Questions about Curly Mac

[shannonroselive]

Hi everyone! So I have a few questions about Curly Mac and hope you can help.

At 7 weeks she weighs only 6.72 oz. The smallest on the growth chart I found here is 11 oz at 7 weeks. Should I be worried? She seems fine, great in fact! She's a little wild child and seems pretty smart too.

She hasn't ever had an accident on the floor. We got her right before her 6 week birthday and immediately made the wee pads available to her and she goes to them every time. Once I was holding her and she was squirming all about so I said OK, OK, and put her down...she ran straight to the wee wee pad and let'er rip. The girl had to go!

I had fully intended intended to crate train her so I bought the crate and she slept in it the first few days (whimpering all night long) but she also did her business in there. Ugh! She loves her regular bed which is in my boys' room so the other night, I reluctantly let her sleep there. I put a wee wee pad next to her bed and her water dish on the other side of her bed. When morning came, she was snug in her bed, there was poop on the pad, and no mess anywhere. I don't know what to think. Do I still need to crate train her? If so, why?

Vaccinations are whats scaring me though. So much info for and against vaccinating so I wonder what is the least we could get away with (if at all). She's just so tiny, I can't imagine she could tolerate much at all. She doesn't even eat much at a time, just tiny bits.

Oh, and I keep reading how it's nearing time to socialize her with other dogs but then I read that I shouldn't take her out with other dogs until she's had her shots. If it's not time for those...I'm confused!

I appreciate any responses and hope this wasn't too much at once. If it was, just slap me and I'll learn!

[chachi]

She is super tiny and young and shouldnt even be away from her mom yet at that size. I would make sure shes eating every couple of hours and I would give her nutrical a couple times a day. You definitely dont want her around other dogs untill shes had all her shots

[Yorkieforme]

Originally Posted by chachi

She is super tiny and young and shouldnt even be away from her mom yet at that size. I would make sure shes eating every couple of hours and I would give her nutrical a couple times a day. You definitely dont want her around other dogs untill shes had all her shots

I agree!

Hi and Welcome to YT!!

[shannonroselive]

I have been giving her Nutrical since I got her and bottle fed her the first few days until she decided to eat puppy food.

I know she was too young to take her but her momma didn't want much to do with any of them. She had 5 but one didn't make it and then she didn't seem to like any of the other 4. Curly was definitely the smallest but 2 others much different in size and one was a little chunk.

Anyhow, I do think she's coming along ok. She plays and eats and poops a lot so that can't be too bad.

[chachi]

Just keep it up. Honestly the only one I have ever heard of having a pup that small on here in 4 yrs have been breeders. She is really small

[bellasmomok]

Originally Posted by shannonroselive

I had fully intended intended to crate train her so I bought the crate and she slept in it the first few days (whimpering all night long) but she also did her business in there. Ugh! She loves her regular bed which is in my boys' room so the other night, I reluctantly let her sleep there. I put a wee wee pad next to her bed and her water dish on the other side of her bed. When morning came, she was snug in her bed, there was poop on the pad, and no mess anywhere. I don't know what to think. Do I still need to crate train her? If so, why?

Vaccinations are whats scaring me though. So much info for and against vaccinating so I wonder what is the least we could get away with (if at all). She's just so tiny, I can't imagine she could tolerate much at all. She doesn't even eat much at a time, just tiny bits.

Oh, and I keep reading how it's nearing time to socialize her with other dogs but then I read that I shouldn't take her out with other dogs until she's had her shots. If it's not time for those...I'm confused!

First of all, if she is always going in the appropriate place (her pad) and not having any accidents AND since you don't have any other pets that she would be left alone with outside a crate, I don't see any reason to crate train if you are happy with her sleeping in her bed. Just make sure she has adequate blankets kind of squished around so that she has somewhere to scoot under if she gets cold......the floor is the coldest place in the house and she is soooo tiny, I would hate for her to ever get cold! Normally, she would be with her mom until she was 10-12 wks old, and her mom would keep her warm.....but, since she isn't, it's your responsibility to make sure she stays warm! (Feel the tips of her ears....if they are cold to the touch, than she is too cool.)

2nd of all, I completely understand your wariness about vaccines. A lot of people only do the "core" vaccines which are Distemper, Parvo, Adeno (Hepatitis), and Rabies (Rabies shouldn't be given before 4 mo. though, and it shouldn't be given at the same time as another vaccine--wait 2-4 wks in between!) Bella got all the extras when she was a puppy, and she had a very mild reaction to the last one. We will only do core vaccines from now on!! (Actually, the vet sometimes will only have DHPP on hand, which is Distemper, Hepatitis (Adeno), Parvo, and Parainfluenza....most people don't worry about the Parainfluenza though, so if that's included that should be just fine.)

3rd of all, NO, NO, NO.....she cannot be around any other dogs (unless you know for a fact and would bet her life on it that the dog has had all it's vaccines and isn't sick!) until 3-4 weeks AFTER her LAST puppy shot!! Yes, she should be socialized with people and get to explore (INSIDE!) before then, and after then Yes, she very much needs to be socialized with other dogs. Before it's safe, though, it's a no no!!

Also, since she's so tiny, she probably needs to be fed ever 2-4 hrs to make sure she's getting what she needs. It's a tough task feeding that often, but I feed mine ever 5 hrs at 9 mo. old because she has a liver issue and work full time (either me or my boyfriend has to come home from work at lunch to feed her in between being gone).....you just do what you have to do!! Good luck on miss teeny tiny!!! And let's see some pictures!!!

[piptickle]

WOW! I just checked out pix in your album! She is such a cutie!!! I just love her dark colouring! I'm looking forward to watching her grow on YT! Be sure to keep updating those pix

[luvfla]

Your baby is young BUT you have a great support group here. Congrats.

[Bhikku]

My pup is just now four months, so I just got done going through what you're going through. Here's some suggestions based on my personal experiences:

I would still crate train (just because it's convenient to have a place where your dog is trained to be still and quiet, just in case of occasions where you need the dog to be out from underfoot), but if you want the pup to stay in the crate overnight, it definitely requires getting up in the middle of the night with your puppy to let it out. I had to get up and let my puppy out at 1AM for a month before he could hold it overnight.

Even if you don't train the pup to stay in the crate at night, you can always train her to stay in the crate for periods of time while you're home (or while you're out of the house) so she gets used to being "put away" and also has a safe place to be while you're doing other things. She'll teeth soon and you don't want her to have total access to your house, no matter how good at housebreaking she is. And when she's a little older, her housebreaking might regress. So crate training is harder, but it can be very helpful on those fronts.

As far as vaccinations go, I would arrange to watch your pup after her vaccinations and I would try to avoid giving your combo shot and the rabies shot together. My puppy had a severe allergic reaction to the rabies shot and had to be rushed back to the vet.

After shots, I recommend Petsmart for puppy training classes, more for the socialization than anything. I have my pup in training classes there and while the obedience itself isn't so useful to me (I already trained Ollie with hand signals in several commands before signing him up) the socialization aspect is key. From what I've seen, little dogs like yorkies don't have much of a concept of their own size and if they aren't very well socialized, they can get themselves into a fight they can't get themselves out of...

[phfgkl]

Here's a weight chart I use, yours isn't registering on here though.
Puppy Weight Chart
The vet can tell you when she needs her shots, and I would think they would be starting them. I got my first yorkie one day shy of 7 weeks and it seems like the shots started at 8 weeks, if I'm not mistaken.
Sounds like your baby is doing great, the thing with her wandering you want to watch, is that she doesn't chew on any cords, or that your kids don't wake up in the middle of the night and maybe step on her. Good luck
with her

[shannonroselive]

ACK! I'm so sorry but I was mistaken on her weight! I had been weighing her on a digital food scale which apparently was wrong. After reading all these responses, I went had had her weighed at the vet and she was 19 oz!!! I knew she seemed good to me. She just didn't seem too small but I kept weighing her and reading all this info and I was starting to really worry! That digital scale is going in the trash!

[chachi]

Originally Posted by shannonroselive

ACK! I'm so sorry but I was mistaken on her weight! I had been weighing her on a digital food scale which apparently was wrong. After reading all these responses, I went had had her weighed at the vet and she was 19 oz!!! I knew she seemed good to me. She just didn't seem too small but I kept weighing her and reading all this info and I was starting to really worry! That digital scale is going in the trash!

LOL I am glad to hear she is 19 oz. My girl was 12 oz when I brought her home and she was small but sturdy. I was really worried about her

[my2boyz]

Originally Posted by shannonroselive

ACK! I'm so sorry but I was mistaken on her weight! I had been weighing her on a digital food scale which apparently was wrong. After reading all these responses, I went had had her weighed at the vet and she was 19 oz!!! I knew she seemed good to me. She just didn't seem too small but I kept weighing her and reading all this info and I was starting to really worry! That digital scale is going in the trash!

I'm glad you posted this because I just looked at your album and she looks normal sized to me. I thought the weight had to be wrong. She's a cutie...I hope she continues to do well for you.