First time owner seeking advice

[KingMilo]

Good morning all,

My wife and I recently put a deposit down on an adorable boxer puppy and I guess I am just here to look for advice. We're going to be crate training him (he comes home in 5 weeks) and we're taking the first week and a half that we have him off work so we can spend as much time with him as possible.

When we went to meet the puppies we originally had our eyes on a cute white female, but as the pups were messing around with eachother and biting our fingers (gently) Milo came over and started nuzzling and licking my hand and whining. After I picked him up he was nothing but affectionate and even fell asleep in my arms...I didn't even want to leave without him!

(Him asleep in my arms.)

We're hoping to do this the right way so that we have a great companion for life, and we're both inexperienced with dogs as this is our first. I fully believe in positive reinforcement training.

With that said I guess we're just looking for general advice and tips to make this a great experience not only for us, but also for Milo. We've already got some good support here from friends who have experience with dogs, but where better than here to get a broad range of knowledge?

We're planning on putting his crate on the main floor near the back door of the house and for the first few nights I think I'll set up a cot next to it and sleep there so that I can take him out often and not have him feeling too lonely...then slowly wean him off it as I move upstairs so that he can get used to sleeping alone if necessary. We're considering puppy classes because we're not too sure if we can train him ourselves without experience (though I'm not opposed to it as I've always been very good with animals.)

Not sure what else to say...we plan on socializing him early and we have a park near our house as well as a lot of friends and family with dogs.

Sorry if this is real vague, and thanks.

 

[LILYLARUE]

Congrats on your new addition!

I just have a question, or suggestion rather. Instead of keeping him by the back door in his crate, why not put the crate in your bedroom? It would be more comfortable for you to do the early morning wake ups/potty breaks. Plus, it will train him to be in his crate at bedtime, next to you guys, and not all alone in a seperate part of the house. Boxers are "people dogs" and they only want to be near their people - ALL THE TIME! They aren't called "velcro dogs" for nothing. haha

I would think sleeping on a cot, near him by the back door will only cause another training session when you decide to leave him and go back to your bed. He will be a few weeks older, louder whines and barks that you may not hear if he needs an emergency trip out to potty.

Many owners have two crates. One in the living part of the house for the pup to escape to, and be trained to be crated. The second crate is in the bedroom, next to the bed, where a simple touch or close hand can calm the pup during the transitition to your home.

Just my initial thoughts on your plan. Not saying anything wrong with it, but you may be more comfortable and make crate training easier on you during the first few weeks.

 

[Sansal]

Just want to pointout two great free resources for you:

2 books by Ian Dunbar that can be downloaded for free:

Free Downloads | Dog Star Daily

Good luck with the little cutie lovicon

 

[summerlove]

i personally wouldn't keep him that far away. you should have him close to you because at first he will be scared and want something to give him peace and he will start to see the both of you are his new family. i would think that just you sleeping down there by him would make him favor you more then your wife , because he bond with you first as you will be the one taking outside and he will be smelling you around at first so not a good idea. puppies do whine at first but that's having a puppy and he might not be as bad if he where in your room because he could smell that your smell is strongest there meaning you spend the most time there. so he will be comforted by it seeing that you will be the smell he smells the most when he leaves his litter mates. smell is everything to a dog so i always used it first on things like this.

 

[TwoDogs]

Don't spend every minute with him that first week and a half that you have off from work. Make sure you take short trips--like to the post office or to the neighbors for a cup of tea--and leave him at home in his crate (with a nice durable chewy to keep him busy) so he gets used to the fact that you sometimes go but you also come back.

And definitely read Dunbar's books. I was going to recommend them but Sansal beat me to it!