# Nervous to get puppy



## Katie (Oct 22, 2017)

My son (13yrs old) asked for a "best friend" fog for his birthday that would fetch balls with him, play outside, etc. We know a V4iszla breeder and put a deposit on one since it met all of his qualifications. I'm so nervous now. We do have one dog, a jack Russel mix, that we rescued about 8 years ago. He's on the lazy side of the breed, but he's a great, lovable dog. I have a few questions for you seasoned Viszla peers.
1. Our current dog is a male. My son REALLY wants a male puppy. I was told to get a female so they would get along better. Any ideas/experience you could share? I prefer a male, but ultimately want a well run house.
2. My son prefers to have the dog sleep with him. Trainers have told me not to let this happen so the dog knows who's in control. I also have read about this breeds need for constant human contact. Thoughts? We are expecting to bring puppy home mid December and I want to be prepared.
3. Any tips on picking a puppy? I put my deposit down first, so we get first choice.
4. Any other tips on this dog not completely destroying our house? We are planning on going to dog training. I'm planning to get an x pen and having the dog outside with our other dog or crated when we are not home. I work 24 hours a week. My kids are 13 and almost 16.


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## riley455 (Aug 27, 2011)

Katie said:


> My son (13yrs old) asked for a "best friend" fog for his birthday that would fetch balls with him, play outside, etc. We know a V4iszla breeder and put a deposit on one since it met all of his qualifications. I'm so nervous now. We do have one dog, a jack Russel mix, that we rescued about 8 years ago. He's on the lazy side of the breed, but he's a great, lovable dog. I have a few questions for you seasoned Viszla peers.
> 1. Our current dog is a male. My son REALLY wants a male puppy. I was told to get a female so they would get along better. Any ideas/experience you could share? I prefer a male, but ultimately want a well run house.
> 2. My son prefers to have the dog sleep with him. Trainers have told me not to let this happen so the dog knows who's in control. I also have read about this breeds need for constant human contact. Thoughts? We are expecting to bring puppy home mid December and I want to be prepared.
> 3. Any tips on picking a puppy? I put my deposit down first, so we get first choice.
> 4. Any other tips on this dog not completely destroying our house? We are planning on going to dog training. I'm planning to get an x pen and having the dog outside with our other dog or crated when we are not home. I work 24 hours a week. My kids are 13 and almost 16.


Hello Katie and welcome to the forum. There is always great excitement, anticipation and of course anxiety when bringing a new puppy home regardless of breed.

General thoughts on your questions:

1. Have you discussed with breeder the type of puppy you are looking for your son? The breeder should know the general temperament of each puppy (through temperament testing such as Volhard, etc.) and should be the one selecting the puppy for you.

Whether a male or female should have been discussed with the breeder considering other pets you have.

2. Dogs sleeping in owners' bed or being crated is just preference and not a consideration for training.

3. Deposit or downpayment should not be a consideration for pick of litter but rather the type of puppy you require, see item #1.

4. Any puppy (especially a vizsla) really needs close supervision (almost 24/7) for a couple of months in order to properly crate train and potty train. If your kids are really up to it then this should prevent any destruction in your house. I've seen some junior handlers take care of their dogs (on top of their academics) better than some adults. As you mentioned in your post above, vizslas crave for human contact and are not good as outside dogs so I would not leave the dog outside.

It is good that you plan on training the dog but please make sure the whole family attends the training so that consistency in reinforcing good behavior is done on your dog.

Hope this helps.


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## pez999 (Apr 22, 2017)

Katie said:


> 2. My son prefers to have the dog sleep with him. Trainers have told me not to let this happen so the dog knows who's in control. I also have read about this breeds need for constant human contact. Thoughts? We are expecting to bring puppy home mid December and I want to be prepared.


My V has slept in my bed since he was about 4-5 months old. I assume this can depend on temperament but I see nothing wrong with it. He has zero desire to be dominant/in control and I don't think sleeping in the same bed would do that. I will say that I wouldn't let the pup do that from the start because it can interfere with house breaking/crating early on. I'd do it once he's potty trained and can handle being in crate over night or when alone. 

For neediness, yes absolutely. They're velcro dogs for a reason. Especially when you first take them home they will want to be around you non stop as they're adjusting to their new environment. For weeks I couldn't go pee without bringing the pup with me haha. It depends on your or your kids' personalities with that, I really love their velcro natures but some people prefer a more independent dog. They will eventually, as they grow, be more independent but will always love being around you/on top of you/melting into you:grin




Katie said:


> 3. Any tips on picking a puppy? I put my deposit down first, so we get first choice.


I didn't get to personally pick but I think good breeders will usually help you with that. They'll know the pups much better and can match you up with what fits you and your lifestyle/family etc. 



Katie said:


> 4. Any other tips on this dog not completely destroying our house? We are planning on going to dog training. I'm planning to get an x pen and having the dog outside with our other dog or crated when we are not home. I work 24 hours a week. My kids are 13 and almost 16.


Crating is probably the best while he's young. But you have to make sure it's not for too long, especially when he's so young he won't be able to hold his bladder for much time. We had to puppy proof everything. Instead of crating during the day we actually had him in the kitchen because of the layout of it, it worked with just a tall puppy gate (do get a tall one if you get one...they can jump AND climb). But we had to tie down the cabinets and even put a lock on the little cat door on the gate because he figured out how to open it all on first day! But just do some obvious things like move cables out of the way, don't leave sharp objects around or anything you don't want destroyed. It's going to take time for him to be able to be left alone, many months probably. They also sell these bitter sprays that if you spray on surfaces, it's less likely for them to want to chew because it gives it an awful bitter taste.

As you can tell I've been using "he" because we have a boy and I guess that's where my preference is. I could be wrong but from my experience, I've had easier time with raising male dogs. And others can correct me if I'm wrong but I think male vizslas are a bit more needy/attached than females?


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## Laxdog (Aug 15, 2017)

Only thing I can comment on is our pup slept in our bed day 1 (our breeder actually recommend it) and we slept way more than other puppy parents and he was potty trained faster than most we?ve talked to. It?s nice because you don?t have to deal with whining all night, accidents in bed (we had none), and can teach bed manners early on.

We haven?t had any behavior problems besides some difficulty with ?drop it? but once we switched to trading for a treat that has been a non issue as well.

Obviously it could just be our pup and we are lucky but he hasn?t developed any problems people associatie with bed sleeping yet as he is only 4.5 months.

We are slightly worried about if we ever need to board him how he will do tho.


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## Katie (Oct 22, 2017)

I haven't talked to the breeder about picking a puppy. I will for sure! I do have a dog room I can leave both of my dogs in that is tiled and completely secure while I'm at work in the beginning. We dog sit for our friends and I've noticed that my dog has trained her dogs where they can/cannot poop in the yard. He has an area for that and I think it's funny he trained them too. I'm hoping Buddy with be a good dog big brother. He also loves playing with another friends golden doodle puppy.

We're glad to bring him home in December as the kids will get a 2 week vacation from school and will be able to really work with the puppy.


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