So I've moved back home with my family and am currently taking a break from working for at least a few months. So my mom finally caved in and agreed to let my dad and I get a puppy. We had done research years ago when we first thought of getting a dog and I know that my dad has wanted a Boston Terrier. Tomorrow we have an appointment to visit a breeder who has a 4 month old pup. She says he's fully healthy and has the records to show it, and that he comes from a great family. However, his marking is a bit unique and since he's relatively old for a puppy, nobody has bought him yet and he's a bit cheaper. Anyways, I'm going to spend all day doing research on what items I'll need in case we bring him home, and how I should train him, but I was wondering if any of you have had experience in this and can offer any advice outside the generic help I'll likely find on Google? Specifically, I'm wondering if there will be any issues with bringing home a 4 month old puppy? Is that too old to the point where he might feel attached to his breeder? Will he be harder to train and housebreak?
No worries at all. It's more common to get a 7-8week pup but... it's still a pup. Spend as much time as you can with it and he'll be your best friend in no time. Wysłane z iPhone za pomocą Tapatalk
Read up as much as you can on potty training. Try not to get frustrated. Take them outside every time they wake up, after eating or drinking, and every hour while awake until you're confident they're potty trained. Praise them when they go -- like REALLY praise them like they just found the cure for cancer. If leaving the dog inside while you're gone, consider crate training (that means putting them in a dog cage with a lot of towels or blankets so they barely have enough room to turn around. They don't like sleeping in their mess, so they'll hold it. That helps with the potty training. Also a good place for them to sleep at night until potty trained. Speaking of sleeping -- when the dog cries at night, DO NOT get up. If you do, you'll be getting up every night. Once they know you're not getting up they'll stop. Have lots of chew toys because puppies tend to chew up stuff (shoes, furniture, basically anything you don't want them to). Chew toys and playing with them (tug of war) helps with the teething a lot. Shots. get them. I have my dogs on an insurance plan at Banfield (inside PetSmart) and it's saved me a ton of money over the years. They'll let you know when they're due. Consider an obedience class. You and your dog will learn a lot. If your plan is to chain the dog up outside, reconsider buying one. Nothing wrong with a dog being outside, but they need time. Lots of it. It drives me crazy seeing a dog chained up all the time and no one spending time with them. Daily walks are vital. Remember, the walk is for them, so let them sniff and piss all over the place. It stimulates their minds. 20 - 30 minutes a day is really important. Socialize your dog at a local dog park so they learn how to act around other dogs. Let the dog get off the leash and let it run around. A little aggression and barking is normal. They like to know who is the alpha. Don't overreact. Your dog will sense your feelings and if you're uptight, it'll be uptight and might fight in an unnecessary situation.
Thanks for the feedback! So I'm getting pretty excited and assuming there's nothing wrong with his temperament or health when we check him out tomorrow, I think I really want this 4 month old Boston Terrier puppy. I have a bunch of questions to ask the breeder since I feel like however I train it, I'll need to let him acclimate slowly. As of now, my plan is to get a crate like this: I've read that Boston Terriers can be a little slow to house train, and so that it's recommended to keep them in the crate at all times until they're about a year old unless I'm actively holding it, playing with it, or taking it outside to potty. Apparently it's bad to give them the freedom to run all over the house until then. At night time, I plan on letting him sleep in the crate in my bedroom (for the first week or so) and then progressively move the crate to my brother's empty bedroom (we shared a Jack and Jill kinda room, so I'd still be close enough to hear if anything went wrong) and then either the garage or backyard (after several months). During the day, I usually spend most of my time in our upstairs loft/game room, so I'll probably move his crate there and let him hang out with me while he's still in the crate. And then soon after that, I'll probably get a gate to block off the exit from the loft so that I can give him the freedom to at least explore one room outside of his crate. And then of course I'll take him outside multiple times a day to a designated spot in the backyard to potty, and positively reinforce that. And I'll give him some time to run around the backyard and explore (until he gets all his vaccinations and I can walk him around the neighborhood). Eventually, I hope to train him to have the freedom to hang out with the family during the day without making a mess, sleep outside during the night, and then take him for daily walks around the neighborhood to exercise and socialize.
I have, no joke, 3 Boston Terriers. They ARE a little slower to house train. Where do you live in Los Angeles? A Boston is not a big dog and coyotes roam in a lot of areas you wouldn't expect. I wouldn't let him sleep outside. Besides, within 2 months that dog will be in your bed at night. All three of our dogs sleep with us at night. Regardless of whether or not coyotes are near, Boston Terriers are VERY family/people oriented. They're going to want to be with you inside. Ours are like 3 little shadows. We have one that is really old and completely blind and she will still try following us up and down stairs. They are the best dogs in the world. We gave ours freedom to run wild around the house. I think it depends on the personality. I've never heard of crating to that extent for an entire year. That sounds like how you'd treat a hamster.
I agree with Savory. Crate training for a year sounds way too long. A month or two to potty train should do the trick. Like Savory, our dogs are in our bed too. Well, the rat terrier is. He crawls under the blankets and sleeps. Our cocker spaniel sleeps in her own bed on the floor next to ours, but climbs up in the morning. Both are rescue dogs, which I think is the way to go. I couldn't imagine life without our furry friends.
Yeah, to be honest, I expect him to live indoors with us (and so does my dad), but we're just using the story of slowly moving him outside to appease my grandparents (who I know will have no issues keeping him inside full time once they get to know him). We live in Corona, and apparently we do have some coyotes. I definitely need to research this aspect a bit more. One of my aunts mentioned about ways to "coyote-proof" a yard, but if he's at any risk at all then I definitely wouldn't leave him outside without supervision. Yeah, maybe I misread that "one year" figure, but basically I've read that they should never have full unsupervised roam over the house while not fully potty/house trained yet. So that if we're all downstairs watching TV, he can hang out with us on the couch and walk around the living room a bit, but we can't let him run upstairs to explore the bedrooms by himself. I've read stuff where giving him that kind of unrestrained freedom too early will likely promote him to potty inside or chew on things other than the toys I give him in his crate. I definitely don't want to lock him in a crate for a full year though lol, and I understand that I'm gonna have to use my judgement to determine how to best train him/keep him happy individually. The general advice I find on Google isn't necessarily going to perfectly apply to my specific puppy.
Coyotes are resourceful as all hell. If you live in Corona, DO NOT leave them outside, even during the day without supervision. I live in Aliso Viejo near Laguna Canyon, and I have seen coyotes in broad daylight at like noon cruising down the middle of the street. If they are hungry, they will find a way. My buddy just lost a dog to a coyote, so I'm hyper vigilant right now about other people's dogs. I mean, I was already ridiculously anal retentive about my dogs and letting them outside. I'm sure your aunt has read things about coyote proofing, but they are VERY good jumpers and will go to great lengths if they are hungry, especially during pup season when they hunting for 4-5 puppies. I wouldn't trust my dogs safety to the coyote rollers people put on their fences. I once saw a coyote jump 15 feet in the air and do a back flip to avoid barbwire... OK, that's completely false, but I'd rather lie and over-exaggerate if it makes you more cautious. So just believe that coyotes are Neo from the Matrix.
Oh. And Boston Terriers love giving licks. I know that bothers some people. They will want to lick faces. I've been around a lot of them. They all randomly jump on you and start licking.
Brought him (Raja) home and he's been really good so far. Very playful at the breeder's house with us, respectful of their boundaries that they had set, and no barking or crying at all during what must've been a tense car ride for him. Apparently he's been trained to potty on some newspapers in a large crate, so that's going to take some training to get him to go outside. But so far, we brought him in on a leash and took him to the backyard to see if he wanted to go. He didn't, and he seemed to get pretty stressed out by the leash so we took it off and let him explore the yard a bit (under our supervision). After letting him run around and explore the living room, we coaxed him into his crate with some treats and then closed it. He cried and did the whole puppy dog eyes thing for about 5 minutes before giving up and going to sleep. So when he wakes up, I'll try to get him to pee outside, and then play with him some more in the living room and backyard. I wanna tire him out a bit so that he wants to sit and watch TV with us lol. So some specific questions: 1.) Playing with him in the backyard has me on edge because I wanna let him explore and sniff around, but occasionally he'll try to chew on a leaf or seed or something he finds. I know he's probably just trying to learn about his surroundings, but I'm worried he might eat something he shouldn't. In general, will he be fine if he accidentally ate something from a common backyard? I don't think we have any crazy vegitation, just grass, a few flowers, etc. 2.) I want to get him some treats to positively reinforce him when he goes to the bathroom outside or goes into his crate, but it seems that some Boston's don't react well to some of the basic dog treats that might be available in grocery stores. Savory, any advice on a specific kind of dog treat I should try? 3.) About licking. Raja definitely likes to lick people's faces lol. I don't mind it at all, but I know some of my family will. Should I not let him lick my face then? Like aggressively say "no" when he tries it? Or should I just let him be since that's probably his nature? 4.) When would be a good time to get him neutered? He's about 14 weeks old. I definitely don't want to rush to neuter him when he's still getting used to my house, but I don't want to wait too long either.
Let him roam the backyard. He won't eat anything bad for him. If he does, he'll puke it up. LOL Only white people let their dogs lick them. If you're white, nothing to worry about. If you're not white, stop that crap, it's nasty. LOL.
1: http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants?field_toxicity_value[]=01 2: If it's his first day, he may not be ready to eat some stuff just yet. Is he eating his kibble? If he's not eating anything (even his kibble) after the first day and a half or so, take him to the vet. Puppies can't handle not eating for too long like an adult dog can. Their blood sugar plummets. Granted, you didn't say he wasn't eating kibble, so that's probably not an issue. As for the treats, I get meaty type treats, not the biscuit kind. My dogs aren't nearly as fond of milkbones and that sort of thing as they are jerky type treats. Try to stick to the higher end stuff like Science Diet on treats. Obviously higher end foods are always better as well, but don't switch foods on him right now. Let him adapt to his new home, and if you do switch foods, SLOWLY do it. Like 15% new food for a few days, then up it to 25% for a few days and so on. Otherwise, you'll be scrubbing diarrhea out of your carpet. 3. If YOU don't mind the licking, let him do it. They DO eventually learn who likes the licks and who doesn't. My Dad hates it, and my dogs know it even though they've only hung out with him a handful of times. 4. Neuter at 5-6 months. And why Raja?
... I had totally forgotten Raja Bell ever existed. We chose Raja because we're Indian so we wanted an Indian sounding name so that my grandparents would feel a little more attached to him ... and also because after we picked him up, we were googling good names for Boston Terriers and Raja came up on a list and it was one of the only names that me, my dad, and my cousin, could agree upon on the drive to PetCo to get him a collar.
So when you googled Boston Terrier names, Amare or Steve or Shawn or Boris didn't come up? Only the guy that clotheslined the 3rd greatest Laker ever? Ooooo see what I did there? Starting a Magic vs Kobe fight...or Kareem vs Kobe fight?
I don't remember Raja Bell ever having an issue with Shaq? Hahaha. Anyways, I'm already in love with this little guy. He's been great for the most part. Super friendly with everyone (I have a large extended family that has already come by to visit him). No barking or biting. Only one accident inside so far and generally good about going outside. As of now, we've decided to have him sleep in a crate in the garage. During the day when we're out and about, he's been joining us in the living room and he naturally sticks to our general area and doesn't bother exploring the rest of the house. Then when he gets tired out from playing or we need to leave, we put him back in his crate in the garage. At first, he cried a little bit before quieting down, but now he's not even crying. He'll be a little hesitant to enter his crate, but I'll throw a toy in there and tell him assertively to go inside and he listens. The only issue I'm having right now is with the leash. My family wants him to potty in a specific corner in the backyard. We've put down newspapers and doggy pads there, and this is where he first peed at our house. But he doesn't really want to specifically go there and will just go somewhere in that general area (which I still try to positively reinforce since it's better than going inside). So as of now, when I take him outside to go potty, I try to put a leash on him so that I can lead him to the direction of the specific area we want him to potty. But he REALLY hates his leash, and he's smart about it. Earlier today, I put the leash on him and he ran circles through some chairs and some of the guests I had visiting to the point where I had to let go of the leash because he pretty much started choking himself with it unless I let go. I understand I need to be assertive and train him to listen to me, but he seemed to legitimately get scared and shocked and I don't want to traumatize him. In general, so far I've tried putting the leash on him, leading him a few feet in a general direction, and then take the leash off of him without him even noticing. But right now, he still has one vaccination to go so we cant even take him out for walks yet. So I'm thinking that right now, I shouldn't worry with the leash. He's still progressively getting used to his collar and the house in general. So I figure I'll ignore the leash for now, let him roam the backyard in freedom, and then when his vaccinations kick in and he's ready to go to a doggy park, I'll start training him with the leash.
He is very cute. Here's my crew. [/URL][/IMG] I wonder if you will get another one for him. As you can see Bostons love other dogs, but are a tad racist and love other Bostons more. And yes, my boy LOVES clothes. He sees us pull out shirts and he runs over and tries to stick his head through. Don't worry about the leash thing. Every dog I've ever had fights those things. It took several times on the leash before he liked it. Do you have a collar or a harness? They tend to be better about these things. Just be sure it's on nice and snug.
