resources request: nervous dogsitter with tiny golden

So, my friend is getting a dog! A nine-week-old Golden Retriever, to be specific - I've seen pictures and she's adorable. Said friend goes to school and her parents work, so I'm getting paid to watch the dog for a few hours a couple days a week.

I'm really excited, but I'm also scared that I will somehow mess up or traumatize or teach bad habits to the pup, and I could use some trustworthy and comprehensive resources on dog training/the general treatment of babydogs. I would just google it, but wow the Internet is big and there are a lot of differing opinions.

I'd ask for tips, but due to my mom's, uh, league of intensely judgmental animal rescue friends (they do a lot of good work! they just also probably hate you for making the wrong choices animal-wise ok that's my anxiety speaking but still) I tend to read personally-imparted animal advice as judgey. It's silly.

 

AYYY i am the friend, it is my dog, and i am so excited - but could also actually use advice!! my mom has a dog book for Dog Things(tm) but it is not the kind of thing i feel like im capable of sitting down and reading atm lol, small bite-sized How To Dog chunks would be muy bueno for me too :"""D

(pics will be incoming in applechime's pet thread soon, bc WE ARE PICKING HER UP TOMORROW AHHH)

 

also totally just read this post instead of skimming the first sentence and going "DOG!!!!" @blue if u want the book my mom has apparently it's a p easy read so if you would like that im sure my mom wont mind

 

@rats I would appreciate that! Can I .. borrow it, or? I read very fast and she could bring it tomorrow morning..? Or maybe the library has it, what is the title

 

"the perfect puppy: how to raise a well-behaved dog" by gwen bailey! my mom said she was able to power through it in a few hours and she's a notoriously.....i dont wanna say SLOW reader, but she definitely takes her time. the copy we have is ~100 pages, with pretty big type and a lot of pictures, and also sections that you wouldnt need bc it concerns nighttime stuff, so....! my mom says that if you dont get a copy today to let me know [thumbs up emoji]

 

@rats Ok, my library doesn't have it, so I would appreciate if I could borrow it!

 

babydog! she wants... to devour me

and also some grass, some mulch, the HOLE IN OUR FLOOR, my charging cable and all our toys. I have successfully dissuaded her from eating all of these things, don't worry.

 

Please please please post puppy pictures.

 

I don't have any really good ones yet, but these should give you the general idea:



she is a precious bean of happiness.

 

Oh my god.

 

THIS IS MY PUPPY, she is so precious, i can thunk some quality pics here too?? she does the thing where she just lays with all her legs splayed out, shes a precious baby princess and i love her

a+ pics @blue [heart eyes emoji] im in chem rn and seeing my bb made my day

 

@rats she's so cuuuute she keeps trying to eat lint though? and me? and the cat scratching post? and she got really excited and kept chewing on me despite my stern "no bite"s - but now she is asleep and it's adorable

also she's UNBELIEVABLY soft - oh she got up off my lap and walked over to under the chair and went back to sleep. well that's cute too

 

i know!!!! she's a big fluffbab ;w; her fav thing is the white dandelions - she loves snapping at them and making all the seeds go poof

 

Hey, @Greywing I dunno if you're on here much lately, but I bet you have good resources for the tinydog

 

Oh - thank you for trying to help, but I have now read The Book These Dog Owners Are Using, so I don't really need other resources at this point.

 

I have two seemingly clashing points.

1. If you are interested in crafting an ongoing and thorough understanding of How To Dog Very Well, I don't recommend relying on a single book. There are plenty of pretty unhelpful dog books! There are also plenty of fine ones, and plenty of good ones. It's a mix. If continuing to read articles and books about dogs isn't a priority for you, a passive-but-helpful way to still learn about dog training is to follow tumblr users who post about their dogs and their training, especially if their dogs are similar to yours in temperament, behavioral troubles, things that motivate them, etc.

(All that said, consistency is one of the more important things for raising a dog, so in that sense using the same book will help you guys.)

2. It's a bit like raising kids: people have been doing it for a very long time, mostly without thorough and considered information from a variety of sources, yet for the most part they come out pretty much fine (as long as you go into it caring about the dog's well-being and treat them as a living animal, not a mascot).

Trying to optimize dog happiness and your understanding of them is different from wanting to raise a dog that is fine and loves you and is generally happy. The latter is fine! I tend towards the former, because I love learning about dogs and their training, but it doesn't need to be a priority.

One thing about Goldens is that they're generally very tolerant dogs, which is nice and easy but can also mean less experienced owners don't always realize when they're making their dog uncomfortable. To some extent that's totally okay, since nobody (human or dog) is going to be comfortable and secure all the time, so learning to deal with some stressors can make a dog more stable down the line.

Anyway, I could ramble on for a while. If you're looking for info about certain aspects of training or have specific questions down the line, I'd be happy to discuss them!

 

I definitely want to learn more about it - my response to Vierran was sort of ill-considered in retrospect. But I'm a bit worried about it just because she's Not My Dog and I feel like I should bow to rats' mom's wishes? Plus I'm concerned I'll find conflicting info and get anxious about it, because my brain is dumb :|

 

Any conflicting info will probably go down to choosing why feels more natural. As someone with two dogs we didn't train properly as puppies and had to learn haphazardly how to train them now, I sympathize with how hard that is. But it's pretty well worth it, I think, and my younger dog is finally confident and happy since I started to work seriously with him.

 

for some reason whenever I look at greywing's post I am filled with the urge to say the following, so now I am:

O P T I M I Z E D O G

oh shit what's the default font? I assumed it was TNR but it clearly isn't. now everything looks weeeiiird

 

@blue default font is georgia
also that is an adorable dog, no help from me though, as i have never had a dog