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  1. #1
    AnnieW625's Avatar
    AnnieW625 is online now Black Diamond level (25,000+ posts)
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    Default Update #20: Talk to me about having a small dog!

    So we adopted a Chihuahua/Doxen/Shiba Inu (?) mix (the curly tail, pointy ears, and tall legs makes us think he is part Shiba Inu) on Saturday from our local shelter and my DH picks him up today. He is about 18 months old and so I am hoping he is housr trained, but we bought pee pads as well. I have never had a small dog and this guy weighs about 15lbs now. We do have a dog door (the prior owners of our house had a small dog), but other than that I am not sure what to do. From what we could tell the dog has an awesome temperament, doesn't jump and is good with my kids which is why we adopted him. DH is still convinced he can be an outside dog when we are at work but I am not so sure especially now with all of the rain we are having right now so I am thinking of buying a small to medium crate or giving him free range of our kitchen (we have a door on one side and will have to get a baby gate for the other side and he can get to the dog door from the kiarchenemy) at least on days when it rains.

    Any help or suggestions would be great! Thanks so much! Also any suggestions for dog food. We have a bag of Hills Science Diet Active dog food for small dogs and it gets good reviews on chewy.com and it is what he was fed at the shelter.
    Last edited by AnnieW625; 02-08-2017 at 11:42 PM.
    Annie
    WOHM to two wonderful little girls born in April
    DD E, 17
    DD L, 13,
    baby 2, 4-2009 (our Tri-18 baby)

  2. #2
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    Do not do pee pads because it is so hard to train dogs to go outside after you've used pee pads. Train to go outside just like you would a large dog. I would use a crate to crate train at first and once that is established, you can use the dog door/section off the kitchen. Even if he is house trained, he still has to be house trained in your house so do not give him free reign anywhere until you get the house trained down pat. [ETA: we had a shelter dog that after 2 days, I felt fine letting her roam the house. She never ever used the bathroom in the house her entire life. So it may take a long time or a short time. ] Food - I haven't checked the rating in 4 years, but we use Core wellness for small breeds.

  3. #3
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    Yes to everything specialp said. We use Wellness Core as well. My dogs vomited on science diet and iams. I buy our food from amazon subscribe and save. We have a metal crate that the dogs sleep in every night at home, and they use a fabric crate for camping and traveling.

  4. #4
    Kindra178 is offline Red Diamond level (10,000+ posts)
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    No dog should be an outside dog. As for food, check out Horizon Pulsar. Available at Chewy - it's affordable and grain free. Iams and Science Diet are not good foods. The trick is finding a high quality affordable food that works. Generally speaking, avoid soy, preservatives, by products.

  5. #5
    AnnieW625's Avatar
    AnnieW625 is online now Black Diamond level (25,000+ posts)
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    Thank so for the help so far.

    I think I will get a metal crate in medium size and try a small bag of the Wellness Core Small Breeds food to try. I do like the look of the portable canvas crates I saw on Amazon as well.

    I plan on using the pee pads as pads and simply train him to go outside as well.

    Our old dog (80lb lab) had access to our garage 24/7 where she would sleep most days and nights unless the weather was bad and then we would bring her in the house. Lots of people here keep their dogs outside during the day, and dog runs or outdoor shelters are common, but then again we have 300 days of no rain or lots of sunshine most years.
    Annie
    WOHM to two wonderful little girls born in April
    DD E, 17
    DD L, 13,
    baby 2, 4-2009 (our Tri-18 baby)

  6. #6
    Tenasparkl is online now Emerald level (3000+ posts)
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    We just adopted a dog around the same size, but a little younger on Saturday. Perfect timing on this thread, thanks!

  7. #7
    citymama is offline Pink Diamond level (15,000+ posts)
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    Aww, congrats! He sounds awesome! My girls LOVE our rescue who we adopted a year ago at age 1. Can't imagine life without him!

    Our guy is about 22 lbs and gets a mix of Hill's Science Diet for small dogs (same as your dog) and Nature's Variety grain free kibble. No complaints with either. If/when you introduce any new dog food be sure to do so gradually over time or it can upset their stomachs.

    Get him a dog bed if he doesn't have one already. Our dog loves his and our wood floors aren't so cozy for him to sleep on (we don't let him on the furniture). He had never been crated and he hated being constrained but was very trainable in understanding where he was allowed to be and not be). I highly recommend investing in some dog training once he's settled in - we took our guy to Petco (sign up for their deals, we got 6 sessions for $60!) - it was supposed to be a group session but he was the only dog signed up so it ended up being private lessons.

    Important to take him to a vet to get him up to date on shots (distemper and rabies if he doesn't already have them); we got ours microchipped as well. They will start him on heartworm pills and tick/flea medication - really needed the latter because our guy is shaggy and we go on a lot of hikes in the woods.

    Borrow a book on dog training from the library - we used "our adopted dog" or something like that, which really helped me establish a few ground rules for the dog around our kids. Enjoy!

    for Sandy Hook



  8. #8
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    This is the portable crate we got.
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

  9. #9
    doberbrat is offline Diamond level (5000+ posts)
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    the soft sided crates are awesome for crate trained dogs - they are very easily destroyed by dogs who like to dig/chew etc.

    I also agree with 'no dog should be an outside dog' but the smaller the dog, the more dangerous it is for them. 15lb dogs are prey and can be attacked by coyotes (which are common even in many suburban areas) even hawks and some owls could go after a 15lb dog. Plus, small dogs can easily dig out of their yards..... we've had dogs for nearly 20yrs and the only dog who's ever gotten out is Princess - at 14lbs, she can squeeze through the tiniest holes. Even though she's only out for ~5min at a time, she's gotten out several times.
    dd1 10/05
    dd2 11/09
    and ... a mini poodle!

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by doberbrat View Post
    even hawks and some owls could go after a 15lb dog.
    This was off my radar until we brought home a small dog and the vet warned us about it at the first visit. The vet warned us that dogs are usually killed by the fall, not the an attack of a hawk. The bird picks up because it’s interesting looking starts to fly off then drops the dog. All the ones she saw/tried to save were usually found in a neighbor’s yard b/c the dog was dropped fairly soon after the grab. She felt after 10-12 lbs, the threat was a lot less for the birds in our area.

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