New to OES and group
This is my first visit to this group and also my fist time owning an Old English Sheepdog (although i have previously owned german shepherd/border collie). We are loving our new addition. She is now 16 weeks old and one big affectionate ball of fluff. She is proving very easy to train, is happy to be crated at night and when we go out (which isn't too often at the moment), loves going on trips in the car and is doing fairly well with house training - although we do still get the occasional puddle. But i do still have a few questions! Firstly, we have no intention of either breeding or showing her as our whole aim is to have family pet, so we are planning on having her spayed. I read a number of posts on this site on the subject and am now as confused as ever. My vet is recommending that i have her done as soon as possible (preferably this week) as he says that with her being a large breed it makes for a much easier operation both for her and him. But reading the posts about incontinance i am wondering if that is too early? There seem to be medical advantages and disadvantages to whenever the operation is done so wonder what the general opinion is. Also, we have a small problem with her going for the ankles of our youngest daughter (age 7) sometimes when she moves around the house but mainly outside. It is not all the time and is not done with any aggression involved so i'm sure it's all part of the herding instinct, but does anyone know of a way to encourage her not to do this. Lastly, i think we have one of the most sociable dogs in the world. Walk time can be wonderful because Libby gets so much attention, but it can also be a drag because she wants so much attention. She wants to meet every single person that walks within 50yds of us and then doesn't want to leave them - she just loves eveybody! And it's not like she doesn't get enough attention at home - she has 4 people in the house to fuss over her. Is this a usual OES trait, and if so, do they ever tone it down atall and does anyone have any advice on how to control it? I think that's about everything. Sorry for it being so long. Any advice readily welcomed. Thanks, Claire & Libby |
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| There is a lot of opinions on when is the best time to have your dog spayed. I personally prefer it to be done when they are younger as it seems to be less traumatic for them. I am sure others will chime in with their ideas.
Regarding the puppy going for the ankles all I can recommend is to have your daughter push the pup away and say no firmly and then if you have something you can give the dog to chew on it will help. Those puppy teeth are so sharp. I have 3 sheepies & 1 foster sheepie right now. The two 7 mth old puppies love everybody and know no fear and no strangers. My older ones are no so exuberant but they love people and all of them love being the center of attention. This is a trait of the sheepies and why so many of us love this breed of dogs. Welcome to the forum and look forward to seeing pictures of your baby and talking to you. |
| Welcome! I'm glad you found us. We have 2 sheepies (9 years old and 10 months). They are a blast and a headache at times. However, the good is now starting to outweigh the bad.
Oh, those little needle teeth! The pups always need to have something in their mouth. Suggest that your daughter walk with a toy or bone so that she can offer it to the pup when it starts to nip. How fun! |
Welcome to the forum! 
Glad to see another Canadian 
Libby sounds wonderful, and like a typical OES 
The herding instinct does tend to make them nippy as puppies, and it is important to teach them when they're young to curb that. I've found what works is just saying Ow! or something like that to let her know that it hurts. Positive reinforcement works best, say ouch or soemthing if she nips, and then ignore her for a bit. Praise her like crazy when she exhibits the proper behaviour (in this case, being more gentle). With my girl Sky, I'd say ouch, then say be gentle, give kisses, and when she did, then good girl. It worked, she is not nippy, but boy does she kiss a lot! LOL I'm sure you'll find lots of helpful tips browsing the forum, and of course ask away! |
| Welcome to the group! I'm also new and I can't tell you how glad I am to have found this place!
Our Lucy is 7 months old and has already been spayed, this was done approximately 1 month ago. The hardest thing was the vet telling me not to let her jump or run for the first couple of days! Fortunately, we got through it although I was sure there would be no stitches left when it was time to have them removed! She also like to nibble on my body parts and our breeder recommended that we purchase "bitter apple" and when she bites me to tell her no and to give her a small squirt. It took one time and now I just have to show her the bottle. Of course the bottle sat on my table for over a month before I could convince myself I wouldn't be killing her, just save myself from her teeth! This doesn't solve some of the other problems I have with her though. She is impossible in the backyard, jumping, biting. I've been told to "ignore" the bad behavior but this is sometimes hard to do when you have a 60lb dog biting your rear!  With that said, I love her to death and realize the day will come when she realizes that I'm the ALPHA female... hopefully.
Good luck with your puppy and once again welcome! |
I think to help, we're going to need puppy pictures!!! 
Welcome to the forum! |
| I can't WAIT to see pics! Congratulations! I also graduated from Border Collies before I got Bingley (who is only 5 months old)!
Bingley is SO mouthy. We keep gads of toys around the house and when he gets too close to being over the line we practically shove a toy in his mouth and then shower him with praise for nipping and chewing the correct thing! We really do have toys all over . . . He is much better about this now that he has his adult teeth. Now even when he is mouthy we don't notice it as much because his teeth aren't as sharp as little puppy teeth! We also deal with the people stuff on walks, but he has gotten used to saying "hi" and then going on to meet someone new without dragging forever. It has just taken time to get him used to the idea of 'walk' means that we walk - and go forward to new places!!! Distraction is also good. If you keep your eyes peeled and know you don't want her to stop to say hi to someone (or a group of someones) all of a sudden give her tons of attention and hold this attention until you are passed the people. It really works, but you have to have eagle eyes!
Have a lot of fun - enjoy it and send pics!! |
| welcome and i want to see pictures too please! i don't know when is the right time to spay her. my vet said around 6 months, but like you i have been told so many different times.
i do have advice on the walking and attention thing. my girl Olive is now 11 months, but for the LONGEST time she was like your pup...she would not walk forward if a person was around. she would wine, pull, drag and just plan lay down so we would have to wait untill she got attention. folks in my neighbourhood said she was the most beloved puppy (they have sence changed their minds, but thats another story) i enrolled olive in a puppy training class and i also worked on her. don't stop walking and keep your whol body towards the direction you want to go. You are in charge and you must make your body say so. it didn't take her long once i learned what i was doing wrong anyway glad you are here. and please post photos. |
| Hi & welcome.
The earliest I've heard vet recommendations about having dogs spayed/neutered is 6 months. I'm not sure what the advantage is to having them done as early as 4 months. I know a lot of people have recommended to wait until after the first heat cycle. IMO, I don't think it's a bad idea to wait until a dog matures as I would think the hormones are important for development. As far as incontinence is concerned, I think it is a crap shoot whether your dog will have spay incontinence. Our female has spay incontinence but she wasn't spayed until age 5 (the age we got her). |
| Earliest around 6 months IMO, they do recommend in this breed for a bitch to have a first heat, but that is an awful lot of responsibility to expect from people, as it means keeping a close eye on the bitch for 21 days & they get quite messy and smelly as well. So at least 6 months onwards. I know pediatric spaying is done earlier, but personally I think let her mature a bit to at least 6 months, gives her time to develope a little bit more.
She sounds like a real sweetie and look forward to seeing pics of her and hearing about her too. Welcome and greetings from Australia.  |
| Welcome to the forum!!
Your Libby sounds like a darling. As the others have said, nipping your child is likely a result of the herding instinct - Barkley used to nip at our ankles and calves everywhere we walked. Anytime she nips at ankles, immediately stop walking because if she's biting at your pant legs when you walk you are accidently playing tug-of-war with her and that is rewarding the nipping behaviour for her. The ideas - toys, asserting herself etc. have all been great. Another idea: have you taken Libby to puppy class yet? If you and your daughter did a puppy class with Libby that would help your daughter learn how to assert herself with Libby and also help Libby see your daughter as an authority figure. If your daughter were to have Libby "Sit" anytime she starts to get nippy, she can't be nipping at ankles if she's sitting. Then she can redirect Libby to a toy or activity. I don't know anything about spaying a dog. This is my first dog (other than the one I had growing up) and he's a boy! As for wanting to meet everyone... Barkley is exactly the same way. He loves people and wants to meet everyone. We bring treats on our walks. Once Barkley is done saying hello to a new person, or once we've passed a person who isn't interesting in saying hello (surprisingly, there are a lot of them! - who doesn't want to pet a puppy!?!?!?!!), we say "Ok, let's go!" in a cheerful voice and give him a treat when his attention is back on us and walking. London Ontario, eh? Wonder if our puppies are related.... Can't wait to see pictures. Check out the Forum FAQs for how to post. |
| Welcome! Yes, the nipping does sound like herding behavior. I agree that a loud, resounding OW! will work well, although it will take time. Also having your daughter sit the dog will also help both girls and make it impossible for puppy to nip child's ankles. Redirecting with a toy will also help. I did have to train my first 2 OES not to nip at running ankles (bicycles, etc) but so far, that's not been an issue with my 8 month old puppies.
I am raising my first female dog (8 month old Sophie) and I did have her spayed at 6 months. I did this to avoid her first heat, partly to avoid the mess, partly because I have 2 male dogs, and even neutered, it would be an issue, just not a pregnancy one. Also, my vet's opinion was that spaying before first heat virtually eliminated all chances of mammary cancer later in life. I waited until 6 months to try to give her the best benefit of hormones as late as I could without risking a heat. It is a trade off, though, as there is an increased risk of incontinence. |
| Welcome to the forum!
I pretty much echo all the above advice, just wanted to add a welcome note. Try to encourage your daughter to be firm with your puppy, and not shriek and yell (I have girls - they tend to do that  ). That will only get Libby more excited.
Please post pictures soon! |
| Fellow Canadian!
Welcome to the forum! Can't wait to hear more about your pup! Pics too please....where did you get her from? Maybe some of your pups siblings are on the forum |
| Welcome from north eastern PA. I have 2 sheepies, Murphy and Bella. We had Bella spayed at 6 mos. we've never had a problem with the wetting. Murphy was a nibbler, we would tell him no teeth, that seemed to work for us. Welcome again |
| Welcome to the forum. We are new to the forum and to the OES but we love our Hazel Magoo. Our biggest problem with Hazel (now 5 months) is jumping and teaching her the yard boundries. She gets along great with both of our Springers and our Shizoo (someday I will learn how to spell it). Hazel is a chewer but so far it is only paper and boxes and her favorite toilet paper rolls. She also loves to drag lumps of coal up from the basement. We heat with coal and she is always stealing a piece when she gets a chance.
As for spaying we always had our dogs spayed young but don't plan to spay Hazel. It is going to be a pain in the butt because the shizoo is an uneutered male and even though he is so small I know we will have to keep them apart. |
| Just wanted to say welcome for one and i have a oes that is 4 months. I tell him no in a stern voice, make him sit or give him a toy. I also used to say no bite and it has for the most part worked very well. He knows that I am the alpha but I also know that he is still very puppy at the same time. I work with Obe at least once a day on training and it could be for 10 or 15 minutes or it could be an hour, depends on my schedule. He also wants to meet everyone and most people want to say hi as well. But when it is time to go i just say come on and direct his attention to move forward. Most of the time a gentle tug on the lesh and the words come on work. Hope this info is helpful and good luck. |
lovinglibby wrote: Hi all
This is my first visit to this group and also my fist time owning an Old English Sheepdog (although i have previously owned german shepherd/border collie). We are loving our new addition. She is now 16 weeks old and one big affectionate ball of fluff. She is proving very easy to train, is happy to be crated at night and when we go out (which isn't too often at the moment), loves going on trips in the car and is doing fairly well with house training - although we do still get the occasional puddle. But i do still have a few questions! Firstly, we have no intention of either breeding or showing her as our whole aim is to have family pet, so we are planning on having her spayed. I read a number of posts on this site on the subject and am now as confused as ever. My vet is recommending that i have her done as soon as possible (preferably this week) as he says that with her being a large breed it makes for a much easier operation both for her and him. But reading the posts about incontinance i am wondering if that is too early? There seem to be medical advantages and disadvantages to whenever the operation is done so wonder what the general opinion is. Also, we have a small problem with her going for the ankles of our youngest daughter (age 7) sometimes when she moves around the house but mainly outside. It is not all the time and is not done with any aggression involved so i'm sure it's all part of the herding instinct, but does anyone know of a way to encourage her not to do this. Lastly, i think we have one of the most sociable dogs in the world. Walk time can be wonderful because Libby gets so much attention, but it can also be a drag because she wants so much attention. She wants to meet every single person that walks within 50yds of us and then doesn't want to leave them - she just loves eveybody! And it's not like she doesn't get enough attention at home - she has 4 people in the house to fuss over her. Is this a usual OES trait, and if so, do they ever tone it down atall and does anyone have any advice on how to control it? I think that's about everything. Sorry for it being so long. Any advice readily welcomed. Thanks, Claire & Libby I have heard 6 months from my vet is the time or at least the earliest it should be done. Get lots of chew toys> |
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