Getting along with humans

What is Buddy's temperament like? Well as you can see, he is quite a placid and tolerant pet. He is easy going and puts up with a lot, including the children carrying him around like a teddy bear at times and then ignoring him at other times.

Our Vet's website has some good articles that you can read about introducing a dog into your family.

Buddy's personality so far is lovely, he is cheeky and playful and fits right in with in our family. When there is a lot of activity in the house he is always happy to get involved and when no body is home or the house is quiet he is happy to chill out and sleep.

Toilet training (part 1)

When Buddy first came home, we just made sure that we took him outside each time he woke up from a nap and after food. When we make the effort to do that he is very good. Realistically puppies don't gain full control of their bladders until around 6 months or age, sometimes older.

Cody's owners bought a special dog loo, a piece of synthetic grass that you can leave inside for your dog to go on. They live in a fully carpeted apartment and work longer days, so this was a good solution for them. For Pet Loo and other products you can check out the Pookinuk website, they have some good news items and videos too.

Sleeping like a baby

We were concerned about whether Buddy would cry at night. We didn't want him to be distressed and wanted him to have a smooth transition into our family, to bond with us and to feel loved. So he wouldn't feel lonely we put his bed in the kids room at night. In this photo he has decided to sleep behind a suitcase in the office ...

One website (K9Web) had some really good advice about Crying at Night-

Your puppy wants to be with the rest of the "pack" at bedtime. This behavior is highly adaptive from the standpoint of dog behavior. When a puppy becomes separated from its pack it will whine, thereby allowing it to be found and returned to the rest of the group.

This is why so many books on puppies and dog behavior strongly recommend that you allow your puppy/dog to sleep with you in your room to reduce the likelihood of crying at night.

First day at home (part 2.)

Before they went to school the kids took some old socks that they had been wearing and stuffed a small teddy into each one. We put these in Buddy's bed so that he would feel snug, like he did sleeping surrounded by his mum and littermates. He would also get used to the smells of our family.

This seemed to work, and he didn't wake us up at all the first night. He didn't really wake us during the night with crying at all. The first few nights he was a bit fretful when we put him to bed, and he took a while to settle. But once he got to sleep he stayed in his bed until about 6am.

First day at home (part 1)

Butterscotch was sent to us by plane and Annie had packed a cloth in the crate with him. This was so he could have something with his mum's scent on it. We put the cloth in his bed so that he could be surrounded by familiar smells.

When I brought Butterscotch home the kids were all at school and it was good to bring him home to a quiet house, as he was a bit stunned and confused by the new environment (you can see in the photo he looks a little sad).