamine. It's difficult to get too down when there is a puppy around.
As @gt12 says, harness, rather than collar, especially when young. but no doubt you are on to all that as a new "parent". We were also told to give puppy as much exposure to everything as possible. Lots of contact with people and different experiences. I wasn't sure about it (didn't want the wee girl to get frightened) but apparently it stops them becoming wimps. She certainly isn't that now at 5 years old. Put her mutt muffs on her and take her flying, she just sits there unperturbed or goes to sleep.
Like the "Iggy". Italian greyhound pup, nickname has to be Iggy Pup. No doubt a real wild child with a lust for life.
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@gt12 said in Happiness Scale:
Beautiful color mate, looks very cute.
7Kg is a pretty good size (ours is 4.5).
Buy a puppy harness for now, then later on another bigger harness, and then when he basically grown buy a slip collar.
Whatever you do, don't let him jump on or off furniture for a while (legs very easy to break), and if you are crate training, strangely enough watch out for them wagging their tail too fiercely and breaking it (doesn't seem much you can do about this, but IGs with a strange bend in their tail is a thing).
If you buy a pillow that he likes, go buy two or three more, so that when that one is buggered you can wheel out a new one. We had a bitch of a time with ours destroying new beds - she had one type of pillow that she loved and only wanted one like that. She thankfully grew out of that.
They are fucking weird little dogs but heaps and heaps of fun.
So yeah he's a red, which apparently is pretty rare. Quite unique black markings on the ears, eyes and nose too which are cool. Bonesetta wanted one of his blue sisters but couldn't be happier with our choice now. Handsome fella.
Cheers for the steer on the collar, we've got the smallest harness we could find and it just fits at it's tightest.
We've been looking for a dog for probably 4 years so yeah we do our research, funnily enough IG was probably the first type we considered (I think due to one of your posts) but ruled it out for some reason until seeing a 4 year old recently at a cafe in Cornwall that looked like a puppy and acted like an angel. Anyway second day at home he got free on the sofa and jumped off, then started limping around, pretty easy to swiftly figure out it was just a sprained "ankle" and he was right as rain after a couple of days. Living up to the drama queen tag.
Think we turned a corner yesterday with more structure in his day and crate training, getting positive results and feeling better about things.
Brief visit to the vet today to get his nails trimmed only to find out we're helicopter parents and need to wait. Weighed him in at 1.35kg.
I'm sure I'll hit you up for info soon!
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@Snowy said in Happiness Scale:
We were also told to give puppy as much exposure to everything as possible. Lots of contact with people and different experiences. I wasn't sure about it (didn't want the wee girl to get frightened) but apparently it stops them becoming wimps
Yeah man we're straight into puppy class as soon as possible and already got family members popping over to meet him. It's classic, he's a bit of a growler at first but warms up pretty quickly.
Been for a couple of short walks around the neighbourhood in the sling. Nervous breed eh but we want to be able to take him anywhere (mainly to the pub) so going to expose him to everything as much as possible. Both our brothers have dogs too (lab and sprocker) so planning for them to meet on neutral ground once he's a bit bigger, he'd currently fit inside the lab's mouth in one go.
And yes, so much phrasing.
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@Snowy oh and the mutt muffs sound hilarious, like that idea! He's already met the vacuum cleaner and was curious but just had a sniff and steered clear a bit, wasn't fussed eventually. Shat himself when I was drilling and banging putting up shelving though.
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The greyhound family have a delightful nature. My (half) greyhound is affectionate, sensitive and is either 100% or zero.
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to contribute to @Bones project Uplift the Bored, at long last my big mouth bought my eye a beautiful, fat smack.
Got it at a serious discount too after overbidding for so many years. Fair play, it was an exquisite piece of work and my knuckle donor had the good manners to call to apologize the next day. Not that it’s made the ol peeper look any less like Oprah’s vag.
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