Bringing Home a New Puppy Tips

I had considered adopting a Portuguese Water Dog as I do a lot of sailing and hiking around water. The Portuguese Water Dog is a great dog with children and grow to 40 to 60 pounds with the female being towards the lower range. Portuguese Water Dogs are very people oriented and love to be included along with all the families activities and don't like being left alone for long times.

Portuguese Water Dogs were used by the fisherman in Portugal and lived on the fishing boats were trained to dive down and fetch fishing gear, carry messages by swimming from boat to boat or to shore. They also were known for herding fish into the fishermens nets. Or course the Portuguese Water Dogs were excellent swimmers.

The first Portuguese Water Dog was thought to have been brought to the USA in 1968 and 4 years later the Portuguese Water Dog club was formed in Connecticut.

I ended up adopting a Black Lab mixed breed from a neighbor who was care taking a friends dog who didn't know she was carrying puppies. Black Labs are also great swimmers and easily trained and much more available than the Portuguese Water Dogs.

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Zoey will be 6 weeks old tomorrow, today I put the leash on her and led her around for 5 minutes so she can gradually get used to leash training. A new puppy requires constant monitoring so she doesn’t get electrocuted from chewing on a power cord and for paper training.

I made sure to have at home before bringing her in was:

* plenty of extra newspapers

* plenty of extra toilet tissue

* a dog water and food dish

* a bag of good quality puppy chow

* large dog nail trimmers

* leash and training collar

Whether your dog is a puppy or getting on in years, whether your goal is to housebreak, paper train, or litter train, this practical, easy-to-follow plan will help you transform your pet into a dependable member of the household--in a way that works with both his innate behavioral instincts and your individual lifestyle.

This Black Lab from the neighborhood is alleged to be the father of Zoey. I named her Zoey after the Firefly character, but I added the Y. Actually she looks more like she has German Shepard in her and her mom looks part Shepard.

Zoey's mom with her puppies when they were 13 days old. the Mom named Roxy had her first litter of nine puppies. The owner is keeping the runt which is on the left and took the others to a nearby no-kill shelter.