# First day with Clancy



## mjrbk (Mar 1, 2017)

Hello, 
To start off I first helped train a cockapoo when my flat mate brought home Dougall last year. Once I moved into my own flat last winter, I really missed Dougall's little face. So when I heard his breeder had a new litter, it was a done deal and today Clancy finally came home.

We picked Clancy up at 10am, to give her a full day with us. She was yelping in the car, but it seemed to be with happiness. She sat in my lap for the hour journey, tail wagging, curiously licking my hands and face. Once home I fed her in the pen, where she has a crate and puppy pad.

On the whole she has been great. We have been going down to the garden every few hours but she hasn't yet done her business outside. It's been a mix of puppy pads and floor. She is only 8 weeks old, so I'm giving her a few days to review. After her first meal and lots of play, I put her in the crate (which is in living room, so she can see me during day). After 2 minutes of yelping she was sound asleep.

Controversially I decided to let her sleep on bed for first night, to keep things as calm as possible. Amazingly she slept from midnight until I woke her at 7am. The second I placed her in pen for food, she emptied on the puppy pad - result!! (Should have went straight outside, will be ready to pounce tomorrow!! )

Anyway, early days but I look forward to the next 2 weeks of bonding. Her puppy teeth are like pins. From past experience of dogs, playing with other dogs quickly knocked the nipping. But I nstead of waiting 3 weeks for that, I'm considering the bitter apple spray - can anyone advise whether they had any success with anti-bite spray on pup?

Say hi to Clancy below


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

If you spray it on you to prevent the biting, you'll stink and puppy will hate you. If you spray it on her as punishment, it will be even worse, she'll be scared of you and grow to loathe you. It's meant for furniture and carpets you don't want pup to chew. To handle the biting ignoring, time outs and time itself (she will outgrow it) seem to be the fastest solutions.

Pee pads only complicate the house training issue. Best use newspaper which does not resemble carpet the way pee pads do.


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## HenryPup27 (Sep 28, 2016)

I agree re. the spray, the nipping stops after a few weeks and in the meantime just make sure she has lots of toys to chew instead. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Totally agree with Fairlie, don't use any sort of spray to stop puppy mouthing. It is actually a valuable stage they need to go through to learn valuable bite inhibition with us soft skinned humans, pups really do need to learn that, firstly that we are delicate and then not to bite us at all. 

Also agree, ditch the puppy pads, I would not even use newspaper, it just makes your life more complex as you need to phase them out at some stage later on.

Welcome to lovely Clancy


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

2ndhandgal said:


> I would not even use newspaper, it just makes your life more complex as you need to phase them out at some stage later on.


Hmmm, my worry would be that if I didn't use it as a liner in this temporary puppy pen then the scent of urine would always be there for this pup and future pups to pee on. With a thick layer of paper cleaned up after every accident you could keep the pen fresh smelling and speed things up, no? 

Having said that I once knew a pup who was so well paper trained it peed on the mail when it came through the slot.


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

Sweet baby pup 

The shark teeth drop out soon enough... my 20 year old son was just saying yesterday that he liked that puppy biting phase  it takes all sorts!

The puppy stage does not last long and you will miss it when it is over.


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