[kathleend95]

I guess this is an odd thread, but I love reading about different people's experiences when raising their puppies. I used to think raising a puppy was pretty easy, they pee in the house sometimes, they chew things, and that's it...but then I got my own puppy and I realized every puppy is different. My dad had "the golden puppy", slept through the night, didn't scream in his crate, was good in cars, could go anywhere and wouldn't act out, would stay quietly...I helped raise his puppy and I thought that's what having a puppy was like...then I got my puppy.
The sweetest and cutest german shepherd puppy I've ever seen. I picked him up at 10 weeks old and as soon as we went to leave the house...he yelled. He screamed, he yelled, he howled, he made more noise than I thought a puppy ever would. He was extremely shy when I brought him home, stayed in the crate most of the day, was too shy to come out and meet the other dogs. Brought him to petco and he screamed bloody murder the entire time...ended up having to leave cause I felt so bad for him. He woke up during the night about 4-5 times, he couldn't hold his pee for the life of him. He had the razor sharp puppy teeth and he LOVED your feet, walking to the kitchen was basically impossible. Once I put him back in his crate at night, he refused to go back to sleep. It was finals week at one point and he was waking me up 3-4 times a night and refused to go back to bed, I literally fell asleep in his crate with him. If the sun came up even a little bit, he would wake up and wouldn't go back to sleep and would yell until I took him out of the crate. He loved to steal all the other dogs' food, I had to start feeding them in separate rooms. He hated car rides for the first couple weeks, would yell the entire time.
He was basically the opposite to what I thought a puppy would be, I barely got sleep, I was grumpy and tired but I laughed at all these moments cause I knew eventually they'd stop. Well, he turns 1 year old next month and he is an angel. It's been an experience to say the least but he's taught me so much patience, to laugh at he difficult times, and to learn how to take care of a screaming devil (don't worry, I love him hahaha)
I'd love to hear other people's experiences, good, bad, funny, or downright insane!

 

[huskylove1995]

I have seven huskies!! Let's see I will Do Maliki Sky Blue. I got her at 12 weeks last puppy in the litter to leave. She hated car rides in fact on the way home with her I had her laying in my lap while my parents where driving. Her head was in between me and the car door. I got her home she did great with potty training until night came she made mess after taking three days to get that figured out she has been good ever since. Her first toy was a raccoon stuffed toy it took her three days to get destroyed. She was easy to train and with my parents six huskies of their own along with her she had plenty of entertainment from the pack leaders in the group. They did get on to her a bunch though LOL She had a very sensitive stomach which didn't help things it was a good thing the food my parents dogs where on was grain free. She was a Star puppy in the ACA then her hair started growing out to where it was long which makes it undesirable so confirmation showing was over darn!! That was actually a miracle in discuss I started pulling with her and then I taught her to go through the pole and all things you see in Rally obedience. I also taught her off leash training again not hard as she had six other huskies she was growing up with at the time that where off leash trained. Then about a month and half maybe a little longer I got another husky named Tyson from a rescue luckily he had his papers people just could handle a husky puppy anymore. So now she had a brother double the trouble Oh My Gosh I thought I was going to have to build them houses out sore for a while LOL She is now my little Beta at my house and keeps all my other dogs in line with me.

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[Francl27]

First one was a nightmare. Golden retriever, 10 weeks, would chew EVERYTHING he wasn't supposed to, was extremely nippy, ended up having severe resource guarding issues... It probably didn't help that we got him in the Winter and had to housetrain him in the snow. But I still don't think I'll be able to handle a retriever puppy again after that experience.

Second one, much easier, not a big chewer, picked up on housebreaking pretty fast, honestly pretty easy after the first night when he howled non stop for 8 hours.

Third one, pretty easy too. I mean she can be a stinker and steal sneakers if she's bored, but she housebroke pretty fast (she'll still occasionally pee on the bed, I have no idea why), hasn't really destroyed anything, stopped nipping after just 2 weeks. She's just not really a friendly dog with strangers, and is leash reactive with other dogs, which is a bummer, but I guess you don't know what you get with mutt puppy rescues (our second dog is leash reactive as well). And extremely barky, but she picked that from our second dog (and it probably has something to do with genetics too).

 

[ForTheLoveOfDogs]

Both puppies I've had as an adult were exhausting for normal reasons. Playing, training, getting up in the middle of the night, keeping a constant eye out etc. Both were easy to house train.

"My" puppy ripped lots of holes in my husbands clothes and punctured the inside of his nose, but barely gave me any issues. "His" puppy ripped many holes in my clothes and punctured the inside of my nose, but didn't really bite him too much. Kind of funny actually.

I always felt like Kai (Aussie) was the easier pup of the two purely because she didn't go through a whole bunch of strange phases. She remained herself from the day she came home until full maturity. Ember (Border Collie) came to us seemingly friendly and confident but was fear aggressive toward Kai the moment she walked in the door. We kept them mostly separated the first few days and had to introduce her very very slowly so that she would be okay. She also started showing little whacky behaviors here and there that alarmed me. Fear aggression (or something) towards me started as she went through her fear periods. Probably because she was sensitive and could feel my frustrations with her ever changing attitudes and random seeming aggressiveness towards dogs and occasionally us. Ember did not communicate like a normal dog in a lot of ways. It took me a long time to stop worrying about her growling/snarling at everything. She talks a lot but doesn't back it up. She never was and never will be a cuddly dog, but I've learned to read her much better now so I can give her space. Thankfully she finally evened out around 2 years old. She can still be nasty sounding sometimes.. but she can be around dogs and even get along with new dogs/puppies with a proper introduction. I'm pretty sure her growling/snarling at me these days is her way to try and get attention in some twisted way. I wouldn't believe it if I didn't own the dog.

So I guess the whole moral of my puppy raising story has been.. Border Collie puppies. They will teach you so freaking much about dogs and yourself.

 

[Life With Atlas]

Atlas was a pretty normal, easy to deal with puppy. He handled going from his litter mates to being the only dog like a champ - screamed and howled for probably 10 minutes the first night (with me on the couch beside him), 5 minutes the second night, and I don't even remember anything after that. I got up with him about once a night for the first couple months, but that was more me doing it when he got restless and not him whining to go out. He had very few accidents - probably only a couple at our house and a few at my parents place. I was very lucky that my dad is retired and was able to watch him for the first six months or so while we were at work (he got to play with their dog during the day, and they are best buddies now). He was a biter though, and kind of a vicious one at that! The first 6 weeks were kind of brutal, but he did turn a corner after that and the biting became a lot easier to deal with. But he was so easy going, that he spent very little time in his crate because he wasn't a chewer, and the only time he would sneak off was to go steal socks!

We had once incident where he tried to steal food, he got busted so fast and needless to say he hasn't tried to steal anything since. Sniff, taste the air like a snake, but won't touch anything. He has been able to sleep outside of his crate from about 6 months on, and doesn't get himself into any trouble. We crate when the house is empty, but he is allowed to be loose if anyone is at home, even if they are downstairs - and he still doesn't try to get into anything.

He's a whiner, but not a crazy barker. Will stare at you and whine for no apparent reason, but thankfully learned very quickly to watch out the window but not bark. The mailbox is right outside our property, so if he barked at everyone who went by, I'm not sure he'd survive.

All in all, he's been so easy and normal that I'm a little scared at what the next puppy might be like!

 

[lauren17]

My last two puppies have been complete opposites. Roo (male aussie) was (and still is) a handful! I brought him home at 8 weeks and I remember thinking this isn't a puppy.. it's like he skipped the cute baby dog stage and went right to the obnoxious teenage puppy stage. He was extremely confident, stubborn, and had endless energy. Aren't puppies supposed to sleep?? He was very hard headed about things, like if he knew he wasn't supposed to do something he was going to try ten times harder to do that thing. He barked/screamed whenever anything exciting happened and everything is considered exciting to Roo. However he was a lot of fun to teach tricks and picked up on them so quickly! He slept through the night great, never chewed things up, wasn't too nippy. Bindi (female Aussie) was the easiest puppy! She was cute and calm and very handler focused and biddable from the start. She never barked or wined, I don't think I heard a sound out if her until she was 6 months old. She slept through the night, she house trained fairly quickly. She had some slight fear stages but nothing too terrible. However, at about 10 months old she hit her terror stage and is still at 13 months in that stage lol. She is just a very destructive little thing. Plus I have a 6 month old kitten, together they can destroy a house.. I have to be sure to keep an eye on her at all times or strange things happen like all my towels getting stuffed in the toilet.. he destructiveness is pretty normal boredom stuff though from days I slack on entertaining her. She's really a very easy puppy for a working bred aussie.

 

[gingerkid]

Ida was totally fine as a puppy. Once we got past the cat chasing and the chewing the carpet and the crate anxiety and peeing inside and the digging holes in our bed sheets and the squirrel chasing and the panty stealing.

I'm kidding, mostly. Everything except the cat chasing went away as she matured and/or once we identified and started treating her anxiety. (And the car anxiety, but that got worse after she turned a year, and isn't really a "puppy" issue).

 

[Canyx]

I've raised two.

First one was a rescue at 12 weeks of age and he is now 11.5 years. He was an easy puppy. Med-high energy, very food and toy driven, great off switch. My challenges were normal first-owner things, and he was actually harder when he matured and developed some dog selectivity/aggression. Resource guarding was and still is a part of him, but it was pretty intuitive to me and my family 'don't touch dogs when they're eating things' so it never was an issue. For the first half of his life I struggled with focus at times. He is very biddable in general, but very environmentally motivated too. It wasn't him at all. It was me not knowing what I know now in terms of dog training and behavior.

Second one I got from a breeder this year at 8.5 weeks of age and he is now 9 months old. He is also an easy puppy. Well, he is incredibly driven (in every way), no off switch, and did the shrieking in the crate thing at first. But I am having a MUCH easier time with him only because I know a lot more now. Had I gotten this puppy a decade ago, I would have lost my mind and probably used a lot of punishment or sent the puppy back. Even 3 years ago, it would have been a different relationship.

I had a third dog who was 8-16 months old. She was actually VERY similar to my current puppy. High energy, very drivey, awesome dog. But I was not the right owner/trainer at the time so I rehomed her. The no-off-switch thing was something I couldn't come around to alongside my expectations at the time. I have no regrets but had I gotten her now, I would probably have kept her.

 

[cop&zoe]

I love these

The only puppy I've raised was my now-8-year-old golden. The first night we took her home at 10 weeks she was very shy so I slept on the floor by her crate to keep her quiet. In the morning she was so excited to see I was still there that she peed all over herself. She was kind of a terror puppy though. Potty training was okay, obedience was okay, but geez was she a biter. It got to the point where we couldn't have people over because her high-energy playful nips would draw blood. My hands and ankles would be covered in puncture wounds all the time. She would attack any loose piece of clothing and any exposed skin. She was so cute but we kind of hated her for a long time. We tried everything to get her to stop. Eventually she just grew out of it and has been an angel ever since.

 

[hanksimon]

Goldens are easy! ;-) Eventually the bloodletting stops. Shep was a Lab mix, the definition of a needle-toothed, fuzzy vampire. The first day I had him, he chomped down on my big toe. While I was hopping around, trying not to bleed on the carpet, Shep walked into the carpeted bathroom, and I heard a tinkle, a long tinkle. I yelled, "No!" ran into the bathroom, scooped him up, and took him outside to finish. Scared the pee right out of him ... And achieved a one step house training - he never had another accident, never vomited in the house after that.

As far as nipping, at the time, common knowledge was you popped him in the butt. That little, 9 week SOB thought I was playing, growled (a tiny little puppy growl) and nipped me again. So, I thumped him in the nose. Same response. And, I picked him up, holding him upside down ... while he calmly continued to growl at me and tried to bite me. I considered drop kicking but figured he'd bounce off the wall... and come at me, trying to nip me again. When I talked to a friend at work, he told me about Ian Dunbar and the "yelp" method. And, that's the original reason why I started using gentle methods nearly 20 years ago.

 

[NorCalFMD]

My first puppy (not a family dog, but my responsibility) was an 8 week old Corgi cross when I was 16 years old. He was brilliant, house trained in less than a week, and slept through the night by my bed after 10 weeks old with no issues. He did love destroying socks. Rarely mine, but any visitor or my boyfriend had to be careful not to leave socks in his reach. We teased him about having a foot fetish, as he gnawed the occasional shoe as well.

My current dog came to me at 6 months old. She's an international rescue from Taiwan, and flew to San Francisco at 4 months. By the time I got her 2 months later, she was perfectly potty trained but had few other manners, and in a lot of ways it felt like starting with a puppy. We had some nipping issues, and she resource guards a bit still. She hates most men, is incredibly shy, can't handle busy streets or pet stores. She barks like crazy in the backyard. She's anxious, and easily loses trust. She is not a cuddler. It's been a long uphill battle with more than one bought of hopeless crying on my part but I see so much progress week by week. I love her to bits.

This is Klara when she was a wee pup. She grew into the silly ears, she's much prettier now!

 

[InkedMarie]

I haven’t had a whole lot of young puppies. The first was back in the 80’s & I don’t remember much.

The next came in 2005. Boone was the hardest puppy I could imagine. Housebreaking was a nightmare. I’d take him out to potty, walk for up to half hour and nothing. Bring him in & he’d pee four times in ten minutes. I literally cried for many months. He chewed anything & everything. He hated kids then we had our first grandchild. He loves all three grandkids now! It was a joke, mostly, that I’d like to open the door & let him run free but he’s microchipped so someone would bring him home. He will be 12 in January and I want him to live forever.

After Boone it took me 9 years to agree to another puppy. O’Malley is our two year old longhaired whippet and he was a dream of a puppy!