Crazy situation

[Dan Sibley]

I was due to pick up my BC pup in about three weeks. She will be six weeks old this weekend. I got a call from the breeder tonight, saying that If I want the pup, I have to take her this weekend at six weeks (nasty divorce). I guess this turns into a rescue. I've visited the litter several times and have favored a little girl with lots of personality. I was'nt prepared to take her so young. One part of me says "bail out" but I cant leave her. I guess its time to raise a baby. Any suggestions for rearing a six week old? I've got everything prepared (thanks to the advice I've gotten on this board), but need advice for taking a little one from it's mom so early. I lost my 16 year old BC last year, so I'm not in the dark in regard to the breed, but I got her at twelve weeks. Do I need to just patiently socialize her with lots of human love?

Also, I've got some great photos of her, but dont know how to put them into this board. I had posted a topic on here titled "eye" color" on 02/10, and got a response from someone offering me help, but it's no longer in the responce field. I would appreciate it if someone could offer some advice. Thank you, All

 

Dan

[afrancis]

Don't worry Dan!

She's coming home to your family and with a history of loving a bc for 16 years, how can she do any better?

I got Skye at 7 weeks - she was taken from her mom at 6 and lived with a family who hadn't a clue for the first week - and although I didn't have a clue either (especially since I was still mourning the loss of my first bc a week earlier) she was so keen and full of piss and vinegar (or sleeping! -- see "Is this normal" posting) that I just had to make sure I:

1. Took her out to pee and poo regularly - they say every hour for every month (i.e. 6 weeks = every hour and a half approx.) and associated the act with a name. I said, "Go busy" or "Go poop". This we did on lead in the back yard.

2. Crated her when I couldn't keep an eagle eye on her. No more than a few hours at a time (even at night!) It's like feeding an infant...sorry to have to tell you this... The only time she gave us grief was one night in her crate she whined and whined after we already had gone busy...we just thought she was throwing a tantrum but it turned out she really had to go to the bathroom one more time! We never made that mistake again and she never whined again - she didn't need to.

3. Gave her lots of socializing with people and other dogs, esp. big ones!

4. Gave her lots of loving....

Good luck and take lots of pictures of your new family! Don't you have a computer geek in your family??!!

Ailsa

[afrancis]

Dan,

I realize, poor soul, you probably couldn't make any sense of that last (and your only reply) post. Sorry, it was late...

Anyway, you're no doubt in the throws of puppy onslaught so do let us all know how the pick-up goes this weekend. Lots of puppy advice here and I'm sure you will have a lot of questions soon...

A.

[Dan Sibley]

Dan,

I realize, poor soul, you probably couldn't make any sense of that last (and your only reply) post. Sorry, it was late...

Anyway, you're no doubt in the throws of puppy onslaught so do let us all know how the pick-up goes this weekend. Lots of puppy advice here and I'm sure you will have a lot of questions soon...

A.

 

 

Thanks for your advice. I'll keep you posted.

[juliepoudrier]

Dan,

While 6 weeks is not an ideal time, I think that you'll be okay. The main reason for leaving a pup with its litter longer is so that it can learn proper dog social skills. This means that you may have a little more work teaching your pup, say, not to bite (since it won't have mom and littermates to correct it), but I know folks who have gotten pups at 6 weeks old and they've turned out just fine. If you have specific questions, be sure to ask them!

 

As for posting photos, you need to have the photos on a photo hosting site (like Photobucket or one of the other out there). You then copy the link to that image and paste it into the reply area here, with image tags fore and aft: . Some sites have the tags already in place, in which case, all you need to do is copy the link and past it here. I believe there are more detailed instructions in a sticky at the top of the Photo Gallery section.

 

J.

[laurie etc]

I was due to pick up my BC pup in about three weeks. She will be six weeks old this weekend. I got a call from the breeder tonight, saying that If I want the pup, I have to take her this weekend at six weeks (nasty divorce). I guess this turns into a rescue. I've visited the litter several times and have favored a little girl with lots of personality. I was'nt prepared to take her so young. One part of me says "bail out" but I cant leave her. I guess its time to raise a baby. Any suggestions for rearing a six week old?

Dan

 

I have mixed emotions about "crate traiining" a pup so young, especially in Winter. Unless you are planning to be with her every moment, including night time, I would guess you WILL have accidents in the crate. Her bladder is just not mature enough to hold it for very long. I wouldn't actually start limiting her crate space until she is at least 8 weeks. Until then, plan on having a larger space for her with newspapers on one side that she can "use" if she has to, and her crate on the other side that she can sleep in. An exercise pen is ideal for this, but I've used a bathroom with a baby gate, too. When you can't be there to take her out to potty at least every 1-2 hours, let her have run of the large space. IMO, in the long run, this will make crate training/house breaking easier and not let her get the idea that it's OK to soil the crate.

Also, she still REALLY needs doggie socialization, so seek out some healthy/pup-friendly adult dogs and pups for play dates. Taking a pup away from all canine contact at her age is a good way to get a "socially incorrect" dog later on, but even occasional nice dog interactions now will benefit her in the long run. Make sure that whatever dogs she gets to meet are used to dealing with puppies; and are healthy as well, since she's probably not been vaccinated yet, and her maternal antibodies are close to waning (usually 9-12 weeks, but could be earlier). I personally don't see any benefit to vaccinating before 9 weeks, but have never had a problem with my pups being introduced to other "safe" dogs at an early age.

Laurie

[MaggieDog]

Three words: Good Puppy Class!!!!

[aBC4me]

Three words: Good Puppy Class!!!!

I will second that. Puppy Kindergarten should help with a lot of the doggy issues as far as biting etc.

[theshine]

I got one of my dogs at six weeks, but I didn't know it wasn't ideal until I got him home and poked around on the internet. Similar situation, the breeder had some sort of emergency. I now think she isn't that great a breeder, but I digress...I have had no real problems with him. He was a bit nippy at first, so we did our own teaching of bite inhibition, pretty much the yelp and ignore technique. We also didn't crate train him right away, we figured he just couldn't hold it yet and didn't want to set him up to fail in a crate, so we used x-pens in the kitchen for a couple of weeks, with the crate inside the xpen, then after he was maybe 8 or 9 weeks old (can't remember exactly), started crate training. He continued to be a bit nippy until we got a second dog when he was about three months old. That seemed to really jump start the bite inhibition and social skills. Not saying get a second dog, but I would recommend play dates with a dog you know is vaccinated and good with other dogs. My boy is fine and completely normal now, and I'm sure yours will be too.

[juliepoudrier]

Laurie gives good advice about crating or blocking in a room or X-pen. If you decide to do that, you could actually try to train her to go in one spot by using puppy pee pads. It has been discussed here before I think, but I have no idea what the original subject of the thread was--but the point was that people would train very little puppies to use a particular spot in their X-pen, sometimes even a cat pan with puppy pads inside for absorbency. The pups I raised lived in an X-pen underlined with a tarp covered with newspapers. I didn't start crating them until they were closer to 8 weeks.

 

J.

[Dan Sibley]

Thank you everyone for your advice. I do have an x-pen set up with a piece of linoleum under it, and pee pads. I had planned on crating her, but I'm going to take your advice and wait until she is 8 or 9 weeks.

 

Thank you... I'll get some pictures posted soon.

[SoloRiver]

I didn't start crating Jett when I'm gone until very very recently, and she's 16 weeks old now. For a baby puppy you're just asking for trouble, and forcing her to mess in her crate. Jett didn't always hit the wee wee pads in the kitchen, but she would try. I was able to keep tabs on her sphincter development by seeing how long she could keep the kitchen clean.

[silhouettestable]

Of my 7 dogs, I've gotten 2 at approx. 3 months (rescues, so not sure), 2 at 8 weeks, and 3 at 6 weeks. The 6 week olds were no more problem to raise than any of the others. I'm home 99% of the time, so having to leave them crated (or not) during the day was never an issue for me. I always start them in a crate at night time though, and they never seem to have accidents in there at night. When they're really young I try to work around their schedule of playing, eating and napping and around the time I expect them to be getting sleepy I'll take them out for the last evening potty break and then into the crate, and me into bed. The first few times they may whimper a bit but I ignore and they quickly settle down to sleep. I always keep the crate right beside my bed and usually for the first week (or maybe 2-3 weeks for the real young ones), they'll wake me up in the middle of the night anywhere from about 1-3 times/night and need out. I take them out and then right back to bed. When my pups are really young I will try to arrange my own plans so that I never have to leave them alone and crated for more than 2 hours during the day because I don't want to teach them to mess in the crate. It's always worked well for me this way, my pups have always been very clean in their crates even the 6 week olds. I do leave blankets or towels at one end and papers at the other, just in case, but the papers are never used.

 

I think with a 6 week old your biggest thing will be socialization if you don't currently have any other dogs. In my case I've got others so the pups learn their place in the pack and get taught some manners from the other dogs.

 

Oh, one other thing. If you have any stairs to deal with when getting the pup out you'll probably just want to scoop her up and carry her to get her out there quickly. At 6 weeks they're not usually too good on stairs but give them a week or two and they get it figured out. Sometimes a little too good. There's lots of times I've carried pups down my back steps, way out to the back of the yard only to have the pups beat me back up the steps and be waiting at the door to go in.