New Puppy - New Parents

Probably not what you want to hear, but I strongly recommend that you not sleep with your dog right from the get go. Lots of things I can say, all I would say is while puppies are very cute, inviting one more person to sleep in bed with you because at some point down the she will be large enough to resemble an older child. (60lbs) We've gotten our dogs to the point where we invite them on the bed when we want and otherwise they sleep together on their bed in our room.

Other advice, and this is just my opinion, getting puppies on a schedule helps make your life easier you eventually know when they need to go out and when they need to sleep. Toys are a must unless you want them eating shoes and furniture. Something large enough that she can't swallow, two great options - a KONG (ask any pet store) and a "tug rope" which they'll chew on and is good for their teeth.

Also, make sure you establish your dominance early on, if you let your dog walk all over you and don't give her any rules then you're building a recipe for disaster. Start showing her the ropes from day one, what she can/can't do, and you'll be a much happier parent down the road. Good luck.

Tbone's got some great advice!

I would also recommend not having her sleep with you. I was going to add that my opinions is it's a must to crate train. That way, she won't need to wear the diapers (never heard of them) since you can pop her in the crate when you can't supervise her. I would also think the diapers might make you more complacent and not be able to pay as much attention to their signals when they do have to go...but I could be way off base there. Another trick to potty training is to keep her on a leash so you can keep an eye on her. Potty training is hard work, but it doesn't last forever! You're going to have to go out with her every time.

Also (about the crate), keep the crate right next to the bed at night will help calm her the first few nights you have her at home...then you can slowly move the crate away each night to a more fitting place.

For feeding, your breeder will probably recommend a feeding schedule. But we fed our guy 3x a day until he was around 8 or 9 months, then we switched to the same amount of food, but 2x a day. One thing you might want to try is to put an abundant amount of food in the bowl, but limit the amount of time they can eat (i.e. put the bowl down for only 15 minutes). Then, after a week or so, you can get a good gauge of how much she can eat at a time, and it also teaches her self-regulation when she eats. It will also allow for any growth spurts she goes through as she can eat more or less depending. Keep in mind V's are notorious for being finicky eaters! As far as type of food: don't worry about feeding her a puppy food. Go straight to adult formula. We started our guy out with ProPlan Chicken. Then he got fussy and now we feed him Taste of the Wild. Just be careful to not feed a food with lots of filler (i.e. corn or rice is the first ingredient).

Get LOTS o' toys! Especially things she can chew on as she'll start teething shortly after you bring her home. Kong's are great occupiers if you stuff them with goodies. Our guy shreds through soft squeaky toys in seconds flat, so supervise with those. Rope toys (again, supervise as they get stringy). My guy loooooves bully sticks.

Don't forget to get her started on basic training right away! She'll have to wait until she has all her shots to do a group class, but a trained V is a happy Owner.

Good luck and have fun!

Not letter her sleeping with me seems like a general concensus. Although, we had dogs growing up that slept with us, granted they were dachshunds. I guess it would be more of a comfort for me to have her sleep next to me. My fiance is in the Air Force and gets deployed periodically for a four month period. Having a warm body next to me, would help me out with my seperation issues.
Would you suggest having two seperate crates, one in the room for sleeping only, and one for her to stay in while we are gone. Or, should we use one crate?
My fiance and I have taken five days off to spend with her 24 hours a day. Will this be a problem when one of us leaves after the five day period. I don't want her to have seperation anxiety when we eventually have to leave for work. My co-worker suggested leaving on a television program that we watch as a "family" when we leave. Does anyone else do that? It sounds silly, but the familiar sounds might help to calm her.
She will enter into Air Force Puppy Basic Training when she gets here. HAHA. Wish us luck, I think its going to be a disaster!

NO...training won't be a disaster!! V's are so quick to learn and eager to please making your job easy!

We only bought one crate and moved the crate around...family room during day and upstairs in bedroom at night. We ended up getting sick of moving it so just left it in the bedroom and that's where he is when we're gone as well as at night.

I would be careful to give her so much atttention when you first get her. It's good that you're able to do that so you can supervise her as she gets used to her new environment. But take some breaks and leave the house with her alone, if even for just 15 min at a time so she gets used to being alone. And start the crate training right away as it takes time and patience!

You're going to do great! Sounds like you're already well-informed and eager to do the right thing. Pretty soon you'll get in a routine and you'll forget you ever had the worry (I was the same way)!

Hello All - I am too going to be a proud new Dad of a Vizsla puppy starting in the middle of February and am a little apprehensive with what to expect. He is going to be a Male and about 9 weeks old when he arrives. I have read the posts about letting the V sleep in the bed with you at night in the begining which can be tempting, is not a good idea for obvious reasons. I am going to Vizslaproof the house before he arrives and have plenty of durable toys lying around to entertain him with.

I have a German Shorthaired Pointer that I raised that now lives at my parents house so I have an idea of what to expect from this energetic breed. My questions loom more in realm of what to expect in the first couple of weeks. I have a busy work life from day to day, but I work within a mile or so of my house which allows me the luxury to run home when I need. I run a shop where I have an office that would accomodate a Vizsla for periods of time so he doesn't have to be alone too much in the begining. I have been told it is ok to crate train him in the begining, but I don't want to leave him alone too long and for obvious reasons would like to have him stretch his legs while I am at work. Any suggestions on how to deal with the first couple weeks of Vizslahood and recommended dosages of crate times??? Other suggestions about puppy food, begining steps, and training would of course be welcomed.

I would be ever grateful on the couple weeks I have before the pup gets here. ;D

Welcome NhVizsla! All this talk of puppies makes me want to get another one!

It's great you work so close to home. When we got our pup, we were fortunate to have a couple days before we had to go back to work. So, we started on the crate training right away. My husband was able to bring him to work half days that first week, but with the pups boundless energy (and mostly because there were other dogs there) he had to stop doing that. But, both of us are within a 10 min drive of work and home.

So, again, start the crate training ASAP. For the first 3-4 months after getting our pup, we did crate him for 4 hours at the most. One of us was able to come home at lunch each day to let him out to play and relieve himself for about an hour. Then one of us made sure we were home as close to 5 as possible so, again, he wouldn't go longer than 4 hours in the crate. I will admit that he did have a few accidents in the crate when he was really young, but only because one of us couldn't get there right away.

General rule of thumb is that a puppy can hold his bladder 1 hour for every month of age. So he only got better as he got older and soon there were absolutely no accidents. One thing I would highly recommend is to give your pup an insane amount of exercise in the morning before leaving/putting him in his crate. He will be less likely to whine and destroy any blanket or bedding you have in the crate! Give him some durable chewy toys and even a frozen Kong stuffed with favorite food and peanut butter.

Having had a GSP, sounds like you know what to expect! But, the first couple weeks you have him, he'll probably still want to do a good amount of sleeping. And, if you can bring him with you to work, if even for a couple hours at a time...how fantastic!

Good Luck!

Thanks guys for the warm welcome.....

Seems like this is the place to be if you are going to be an owner or are already an owner of the mythical V breed.

Chloe, I am getting my pup from Illinois from a breeder named Ron Chenoweth and his wife Denise who breed the dogs at their farm in Port Byron. I have been waiting a long time to get one so I did my research and they seem like a legit place. They also breed Jack Russell's and Horses as well so I know they have the experience. I spoke with Ron for about an hour or so the other night before I decided that his enthusiasm and love for the dogs make him a shoe in. The Sire is 20 Gauge Ruger who was the 2008 National Gun Dog Champion and a Dual Champion as well and a more than accomplished stud. The female Penny, just gave birth on the 20th of December and it was her first litter. He should be here middle to late February and I can't wait.

Vlicked, Thanks for all the great knowledge about crate training. It is awesome that I work so close to home and I will definitely need to sneak out around lunch to let him out and I will bring him back with me to work for the first couple weeks. I know there are some days in the afternoon that I end up working late, but I can always leave and bring him back with me while I finish up the day's work. I have gone through this all before but I was young and I was still in school so I had the whole summer to raise my GSP, Magnum, who is the apple of my eye. He will soon have a little play buddy to romp around with at my parent's house.

Next topic................Names....................Any ideas?????
I want to go Hungarian or something of that nature and since I have a GSP named Magnum I was thinking of keeping in the whole gun theme. So far I have:
Ruger- His dad's name
Kaiser, or Kyzer
Kende- Name of Honor
Gabor- Warrior of God
Luger

well to all you future owners of Vizslas. what were you thinking? You do realize what you have gotten yourselves into.Very soon you will be the owner of a package of lightning wrapped up in a disguise of rust colored hair.Again what were you thinking ??? If you can wrangle this dog and have the energy and stamina and the constitution to stick to it then congrats to you. you will be the proudest parent on the block.i absolutely love my two dogs.and they absolutely love me back just as much.we go everywhere together whenever we can.when i come home from work there are two shadows that follow me everywhere.they were not kidding when they call them the Velcro dog.After having them for six months now Iwould have to say that these dogs are top notch.Now you must play with them run with them associate them with other dogs as much as possable teach them to be smart they will learn very easily training is not difficult. as vlicked said about the food I also feed taste of the wild.you must mind your protein intake there are two levels with this brand of food the fish is less than the fowl or venison versions.they need a good quality food don't cheap out on there food.it is what makes them what they can and should be.there diet is part of the big three Food Exercise and Training the love is a byproduct. well I am very happy for you NH and Chloe good luck with your new additions your going to have lots of fun with these dogs.

Vizsla-Chloe said:

NH -
We are getting our pup from Minnesota on the 19th of February. She was born 24th of December, so I was just wondering if there could possibly be a connection. Guess not, but we will defiently have to give each other updates as we move along, since our pups will be only a few days apart! Hope to hear from you soon, and GOOD LUCK!

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Vizsla-Chloe - Where in Minnesota? We got our little guy (Hank) from a breeder near Monticello in October. My wife really wanted a dog but I was reluctant. I work at home so I knew I'd be doing a lot of the puppy training. Then on a business trip, the guy next to me on the plane had a Vizsla with him. She laid on my leg the entire flight and I just fell in love. We did some research on the breed and decided a Vizsla was exactly what we wanted. My wife occasionally checked the Star Tribune classifieds for Vizslas but we weren't sure if we could afford one right away. Then by pure chance, we saw a classified for Vizslas for $200. Our first thought was that it was too good a price to be true, but we decided to drive to Monticello and check it out. The breeder ended up having 2 litters (the male got at both females) and had something like 14 puppies to sell before winter. We chose Hank out of the older litter and were proud new owners.

Hank has been an awesome dog. Puppy training went really well (just 3 accidents in the first week and 2 others later on). He also adjusted really well to being in his new home. He's a very happy dog as long as we get him enough exercise. We take him to the dog park as much as possible so he can run and play with the other dogs. He LOVES running through the woods and tall grass.

Getting a dog (specifically a Vizsla) has been one of the best decisions we've ever made

We have our puppy now, although we are having issues with crating. Now I'm assuming this is from her six hour flight she had. We have a huge 36 inch crate that is divided in half, with a soft bed on the bottom, and a potty pad (just in case). I honestly don't think we need the crate, because we've had her for two days, and she has yet to pee in the house. Now, she has had a poop accident once, but since then, everything has been outside. So anyway, we have this comfy inside of the crate, and she hates it. As soon as we close the door she starts crying (very loud at that). I'm not sure if she crys the entire time we're gone, but she defiently crys when we leave and when we get back. Does anyone have any advice for crating, something, anything would be great, we'll try anything. Oh and by the way, we started feeding her BLUE puppy food. It seemed like the best food at Pet Smart, its got all natural food and its baked. Any other advice would be greatly appreciated too. We are trying hard to do it right.

Hi , I have an 11 month old. All I can say to you is keep up with the crate training! It will pay off immensely. To say I was strongly encourageed by the breeder to crate train would be an understatement. Thank God I heeded. I have 3 boys(humanthat is) and that crate has been a refuge for the dog . The crate keeps the dog safe - as they get older they get even more curious and they can get into anything. And it keeps your things safe. They begin liking their chew toys but wait till they discover furniture! I still use the crate when I leave the house or if he is totally unsupervised. It is the only way I won't worry while I'm gone. But he now sleeps on our king size bed @ night - he never wanders during the night so that is not a concern. But I willl be keeping the crate for a long time. So long as you don't leave him in it too long, keep him well exercised and lots of love and attention you will be doing your doggie and yourselves a huge favour. The Vizsla is avery special dog - I learned that at a young age as I was priviliged to grow up with one. Now 30 years later I finally have another. Puppyhood is hard but by 6-8 months it all starts to come together. Also I recommend obedience classes. Really hepful for owner and great fun for both owner and doggie.
Best of luck!
CD