Having a new puppy and going to school

[Guest]

A good friend of my family has a cairn that just had puppies. I'm considering buying the male. I figured this is the best place to post questions about owning a cairn. My 1st concern is the fact that I will be in graduate school. I'll be renting a house so I will have plenty of space for the dog, but I'll probably be gone for 3-5 hours at a time. Will this be a problem for the dog? The 2nd question i have is what is the right age to get a cairn male neutered so that he doesn't mark? and 3rd, how easy is it to break a cairn of chewing on furniture. i figure is the dog won't chew on furniture, he could have free reign over the house. I've never owned a dog so any advice would be appreiciated.

thanks, Jodie

[Susan]

Jodie,

Most males are neutered at six months. That's also a good time for the vet to extract any leftover puppy teeth at the same time if they haven't already come out on their own. You can discourage marking in the house by using a belly band. Before I joined up with a cairn rescue group, I had never heard of a "belly band" before, but that's a piece of material that has velcro and you put it around the mid section of the pup, over his "weewee". That also helps with housetraining. You can find them on the internet. Personally, I prefer Bonnie's Belly Bands.

You can discourage teething on furniture and other inappropriate items by giving him plenty of other things to chew on and correcting him if you catch him while chewing on something bad. Be careful about light cords and such...they like to chew on those and can get a jolt. You really do have to be sure you're supervising them when they're so young.

Leaving the pup alone for 3 to 5 hours at a time should not be a problem at all as long as you make sure they're in a safe environment, either in a crate or confined to a small safe area. For instance, I can use a baby gate on the door to my kitchen so I know that a puppy would be very safe in there and there's nothing dangerous on the floor like light cords. Of course, he could still chew on the kitchen furniture, so I'd crate him if he was prone to doing that. Also, crate training is helpful in housebreaking quicker. Some are not destructive at all, and some are just little devils. I hope you get an angel. :angel:

Susan