# Newbie Owner...general puppy questions!



## Ddfred28 (Jun 26, 2012)

Hi all
We have now had Brian, our 12 week old Vizsla for a week, and he's great although I do have a few questions! With regards to walking them, both vet and trainer have said go with the flow, and if he's tired pick him up -- but I was hoping to tap into some Vizsla Guru knowledge! So are they're any rules? 

Also, with biting, we have a 6 & 4 year old, and Brian does get very excited and nip, which isn't great for the boys, but I obviously step in and do a noise(trainer taught)and push him away/try to distract with one of his toys, but if you have anymore advise I'd love to hear it!

Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks
Jo


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## dmp (Jan 23, 2012)

Rules? Never. Rules imply universal application. Follow your gut and your vet's suggestions.

We walked our 8 week old as much as she liked. We let her set the pace. Most of it
was her sniffing everything she could. 

She'll be 16 weeks soon; I doubt she could run enough...ever. 

Big advice? Get your kids to not be scared when the pup nips. You already know the right answer - substitute what 
you want him to bite for your hand. Now, that practice has NEVER worked for us; either we have nothing she wants MORE than our skin, or she really does love the taste of human flesh! 

Good luck, Jo -you'll do fine. Just keep doing what you're doing.

-darin


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## SteelCityDozer (Aug 25, 2011)

Def teach the kids to replace their skin with readily available toys. As far as chewing on everything else? Remove the object or pup and say "no biting" or whatever. But honestly our oldest stopped chewing on the wrong things mostly on his own as the adult teeth came in. So with our newest ive been more slack. Get a nylabone, one soft and one hard to see which he likes. 

As for walks and running. Short walks until you gauge the dogs stamina as he gets older. I let our 10 wk old blast around the yard with the older one as she simply lays down when she's beat. We did a 10 min walk the other day and it was borderline too much for her. But it was her first so she was extra excited.


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## hotmischief (Mar 11, 2012)

Welcome Jo,

Oh those puppy teeth!!! My pup is 6 months this week and is nearly finished the nipping stage. He sometimes mouths my hand (kindda gently for attention) now a days. For me the best piece of advise I can give you is something I found in a puppy book. Keep lots of SOFT toys and when ever he starts to nip you give him the soft toy to chew. This worked a treat for Boris, and saved my Gt Danes ears. I had always bought hard toys that they couldn't rip appart and having always had Danes soft toys were not something we ever thought about - big mistake   

Enjoy this puppy stage, I know the shark teeth are sometimes painfully and not acceptable when you have young children, but Brian will only be young once.

Re the walking - I have asked this question too. I was told by my breeder to be careful with the exercise as while they are growing it can cause damage. As he got older he seemed to want to do more and more and I posed the same question as you to the forum and my vet. The general consensus of the forum answers were let them do as much as they want, they will tell you when they are tired. My vet agreed with this. I know several of the pups (4 -9 months) belonging to members of this forum get up to 2 hrs exercise a day otherwise they would be bouncing off the walls. Mine gets about 40mins generally and that is a guiet walk with the elderly Dane. Last week I was told by some knowledgeable Vizsla owners/breeder that 40 mins was too much for him. So I will be interested to hear the replies you get. Personally I think if the puppy is in good health you will know when he is tired and therefore you exercise your pup accordingly????

How about some pictures????


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## Ddfred28 (Jun 26, 2012)

Thanks for all the replies, yep we have soft toys, have been buying from the charity shop, so he has his very own, fox, camel and donald duck that he seems to like trying to rip apart!

Yeah, Brian seems to have boundless energy, we walk for about half and hour(not walking properly, just trying to not fall over him half the time), around the rugby pitches or field (he's off lead for this as we are trying to build a good recall), but he then has a sleep, and wants to chase around the garden like a mad idiot(you know mad puppy eyes!) for an hour or so later in the day! Think I'm just going to go with what i'm doing at the moment, hopefully it's okay! : :-\

Pictures! Once I work out how to post them, i'll put some on!


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## datacan (May 15, 2011)

Ddfred28 said:


> Hi all
> We have now had Brian, our 12 week old Vizsla for a week, and he's great although I do have a few questions! With regards to walking them, both vet and trainer have said go with the flow, and if he's tired pick him up -- but I was hoping to tap into some Vizsla Guru knowledge! *So are they're any rules?*


 ;D ;D RULES ? 

They break all the rules ... But seriously, we let our V set the pace... off leash (whenever possible) I tried to engage him as much as I could and never left him unsupervised. 
One thing to consider, their joints are softer than adults and too much on leash walking on sidewalks is not advised. I believe the vet said 5 minutes extra for every week  

just like dmp... we allowed kids to exercise our dog as much as possible (the kids run out of gas way before the dog breaks a sweat) even at that age  (of course we supervised every second)


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## Katscawn (Jun 24, 2012)

Hi,
Biting is an important part of puppy's development (although not great on kids). Would you be able to get your boys to yelp when the pup is mouthing? This replicates puppy play, and helps to teach puppy to inhibit his bite, so when he has got big adult teeth and he bites for whatever reason, it will be a warning only, and not cause damage. 
I hope that helps (and makes sense!)
Kat


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