New Puppy Owner Help!

Hey There, I am leaning towards getting my first dog (Nova Scotia Duck Toller). i am looking for some advice to decide whether it is a good time or not. I am currently living with my parents until I move out in 6-8 months and they have a 8month old lab. Also, for the first two months I will have the puppy, from 2-4months old. I will be gone 12hours out of the day.

I am wondering if the living/raising conditions will hinder the dogs potential as well as me being its master. I would be home every evening to train and be with it, but throughout the day, other people would need to feed/tend to it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated !

From the sounds of your post, I would say it is probably not an ideal time to get one. I have heard that it can be somewhat detrimental to have two young pups growing up together, however, I think this would not be much of an issue for someone that is around and is putting in the time and effort to train them each day.

I would say not being home for 12 hours would be one reason I would wait a little bit to get a puppy. Right now I am gone 10-11 or so hours a day and feel like I don't get to see my dogs as much as I would like when I was working and would be gone for only 4-9 hours before getting home or having a break in the middle of the day to go home.

Also, having numerous people having to care for the puppy in my opinion isn't the best situation as every person is going to have their own style, teaching things that others may not want to be taught, or not reinforcing things that you do want.

Are you going to be moving anytime soon? Maybe once you secure a dog-friendly place, or once you are home more frequently, then that would be a better time to get a puppy... puppies are a lot of work!

Just an FYI, I don't believe many of the people on Chaz are going to be supportive of the I will be the dog's "Master" thinking. This is rooted in dominance/pack theory. The same people that created this theory later came back to say they were mistaken and it was not valid. Research since has also debunked the theory as well. So no need to be a dogs "Master" =) but training and structure are important, you just don't have to dominate the dog to get a well trained dog.

I agree with what PerformanceDog

Then I would like to add that being away for 12hrs is a very long time for a dog , esp a puppy to be alone. I would wait until you have more time for a dog, but that is my personal opinion.

Bring gone 12 hours is a no go for a dog to me, let alone a puppy.

If your parents are home more often, and able and willing to put in the work to train a 2-4 month old puppy, then it could work out. As long as someone is working with her and training her and house breaking her, she will turn out fine. Training goes on much longer than just 2 months so you will have plenty of time to train and bond.

However, I think it's probably best to wait until your living situation settles down and you are home more often. It's a lot to ask of your parents to raise their current puppy, plus a new baby puppy. Unless they are totally on board and you trust them to do a good job, just wait.

Thanks for the help. I guess I didn't fully explain my situation. I will be getting the puppy at the end of March. April I will be working 3-4 days a week 12 hours. Month of may I could work 25 days of the month 12 hours. The dog would never be alone for 12 hours, between my family and fiancée someone would always be there to feed it and let it out to pee etc. My main concern is during them 2 months, is it bad to have me and others training it, or should there be a primary trainer?. What I mean I say by "master" is hoping that the dog will see me as it owner so it will respect and listen to me.

I think it would be fine. The ages are enough different that the raising puppy together issue is not an issue.

I do cringe at the idea of 'master'. I would expect my dog to listen to and respect (for the most part) any human that lived or came over to my house on a regular basis. The idea of 'Master' is to me so one sided. There is no reason to think the dog wouldn't listen to you if you trained it and worked with it. Tollers typically love to do things so this is a non issue as well.

As long as all people work on the same things the same way (like one person can't say 'sit down' for sit and then someone else expect 'down' to mean lie down. etc.

Are you asking will the dog bond to you and see you as a member of its family? This is a relationship chosen by the dog and could be a bit of a concern. However if you are going to be moving out and have a bigger hand in the dog's life then the dog will come to see you as a companion/family member and seek you out.

Thanks for the reply. The reason I say "master" is because I seen how my family's dog was raised being mostly with my mother. So its easy to tell that even though we are 4 living here, that the dog looks up and obeys to her the most.

I know puppies require lots of work, but what is the crucial time frame? I will be done work and be available to the dog 24/7 after those 2 months so the dog will only be 4 months, Im assuming they are still well teachable at 4 months? I want to raise and train it to hunt, so I want to be sure that during those 2 months I'm busy it will still grasp the hunting training with me while being taken care of all day by others.

No, it is not necessary to have one person training the dog. As long as the others are on board and you are all using similar methods and cues it doesn't matter.

Dogs do not pick a person as a master and then automatically "respect" them and behave for them. Dogs need to be trained, and need to learn what you want, but more than one person can work to teach them that.