Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs
Subject: Re: puppy problems and questions
From: RGINZBERG@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Ruth Ginzberg)
Date: 27 Jan 93 21:51:49 EDT
Distribution: world
Organization: Philosophy Dept., Wesleyan University
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.20In-Reply-To: gtl@cbnewsg.cb.att.com's message of Wed, 27 Jan 1993 17:05:21 GMTLines: 93

In <1993Jan27.170521.23361@cbfsb.cb.att.com> gtl@cbnewsg.cb.att.com writes:

> i need help from all the dog lovers/experts in r.p.d world, big time.
> 
> i just adopted a 10 weeks old cocker spaniel couple of weeks ago, and he

<heh, heh>  I sympathize with you, George.  This newsgroup has just seen me
through the first 7 months of my fiesty Cocker Spaniel's puppy-hood, & I
remember posting pleas about needing a puppy-owners' support group!  Don't
worry, he WILL grow up;  they all do eventually.

>[...]he would pee any where he wanted, and even in the crate and near his food
> and water bowls.  i tried the news papers and the crate to housetrain
> him.  they worked at the begining but don't anymore.

Cocker Spaniels can be quick learners.  But they need consistency.  My
suggestion is: don't keep trying different methods, hoping to find one that
will work.  Pick one & stick to it.  (I recommend crate; no papers.)  The pup
will make mistakes at first, even peeing in his crate.  But he will learn very
quickly that he doesn't really want to do that.  You will see -- when he pees
in his crate or near his food dishes HE will be visibly upset by it.  He
doesn't like having his own wastes in those places, but he is still learning
just who, exactly, and what, exactly, puts those things where they wind up
anyhow???  He has to connect his own elimination act with the results of it.

> his favorite chew toys are human body parts these days.  he would chew on 
> my fingers, hand and anything he can sink his little teeth in.  i have tried 
> various methods and done all i could, but he wouldn't barge.  the other 

This is a very, VERY Puppy thing to do.  Did you ever see him play with his
littermates before you brought him home?  What did he do with them?  Yep.  He
mouthed 'em.  Paws, ears, noses, tails -- basically anything that stuck out &
that moved got mouthed.  My guess is that you will have to keep correcting this
behavior REGULARLY & CONSISTENTLY until he's maybe 4 or 5 months old.  I
noticed a BIG improvement right around 15 weeks or so, but --- in all honesty
--- sometimes Buffer *still* forgets that I'm not a dog & mouths me while she &
I are playing. She's 7 months old now.  What I found really helped when nothing
else seemed to get the point across:  When she mouthed my fingers, I'd stick
them further down her throat until she gagged.  I know this sounds gross, but
she learned to keep my fingers out of her mouth PRETTY QUICKLY after I started
doing that.

> problem that he has is when taking him out for a walk, he would pick up 
> everything he sees and eats them, grass, dirty snow, little rocks and stones.  
> and he is getting very very good at doing this without me notice anything 
> worng until it's too late.

<heh, heh>  I bet he likes turds, too.  Cockers' normal walking stance is with
their nose about 0.5 cm above the ground.  :-)   Of COURSE you can't tell
whether he's just sniffing or whether he's eating.  It all looks the same.  I
found this to be a real losing battle.  The best I could do is to keep my eyes
out for things that would be dangerous if chewed, & make sure to steer the dog
away from them, or, if all else fails, dig 'em out of her mouth.  Especially
watch for chicken bones, discarded batteries, BB's, pellets, birdshot, or other
small munitions, & also dead animals (who knows what it died of).  But I
finally gave up on trying to discourage my Cocker from eating sticks, turds,
mud, & rotten vegetables.  She's a Dog.

> i have read the "The Art of Raising A Puppy", the FAQ, and some other books.
> and have tried almost everthing that's commonly known to everyone.  is there 
> anything else i can do about my pup, or he's just too young.

Alas, a dog is not like a computer program (give the instruction once & then it
always does what you told it to do & nothing else).  You have to keep
instructing him in the same things over & over & over & over.  It is the
repetition (boring & frustrating for you, but essential for the dog) that
finally winds up training him.  Consider "socializing your dog" to be not an
event, which will be done with at some point, but a way of life.  For the rest
of his life you will still be teaching him what sorts of things are acceptable
behaviors among humans and what are not.

> my other question is realted to health.  i took the pup to the vet when he
[...]
> what should i do??  the above options were given by 2 different vets.  and 
> there's no info that i could find on this issue.

Puppy vaccinations usually present no great challenge or controversy.  I'd say,
pick one vet who will provide all your pet's health care, who you like and who
the dog likes (preferably), and then stick with that one vet's advice.  It
doesn't really matter if one vet would have given shot A at time T and the
other wouldn't give it until time T+1.  So long as you stick with one schedule
or another, I'm sure it'll be just fine.

One last word of advice:  DO get your puppy used to having his ears cleaned
regularly while he is little.  Spaniels are notorious for having ear problems,
& he would thank you (if he could) for attending carefully to his ears right
from the beginning, so that he doesn't develop problems in the first place.

Oh, and ENJOY your Cocker pup!  He's only a puppy once.

------------------------
Ruth Ginzberg <rginzberg@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
Philosophy Department;Wesleyan University;USA