I'm in need of some advice for raising my pup as I am determined to
give it a long happy life. This may come off as long-winded and naive
but any advise would be appreciated and considered. Here's the
preamble which is long but important to the questions...

My fiancée and I took in a 9 week old (according to the vet) stray
just under a week ago. We live in Georgetown, Guyana (South America,
east of Venezuela). There are tons of strays here and dogs are,
generally, treated very differently (poorly, in my opinion) than in
North America or other western countries. Anyway, we found this little
dog eating trash on the street and decided to take it in rather than
get a dog when we return home after my fiancée's contract is over here
(late February). We have no way of knowing where the dog may have come
from but it was certainly very skinny when we found her and had the
usual fleas and ticks. First thing the next day, I took her in to the
nearest veterinarian where she was given some shots, some flea and tick
medicine and a casual look-over.

As I mentioned above, dogs aren't as highly regarded as they are in
rich, western countries and thus our landlady was completely against us
keeping the dog indoors. After a day of cooling off (for me) we came
to an agreement where we could bring the dog for a bit every day and
when it rains (we are just north of the amazon and when it rains it
RAINS). So she sleeps outside unless its raining and comes in during
the day for a couple hours in the morning and evening. Neither of us
like this but we don't have much choice until we leave Guyana and head
back to Canada as changing locations is not possible.

As each day passes and we're feeding her puppy food she's getting more
and more energy - acting more like a puppy I suppose. As this happens,
she's showing signs of things that we would rather not have her do,
most notably biting at hands and chewing on anything near her mouth.
Of course, she seems to do this when excited so we're attributing it to
playing but (Question #1): does biting and chewing while playing carry
on unless dealt with now? The next concern is "house breaking".
Ultimately, she will be an in-house dog when we return home but
(Question #2): is there any way to provide some form of house breaking
even if she is outside a lot of the time where she can pretty much "go"
wherever she pleases and whenever?

I work from home so I can be around her often but I obviously have a
job to do so I can't devote every minute to being with her. Sometimes,
though not often, she will whine a bit and then eventually let out a
couple barks whereupon I go and see what is happening and sometimes pet
and play with her. This weighs heavily on my conscience as the last
thing I want is for her to feel excluded or un-loved. So (Question
#3): what is a good amount of time to spend with a puppy this age and
what should I be doing with her? We generally throw her rubber bone
around and she fetches it and (usually) brings it back to repeat. We
give her a lot of physical affection by petting and kissing but
(Question #4): is too much physical affection a bad precedence to set
this early on? How much affection is too much?

Finally, while I appreciate *any* advise, I won't be locking my dog up
in a box or any such thing so don't bother suggesting it.

Sincerely,

Paul

"Paul" wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm in need of some advice for raising my pup as I am determined to
give it a long happy life. This may come off as long-winded and naive
but any advise would be appreciated and considered. Here's the
preamble which is long but important to the questions...

My fiancée and I took in a 9 week old (according to the vet) stray
just under a week ago. We live in Georgetown, Guyana (South America,
east of Venezuela). There are tons of strays here and dogs are,
generally, treated very differently (poorly, in my opinion) than in
North America or other western countries. Anyway, we found this little
dog eating trash on the street and decided to take it in rather than
get a dog when we return home after my fiancée's contract is over here
(late February). We have no way of knowing where the dog may have come
from but it was certainly very skinny when we found her and had the
usual fleas and ticks. First thing the next day, I took her in to the
nearest veterinarian where she was given some shots, some flea and tick
medicine and a casual look-over.

As I mentioned above, dogs aren't as highly regarded as they are in
rich, western countries and thus our landlady was completely against us
keeping the dog indoors. After a day of cooling off (for me) we came
to an agreement where we could bring the dog for a bit every day and
when it rains (we are just north of the amazon and when it rains it
RAINS). So she sleeps outside unless its raining and comes in during
the day for a couple hours in the morning and evening. Neither of us
like this but we don't have much choice until we leave Guyana and head
back to Canada as changing locations is not possible.

As each day passes and we're feeding her puppy food she's getting more
and more energy - acting more like a puppy I suppose. As this happens,
she's showing signs of things that we would rather not have her do,
most notably biting at hands and chewing on anything near her mouth.
Of course, she seems to do this when excited so we're attributing it to
playing but (Question #1): does biting and chewing while playing carry
on unless dealt with now? The next concern is "house breaking".
Ultimately, she will be an in-house dog when we return home but
(Question #2): is there any way to provide some form of house breaking
even if she is outside a lot of the time where she can pretty much "go"
wherever she pleases and whenever?

--I would suggest putting a leash on her when she's inside, so you can
supervise her closely. Then when she behaves as though she's gotta go, you
can take her out and *praise her* for going outdoors.

--Someone else can answer the biting/chewing question.

I work from home so I can be around her often but I obviously have a
job to do so I can't devote every minute to being with her. Sometimes,
though not often, she will whine a bit and then eventually let out a
couple barks whereupon I go and see what is happening and sometimes pet
and play with her. This weighs heavily on my conscience as the last
thing I want is for her to feel excluded or un-loved. So (Question
#3): what is a good amount of time to spend with a puppy this age and
what should I be doing with her? We generally throw her rubber bone
around and she fetches it and (usually) brings it back to repeat. We
give her a lot of physical affection by petting and kissing but
(Question #4): is too much physical affection a bad precedence to set
this early on? How much affection is too much?

-- Question 3, as much time as possible. To question 4, I don't think you
can give her too much attention. You're going to take her back to Canada
with you, I hope.

-- flick 100785

Finally, while I appreciate *any* advise, I won't be locking my dog up
in a box or any such thing so don't bother suggesting it.

Sincerely,

Paul