So what kind of Dog do I have?

Hello people!
Well.. I just bought my first dog today and I'm not sure what she is. I mean; I would have just asked but I live in Mexico and know vary little spanish. (here with my girlfriend.)
Anyway to the point. She looks like a french poodle but I been reading up and there are alot of differnt kinds of poodles.
She looks exactly as this:
http://www.mascotas.com.uy/razas/french_poodle_02.jpg

But it can be a Schnoodle? Is their a way I can actually tell what kind of dog I have? How big she will get? What do I look for?

Than you all for your help!
Joe

 

do you have any photos yet?

 

She looks like a Poodle although she looks like a young pup so her appearance could change a little, theres no way to know 100% what she is without DNA testing (unless of course you had bred her).

My mom had a German Shepherd/Rott mix, no one ever believed there was any Rott in her at all including vets, trainers, breeders etc....her mom was a GSD and her dad was the Rott....

as for puppies changing, one my daughter rescued, by 3 weeks old she looked like a lab, about 8 weeks looked like a sharpei mix :shock: , 12 weeks looked like a schipperke....shes now almost 6 years old and we think shes an Akita mix or maybe a Belgian Shepherd mix....or a coyote mix, could have some chow in there, maybe even dalmatian, when she went under anaesthesia for her spay and then a laceration repair she responded to the drugs like a greyhound :lol: weve had fun guessing.

 

It's fun to guess, but you will never know for sure what breed or breeds your pup is - and it doesn't really matter! Just enjoy her!

 

Yeah! You're right. I was just wondering how big she was going to get. =X
My girlfriend and I just came up with a name for her today: Camila.
So I layed news paper all over my room and she only poop's and pee's on this one spot which of course is at the foot of my bed and thank god there is a new's paper..
So how do I ajust that to make it to where she's potty trained?

(LoL) I'm going to go; Camila is getting a running start to try and jump onto my bed and keeps hitting her head and does this little bark to say: "Help Me"


Also; is there any suggested reading for first time dog owners?
Thank you all in advanced and also you two.. Jamiya and DeLaUK.

SwiftNomad

 

Take a look at the parvo link in here, thats a real concern in puppies and young dogs and of course you will need to start her on a vaccine programme with your vet (I dont know where in Mexico you are but there have been cases of rabid dogs coming over the border to US from there).

Socialization with other people and dogs is important but again its one of thse things were you dont want to put your pups health at risk, the usual puppy vaccine protocol finishes at around 4 months of age so your pup should be safe from the usual dog diseases (again though check with your vet for the vaccine programme), puppy obedience classes are always a great way to socialize pups, I dont know if thats a possibility where you are though.

Have you looked into crate training, its a great way to get the pup housetrained, not just with bathroom habits but also will avoid things like chewing up things she shouldnt be chewing up, keeps her safe if you have to go out for a couple of hours etc.

You didnt mention exactly how old or how big she is but generally you need to make sure she is eating regularly, an 8 week old pup should be eating every 2 - 4 hours, very small pups tend to come down with hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) easily but in most cases that can be avoided by ensuring regular eating (there are some cases where there is already an underlying problem), keep something like Nutrical or Karo Syrup handy for this. (the dark one).

They need to pee usually when they first wake up, after a lot of play/excitement, after eating and drinking....do you have an area where its safe to take her outside (free from other dogs, parvo, distemper etc is a concern with unvaccinated pups, parvo is highly contagious). I personally, dont agree with putting newspapers down all over the place, basically your teaching them to go inside the house....and then later you have to retrain them to go outside however if taking her outside is a risk to her health you could use something like a litter box (like you would for a cat) and put paper down in there....or litter or even grass, you would have to take her to it initially, it'll take some perserverance but it will work if its done right, make sure you take her to it esepcially at the times I mentioned (just after waking up etc), stay with her, use a key word(s), something like "go potty" make sure you have some small tasty treats ready....chicken, bologne etc, not hard dog biscuits, and it should be something that she doesnt have to spend time chewing it up (I use chicken mostly but the peices are about the size of my small finger nail), keep using your key words and as soon as she starts to go tell her "good potty", dont sound excited or make a big fuss at this stage, the excitement will distract her from what shes doing but as she is finishing you can make a fuss of her and give her the treat while still saying "good potty"......what your doing is conditioning her to go on command, giving treats for this is just temporary, if you give the treat every time for about a week, then if all is going well just give her the treat every other time and gradually reduce the amount of times she gets it, by 4 weeks at the most she should be going on command.....its often a lot less, some dogs are doing well after just a couple of days. Always keep up with the praise though.

Now if she goes in the wrong place dont yell at her or anything, just pick her up and take her to the place she is supposed to use as a bathroom, you can say NO quickly, sternly (but dont frighten her, your going for an instant 'distraction' effect), stay with her until she goes, with young pups, once they are distracted it can take a little while for them to remember they were about to pee or poop so be patient with her. Also, if you dont catch her in the act then theres no point in reacting to her, she wont connect the 'accident' with anything you say.

Teething is somthing she will be going through pretty much until she is about 6-8 months old so make sure she has a variety of toys to chew on (make sure there are no toys where she can bite pieces off and swallow them as they can cause intestinal blockages), I dont know about Mexico but in US you can get puppy teethers that you can put in the freezer just like with human baby teethers, Ive used a clean wet rag for this, soak it, wring out some of the water and then put it in the freezer, once its frozen it works as well as the teethers BUT do not give these if the pup is unsupervised, make sure they are not ripping bits off and swallowing them, Ive used them for years and never had a problem but I do monitor them very closely.

Sometimes what a lot of people do is when pups are young they play 'the biting game', things like grabbing at the pup, pushing it away (playing), playing 'footsie'....puppy comes back and is hanging on to your fingers, biting at your hands, your feet etc, DONT DO IT !! what your actually doing with this type of play is teaching your pup that its okay to bite, there will come a time when the pup has adult teeth and the bite will be harder....but the now adult dog still thinks its a game. Encourage playing with toys, not body parts.

The general 'policy' if your playing with tug toys is not to let the dog win the tugging match, even though its only a game your teaching the dog that it is sometimes 'in control'.....(thats going to get into the whole heirarchy thing though).....my personal 'theory' on this is it depends on the person playing the game and the individual dog, so without me personally seeing both interacting I air on the side of caution which is dont let the dog win, in some cases it doesnt matter if the dogs wins or not and in rare cases I have actually encouraged the dog to win to build up their own confidence....but even then its 'controlled' and I wont let the dogs confidence elevate past a certain point. If you teach the dog to 'drop' an item, another trick you can use small food treats for....when the dog has, say, a ball in its mouth, offer the treat in exchange for the ball, use your key word "drop" (or leave or whatever word you want to use) as soona s the ball is dropped give the praise "good drop" and be giving the treat at the same time.

Well thats about all I can think of for now. There are many different ways to raise your pup and all that Ive mentioned is just from my own experience and my personal opinion/ideas. Hope some of it helps.