Best Advice for New Cairn Owners

[Mrs. B]

As a child I had a toy fox terrier and poodle. As an adult I have had a Siberian Husky, then a Cocker Spaniel and then, a wonderful Australian Cattledog up until this past July.

I now am the proud mom of Wendy, my first Cairn. We love her so much. She's been very good but....

Oh the joys of puppy training. Seems very smart. But I would be greatful for any expert advice.

[39Tudor]

Congratulation Mrs B!

My best advise is love Wendy to death and never let Wendy forget who's the boss, Wendy is!!!!

Good luck with your new princess!

Jerry

[pkcrossley]

if she's a cairn, she's smart. of course your cattledog was very smart, but it was a different kind of smart. wendy will think for herself. she will figure out everything you don't want her to figure out. she will try your patience. for the first twelve or eighteen months she will probably wear you out. she will fight with you over who's the boss (don't let her win!). and she will probably end up being your favorite dog.

[Puddlesmama]

HI..I am new owner also as of 6 months ago. What I found works best is to crate Puddles whenever I am not keeping an eye on her. Also when I was home and inside with her I tethered her leash to my belt loop so I could keep and eye on her. She is 7 months old now and I basically has run of my house now. Consistancy is the best training method I use. Thats why I tethered her to me.. It is extreamly hard to be consistant when the little devil would runaroundcrazy then pee at any given moment. Tethering her also allowed her to not being preoccupied to "forget" to go outside. It also allowed me to keep asking "you gotta go potty?"

Good luck!

[pkcrossley]

that's funny you say that, i had my dog tethered to me for months. all the same reasons, it was the only way i could keep up with the mischief he was into and making the potty training consistent. but at night i had to tether him to me to keep him from spending all night patrolling and barking. i had to tie the handle loop of his leash around my ankle. sheesh. thank goodness those days are over.

[Puddlesmama]

So far Puddles still sleeps in her crate..Its just getting to where I can keep the door open. Shed rather be in there. My dogs all sleep in thier crates in my room because I have a cat that is the matriarch of the animal world here. and since I am totally devoted to the dogs all day...She is my peace and tranquility at night

Now..After getting Iris, I am back to sleeping in warmups for those late night potty calls. And in a week shell be tied to the beltloop. Ahhhh motherhood

[Cairnmania]

As a child I had a toy fox terrier and poodle. As an adult I have had a Siberian Husky, then a Cocker Spaniel and then, a wonderful Australian Cattledog up until this past July.

I now am the proud mom of Wendy, my first Cairn. We love her so much. She's been very good but....

Oh the joys of puppy training. Seems very smart. But I would be greatful for any expert advice.

Hi Mrs B!

My only advice is not to expect our Cairn to be housetrained as quickly as your other dogs. For some reason larger dogs tend to get bladder control sooner than smaller dogs, but they do all get there in the end!

And although Cairns do vary in terms of temperament - since you've never been the "parent" of a terrier pup before you may find that they have a lot more energy than other breeds. (And you less as a result, LOL.)

Have fun with your pup - the time you invest now will be well worth it.

[kayharley]

And never lose your sense of humor!

Expect stubborness at times, defiance and the occasional balking at orders (gee, I hate that word...change it to requests)

Also get her used to grooming.....being brushed/combed, stripped, nails trimmed and all that good stuff.

But don't forget to have fun with her.....the best part of owning a Cairn.

[Tracy A.]

Expect stubborness at times, defiance and the occasional balking at orders (gee, I hate that word...change it to requests)

Also know in our home as "I think (insert dogs name) is talking back and just dissed you"

[Toby23]

A new puppy ??? Pictures please, and of course a progress report

[Mrs. B]

Thank you all for the advice. Wendy is exactly like you all predicted.

I guess I picked a Cairn because having owned a cattledog we were use to a high energy ,smart dog. Wendy is matchin up very well. I didn't think I could get my husband to love a smaller dog but Wendy has done that with much success. She already will play fetch with the tennis ball and of course when he is on the recliner she will beg to come right up and sleep on his lap.

Since the first night, she is in a small crate at night and keeps it clean. My husband is retired and home with her during the day. I don't think he would go for tethering Wendy to him but we confine her to t just one or 2 rooms so we can watch her at all times.

She has had only maybe one tinkle a week close to the going out door that we seem to have missed her request. But later in the day we go out every 30 minutes!

She will often talk back to me( nipping and barking) if she is being told NO about something. Right now she is happy to be on my lap at the computer:)

I love her nap time!

I do already brush her and clean her ears( stinky puppy ears!). I am used to clipping nails so that will be OK. It's just the stripping thing that I don't quite understand yet. And will she always have stinky ears?

She also tries to eat everything (which scares me) she can find when we take a walk outside ( we are on 2 acres but she is leashed because no fence). She is such a chow hound when it comes to eating. (1/4 cup of dry food in under a minute! twice a day.

So that's it for now... I see a lot of you have 2 Cairns, poor Wendy will have to just have the cat for company, if she ever stopd hissing at her!

[Puddlesmama]

I know the puppy stinky ears you are talking about! If yu have ruled out mites or possible yeast infection in her ears, which I did because Puddles had stinky ears too. It was just a cairn puppy thing..This is what Puddles breeder told me...When Cairns were bred in the beginning they were all bred to hunt, And a true hunting animal throws scents to throw off thier prey. Cairns do have a scent to them when over excited especailly with puppys because they are way excited. As they grow they lose that smell, at least us uprights think so. Puddles "works" for me...to rid abandoned buildings of wildlife before demolition and sometimes when she does find a living animal wheather it is a rat or a cat she smells like that for a bit. It does go away as soon as she is quieted.

I hope this helps...and Id like to see what the experts here think about that.

[bradl]

Congrats on your progress. Congrats too to Wendy for wiggling her way into even a skeptic's heart.

Stinky ears are not usual in my limited experience, but of course I also have no idea what stinky really means to someone else and besides, my nose might be deaf (so to speak). I'd probably have a vet take a peek. Mites, yeast infections, or other mischief could lead to malodorous ears. To me a healthy Cairn smells like dirt (in a good way), ears and all.

[Jessica H]

I think all Cairns are different. We call Sadie stink pot because she always smells (not too too bad), the vet checked her out and she just produces more yeast, just like a person with bo. Scooter on the other hand ALWAYS has a nice smell to him. This is weird but I love smelling him, I always put my nose on him and take a deep smell, the other day he smelt like pretzels, no idea why but I liked it. Whenever she comes in from outside he smells like grass, dirt etc but his sweet smell always comes back. Very strange.

Their ears never smell though so I would have that looked at.

[bradl]

You have a good point. I suspect coat condition, skin health, general health, and environment probably all have a part to play in what any given Cairn smells like, at any given time. I'm glad to know I'm not alone in enjoying a whiff of Cairn every so often. One of my favorite things is when they come in from outside, bringing in a little cloud of cool, fresh air in a tiny atmosphere around their coat.

[Tracy A.]

Okay, you're all going to think i'm weird here..... but oh well I guess I am.

Since I had a German Shepherd who had cronic ear infections, I frequently smell Mett & Bratt's ears. To me a healthy ear might smell of earwax- If the ears smell strongly enough I will take a cotton ball wetted with saline or hydrogen peroxide and 'wipe' the inside of the ear....I'll look at what the cotton ball looks like when i'm done. It should look like earwax on the cotton ball, and if not then you might have an issue and need to see the vet.

To me an infected ear doens't smell like earwax at all, it has a stronger smell.