Best puppy book for new Schnauzer owner?

[scoobydoobie]

We've decided to get our pup after many a sleepless night and long discussions.

We'll be bringing him home on 23rd June!

I'd love to have a recommendation for a puppy book from schnauzer owners if anyone can help please? Also best type of training classes to look at? Individual or group?

Many thanks and I look forward to introducing Percy when he comes home.

[Maty]

Gwen Bailey's The Perfect Puppy was my bible. I read it from cover to cover before Rodders came home and referred to it often.

When looking for training classes go for an APDT trainer who uses only kind methods. I learnt far more at puppy training than Rodders did!

Can't wait to meet Percy


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[Dinkum]

I would also highly recommend the Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey. Definitely helps us settle Rupert in quickly and sorted routines, toilet training and socialisation quite a bit. Another book by Gwen Bailey is Puppy School (No longer in print, but you may find a copy on Ebay).

Also, do yourself a favour and visit a few vets in your local area. Find one that you like and seems to show an interest in animals. You'll be surprised how many don't. Some vets run socialisation classes for new pups and you get to socialise before their jabs are done. The vet nurse will also help with questions and treatment plans going forward. They can also recommend puppy classes and dog walkers for those times when you need one.

[zeta1454]

A good free to download guide to raising a puppy is available from this link:

http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/you-get-your-puppy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;




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[annie_a]

Another vote for Gwen Bailey's 'the perfect puppy'. I read it cover to cover twice and still refer to it occasionally now Oscar is 18 months old. I also read the schnauzer handbook by Linda Whitwam.


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[annie_a]

Re training. Group classes are good because your pup needs to get used to how to behave around other dogs. Also, for your own benefit, it's a) so helpful to talk to others in the same boat as yourself, like having a little self help group & b) often hilarious.


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[Maty]

When looking for a vet do try to find one with 24/7 cover.

A friend's dog had a severe illness and needed hydration, their vet only provided it between the hours of 9am to 6pm and they had to take the dig home every night, very scary with a poorly pooch


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[mysti1990]

I'd recommend visiting a few training classes alone to observe how they work before your puppy is ready to attend. They all work differently & I found this very useful in choosing the best one for us.

[scoobydoobie]

Thank you everyone, I'll get on to that book right now. Great advice about classes too. What age should they start group lessons?

[Jason]

When we trained our Mini we took her to a great training class that used clickers and reward based training, it was brilliant

Our new pup is joining us on 12 June (a black standard girl pup) and we are definitely going to take her to puppy socialisation classes and use clicker training too

Jase

[annie_a]

Your vet (or another vet, doesn't have to be your own) usually runs 'puppy parties' or puppy socialisation classes. This is for pups who aren't yet fully vaccinated as they can't go out and meet other dogs yet but can meet each other (since none should have been exposed to any disease). Find one where it's not just a 'free for all' rough & tumble but where puppies are introduced to each other in a more controlled way.
After they're fully vaccinated and able to go out & about you can look for an obedience
class. Ask around for recommendations, other dog owners, the vet, Google, etc, should be able to give you some options hopefully.
Sometimes I think a class is the funniest thing ever and other times they can be quite stressful (2 hours today spent trying to keep Oscar quiet whilst doing the Bronze Kennel Club good citizen award, he passed thankfully). Either way it's all good for learning.
Good luck & have fun!


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[mikegoodson1]

Hi,

I'm a relative newbie here unlike many who post so thought I would just add my thoughts, especially as Oscar is my first dog as an 'adult-owner'.

We have been taking our puppy, Oscar, to a pet social at our local (large) pet store (Pets Corner) for the last four months. They allow puppies up to 12 months old into the store between 9.30am - 10.30am and give the puppies free reign (with owners present of course), whilst it sounds chaotic (and sometimes can be) it's been really great having Oscar interact with other puppies, from tiny Chihuahuas to larger breeds like German Shepherd, Labrador, Rhodesian Ridge-back etc. The staff in the store are very good and it works well for us.

In terms of training, I received so many different views on this but we took the advice of many here to ensure that the trainer was APDT qualified and that the training was reward based. Some people told us to start training Oscar as soon as possible, others advised waiting a year to allow him to get out of his puppy/adolescence phase but we started as soon as we could get him into our class of choice, so he would have been 6 months old by then (although we had been doing our own basic training at home).

When I entered Oscar into obedience training, I naively thought that it would be quite straight forward but it's more about training the owner in what you should and shouldn't be doing, Oscar gets some training too

I found it can be a bit full on with 8 or 10 of us in a class, it's difficult to get Oscar to concentrate on what I am telling him to do, as there are so many distractions with the other puppies but he loves it and we learn together (and to be honest, I just love spending more time with him). Besides, our trainer (and most I imagine) offers 1-2-1 training sessions too, so once we finish with our classes, we will probably do some of those classes to try and iron out specific behaviour.

Hope this was of some help.