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Originally Posted by turbulence ...so I might be better off with a slightly older dog that is already toilet trained?
Could I still take an older dog to training to refine it?
My main worry though is that if I got an older dog, say 1 year old, will he/she build the same kind of bond with me that a puppy would?? |
You don't have to get a puppy for a normal, temperamentally stable dog to form a deep attachment to you.
We're active in Rottie rescue. If you came to our house, I defy you to tell me which of the 3 dogs in our home is the foster. Our foster's attachment to us isn't a fluke--all our fosters have formed deep, loving attachments to us. And they have been able to form a deep, loving attachment to their forever families when they got adopted.
At 1 yo, a Rottie is still a young dog, so I had to laugh when you refer to a 1 yo Rottie as "an older dog."
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Originally Posted by turbulence ...My last dog we had since she was 8 weeks old and she bonded with me so closely because I was there from the start. |
The fact your last dog did this was due more to her having a stable temperament than the fact you got her as a puppy.
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Originally Posted by turbulence ......if I can try the crating technique/leaving the dog indoors.. it would probably be easier with an older dog because it won't be as inclined to wreck my house? |
My rescue group requires fosters to crate train their fosters and we STRONGLY encourage adopters to initially crate their new dog when they aren't home or can't supervise the dog.
All new fosters are crated when DH and I aren't home. If the dog proves himself in our home, eventually he isn't crated, but he sure is crated as he's settling into our home.