I'm sure a lot of us wanna get a puppy, but dunno wat need to be prepare, how to care for a puppy, say..........2 months old.
WHat should be the brand of the food?
How much should the puppy being fed? How many times per day?
How to take care of the pee and poo problem?
What should be done for its health care, jab, pills.........
How to stop puppy from crying at nite?
How to make it understand that commands?
WHen should it be toilet trained?
For apartment dog, and working owner, how to take care of them?

etc etc........
Those who r experience it do share their knowledge. Although i din own one, but I'm willing to learn as well before getting one.

i never seen dog cry.. how it looks like ?
u should get more guideline from the clinic.

WHat should be the brand of the food?
science plan lamb and rice flavour ( do not buy those band which is from supermarket ) example : Alpo , pedigree and etc...

How much should the puppy being fed? How many times per day?
twice a day . morning and night . depend how u arrange the time .

How to take care of the pee and poo problem?
train ur puppy when the first day you own it . some people like their furkid to poo / pee at cage then have to wash the cage after their puppy do their bussiness , depend where you let ur puppy stay , outdoor or indoor ?

What should be done for its health care, jab, pills.........
every puppy have to take 3 jab . vaccination and deworm

How to stop puppy from crying at nite?
clap ur hand hardly. never hit the puppy . because they dunno anything when they still small

How to make it understand that commands?
Train it . patience is important . different command got different method .

WHen should it be toilet trained?
when the first day u get the puppy .

For apartment dog, and working owner, how to take care of them?
arrange ur time nicely . allow ur dog be more independent . make sure ur puppy will not make sure when let ur puppy alone in a home / room . make sure will not bother ur neighbour ^^

u ask this all question , u plan to get one puppy soon ar ?hope u will get a puppy soon then . good luck

Good thread.... I guess this would help many who are new dog owners....

Type of Breed
- Apartment dogs got to be medium to small size. Big dogs are hard to care for they are big, so space may be a problem. Big dogs are prone to joint disorders so if they are kept in an apartment with no daily excercise, they can lose the ability to walk properly and joint problems are very painful. Small dogs, people can always go for toy poodles, silky terrier, chihuahua, shih tzu, maltese, cavalier king charles spaniel, pugs... all dogs will surely bark so one must train them to be quiet in an apartment. If one has landed property, any dog would be suitable for the home but the type of dog depends on the person's lifestyle... mongrels are the best if someone has a busy lifestyle since they do not need much grooming and are not too big.

Brand of Food
- The best is of course Holistic. If you were to get a dog that is prone to skin problems, one should give California Natural a try. It really does improve the skin and fur. Other holistic types of dogfood are Canidae, NutriEdge, EaglePack Holistic, Innova Holistic... there are more brands but I will just mention those for now. If you can't locate holistic, go for super premium like Eukanuba, Nutro, Blackwood, ProFormance....
- How to locate a good brand of dogfood? Look at the ingredients, the first 5 listed food ingredients used should not be corn or wheat, should not be Meal, should not be Chicken Digest or by-products.... Choose one that says Chicken or Lamb.... not meal but the meat. Dogs can be allergic to beef and beef can attract more ticks.
- If one wants to feed a homecooked diet, you must take into consideration of the amount of meat, rice and vegie. Also, homecooked meals may not contrain minerals that dogs need so you must give vitamin supplement tablets and also Omega oils to keep the dog healthy. Dogs on homecooked meals are also proned to teeth decay so the owner has to clean the teeth after everymeal.

Times to be fed
- A 2 month old puppy would need 3 small meals a day.... the best is soaked puppy food. Soak the food with a bit of water is good enough. When it is about 5 to 6 months old, the feed can be lessen to 2 meals a day but the portion should increase since they have grown. Adult dogs should be fed twice a day also but if one can't feed twice a day, make sure the once a day meal is sufficient for them. Well, the best is still twice a day. Amount of food depends on the brand. On the packaging there is a diagram that gives a guide on how much food should be fed to dogs according to weight and size and age.

Puppy cries at night
- A young puppy will normally cry at night during the 1st week. Barks and whimpers and whines.... but you can lessen that. First, place your puppy in it's cage adn crate that it uses to sleep. Take an alarm clock that makes loud ticking noise. Place the clock next to the cage. The ticking noise can calm and sooth a puppy for it sounds like their mother's heartbeat. Then, you can add a soft toy to make it feel secure and get a hotwater bottle and wrap with a cloth to make it feel warm....
- A puppy likes company and they dislike being alone. For me, I let my puppy sleep with me. Just place the cage in your bedroom and it should be fine. If you want the pup to sleep in other place, follow the cage and clock method. The pup will still make noise at night but it should be much less.

Toilet training
- This can be done at an early age. You must be aware that puppies will pee and poo every 4 hours. So the best time is after it wakes up from sleep, after play and after food. Newspaper can be used as a training tool. Get a piece of newspaper with some urine soaked into it and use that as a guide. Everytime you notice the puppy circling and sniffing the floor. Carry it to the newspaper spot and make sure it pees and poos on the newspaper. You must stay and watch. When the puppy has done its business, straight away praise your pup, give lots of hugs and pats and use a happy tone. You can reward with a piece of dried dog food or its favourite toy. If this fails, can always buy doggy training pads, it may work.

Health care
- Pups should be taken to the vet as soon as you get them home. Ask the vet for a full check up. Normally the pup has already been vaccinated at the breeder's place. A pup can start vaccination at 2 months old, along with deworming. Then it will need to get a few more jabs before it can be done yearly. This you can ask the vet for they will give you a medical card with the details of when the next jab should be. Deworming can be done every 6 months. Once the pup is about 7 months old, you can start giving heart worm medication, again ask a vet for advice.
- if you are not breeding your dog, females should be spayed coz their heat(period) can be messy and attract many male dogs to your house. Male dogs may spray their urine everywhere to mark their territory so if they are nuetered, they will not simply urinate everywhere. Cleaner I would say.

Training and commands
- when you 1st bring home the pup, you must train it to anwser to its name. No need to go into other commands first, just make sure the puppy knows its name. Keep calling it during play and everytime you cuddle and pet it.... soon it will get the picture. Then you can move to the command "come". Use a leash to leash up your pup, then call it to come and pull the leash gently to bring the pup to you. Do this with treats and praises. Then once come is mastered, you can move on to more commands...
Keep training twice or 3 times a day. All training sessions should be not longer than 10 minutes coz puppies have short attention spans... do it everyday and in 3 days to a week, a puppy can master a few commands in no time.
The best is to get a guide book on training also.

WHat should be the brand of the food?
Hmmm, Go Natural, Evolve, Royal Canin are some food you can feed. There are also many good brands out there so wait others reply you.
How much should the puppy being fed? How many times per day?
Puppy should be fed 3 times a day but each time with small meals.

How to take care of the pee and poo problem?
Just clean them and flush into your toilet bowl.

What should be done for its health care, jab, pills.........
It should be vaccined either monthly or annualy (not sure). You should also buy med like heartguard to prevent disease. Frontline is used when ur dog is infected with mites/lice/ticks.
If you keep dogs like Shih Tzu, expenses might be higher since you will send him for grooming or if you want, you can DIY.

How to stop puppy from crying at nite?
Juz put a clock beside the pup. The ticking will resemble his mommy;s heartbeat. And dont visit the dog when he is crying coz it will only encourage him to cry coz he will think when he cry, the stupid owner will come running all the way to see me. .

How to make it understand that commands?
Repeat the commands when he is doing the action. Eg, when he is sitting, repeat the command sit. After that, when he sits, give him some treat and praise him. But do not ever scold him and show that you are frustated. Train only when you are in good mood.

WHen should it be toilet trained?
ASAP. You wouldnt want to clean his poo and pee everyday.

For apartment dog, and working owner, how to take care of them?
Buy him many toys to keep him occupied. Or take him for a walk/run before you go to work, so he might be tired and will sleep when you are working.

I answer this based on what I had read. So actually, I do not know if they are correct or not. LOL....

haha. i m so slow

This post has been edited by prophet007: Mar 13 2007, 09:42 AM

Good wor hehehe.... yups, good advice I think the best advice would come from a book.... I think I got 3 dog care books with me, read till memorize some stuff already. The vaccination, 3 jabs are done in 1 year.... after that cycle is over, jabs are done annually.

Also, puppies very smart. If they cry and we go to them, soon it will become a bad habit. Sometimes we must be stern and ignore them when they bark too much.

internet got tons of useful tips too...so v can try to be a little more environment conservative....

Not to forget another important aspect, how do you select the right pup as well as selecting the right breeder.

Get a book if you can, they'll teach you from A-Z when getting a pup in the book. That'll help you a lot.

very informative for new owners!!!!

Not exactly crying but whining lor. Whines in a very sympathetic tone lor. I guess the questions are all being answered above already. Very informative!!

another question comes to my mind, how often does a puppy poo and pee?? like just after meal?? or wat??
My fren jsut bought a shih Tzu last nite (thats y makes me wanna get one also, haha.....). before she goes to work this morning, she fed the puppy. Then she go back to check on the puppy during lunch time. But she did not find any poo in or under the cage, y?? the puppy din poo or it just ate it up??
SHe told me that she feed the pup 2 scoops (chinese soup spoon) of Nutriedge Puppy, enuf??

This post has been edited by joanalooidog: Mar 13 2007, 05:44 PM

yeah get a book will get a better information , or search website . last time i used to be that way

Your friend bought the puppy from where? Normally a good breeder would help you by guiding and giving advice... petshops normally won't give the correct answers...

Anyway, 2 chinese soup spoon? It is better for your friend to weigh the food.... or get those measuring cups from the petshops.... How many times does your friend feed it? A growing puppy should eat as much as it wants for now... limiting food, especially when so little can cause growth problems... maybe slow growth or weak bones.... anyway, your friend should have 1/4 cup of dogfood, divide it to 3 meals... then feed the puppy 3 meals. Young puppies should eat 3 meals a day.

Has your friend brought the puppy for a check up yet? Dewormed? I could be it ate it.... you can always check by smelling the mouth. I know it sounds disgusting but a puppy is like a baby, they dunno what is right and what is wrong so you must keep up with them. Puppies poo more often than adults.... so if it doesn't poo, it could be constipation or if can't find the poo, it could mean it ate it.

juz some advice.. keeping a dog is a long time commitment. so buy only if u really/badly wanted one. dun wan dogs end up in SPCA later.

no offence though.

yeah a good breeder will guide you . and give advise. last time i bought miniature schnanuzer from breeder . and he do guide me and teach me the correct way to take care a pet.

SHe bought the puppy from pet shop loh, the SK pet shop........They advise her to feed the puppy that amount of food one. The Shih Tzu got cert, got her 1st jab and dewormed.... Will get her next jab i think around earlier of next month if not mistaken. She say got jab card, but din show me lah.
Anyway, she told me that last nite after work, she feed the puppy, then within 5 minutes, the puppy poo poo!!! then she clean it on the spot, no chance for it to eat!!!
When she bring her out to play in the living room, immediately it pee, so she ask me how to toilet train the puppy wor.....

Wahhh... so your friend is asking you to research for her but not doing it herself?

2 tablespoons of food is not enough for a puppy if fed twice a day.... if she feeds 3 or 4 times a day then yah, it is ok. As said before, petshops have limited knowledge sometimes.... 2 tablespoons of food works for a chihuahua but not a shih tzu pup lah.... later stunted growth then susah loh.... Last time my shih tzu, I will give him a handful of kibbles.... let him eat till he full, then leftovers I take away.... so how many times your friend feed the pup?

Toilet training is simple.... for now, puppy doesn't know anything yet so of course pee and poo everywhere.... where did the puppy poo? What your friend should do is let the pup finish pee and poo before playing.... just place the puppy in the spot with newspaper, let it smell and sniff the newspaper and when it pees and poos, praise it like crazy and make it know that you are damn happy about it. Doing this a few times will let the puppy learn than whenever it do on newspaper, owner sure happy. Then the newspaper, no need to clean all.... Leave a piece that got some urine so that the smell can attract the pup to pee there. For me, the best place to train is grass.... coz dogs seems to know grass is for peeing hahah.... learns faster too but newspaper is the basic. Just keep on doing this positive training, and the pup will be able to master newspaper training in a week. The Golden Tip, keep repeating the method and praise pup like gila gila happy happy.

oh...must praise.....not that my fren din find info, is she dunno whom to ask......Since I love dogs too, so i help loh.......
She is now keeping the puppy in a cage during her working hours. SHe fed the puppy twice, morning and evening. The puppy pee and poo in the cage. But now she said she fed the puppy morning, the carry it to the newspaper, wait for it to poo then only kept it back in the cage, then go to work.
When return from work, feed again, carry to newspaper, wait for poo, then carry back to cage.
After dinner (the owner lah...), let the puppy out, play, roam free, play until puppy tired, keep back in cage, then sleep..........
BTW, she stay in a condo.......

yeah saw lots of dog at SPCA now . pity of them . always bear in mind , keeping a dog is our responsibility to take care them .