Bringing
up a laika puppy
Conditions of the first year of life of a
dog will influence all its hunting future.
Only a dog which was bred and trained in a
proper way would become a true friend and a good assistant in hunting.
General
training of laika puppy. In
general, training of laika puppies doesn’t differ from those of other breeds,
the usual “come!”, “get'em!”, “go!”, “out”, etc.. Buy a book on dog
training and act! Don’t simply give your puppy the food you have prepared
for it, but put it in the place where it is to take it and whistle (you'd
better use a special whistle for
this, buy a sports whistle, pull a ball out of it and you’ll get an
excellent whistle for hunting with your dog). The whistle signals for
laikas are easy: one short means
“attention”, “change direction of movement”, etc., one short and one long
is the most important command “Come”. Give food to your puppy using this
signal. You will need this signal in the street, at testing and hunting; never scold the dog after
giving this signal, do just the
opposite – encourage it with food and kindness after giving this command. A
dog can hear a whistle at very long distances and can easily catch the
direction, which is very helpful in future hunting. Give a puppy “a place”,
a modest one, where it is able to hide from all adversities. After spending
several hours in a flat or yard a puppy is able to find such a place on its
own. There is one rule concerning “the place”: even if the dog is guilty,
you can’t punish it at “the place”; you can only reprimand it gently from a
distance. At the age of 3 months (injections quarantine) we start taking a
puppy out in the street so that it can get acquainted with nature, weather,
dogs, kids, people,domestic animals, crows, pigeons, etc. Don’t let anybody
hurt your puppy. Don’t let your puppy
“hunt” cats or birds, you should make the dog understand that the forest
and the yard are two different things. It is very important to get the dog
accustomed to water. Take the puppy to a river or to a lake or to a pond in
suitable weather. Get into the water yourself, throw a stick into the water
and gently make the puppy get into
the water as well. After a week of such “merry” training your laika will be
glad to swim at 30 degrees below zero!
Never throw a puppy into the water, it will be afraid of it for all
its life. By this time it’s good to get something for the
dog to carry around and retrieve, it can be a stuffed duck or a favorite toy. Throw it into the
water, not too far and command the dog to get it. Don’t be angry if the
puppy doesn’t fulfill your command, dog breeding needs great patience and
training.. Don’t forget to encourage the puppy with something tasty if it
behaves well or fulfills the command
correctly. You should never beat or kick, etc., your dog, unless you wish
to get a moral wreck: only patience, kindness and numerous repetition of
commands and exercises will allow you to bring up a good aide in hunting.
You can show your strictness only by voice, by ignoring your dog or by
hunger. By voice, obviously, means severe intonations; ignoring means
pretending you are offended and fail to notice the dog (it works well).
Training by hunger means that after the dog hasn’t fulfilled your commands
during a walk, at home you command “place!” and “forget” to feed the dog
until the next walk. It can last a
couple of days… don’t worry, your dog won’t die of starvation, and this
method is perfectly effective. After a “good” walk feed the dog and praise
it.
The health of the laika puppy depends only on you! You will
get all the recommendations from a veterinarian. At the age of 2 months it
is necessary to make first shot for canine distemper (1st half),
at 2,5 months – the second half-dose. At the age of 3 months you may walk a
puppy out in the street (if it is clean) and start training the dog to do
its business in the street . A
rabies should be made at the age of 6 months, grown up dogs should be
injected between seasons (the end of February, March). Distemper injections
are given to the dogs till the age of 3 – 4, rabies – throughout the
lifetime. If you are planning to go abroad, you should give injection
irrespective of the dog’s age (two months before the departure).
Feeding laika puppies is described in many
literature sources. It’s important to remember that a dog is a carnivore,
and a good hunter can never be brought up on porridge and water alone. Beef, fish, vegetables, grains,
everything will do in reasonable proportions. The calcium-phosphorus
balance, i.e. the presence of necessary amount of calcium in the body and
its ratio to phosphorus is very important. Two recommendations can be
given. The first one, ( the main and obligatory), concerns calcinated curd.
To make it, we take natural cow milk and calcium chloride (it can be bought
in every pharmacy), put the milk on
fire to boil, and when the milk is
going to boil, slowly pour calcium chloride in until the milk clots. The
whey is of no use, and the curd should be given to the dog. If you feed a
month old puppy 5 or 6 times a day, you can give this curd twice a day (it
will eat as much as it can). The second one is calcium and phosphorus. Buy
calcium gluconate and calcium glycerophosphate at the pharmacy (let the vet
specify the ratio), mix all the pill carefully; grind part of them in the
coffee grinder and every time add the
mixture to the puppy’s food. The rest of the pills can be given to the
puppy as they are; as a rule they can eat them easily. The amount is
unlimited, everything which is extra will go out naturally. Griound
eggshell and chalk are sources of calcium. Soft raw bones are best sources
of calcium and phosphorus. Buy vitamin D in oil (ergocalciferol). It’s a
“sunny vitamin”, give one drop of it to the puppy several times a day (see
instructions). As rule, the puppies lick it just like that, if not, put a
drop on the finger and spread it on the puppy’s tongue. I make vitamin
omelet for my dogs till they are one year old, which they eat once a day
(first meal in the morning). Take two eggs, a bit of salt, vitamin-enriched
fish bone flour (you can find it in all dogs shops), scramble the eggs with
the flour, fry it a little on the pan (just so it doesn’t fall apart), cut
it into pieces and give it to the dog (it’s both tasty and healthy, I’d eat
it myself). It’s important to
understand that you shouldn’t feed
your puppy sturgeon, that dog food must be relatively cheap, but
varied and nourishing.
