gettin my bichon in 2 weeks

MacBaldy

finally getting my bichon frise in 2 weeks an looking forward to it
he was like was so small an snow white, will post pic asap

i would like some info from other bichon frise owners about first few months of puppy life if possible, like whats the best food, should i keep him what he's on allready from breeder, how man times a day etc an other little idea's an suggestions to help me an my gf along, would be very gratful

smilerf

i have a westie but the idea on food is the same. start him off on a good quality puppy food and then at abt 8 months or so switch him to the adult version of the said food.
some of the good foods available are arden grange, burns, james wellbeloved, orijen acana and so on
stay clear of crap like pedegree, purina, bakers, iams or anything advertised on tv basically

roxiesmammy

A sis in law has a bichon dog prob nearly 2 now. the only prob she has had with him is keeping him white, and also house training, apparently they are for some reason very hard to train. She has seen a vet to check there was no infection and also a behaviourist who told her this is very common in this breed.

Cutie18Ireland

We have a 6 month old bichon frisé and I wouldn't say toilet training was any different than with any other pup.
Our breeder had Casper on "Royal Canin Mini Junior" so we have continued with that.
Best advice I can give you is to brush everyday... our fella hates the brush

Some pics: here

Sigma Force

Unless the breeder has him on a good quality food you need to switch him gradually to a better quality one. Although get some food from the breeder so you can slowly introduce the new food by mixing the two to prevent tummy upsets. Ensure you measure well and don't be tempted to over feed at any one sitting. Depending on the pups age the pup may need 4 meals a day to start with.

Before you get the dog ensure the breeder is genuine, dogs reared in the home not in a shed or outbuilding, the dogs and pups are healthy happy etc.

Bichons can have skin problems so make sure the pups parents and the pups aren't suffering from any issues. Ensure at least the first vaccination is done but with smaller breeds you really are better off leaving the pup a bit longer say until the pup is 10 to 12 weeks because the pup will be tiny as it is at 10 to 12 weeks and that way both vaccines can be done and you can start socialising the pup straight away.

Get a reciept as well one thing I didn't do sorry I didn't get one now.

Crate, vet bed or fleecey blankets (they was and dry easily and are cosy), food brands like Hills puppy, Royal canin toy/small breed puppy, Burns mini bites. Originally had ours on the breeders brand then switched slowly to Royal canin but he's not on Burns but am after getting a bag of hills (won it in a charity fun show he came 2nd hurah) so mixing that with the Burns atm I shouldn't really keep changing but I figured why waste it it's a good food too.

I find Burns keeps the weight on because he's going through that gangley teenager stage where he's growing like mad puppies can start looking half starved when they go through that stage but the Burns seems to be working well at keeping the weight on he's tiny anyway but more meaty than he was and his coat is great and his eyes don't run as much.

With Bichons you might find his fur gets tear stained you can get wipes, I tried the wipes didn't work that well but you can just use some damp tissue.

A good brush and some good quality nice smelling doggy deoderant is handy to freshen up the coat although a nice gentle puppy shampoo ideally one for sensative skin is handy to have because puppies tend to step in their own wee and poop and they can get mucky during the first stages of crate training.

Kongs...puppy kongs are fantastic there are lots of toys for small breed puppies aim for the teething toys you can never have enough of them.

Ensure breeder has the pup chipped and get a puppy collar and id tag ready to bring with you when picking up the pup.

An 8 inch puppy collar should work no harm in getting a 6 inch or 6 to 8 inch puppy collar just in case one doesn't fit. Lead as well but harness is best when walking smallies puppia harnesses the smallest size should be ok for a bichon check out mollys.ie for harnesses and a size guide it will give you an idea of what to get for him.

Cutie18Ireland

we have a small puppia harness for our bichon although he will be needing a medium soon so the harness should do you for awhile

MacBaldy

thanks everyone for posting above an time to write back, great advice, lovely pic by the way so cute, i will post my pic up on "post ur pic thread", also my paretns are getting golden retriever so he will be mixing with him a few days.