Overnight house guest??

Cherry Blossom

Okay, so my sister's OH has been looking for a dog for a long time. Someone she works with rescued a 3mth old lab cross puppy y'day that was going to be drowned by it's owners :mad:. She is collecting the puppy tomorrow morning and it is staying with me overnight as she want's it to be a surprise for her OH and my house will be much quieter than hers over xmas anyway (1 child here, 3 at hers). Am I going to be sitting up all night with this puppy so it doesn't cry and wake my niece on x-mas eve? Also it will be hard enough to get her to go to bed without this. It's highly unlikely it has been vaccinated etc. and is not toilet trained, lady who currently has it has socialised it with her own dogs. Any tips for how to deal with this?

tk123

If you want a quiet night bring it up to your room so it's not lonely - if you have a crate even better. One night isn't going to turn it into a littler terror demanding to sleep on a golden four poster bed the rest of it's life!

EDIT - not that i'm slagging you if you have a golden four poster bed lol just that some people say never ever let the dog sleep upstairs or it'll think it's dominent etc etc..Our guy slept up in my room until he turned into a lazy bum and wouldn't come upstairs anymore and he's been happy to sleep downstairs by himself since!

dvet

Uh oh, not sure how you're going to pull this off without waking any children! I'd say you know as much as I do about keeping dogs quiet, but here goes! I doubt he's going to sleep much, so plenty to keep him busy maybe? chews/kong etc if you have some to hand... And a lot of pre-emptive toilet breaks so that you get him out there before he even has the chance to cry Would there be any option of keeping him in your room for the night so that you could get to him quickly if he started whining?

For very young puppies I've heard that if you put a hot water bottle and a ticking clock (e.g. old style bedside clock) behind a pillow, it comforts them, as it simulates the body heat and heartbeat of their mother. Supposedly makes them cry less. Only I don't know if that will fool this guy as he's probably too old/been separated from his mother with a while already!

Will the child in your house (your niece is it?) know that the dog is there at all? i.e. is your main concern to keep him secret from her altogether, or will she know about the pup, & you just don't want her to be woken up during the night? If it's the first one.. you definitely have your work cut out for you!

Cherry Blossom

I don't think I should let the pup mix with Poppy and I think she'd be very annoyed if it gets her place in my bed :P. I could see how it does with the crate but I might be on the sofa with it for the night (don't even know if it's a he or she). Wouldn't have agreed to it all but I think it would be best for the puppy to stay here for a night or two, however long it takes for the post christmas excitement to die down in its own house. I've told her to bring it early in the morning so I can get it used to the crate a bit during the day. Never imagined I'd ever have a christmas puppy but the lady can't keep him/her at her house either for similar reasons!!

Cherry Blossom

dvet wrote: »

Will the child in your house (your niece is it?) know that the dog is there at all? i.e. is your main concern to keep him secret from her altogether, or will she know about the pup, & you just don't want her to be woken up during the night? If it's the first one.. you definitely have your work cut out for you!

Yes she will know it's here, nothing gets past this one!!! She thinks Poppy is going to bark to alert her to Santa's arrival though and she's determined to catch him :eek: Hopefully she'll be playing with the puppy all day and will be completely knackered! My brother is also staying overnight in her bed so she'll be in with her mum so that might make it a bit easier!

dvet

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

Hopefully she'll be playing with the puppy all day and will be completely knackered!

THERE'S your answer.... get them to tire each other out tomorrow & she and the puppy will both sleep like babies!

Cherry Blossom

This is she:



Runny eyes, runny nose and diahorea, so confined to the bathroom, off to the vets in an hour.

dvet

Oh! Poor pup. Let us know how she gets on!

tk123

Ah the poor baba!! How could somebody want to drown the poor thing?!?!

Cherry Blossom

Been to the vet and it's nothing too serious, she has mild conjunctivitis, she also has very soft bones from being on a diet of bread and milk!!! I have given her a tiny portion of dry kibble softened with warm water and will see how that goes down. She also has an umbilical hernia which is not really a big deal. Vet best guess she has some mixture of lab/retriever/collie/sammoyed/white GSD/ pomeranian in her. She has huge paws so I suspect she'll be a big un, only time will tell how big she'll grow really though.

Overall quite a good outlook for her though, I've kind of named her lucky but I'm sure her new dad will choose his own name for her

portgirl123

Great to hear she is ging to be ok