# Am I doing it right?!!



## SteWhite (Aug 11, 2020)

We have a male Vizsla puppy, named Archie, brought home from a reputable breeder at 8 weeks and is now 13 weeks old.
We have never had a puppy before and did a lot of research prior and met with the breeder as much as we could (being Covid aware) prior to the 8 weeks. We knew having a puppy would be hard work and we were prepared for that.
However, I'm not sure anything prepares you for the 'zoomies'! 
Archie sleeps in his crate downstairs during the night. He will wake 3 times in the night but will settle back down once we reassure him and tell him to lie down.
He is following commands and will sit, lie down, paw, roll over, stay, come all on command. We are currently exercising him twice a day approx 15-20 minutes each time as we have read that 5 mins per month is the requirement for a puppy.
We have him on a diet of raw food, this was initiated by the breeder and we have followed the same brand. He is on dog food and not puppy - again as advised by the breeder. All was well initially but now he appears to be off his food. He will have a sniff, maybe a mouthful or two and then wonder off. We have portioned his allowance into 3 meals and on average he has only the total of 2 meals per day. He has put on weight every week except this week where he has just maintained - his weight is 11.6kg and he is 13 weeks.
Our routine is a little loose at the minute as our children are off school for the summer and I am currently unemployed. 
Archie is very excitable and likes to jump up and mouth, although his teeth are very sharp and we all have a number of wounds.
We are after some advice / re-assurance as the children will be back to school in a few weeks and I am hoping to find a job asap so we need to build up the separation sooner rather than later.

Apologies for the long, first post!


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## Kazi (Jun 8, 2020)

Hi, I too have a male Vizsla called Reggie. Like u I did my research but wasn’t prepared for the ‘sharkies’ or ‘zoomies’. The sharkies have subsided as he is now 18 weeks although he can still have a nibble now and again but stops (usually) with a firm ‘no’. I have no magic peace of advice as I tried many things, wearing wellies helped 😂 But positive praise when he listened and stopped naughty behaviour was probably the one that worked best. He’s still having zoomies but I believe this will be ongoing for sometime so I try to take him outdoors so he can get rid of his energy that way. Reggie also sleeps in his crate downstairs and he only gets up once to pee. I’m slowly building up to leaving him for a little while to see how he will cope on his own for a few hours and at this point he is having no problems but I do have a dog cam which reassures me he’s ok. 

like you I found his eating a challenge, as initially he didn’t seem that fussed and no two days were the same but he is getting much better as the weeks go on. I did ask the vet and he told me losing a little weight is normal and nothing to be concerned about. 

I was really worried initially if I was getting it right but keeping to a routine and being consistent with training does appear to be paying off. I am a 1st time dog owner and Vizsla owner so I really have no right commenting but I know how desperate I was when I found the forum so just want to reassure you I am seeing positive changes every day and as advised by the experts on here these times do pass and they are right. I hope that helps in someway but I am sure others with more experience will give u more practical advice.


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## ana19 (Jun 26, 2020)

SteWhite said:


> Archie is very excitable and likes to jump up and mouth, although his teeth are very sharp and we all have a number of wounds.


Same problem here. Aaron is 20 weeks old and he has been doing the same thing like Archie since he was 10 maybe 11 weeks old, I'm not quite sure. Exercise seems to help and also when he gets really crazy I put him in a time-out in his crate for 5-15 seconds just so he can calm himself down a bit. You're going to do this quite a lot at first but then he will start to understand that when he gets crazy like that the play stops. Aaron still has the zoomies and those crazy moments don't get me wrong it's not going to magically disappear but it should help you calm him down a bit. Just be consistent. Also training him to settle down and rewarding him when he did helped.
He is my first V and also my first puppy so I'm not an expert but I hope that helps!


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## gundog789456 (Jun 22, 2020)

Similar situation here with my 8.5 week old. First time V owner and his level of energy is surprising, even though I've had high energy breeds before.

Switching to a smaller ceramic bowl and a kong loaded with softened kibble has helped with his eating, although it's still a struggle to get enough calories in him.


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## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

all seems fine and with keeping, no concerns, just typical V traits, hang in folks! most testing time is about 16 weeks when puppy teeth start dropping out and they reaaly start chewing to get rid of those now annoying milk teeth


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## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

Ruby is 9 years old,,,still has zoomies..


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## PawPatrol (Aug 17, 2020)

My little dude is 12 weeks now. If you don't have one, get one of those tug ropes. They've helped me a lot. He's still nibbley all the time, but if I sense him getting amped up, I'll sit on the floor and play tug of war with him. It only takes about 5 minutes to get the craze out of him. It's a pretty good work out too for me as he starts to get bigger. After 5 minutes or so, he crawls in my lap and wants to do a lazy-man's version of tug of war while laying on his back.


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## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

PawPatrol said:


> My little dude is 12 weeks now. If you don't have one, get one of those tug ropes. They've helped me a lot. He's still nibbley all the time, but if I sense him getting amped up, I'll sit on the floor and play tug of war with him. It only takes about 5 minutes to get the craze out of him. It's a pretty good work out too for me as he starts to get bigger. After 5 minutes or so, he crawls in my lap and wants to do a lazy-man's version of tug of war while laying on his back.


I wouldn't recommend playing tug of war if you plan on working your dog on shoots, can make them "hard mouthed" ie, reluctant to deliver birds to hand without a lot of fussing..


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