Litter of one? - Page 1

I have a male puppy that is now 4 weeks old. He is doing great, and catching on to potty training pretty good. I am amazed at how fast he is catching on, compared to past litters of the same age. I know it is because we are more aware and paying more attention to him. Since he has no litter mates he is requiring more "entertainment" from his human litter mates "us". He doesn't pay much attetntion to toys. But does like to steal my socks. LOL! Any ideas on how to keep this guy amused and learn the canine values. Mom doesn't spend alot of time with him now, and I have no other dogs that I would trust as a baby sitter. Also would it still be to his advantage to keep him until 8 weeks since he has no other puppies to play with and learn proper canine skills. Wanting to learn from others who have been there with just 1 pup in a litter. Thanks Ben

My stud dog does a lot of "babysitting." When Ali was born and weaned, a single puppy, he took care of a lot of her early education, with we humans also giving her more attention than she would have received had she had to share the limelight with litter mates. I am fortunate in having had several males I could delegate responsibility to post-weaning/pre-homing. This has become a prerequisite for a male used in my breeding program. If they aren't good with little puppies, they have no place here. Xato flunked Puppy 101 when I saw him leave the 6th blind, run over to the bench at the side of the club house and chase a little puppy under its handler's legs... aggressively. I made a lame excuse, failed to unload the bitch I had brought to breed to him, pulled out of the parking lot, and got on the phone for a quick Plan B. I don't need that. SS

Thanks for your imput. I recently lost my "Auntie" baby sitter and Grandma who is 13, is developing a low tolerence towards puppies. My other dogs are good with puppies, but tend to play too rough and require close suppervision.

We are really lucky too, Our males are excellent with pups and like Shelly we use them often as "babysitters" Rescently we been using a showline male who is super with them, We call him Uncle Echo. He's great in that he does not teach the pups to be grumpy with the other dogs when they approach the fence, Mom would run at the fence to "protect" her babies, the Male would run at the fence because he's a male and did not want other males too near, But Echo does not do that to any of the dogs that approach and hense the pups don't learn this behavior from him. That'a a tough situation fm, if you can find a dog or pup even close in age, or maybe another litter to throw this guy into now and then, with supervision obviously, Maybe that would help with "social skills" Wish you the best, and hopefully you will be able to find your next baby sitter soon, :-)