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HILANDEL SAMOYEDS HELPFUL HINTS
· MEDICAL Your puppy will come to you with all shots it is due to have by the time it is ready to go home with you. You must complete its immunization with your own vet. There may be one or two more shots in the series due. Rabies is to be done at six months. (you may do this as early as four months with consultation with your vet—if you are going to show your new pup)
There are several common household TOXINS you must protect you new pup from. CHOCOLATE this is toxic to dogs. Bakers chocolate is the worst but even milk chocolate in sufficient quantities can kill your puppy (or Adult) . Common ANTIFREEZE is both TOXIC and ATTRACTIVE to your new dog. INSECTICIDES, PESTICIDES, HERBICIDES, and any other “cides” I can think of should be presumed TOXIC.
SULFA DRUGS IN ANY FORM are to be presumed TOXIC to Samoyeds (as well as several all white breeds). Inform your vet that you do not want him to prescribe these compounds unless he has overriding concerns.
RAW ONIONS cause an anemic condition in dogs avoid them and keep them safe from your pet as some find the odor attractive.
PLANTS BOTH HOUSE AND OUTDOORS. There is a long list of toxic to irritating plants We cannot keep them straight so we assume all house plants and several notable yard plants are toxic. Some notables OLEANDER every part of this plant is poisonous, leaves, stalks, roots, seeds. Foxglove, English Ivy, Philodendrons, Defenbachia.
PUPPYPROOF YOUR HOUSE Treat your new puppy as if you have a toddler crawling around your home, they are remarkably similar. If they can see it, and get to it, IT GOES IN THEIR MOUTHS. If it important to you PICK IT UP!!
Talk to your vet about wormers it is best to use only products available through the vet. DO NOT USE WORMERS THAT CONTAIN TOLULENE THESE CAN CAUSE BLINDNESS.
· EMERGENCIES AND FIRST AID
There should be a 24 hour emergency Vet service near you. Find the phone number and record it where you can find it WHEN YOU’RE IN A PANIC. Get and read one of the home ‘well dog’ books. There are several available at your local bookstore or through ads in the Dog magazines. You don’t have to memorize it just get familiar enough to find your way around the book. Make up a Dog First Aid Kit. It doesn’t have to be elaborate a shoe box will do. (fishing tackle boxes are excellent) Some things it should have in it are: · antibiotic creme for small topical wounds. · 10cc syringe , without needle, for administering liquids. · syrup of Ipecac or Hydrogen Peroxide to induce vomiting if something wrong got swallowed. · Hydrogen peroxide to clean dirty wounds · Vet Wrap (like a sticky ace bandage) to wrap cuts etc. · gauze both roll and pads run this list by your vet and see if he would add anything
IN GENERAL IF YOU ARE IN AN EMERGENCY, TREAT YOUR DOG AS YOU WOULD A TODDLER OF APPROXIAMTLY THE SAME WEIGHT.
· GENERAL MAINTAINCE NEVER, EVER, EVER SHAVE YOUR SAMOYED OR ALLOW A GROOMER TO SHAVE IT. Shaving a Samoyed is equivalent to taking an Arabs’ robes off of him in the desert. The COAT is your Samoyed’s protection from the sun and heat. They WILL sunburn easily and CAN develop skin cancer if shaved.
Although Sammys are generally a clean odorless dog they should be bathed at least once a season. Ours that are not shown can get a dusty odor and their coats will pick up debris from the yard. If you wish to give them baths at home we will be happy to give you specific instructions. Professional groomers charge about $35-$40 for a bath. Do not bath before thoroughly combing out the coat you will get ONE HUGE MAT where you had a dog before.
Shedding ----ALL SAMMYS SHED---A LOT. Once or twice a year. Unless you want to vacuum endlessly for three weeks or so you will strip out the undercoat when this happens. Generally daily brushing for about a week will get most of it out. You need several tools for this. First a Rake, this pulls out the most hair at once. Be careful using this tool as all the undercoat is not ready at the same time to come out and your dog will resent it being pulled out. Next a good Pin brush, this also removes a lot of hair but it also does a better job of cleaning out the loosened hair that the rake left behind. Next a ‘greyhound’ comb. This has wide tines on one end and fine tines at the other. We use this as a finishing tool.
MATS these occur with any long coated dog and your Sammy is no exception. You have two choices, Cut them out or break them and comb out the mat. If you opt to break them and save the coat in that area you need a GOOD mat knife. A cheap one is useless unless you want to wrestle with your dog.
Start Early with Grooming, When you bring your puppy home you should start brushing it for a short time every day. Teach it to like the experience by making it a special time for getting attention and a few extra treats. In my opinion you should do the grooming on a raised surface. You can use the washer or dryer, put a mat down for footing, or any other high surface you find acceptable to you. A raised platform will teach you pup that it has to stay still for the experience.
Toenails should be addressed at the same time. Play with your puppy’s feet and nails constantly, tap them with the clippers, nibble little bits of nail off, do this very often as it is the devil to pay to teach an adult dog to allow it nails to be clipped, they all seem to have some kind of foot fetish about their nails. Teeth can be addressed now too. Rub their gums and teeth with a little swab and get them used to this as a puppy and you will be able to keep your adult dogs teeth clean without having to resort to anesthesia at the Vets Office.
· IDENTIFICATION
WE STRONGLY URGE YOU TO MICROCHIP YOUR DOG Tattoos can and do fade or get so stretched out they become illegible. Collars come off, tags get lost or taken off. All shelters and pounds are supposed to routinely scan any dog turned in or found for these microchips. Animal labs are required by law to scan and notify registered owners of dogs they buy for experimentation. It is required by law in most communities to collar and tag your dog and in fact this is the first line of defense, in recovering a missing pet so please comply with the law. The best collars to use are the rolled style. They don’t flatten the dogs coat and cause what is called “ collar neck” where a band of fur is broken off and the poor dog looks like it has a ring around its neck.
· EARLY TRAINING DO CRATE TRAIN YOUR DOG it will serve you and your valued pet well throughout its life. In early puppyhood it is the only way to ever accomplish housebreaking. When there is just too much activity in your home it is a safe haven for it. NEVER use a Crate as punishment. It should be the puppy’s own little space. Consequently NEVER allow little children to crawl into the crate with the pup. It may have been trying to get a time out from them.
From the moment you get your new puppy home start with some very basic training. Use the word STAY at door ways, this is to teach that an open door is not an excuse to run out. Put your hand, palm facing the pup’s nose in front of it and restrain if necessary while you walk through the door alone. While playing “fetch” or some other game and the puppy is to come to you, use the word COME in your sentence always praising lavishly. For example if the puppy is running towards you repeat the word COME and then praise it when it gets to you. Use the word OFF to mean just that, off the couch, off the counter, off my leg etc. Use the word NO when you want it to stop what it is doing. Stop chewing my hand means NOTHING to a puppy, NO means displeasure and always be ready to give it something “LEGAL” to do to please you. For example if the puppy is chewing the sofa immediately say NO loudly and firmly and at once substitute a toy or otherwise distract it with some quick little game. NEVER ,EVER, STRIKE OR BEAT YOUR PUPPY. IT DOES NO GOOD AND TEACHES IT TO BE AFRAID OF HANDS AND YOU!!!!! Always use positive reinforcement “praise” for the things the pup does that are pleasing and a display of displeasure for the things that it will do that you don’t like. BE CONSISTANT IN ALL WAYS : THE WORDS YOU USE, WHEN YOU USE THEM. DON’T KEEP CHANGING THE RULES ---THEY HAVE PUPPY BRAINS AND DON’T READ MINDS.
These are just some hints on where to start with your training, GO TO AN OBEDIENCE CLASS as soon as you can they are not to train your Dog they are to train YOU how to train your dog.
These are just a few generic hints to help you get started if you have specific questions do not hesitate to call with those questions
· HOUSEBREAKING HINTS Here are a few do’s and don’ts on this subject. Generally right after a puppy drinks, eats, wakes up from a nap, plays it has to eliminate. They do not get full control of bladder function for several months so you have to be very vigilant. By controlling feeding times you will greatly improve your chances to teach proper potty skills. Restrict or remove all water before bedtime for this period. When they are very young you won’t need a leash but the sooner you leash break them the more control you’ll have. For the earliest period do NOT allow the puppy free run of the house, keep it in the same room with you at all times. When they look like they are going to go quickly grab up the little one and wrap its tail under its belly get it outside and put it down where you want it to do it’s business. I find it very helpful not to completely clean this area up. I know it sounds gross but the puppy needs all the help you can give it to understand why it is outside when ten seconds ago it was in the house. Praise lavishly when it pees or poops, your neighbors may laugh but remember its not their carpet that is at risk here. I always use a specific word during this exercise, “go potty” and then “good puppy” repeatedly lots of pets , lots of praise. Remember this is a specific training you are trying to do, so the only purpose of these trips outside is to go potty therefore immediately go back inside. DO NOT start a play session now. If you want to go outside and play then first go into the house wait a few minutes and then go back out. When they are on a leash go to one spot and stand there, don’t go wandering all over the place as the puppy will forget why you’re there. Just keep repeating “go potty” until it does then praise, praise, praise. Don’t take your puppy for walks to housebreak, it will have no idea why it was taken outside. This is not to say don’t take it for walks, just when you are training. DON’T RUB THE PUPPYS NOSE IN A PILE OR PUDDLE IN THE HOUSE!! IT DOESN’T MEAN A THING TO THE PUP AND IT WILL LEARN TO FEAR YOU. If and when a “mistake” happens IGNORE IT. Just clean it up as discretely as possible spray the area with diluted white vinegar. If you catch junior in the midst of going gently scoop him up and take it outside at once to finish. Ironically this seems to make the point the best to them.
· FOOD AND FEEDING
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE use a PREMIUM Food. Don’t feed the cheapest thing you can find at the supermarket. These puppies were raised on SENSIBLE CHOICE, while you don’t have to use this brand DO use a premium. The cheap food are full of fillers such as corn and soy, these are not very digestible and the result is lots and lots and lots of POOP!!! They don’t get good nutritional value from these foods and as a result are prone to bad coats, skin problems, fussy stomachs, and a host of more serious illnesses that result in you spending way more at the Vet’s than you can ever save on the cheap food. We would be happy to discuss this subject in detail if you have questions. Just a few more opinions on food. We think it best to not feed Lamb, Turkey, Venison, etc. , but to stick with the stock protein sources of chicken or beef. The reason is , sometimes individual dogs will develop food allergies and we like the idea of leaving those other sources in the “bank” so to speak in case a problem ever develops we’ll have them as options to combat an allergy.
Puppies should eat three to four times a day. As they get older you can decrease the meals to three and then to two at about six months of age. Amounts to feed vary all over the scale. For example we have an 85# Male that gets one cup in the morning and one cup in the evening. We have a 35# female that gets one and a half cups in the morning and two and a half cups at night. Both are weight steady. The male is a low energy dog and the female is a high energy one, she burns it off . Do not over feed your Sammy, they will get fat. You can give you Sammy fresh fruit and vegetables ours are fond of raw carrots, apples, cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower and many other things. Use good judgment and don’t be excessive with these treats. As always if you have specific questions just pick up the phone and ask us.
· MISCELLANEOUS POINTS
DON’T LEAVE YOUR DOG IN THE CAR IN THE SUMMER OR ANY WARM DAY. On an eighty degree day in the sun it only takes 5 minutes to heat the interior to over 100 degrees.
DON’T LEAVE YOUR DOG UNATTENDED IN YOUR YARD FENCED OR OTHERWISE WHEN YOU’RE NOT AT HOME.. Sammies are very attractive and usually very friendly and they will allow themselves to be stolen.
BE WARY OF LAWN TREATMENTS EVEN IF IT NOT YOUR LAWN. We had a dog get very sick from a neighbors chemical lawn treatment. It cost hundreds of dollars to treat her. The Dogs foot is full of capillaries and the poisons were absorbed through her pads.
If you have email capabilities we suggest you subscribe to SAMFANS it is a daily list where you can read about other owner’s questions , ask your own ,and generally interact with other owners of this wonderful and very special breed. Contact us for instructions.
A FEW GOOD REFERENCES · The Complete Samoyed by Bob & Dolly Ward · The Samoyed Book (you have to buy this from the publisher, Hoflin Publishing ,4401 Zephyr Street, Wheat Ridge , Colorado 80033-3299 ) These are both “must have” types of books Bob & Dolly are the mom and pop of this breed and the other book is too full of great information not to want.
PAUL & DIANNE BOROS HILANDEL SAMOYEDS 5337 CHAPEL ROAD EXT. MADISON OHIO 44057 (440)-428-6809
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