Advice on 10 week old puppy please. Toilet training. Sleeping & mouthing issues.

[Iwonderif]

This is quite long...

We have a 10 week old Cockapoo. Hes jet black and adorable. He's been with us for 9 days so I know it's all still very very new. However we are struggling SO much with the bedtime scenario and also trying to get him outside to use the toilet. Plus he's very very mouthy.....I know the nipping & biting is normal but we are trying so many things like yelping and keeping eye contact as he swings from the sleeve of my jumper.

We were told to wait until his second injection (had on the 24th) before he could use the garden for doing his poo & wee so for 6 days previous to this he's been using pads and doing very well. So lots of praise and treats Last two days though he's been using the carpet! Thinking this will need to be professionally cleaned to stop him from going to the same spot. I am now beginning to take him outside every few hours to try and use the toilet. So far nothing!!

We have a crate which up until 2 days ago he loved. Would take himself off for naps during the day and snuggle down with no problem. Now though he'll only sleep at my feet in the living room. He's not allowed on the sofa and responds well to "down" when he try's to get up.

I think he's mega overtired as lack of sleep during the night which I won't go into but I know for those reading who've been in my shoes will fully appreciate and know what I'm talking about. He basically will not stop crying. He will go to his bed/crate and understands the command "bed" we give no eye contact and he gets back in. Last two nights and especially last night were awful. Worse than the first night he was here!!!

Does leaving him to cry work? How long is ok to leave him?

i left him in the kitchen earlier to get 10 mins peace. He was chomping on his Kong toy but the minute he realised I'd gone he whined, whimpered and did everything he does during the night. After 10 mins I went back in. Should I have done?

I left him for 15 mins on two separate occasions yesterday & my mother in law popped in after 10 mins & she said he was fine.

He's currently at my feet catching up on sleep. He's had a play in the garden & had a bath. But the moment I leave the room he'll follow me.

It's SO hard!!! I'm sooooo tired & feel we've made a huge error. Especially with the biting, which at times is strong. His eyes go big and he growls when holding onto our clothes. He nips our feet too....he's crazy with the children (6&9) who love him but he's often just too much for them.

HELP.........!!! Thank you.

Ask for this to be moved to The Doghouse
You will find lots of people who are in a similar situation or who have been ( me included)
Lots of us deeply regret getting our pups but it usually works out ok in the end

Thank you

Woof!
All sorted

Our cockapoo is 7 months now and a lot of the things you mention he grew out of naturally. Keep being consistent with him and it all should fall into place.

With the toilet training you need to be taking him out every 30/60 mins at least , after naps ,after meals and watch like a hawk for signs he's going to go . It's useful to use a command word - we use go quickly , and also if he's going indoors I found mine got it quite quickly if I just scooped him up mid pee and ran to the garden with him . Who gave you the advice about not using the garden because unless you have a lot of foxes / stray dogs in there it's just bizarre and unfortunately using pads can really confuse the issue . I never left mine to cry , I slept downstairs by his pen at first , and went down and sat with him if he woke in the night and cried .

Buy yourself some Simple Solutions to clean up accidents. It has enzymes in it that destroy the smell and therefore discourage repeats. You need to take him out at least every half hour until he starts to get it. It will get better :)

The Dog Training Advice and Support FB group (my link) has an excellent list of articles (my link) covering various puppy-related subjects.

There's no need to leave a puppy to cry at all. They can learn to sleep on their own and be happy being left during the day but it needs to be done gradually to avoid the puppy associating being alone with being distressed. Separation anxiety can be extremely difficult to deal with so it's far better to take the extra time now to get the puppy comfortable being alone than risk having to deal with a much greater issue later.

(Any links appearing in this post other than those marked as my own have been inserted automatically by advertising software and may link to companies or products I would neither support nor recommend.)

You beat me to it, Cornflake! That's a great FB group. Loads of info in their Files section on pretty much every subject. Really worth a read.

OP having a puppy is very hard and everyone I know says they go through the 'what the hell have I done' moments.

I'll offer a different perspective to above. You will hear you can't take them out at all until their vaccinations as they will catch diseases, you can't let them jump off things or any more than 5 mins exercise per month of age as they will get hip and joint problems, if you let them cry they will end up with seperation anxiety and so on. What I am getting at is you will be told lots of things in real life and on the internet. There are different techniques and if something isn't working for you don't be afraid to try something else.

For biting yelping or ignoring or giving other objects did not work for me. We had to use timeouts in a crate for 10 mins until he calmed down until he grew out of it.

For toileting I kept taking him outside after play, feed and every 30 mins at first and he had accidents. I thought he would never get the hang of toileting but something clicked and he got it but it took weeks. Look on other threads in here and you will see other people struggling as well but if you keep at it they will get it but it might take longer than what you expect (the how to toilet train your dog in 5 days I think must be the exception rather than the norm).

I know several people in real life that left their pup to cry and settle and we don't have dogs with seperation anxiety. If you think you should never leave them to cry my understanding is the link above gives good advice on how to do that. I left my pup everyday once he has peeded, pooed an eaten in many places (garden, room, enclosed crate etc). Listening to him he would cry for up to 30 mins then settle after which I would come in and then go again after a few mins so he got used to me coming back. It's hard hearing them cry so I can understand why people follow the other method but I didnt have an undefinite time to do this. The crying got less and less until he basically doesn't care that I leave as Lin as he gets his treats when I go out for a few hours.

Good luck in what ever you try but remember the puppy months don't last long and this period will pass

This is my area of expertise so i couldn't read and run.

To start with, 9 days is barely any time at all to have come away from mum, home and litter mates. People underestimate how traumatic this is for the puppies. I had a puppy sent back to me years ago as they said it had gone 'mad'. It was biting, running round like a maniac and would not settle in it's crate. It had been the perfect puppy, just like the rest of it's litter here with me. I took it back as they refused to take it to the vet and have it checked and refused to keep it. When it arrived back i could tell within hours that it was in a bad way. I let it out in the garden and sat with it for a few hours. It peed 8 times in an hour. I took a urine sample to the vet and it had a horrendous urine infection. Took two rounds of antibiotics to shift and once cleared up puppy was back to normal, the behaviour change was remarkable. It turns out the trauma of moving home had set off the infection, (pups had been checked before leaving me) and the infection had gone unnoticed for a about two weeks.

Moral of the story - if you notice behaviour changes creeping in get a health check done AND a urine test.

Step one - get a vet check done - again if you already have

Toileting.

Whoever told you not to let the puppy outside until the second vaccination is wrong. Any responsible breeder should be toileting their litters of pups outside as soon as possible in a safe enclosed area. To not do this is a mistake. It helps the puppy build a strong immune system, teaches them where to toilet, ie not in the house and gets them used to sights and sounds of real life - very important in the early weeks.

So step two - start toileting your puppy outside in a safe enclosed back garden NOW. The main problems with puppy pads is that they feel soft like carpet and depending on the puppy , as you have found out, confusion can set in and they start to toilet on you carpet. Chuck the pads away and if you need to use something ie to line the crate at night use newspaper.

Step three - Once pup has been vet checked as clear, regarding the crate training, put him in and leave him to cry. The quicker you get this done the easier on puppy and the whole family. The longer you pander to him, the louder and longer the screaming and crying will go on for. Start as you mean to go on. Put him in for bed time and go to bed yourselves. As long as he has a bed, somewhere to toilet and some water let him get on with it.

Step four - Do whatever you can to stop the growling. The play biting and nipping is general puppy stuff and will go away as he matures. However the growling and hanging tightly onto things will escalate. This needs to be stopped now. ANY growling, nipping, biting of any kind results in a time out to calm down. Put him in a crate/other room - anywhere that the fun stops and he gets to be away from the family. Tell him no firmly and the hardest thing (especially where kids are involved) is that the whole family and anyone who deals with the puppy need to be on the same page regarding this.

Hope this helps - if you need more advice please message me.

Good luck.

I was not expecting the biting to be such a problem.. Our pup is 18 weeks now and she is soooo much better.. Give it time

Thank you SO much to each of you who've taken the time to reply. Much appreciated. I had two friends come over yesterday, big dog lovers and far more experienced than me/us so yesterday evening & today I've been far more relaxed. What a difference 24 hours make...well a great deal less than 24 hours because at 5pm yesterday he used the garden for the first time!!!! No accidents today in house either AND he only cried for 10 minutes last night at bedtime!!! I feel a great deal better today. It's still early days & I hope I haven't now jinxed myself but thought I'd update you considering you took the time to give me your advice & tips. Oh & the biting has eased LOADS too and the growling. I even managed to get the harness on him and go out in the car!!

Glad you feel more relaxed. You might want to join the puppy survival thread someone started on here as well as it's nice to know you are not alone in going through the trials of having a puppy.

Thanks BiteyShark I'll go & take a look.

Puppies are a pain in the bum! Mine are now 1 yr and 10 months old and I'm so pleased those first few weeks are over. It's like having a crazy toddler that can't wear nappies!

Toilet- outside every half hour, take treats with you. If your inside watch them like a hawk and if you can't then crate her. Biological washing powder is just as good as the posh stuff for accidents.

Biting-ignore her and stand up, or yelp and ignore her. Plenty of toys to distract and destroy as well.

Bed time- mine have always been crated from day one over night. Initially they were in my room but now they're in the kitchen. TBH they never got upset and went without a toilet break over 99% of the time so I'm lucky 😊.

Soon this will all be a distant memory and your pup will be a toy destroying angel in the house and you get to deal with all the fun stuff that the teenage dog brings