Welcome Joanie and Manny. Glad you found such a nice little guy. Be consistent with him and he'll soon learn where to pottie. I don't know if the pads have a scent or not but you can sop up a little of his "accidents" onto one to help him get the idea. Good luck. Gloria In a message dated 9/28/2010 6:45:40 P.M. Central Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
Hello. I just joined this group yesterday and I just adopted a chi-terrier mix from a shelter last week. It is my first dog although I have had multiple cats for years, years, years. Manny is a very nice, positive-attitude little dog and they estimated he's around 5 years old. I really think I couldn't have asked for a better-fit first dog for my household. He is very well socialized with all ages/genders of people, loves other dogs, does not seem to be a barker, a chewer or a crier and he knows how to navigate his way around the two cats. The shelter had classified him as (I don't mean to sound facetious) "clinically depressed" but that seems to have gone away within the first day he was home. I am trying to house-train him and although he's progressing real well with that, he is still averaging about 1 accident a day. (No big deal). I was wondering about the puppy pads. I assumed that their purpose was only to protect your floor/corners from the dog's accidents so that's what I've been using them for. Do they have some sort of scent or something that encourages the dog to go on them? His accidents take place mostly around his kennel which I guess is because the cats keep trying to go in to it. Also, Manny does not seem to like dry food very much. Is it OK to feed him mostly canned? Right now he is a little underweight so over-feeding is not an issue for the time-being. And--(I guess this is 3 questions), he came home with a bad kennel cough type cough. I wanted to wait to take him to the vet until after he's neutered this Friday. (The shelter is doing it.) Should it be looked into right away? Thanks for your help. Joanie M.
