Back To Newspaper (sigh)

[jason_els]

They're fairly small dogs as adults. About 25-30lbs. Evo should be ok for them from everything I've read.

[sam]

I think it's extremely admirable the amount of thought and care you are putting into these pups. CLICK! If everyone was this conscientious the world would be a better place for dogs.

If you go the paper route as Doc described, it may take your dogs longer to figure things out. To me, that's just fine and perfectly reasonable at 9 weeks.
It's not realistic to think everyone can be around every 2 hrs or 30 mins for their pups until they are trained. I'd rather see someone provide a place for pups to relieve themselves when they are so little than crate them for a bit too long and end up with dogs peeing in crates or being uncomfortable from being expected to hold it too long. If you are really consistent your dogs will learn. You'll be cleaning up messes for longer - your choice, your dogs won't mind .

What I would tweak--

I would encourage you to add a small but VERY appealing treat to your
dance-party-celebration when the pups do pee/poo outside.

We humans tend to be awfully stingy be nature and think that somehow rewarding our dogs with food should be avoided or cheapens the relationship somehow. Not so. What it does do is make that moment EXTRA MEMORABLE and noteworthy in the dogs mind.
We praise and love on our dogs for all kinds of things.Talk is cheap as they say. You have basically one primary goal with the pups right now and that's helping them learn where to eliminate. Make it stand out in the dogs mind.
I would chop up last night's left over chicken/steak/cheese into tiny cubes and keep some handy in my pocket for pottying outside.

Imagine a scenario if you will.

You boss comes by and says "Good job Jason. Thanks for the hard work" nice!

Now imagine she comes by and says "Good job Jason. Thanks for the hard work. Here's a $1000 bonus cheque"

Which boss sees a hige increase in productivity? And lucky for you your business won't go under from paying your 'employees' too much.

[jason_els]

Originally Posted by Saje

Jason,
These links have really good advice:

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/show...74&postcount=6

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/show...874#post216874

What age pups are they speaking of in those threads, do you know by chance?

[Saje]

All ages.

[jason_els]

Originally Posted by blue

You asked for this burden when you got a pair of littermates. Dont shirk the responsabilities for your choices. You knew this would take alot of work and sacrifice even before you started, deal with it. You are failing to live up to you sig.

One pup or 10, it doesn't matter. The problem isn't with the number, it's with the schedule and method.

Thanks for the drive-by poop fling.

[blue]

Originally Posted by jason_els

One pup or 10, it doesn't matter. The problem isn't with the number, it's with the schedule and method.

Thanks for the drive-by poop fling.

I dealt with it with a 6 week old pup **edit** with a full time job **edit off**, you can deal with 2 9 week old pups. Adjust and adapt, live up to your sig.

I was able to make it work.

[jason_els]

Originally Posted by sam

I think it's extremely admirable the amount of thought and care you are putting into these pups. CLICK! If everyone was this conscientious the world would be a better place for dogs.

If you go the paper route as Doc described, it may take your dogs longer to figure things out. To me, that's just fine and perfectly reasonable at 9 weeks.
It's not realistic to think everyone can be around every 2 hrs or 30 mins for their pups until they are trained. I'd rather see someone provide a place for pups to relieve themselves when they are so little than crate them for a bit too long and end up with dogs peeing in crates or being uncomfortable from being expected to hold it too long. If you are really consistent your dogs will learn. You'll be cleaning up messes for longer - your choice, your dogs won't mind .

What I would tweak--

I would encourage you to add a small but VERY appealing treat to your
dance-party-celebration when the pups do pee/poo outside.

Thank you Sam! [WAGS TAIL]

I've bought 3 different treats (cheap and expensive) in as many days including bologna slices today. I offer them bits of them and they sniff it, lick it, then drop it. I'm going for string cheese as soon as I can leave the house. We're a bit snowed-in at the moment.

I will try the crate method again (as soon as I can get out to buy another crate). I'm hoping to get responses to my proposed schedule to see if it's ok for me to try it with them.

[sam]

String cheese is a great idea. Very handy and usually popular.

I just used liverwurst as a treat and my dogs went NUTS for it. Literally drooling. That was a first You could carry the tube around and just give them a wee taste.baby food meat/chicken would work too you could keep the jar by the door and grab it as you go out then let them lick a bit off your finger.

The not eating thing will change when they are a bit more settled in I bet. If they don't seem food motivated right now I would forget dog treats and just stick with meaty human food. If they don't take it right now, that's ok.

[jason_els]

SajeThank you for that advice. I'll move them to a 3x a day schedule. The links are great. I've bookmarked them!

How many hours before bed would be a good time for the last meal and how soon afterwards should I pull water for the night?

[jason_els]

Originally Posted by buddy's parents

They need to pee every two hours or you are dragging your tried behind out of bed every two hours and making them pee?

That's a good question. They do pee every time I take them out.

I liked your post very much. It got me to re-evaluate and reconsider crate training.