Getting my own place, want to get a dog

>>2292652
take it to the vet

>>2292655
I understand that you are memeing, but yes, I will take it to the vet

If you get a puppy, it WILL occasionally piss in the floor, it's just what puppies do before they're trained. Keep those puppy pad things around and be prepared to spend some time house training it. Don't get mad when it happens, you don't want your dog to be afraid of you, just be patient and move it to the pad, and keep in crated or in a small room overnight with a pad.

The earlier you start training, the better the dog will behave as an adult.

>>2292663
Thanks for the info- I remember my friend said something similar. How early can I get the little guy to go outside? Does it work just as well to move him to the yard if he pees on the floor, and have a pad in the crate at night? Will that send mixed messages?

Also, What do you guys think of an australian cattle dog? I know they nip a bit if you don't train them well because of their herding traits, but they seem like great dogs.

>>2292664
Herding dogs are always going to be very high energy, so I would advise against it unless you have a lot of time for taking it for a walk.

Getting it outside can work, but for a really tiny puppy I wouldn't let it outside unsupervised, because they won't know to stay out of things, and can slip through holes in fences easier than large dogs.

You might want to look into a medium poodle, I hear that they are highly intelligent, but a lot more eager to please than other intelligent breeds, so they're easier to train.

Whippets or greyhounds may be another choice, you can go running with them, but from what I understand they're also really lazy and like to just lay around most of the day.

>>2292667
I don't mind a high energy dog- I like walking around the city anyways, so I guess that wouldn't be an issue. Still, I'll also give poodles, whippets and greyhounds a look as well. Greyhounds always kind of struck me as neurotic, high strung dogs though.

As for the puppy being outside, I'll take your advice. If I let him or her out, I'll be sure to be outside as well.

>>2292669
That Dogs 101 show had a lot of good things to say about medium poodles. They're smart, eager to please, relatively healthy, and you don't HAVE to give them a doofy haircut. I lot of people automatically disregard them because "hurr they look dumb" because of the traditional haircuts.

>>2292670
Oh, that's a good point about the hair- I live in houston TX so I feel like a longer haired dog would be in absolute hell. Would a poodle's hair be too long or thick for that kind of weather? I go through 3 shirts a day when I'm at work because of how oppressively hot and humid it gets outside

>>2292663
Just to iterate on this;

Don't puppy pad train ie teach the dog to piss specifically on pads. Use it like you would newspaper, put it down to make clean up easier. Pad training confuses dogs into thinking peeing inside is OK, peeing on soft things is good, etc. It can cause a lot of frustration for both of you.

The general rule of thumb for dogs is they can hold their bladder one hour for every month of age. So a 2 month old puppy will have to go out every 2 hours and so on. This ends around 8 to 10 months. You do want to try to get the pup outside to pee so it won't begin to think peeing indoors is acceptable, but it's just a puppy so it won't learn right away. Parvo and distemper is pretty prevalent in TX so I'd advise taking him out only in your yard or a place you know only vaccinated dogs go to until he's had his 1 year vaccine. By that time, assuming you are getting the vaccines on time, he will be able to get his rabies shot too. But I wouldn't be too worried about rabies, just make sure your pup doesn't come into contact with unknown animals and you should be fine.

>>2292672
Poodles can get their hair cut very short, which I'd recommend. I know people who keep Huskies in TX so don't feel too bad for a poodle.

I will highly encourage to do your research on a reputable breeder, like I said parvo and distemper is prevalent and unfortunately poodles are very popular and therefor many BYB bred them to shit. Look for a reputable breeder, no craigslist bullshit. Also beware of puppy mills

>>2292694
Thank you for the advice.

Now, I work every day of the week- but like I said I'll have 2 roommates so if there isn't at least 1 person in the house, there will be very little time where all of us are absent.

How conscious should I be about making sure the puppy isn't alone? How much time is too much? I figured an hour or 2 each day is okay but not much more than that. I don't wanna make the thing live a lonely existence, especially when it's super young cause I figure that's when it's most impressionable and susceptible to mental issues or anxiety or something.

Also, how does a dog figure out who it's owner is, if it lives like this? I don't want to confuse it and make it think that one of my room mates is it's true owner or something on accident