getting the pups this week
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| they love the tug -of -war robes make sure long on for your protection they like to keep grabbing it and you do not want to be to close. Mine have the tire/robe and they like it also. Lots of stuffies are hard to get one that is for big dogs, they destroy to easy. Mine like socks, and pop bottles. |
| I had one of those 8"tires my dogs did not even touch it.I do have a big rubber squeeky toy that they went crazy over.I also have a few kongs that keep them occupied when I am not around. |
| kongs..what are they and where do you buy them? |
| Kongs: http://www.kongcompany.com/worlds_best.html
You can buy them at any pet supply store. They're terrific. My wigglebums have theirs stuffed with treats every night at bedtime when they go into their crates. |
Hey, I just found out that your puppies are Nanny's sisters! 
I can't wait to see pictures of how they've grown up. Now I can tell Nanny what her family is up to. About the Kong, I was in PetCo yesterday and I saw about 10 different kinds, so you probably won't have any trouble finding one. They were just these rubber toys with a long hole for you to stuff a doggie treat into. They have to chew on the toy and play with it in order to dig the treat out. I've heard they're very popular with the dogs. |
| Tug-of-war is not a recommended play by a lot of sheepdog gurus.
That said, my dogs have always loved it. 
They do say that if you are going to play tug, never lose to the dog. |
| I have read that to, you do have to stop before they get carried away. AND I am glad I do not have carpet they can not hook their feet in. Or I will lose hmmmmmmmmmmm 3 seconds into it. |
| I just got the call! I'm getting the pups tomorrow! One day sooner than planned and I couldn't be happier! I can't believe it! I'm going crazy! My kids are thrilled too...any last minute tips? |
Take the camera and use it!  |
| Aren't you the one who was getting three puppies, and got many, many recommendations to NOT get 3?
Then on Sept 5th you posted that you were getting "a" puppy, and asked a bunch of questions, and mentioned how "it" was going to be a member of the family etc. Are you back to getting more than one, now? What happened? Just curious, because with all the questions about puppies, and grooming, and training, etc I didn't think you sound prepared for one puppy, much less more than one.
And a picture of the set-up that you had described would be great...I can't for the life of me imagine what the door, ramp thingy to the outside potty area can possibly look like... Especially with more than one puppy to train to use it... |
| Yes, I'm the person that asked about getting the 3 puppies and did decide to take your advice about not getting three. And although most people advised to get one at a time, we have chosen to get two. We were on the fence for a while about whether to get one or two puppies and decided after much research and thought, we wanted to get two. We are thrilled about this decision and confident we have the love, attention, time, and money to take care and provide for our sheepies properly. I hope that although many of you wouldn't agree with this decision, that you will keep it to yourself at this point. I very much appreciated your thoughts on it at first, but there is a time and a place for everything in life. My husband and I are two responsible adults. This site is one of many resources we consulted in before making this choice. I think your help in other areas will prove to be useful and will be very much appreciated as we all have a common interest in the well being of our very much loved OES family members.
I am so excited and I'm confident that these pups will be happy, healthy and will adjust well in no time. We are getting two little girls and naming them "Molly and Maida" I'd love to show you all a picture of the doggy door with the ramp, but I can't figure out how to shrink the size so that it'll be accepted here. I would love to figure this out so I can show you all my adorable babies. The ramp set up won't be introduced tomorrow though because the wood is slightly too slippery we learned today. I'm sending hubby to home depot tomorrow to buy some grip tape or fake grass. It will be a great system! We invited some neighborhood dogs over to give it a test and it seemed to work out great. And by the way, thank you all so much about the advice on what toys and chewies to buy. I just ran out to Petsmart to sign up for puppy classes, and was reminded again that I have to wait until they are 10 weeks old. It's going to be great. My 9 year old son will take one and I'll take the other. And I bought a bunch of other stuff too. Here's what I bought: pork earz..which I read on this site that they love and don't present a choking hazard, fetchable pink squeeky ball with bumps all over it, 2 playables shaped like a bone with squeeky inside, playable tire tug of war thingie, playable rope with these bone things attached to the middle, puppy teething keys, and thanks to all of you....I got 2 kongs shaped like a snow man with the little treats you put inside. And 1 red one that they call jumping jack and you put this paste inside it that I bought. So, I'm hoping this is a good start. We got the squeeky covered, the chewing covered, the rolling covered, ....we got the crates, we got the cedar chips, and the blankies for the crates to go on top of their crate pillows..anything else? I'm so excited! |
| That sounds great, Rebecca! What were the original names of Molly and Maida? I still have all the baby pics from the breeder back when she named them all herself. (I thought it was funny that she named all 10 puppies, considering that she then had to rename them all according to us adoptive parents!)
I can't wait to hear how your girls do at home! And I can't wait to see pictures. I know this isn't the most technological-saavy way to shrink pictures, but if you open them up in Paint (it's on most computers, under "Assessories") and then go to the "Image" toolbar, then select "Stretch/Skew," you can change the image size. It will say 100% on Horizontal and Vertical, and if you change both to 75% or 50% or whatever you need, it will make your picture smaller. (Make sure you change both percentages the same, or your picture will look different). You may want to save it as a new file before you change it all up. There are lots of other image programs that will resize your pics, but most people have Paint for sure. Congratulations on your 2 puppies! It's so exciting to have relatives of Nanny's on here! |
looks like you are well on your way, have fun they do grow fast. You should try and find someone here that has gotten to pups at the same time, and personal info on do's and don't. I know woth our new fellow 11 weeks now and Sami almost 1. We do not get the one on one with Blue like we did with Sami, just like kids  Oh ya get lots of paper towel I forgot how much they PEE. Blue knows about the door but gets lazy about it in the evening, we really have to watch then. AND do not forget pics Ron is a good person to learn from he does have posting here some where that explains it all. Hopefully someone will tell you where. By the way do not let them pull on your clothes like tug of war 15 lbs turns into 60+ lbs my son did this with Sami and was getting into trouble(son) (because it is fun) BUT the clothes do get torn.  Again good luck and have FUN |
| When you log in, be sure to click the little box that says "Log me in automatically" (or similar) and don't click on "log out" so you don't keep showing up as guest!
The pics in the photo gallery can be any reasonable size (some are incredibly huge...) The gallery also creates a "thumbnail" of the porper dimensions to be used as your "avatar" or the little picture under your name. That's the one that is limited in size. Check out http://forum.oes.org/viewtopic.php?t=1119 for full details, including some screen shots to help. |
| Re: pigs ears
It's been some years since I brought them home because they frankly smelled terrible after they had been chewed for a while. I mean really foul. I hope that you do enjoy your puppies. I respect that you don't want any negative comments, but please keep in mind that the advice you were given came from responsible adults with a lot of experience raising OES, and a lot of time and love to give. The advice given wasn't offered on the premise that you are not responsible or well meaning or otherwise lacking. It was offered based upon hard won experience from people who have been there, done that. |
| Yes, the pig ears are nasty! Thankfully, the pups don't even like them. So, we got rid of them.
I didn't mean to sound like I didn't appreciate the advice and opinions of people from this site. The reason I still read and participate myself is because I do. But I think advice or opinions about something should be given when asked for. And this time, I specifically did not ask any longer for advice about the getting two dogs. Any advice couldn't really have played a roll at this point anyway. The pups were on their way. And the way I figure it, if human parents were always in control of how many people they were going to raise at the same time, or how many babies they would have at once, it would probably be advised not to have two or more. But people sometimes have twins, they have triplets, and they make it work. There are aspects to it that may not be ideal when comparing to a singleton, but equally, there are benefits to having more than one that are unique and very special. Sometimes I think people here get too carried away. And maybe in a year or two, I'll think differently. I leave that possibility open. But I think in some ways people in this group react in the same manner as some of the people at those baby groups that seem so trendy these days. First time parents are so committed sometimes to doing everything "by the book" that they fail to leave open room for guidance by common sense and instinct. But I think that sometimes doing everything by the book can be boring and can set us up for dissapointment as the book is forever changing. Six years ago, I'd bring my son to those baby groups and was proud in knowing I was "doing it right". I would walk in with his diaper bag all packed properly. We had the burp cloth, the pampers, the spill proof transition cups with the rubber nipple filled with juicy juice because it was 100%. We had the little binkie with the strap dangling, etc. But things always evolve. Now, years later, if I walk into that same baby group with my youngest son and want to avoid those awkward looks and questions, I had better make damn well sure we have hidden any evidence of juice. (now that pediatricians say juice is filled with "empty calories")(which we actually never drink..kids don't like it anyway, but..)..and if he's a day over 12 months, it had better be in a sippy cup and not in the likes of a bottle, which is fine the day before. I just think that in many areas of life, people like to fit things into two catagories: the right way to do things and the wrong way to do things, when in fact there are really different ways to do things. Raising two puppies, and dare I say littermates, seems to have this dark cloud over it, like lying your infant on his belly. You quickly learn you had better keep it quiet. But if the truth be known, sometimes it's more about what works on an individual basis..what works for me and what works for you. We have two beautiful puppies that love us and love each other and we are determined to raise them up and raise them well. My son is no worse for sleeping on his belly when he was a baby, not because there were no more challenges in order to accomodate this. Of course it was more difficult, more challenging. I had to keep a closer eye on him. He slept in my room..about a foot away from me so I could hear and see him and tent to him quickly. It presented more challenges to allow him to sleep on his belly, but it's what worked for him. We thought it would be great to have two pups to eliminate some of the sadness we thought would inevitably come from being without their mother overnight. At least, they would have the company of each other. And we don't mind the bond they'll develop with each other. We don't mind that down the road, we may have to take the two everywhere we go. So, it's what works for us. Both puppies still yearn for the affection and love from us even though they have each other. And we love to cuddle with them. There's no need to beat a dead horse..isn't that the expression? They're here, we love them, and there's no going back. I need help, opinions, and advice in other areas now...like whether it's ok to leave the water out over night, etc. |
plymounthflock are you happy with your choice? If so be happy it really does not matter what others think, If ya can afford them, love them, train them, have fun. Mine are less then a year apart and I love it. they play so well it is great. Now if they did come potty train and their adult teeth that would be great I said that about my kids too.  |
| I'd suggest that you be very cautious with some toys, particularly largers toys and specifically Nylabones (BAD). Our dog at 12 weeks developed tempero-mandibular joint syndrome (TMJ) from chewing on a Nylabone.
$1000.00 in x-rays, sedation, and observation fees later we were told the source of his jaw clicking was TMJ. We pulled his toys and less than five days later he was fully recovered. His hot TMJ had calmed down. |
| whats a nylabone? |
| Jeeze, not beating a dead horse, but my comments weren't based upon what is or is not in vogue. They were based upon my personal experience, which seems to be common amongst people who take on littermates (which, btw, is a little different than simply 2 unrelated puppies of the same age and much different than two puppies less than a year apart). Certainly I am not trying to convince you to return a puppy or to alter your decision or to regret your decision. You initially asked for advice and you were given advice based not on trends or what is in fashion but based on people's actual experience--people with as much love, devotion, dedication, commitment and understanding as you seem to have.
Advice is often offerend unsolicited, but any and all advice --asked for or not--should be evaluated on its own merits and used or ignored as your judgement dictates. You don't want to read my posts--just skip them. I'll never know. |
I love  how everyone is able to get along here even when there is a difference of opinion!
Another thing to keep in mind is that many many people will be reading this over the years, not just the original author.
Smile! |
| Congratulations on your "twin sheepies"! Not to beat a dead horse BUT I've been told two are easier than one! They keep each other company, they play with each other, there is less seperation anxiety etc. Maybe double the expnese and double the training and in the beginning may be a bit more work but I think its great you took two from the same litter...
As far as toys, just be careful with the squeaky inside most toys. Once the puppies start to chew hard, the squeakies can come out and its a problem if they swallow it. My puppy is nine months and although he doesn't destroy his toys we've been throuhg many just because he outgrew them...The toys were big when he was small and now he's big so out went the smaller toys! Just for my own interest, do both puppies sleep in the same crate together? Diane |
| Congrats on your puppies. I've had OES for over 20 years. I bought littermates the first time (two girls -- I couldn't decide on one so I got both) and they did fine. I now have littermates AGAIN! This time a boy and a girl. They're 8 years old now and also doing beautifully.
My main advice to you is to try to train them separately. I know it's fun for a couple to take two puppies to training, etc., but you'll find the dogs will benefit from the time apart (better socialization if they don't rely on each other) and will retain the information better if they're trained individually (not in the same class). My only regret about having littermates is that I wish I would have dealt better in lessening the pack mentality. It's more noticable when a male is involved (the protector), so with two girls it's not as tough an issue, but it's still good for all involved to allow them to develop some independence from each other. Good luck...enjoy! |
Quote: My main advice to you is to try to train them separately.
Definitely!! Very good advice. I have littermate sisters that will be 4 on November 25th (the joke was that the breeder couldn't tell them apart so she had to fly both to us). http://oesusa.com/EmDJ962007.jpg We were told by a trainer early on to make sure they get out separately. We also handled them both every evening by play brushing and doing nails... my husband had one and I had the other while we watched TV. Mine are wonderful together. Just do your very best to prevent any jealousy and seek help from a professional trainer if you have even an inkling of a problem. It's best to correct problems immediately before they've become a learned behavior. |
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