New dog/dogs?

yeah, they learn best by observing and repeating. so, what you have to do is take a crap outside while he watches... it will probabbly take a good week or two before he get's it all figured out...

 

Crate at night. Crate when you're not there. The crate has to be small enough so they can't get away from the crap. Don't leave food for them during the day.

Feed them in the morning, let them out 20 or so minutes later. Stay outside until they poop. praise them when they poop.

Feed them in the evening, repeat.

When you let them run around when you're home, keep a sharp eye on them as they'll go sniffing around in circles when its poop time. Don't let them wander unattended until they're trained.

Come home every 4 hours to let them out until they can hold it.

 

They all get along fine although Mike got himself into trouble yesterday with the Daschund ("TJ") by being what a puppy like him is, too playful with TJ until TJ got fed up and they got into a fight.

It's partly my fault as I haven't house-trained him enough (just don't have the time to keep an eye on him all the time!). He eliminates in various places in the house although I try to teach him where to go which he has not grasped. I also haven't got him a crate which, like Russ recommended, is a help in house-training. I suppose I just need to sacrifice more time to teach him till he gets it.

 

Yeah, fifteen seconds a day is not to be sneezed at!
Never mind the permanent desensitization.

 

desensitization???

trust me, I could use quite a fair bit more desensitization...

 

Respectfully DW, it isn't a hold over. Generally cropping and tail docking has simple pragmatic reasons behind it to allow the breed to function in the role for which it was tailored.

Failure to do it can result in considerably more suffering and pain for the animal later in life. For instance failing to shorten the tail on various hunting breeds causes them to constantly hurt their tail when out - especially those working in shrubby underbrush. Tail injuries are painful, almost impossible to bandage effectively and extremely easy to reopen as a wound. For ratting dogs, like various Terrier breeds, a shorter tail provides a solid handle for extricating them from the tunnels they periodicly get stuck in. A long tail isn't strong enough and often broke in the process making it both difficult to extricate the dog and hurting it as well.

I really do suggest that rather than simply condeming the practice as barbaric that you take the time to do some research and find out why it is done.

 

While I like Golden Retrievers and Border Collies, I love my Cat called Mars. He's just over a year old now.

 

He has green eyes like me .. well he has partial green eyes.

US

 

Given that dogs have to be cropped at an early age, later on in life can result in considerable complications, then it makes sense to do any cropping in anticipation of the dogs later life. Of course if the breeder is never selling the dogs into a situation where they will be performing their designed role in life then you have a point.

It is a problem the dog world as a whole is suffering from, many breeders and buyers are forgetting why we have breed standards and what the aim is. Consequently we have afghans that can't hunt, Dachsunds that have too light sternums and over long leg bones causing them to be unable to tunnel and a variety of other breeding errors. Which results in dogs that can't hunt or otherwise do what they are meant to do.

Likewise, having been involved in the dog world for thirty plus years I've had the chance to see what not cropping can bring about too.

As I say, and I have about said my piece here, cropping and docking happens for damn good reasons. It isn't merely human capriciousness, a lot of the time it is for the dog's good. Especially if the dog does what it was bred for.

 

Congrats, Digi! I'm yearning for a new kitten, which I suspect will happen come spring. My wife won't admit to it, but she is too. We've lost too many fur-children the last 1.5 years which is why she's leery, but our big Buddy-cat needs a new cuddle-partner, and his sisters are NOT going to volunteer for the job.

Buddy and I get to share a Durango for 2,000 miles in a few days. Oh boy, whadda joy that will be. At least dogs *like* cars --never met a cat that did.

 

We've got an 8 month old female Great Dane. We wrestled with whether or not to crop her ears, as Dane ears are freakin' HUGE if not cropped... Decided to do it, but I don't know that I'd do it again on another Dane used as a house dog like ours. It was torture watching her go through the pain of healing up and dealing with her ears being taped up like that.

We also discussed, since she was just a house dog, having her tail docked when we first got her. Obviously this isn't part of the Dane breed standard, but if you've ever been whipped by a full-size Dane's tail when he/she is in "full excitement mode", or seen what kind of damage they can do, you'd understand. Ultimately, we kept the tail, which at its base now at only 8 months old is about as big around as my wrist.

That tail can clean a coffee table off with one fell swoop, or lift our 1 1/2 year old boy off the ground and displace him about 2 or 3 feet from where he was standing, in the wrong circumstances. Luckily, he's a pretty rough-and-tumble sort of kid, and normally finds it humorous when he gets knocked for a loop by it.

It's funny to see our 5 year old lead the Dane over to the couch, where the 1 1/2 year old will be waiting to climb on her back and ride her like a horse. The dog LOVES this probably more than the kids, and when each ride ends in the inevitable crash to the floor by the 1 1/2 year old boy, I think she laughs just as much as the kids do judging by the way she acts...

Now go turn me in to child services for allowing this sort of behavior to happen regularly in my house. LOL!

 

Don't worry, pal... I've yet to witness a successful "ride". More like a climb and fall. I'm aware of the structural issues with Danes, and supervise this activity so as not to let it get out of hand. Bottom line is she just LOVES the kids lollygagging on her.

She's a great pup, and after many pets over the course of my life, I'm still amazed at the connection a family can make with a dog so quickly and deeply.

 

I've mentioned before that we live wayyyyyy out in the middle of nowhere. My wife feels much safer with a theft deterrent sort of dog.

Before this girl, we had an English Bulldog. The mistake we made with him is that we picked the "playful" one in the litter, which turned out to be not just playful, but downright dominant. At about 5 years old, he became really mean and a little too forceful... he ripped the pocket off a repair man's jeans one day with no warning... lucky it was only his pocket. I put him to sleep that night without delay, knowing he was a bigger liability than I was comfortable with. He was also getting grouchier by the day due to bad hips.

This Dane has a much more passive temperament... she's positioned herself below our fat old pug in the "food chain" of the household, even.

I've seen grouchy dogs of all breeds and sizes. Don't know that this is a breed-specific thing. Something to watch no matter what the dog, though.