Finally gone and done it....now, advice needed please!

[Fillybuster]

After many many years, and with a scary awareness of all the zillions of reasons why it still might not be a good idea, we have finally taken the plunge and are now the very proud, nervous and, frankly terrified owners of a 12 week old cockapoo.

Please tell me everything I need to know!!!

(Immunisations all complete, not puppy farmed, crate training sort of in progress, doing well on toilet training although bad weather might not help)

My big worry: he's on 80:20 dry food (Akela, pure duck with a bit of veg, no gluten, no grains) from his breeder. 3 meals a day on offer, which I remove after about 30 mins if not eaten as recommended by breeder. Day 1 he ate fine, but has been pretty much off his food ever since (its day 5 today). After 2 days, I added in some tiny tiny bits of leftover beef to a couple of meals which (unsurprisingly!) he bobbled up - fine for short term panic management (mine!!!) but not a long term strategy.

Do I keep serving up the same dry food and assume he'll eventually get hungry enough to eat it? Or switch? I don't want a sad hungry little pup especially when he's having to get used to so many new things...

Thank you all!

Dogs won't starve themselves on purpose so as long as he's healthy (ie no pain/medical reasons why he wouldn't be eating) I wouldn't worry too much. Scrambled egg mixed into the dry food can sometimes help, dry food isn't appealing to all dogs and he might just not be keen on it!

I recommend raw feeding but I understand it's not for everyone, as long as you're on as good a quality dry kibble as you can afford he won't deliberately starve!

My dog has always struggled to eat kibble, even good quality, until I found the holy grail. I read that dogs tend to be attracted to smelly food so now I mix a bit of cheesy scrambled egg into the kibble and he gobbles the lot down.

All my puppies have been a bit off their food a few days in. My last pups were weaned on to some dry kibble which they sniffed at. I changed their food gradually tto fish for dogs which I softened with a little warm water. The smell is petty good and very fishy. I think most pups will eventually settle food wise

Mine have a sliver of wet dog food (hills prescription for weight loss ) in with their kibble. I add a bit of water to make it a bit gravy so the wet food mixes in with the dry. My two clearly have no problems with food, but one can be a bit of a snob with just dry food. HTH

Thank you all - that's super reassuring. I know he won't actually starve but was worried he was dealing with enough stress being In a new environment without needing to be hungry too. But he ate all 3 meals yesterday with nothing added in, so I was much more relaxed when he wasn't remotely interested in breakfast this morning!

So much to learn....

Op
You should know that photos are mandatory on posts like this.

No advice from me until you put one up.

He could be teething and hard kibble might be tough on his mouth. You can always soften it with hot water and see if that helps.
We need a photo it's the rule here [

I'd recommend having a read through the various links on this thread, there's loads of great stuff on there covering almost every aspect of dog/puppy ownership.

Mine has piccolo dry food which is food "designed" for small breeds.

It's small kibble too, totally grain free and by the same company as Acana,

I pop in some forthglade wet food to encourage my picky eater to eat.

Again totally grain free, 90% meat content and seems to work well with my pup

With the forthglade, if you choose to try it, make sure you get the one that says grain free on the front as there's two types. One is grain free, the other is not

Pics? Really? Gosh, I'm sorry [flustered]. How rude of me

Well, since you're asking....

SO cute!

Our puppy is now 5 months old and she didn't want much in the first few days. She was just settling in and getting over being handed to her new family, a long drive and arriving at a strange place.

Our vet has said it's important for dogs to learn to chew - and some dogs don't if not fed kibble. We feed a mix of good quality kibble and raw meat and veg. Butcher scraps for the win!

We've just got a golden retriever puppy. She's 9 weeks old tomorrow. The breeder told me to soak the kibble in warm water for a bit so they're not really hard and then give it to her. She only ate about half of her 4 meals. I took it up after 20 minutes. I felt that she's now on her own and there's no competition from her siblings to make her eat it all. After 4 days of not eating it I decided to put some raw food in with it (I feed my older dog a mixture of raw and kibble). She is now wolfing it down and a bonus her poos are better too, lol! I also realised she doesn't like the kibble really soft so only soak it for a little while now.

That's not a dog

It's a teddy bear !!!!! Squeeeeee

Oh what a poppet I'm a sucker for a curly coat.

He is super cute, isn't he?

Ok, food seems to be settling a bit - he doesn't eat all of his kibble at every meal, but is eating at least 2 out of 3 meals, without any extra bits added in, so I'm less concerned.

But I need more help....

Everything is perfect except for crate training. I know, I know, we should have him in our room and all that, but DH wouldn't even let the dcs stay in our room for more than 2 weeks, so no way is Fillydog getting a look in! Anyway, I slept nearby the first couple of nights, but it made no difference.

Tonight is a great sample evening in our household:

DS takes Fillydog for a walk after his dinner, around 8pm. Wees and poos all nicely done and rewarded. Fillydog settles under living room table (note: we are all in the kitchen, not the same room) and goes to sleep. Not a peep out of him for the next 3 hours.

Just before 11pm DH and I want to go to bed. I wake Fillydog, take him outside for a wee, praise him and put him to bed. Same words and nighttime routine cues every evening. Lots of treats and toys in cute. Turn light out and leave room.

The crying starts immediately we shut the door. And goes on and on and on. And on.

If I go in to comfort him, he gets incredibly worked up and it's even worse when I leave the room again. If I stay in and wait for him to fall asleep, he wakes up 5 min later and starts up even louder.

What do we do? He's been having plenty of "fun" crate time during the day, when the kids just hang out in the room, ignoring him, whilst he chills with the door open or shut, and that's been mostly fine. We've been working on a few minutes on his own in the room during the day but that's been harder.

Trouble is (& please please don't flame me), there's no way of him having company all day every day. Once the kids are back at school, he will need to spend a couple of hours at a time on his own some days during the week, and at least until he's completely toilet trained (doing super well, but not there yet, that will have to be in his crate.

Please help? I don't want to let him cry it out, at least not without some supporting strategies, as he's a super happy little soul and I want to protect him and keep him that way. TIA!

If he's crying when you're leaving him in his crate then the short answer is you've moved a bit too fast for him and need to back to up to a point where he is happy and then work from there.

This is an excellent guide to crate training which also covers teaching them to be left alone, all without any upset. It sounds very long winded but in reality they catch on very quickly.

If he's not entirely happy with the crate during the day then he's likely going to struggle being left in it during the night. Did his breeder do any crate training with him whilst he was still there? Or start getting him used to being alone at all? If not it's a huge shock for him to go from sleeping with his mum and his siblings to being expected to sleep completely alone in a crate he doesn't really like.

If it's an option I would do away with the crate at night for now and, as the bedroom isn't an option, sleep somewhere downstairs with him. Once he's in a routine, sleeping through the night and you've got him happily being left in the crate during the day you can gradually get him used to sleeping wherever it is you want him long term. Obviously this would be much easier for you if you could just bring him into your room but it's certainly a lot better than just leaving him to cry which runs the risk of him learning to associate both the crate and being alone with being in distress. I've been there and done that, it's was not fun undoing it all.

I didn't have this problem i must admit. The first Pug was so exhausted with playtime on her first day she conked out and went to sleep. We put her in her crate (which had a blanket over it), and put a small clock wrapped in my tshirt I'd been wearing. She was asleep when we put her in, we snuggled her up to the clock and she slept all night. From then on we did the same and she never really cried at night at all. Then we got the other dog and there was no problem there because they had each other.

Perhaps in the crate with a tick tock clock? It's meant to mimic a heartbeat. Not so good if DDog is a chewer though I suppose!

I slept with my first one for a couple of weeks and then moved him into the kitchen with a dog bed. Second pup I did the same until they bonded and now they both sleep in the kitchen. Mine both hated the crate!

Have you tried feeding meals in the crate to create a more positive association?

When he cries you could take out of the crate for a quick toilet break, praising if he does anything, and then popping back in the crate to sleep. He might settle if he knows you're not going to hang around all night - it sounds harsh but it really can work.

I'd also maybe suggest not letting him sleep for the full 3 hours after walk/dinner time until bed. Try to have an hour of playtime, training, grooming, whatever just before bedtime as it might tire him out and he could settle quicker.

Thank you!

He's got a clock, various blankets (including one from his original litter), a tshirt of mine, chew toys etc all in there. And I regularly hide treats in there for him to "find" during the day as well as at bedtime.

I think we've been letting him sleep far too much in the early/mid evenings which means he wakes up when we do toilet at bedtime and then he's got loads of energy to cry for hours. Not sure I can keep him awake until 11pm so I'll try some play and grooming and maybe settle him into bed a bit earlier tonight. I could do with some sleep anyway

He's a cockerpoo so bred from a working dog. He may need a lot of mental stimulation to keep him going. Have you booked puppy classes? They are excellent for stuff that you can do at home. You know... sit, roll etc etc... all stuff that can take about 30mins of an evening so he's not just snoozing. Kong, although not everyone is keen on them, are very good at keeping them busy - even it's just peanut butter smeared inside or the ones you have to work to get biccies out of.

Perhaps start establishing a routine with puppy so he knows once something's done, it's bed time. Mine go out for a pee frequently. But they know bed time routine:

"Right! Sleepy time!" - they go out for a pee, and straight back in their beds for a kibble nugget before lights out. Don't even have to point or say anything.

There are also people who leave them cry because they believe it teaches them that they cry and you come running - there's nothing wrong with that approach. I know people who have done it and it's worked for them. Their dogs don't seem emotionally stunted or any different to mine. Just personal choice.

So, we decided to see if we could get him to bed when he was properly tired. Fillypup had a long trip to the park yesterday afternoon and was wiped out by the evening. DS kept him awake from 7-9 even tho he clearly wanted to crash, and at 9.30 I took him out for a wee and then popped him in his crate.

Cue wide awake frantic whining until 11pm when I took him outside again, praised his toiletting and then popped him back in his crate. At that point I decided to sit and cuddle/stroke him (in the crate) and he crashed out cold with my hand on him, super calm. I shut the crate no trouble but the instant I left the room he started up again. 20 mins later all was quiet (he was knackered!!) and didn't whine until around 7am when we get up anyway.

So, an improvement, but not great. And it was so stressful to listen to him being so upset for over an hour last night.

So far today he's had 45 mins in his crate- he was quiet for the last 10 mins, so I was able to get him out nicely. Will try again later. But the odd thing is that the minute he's out of it, he just heads to one of his favourite corners and falls asleep....aaargh.

Hi - there are a couple of Facebook groups you might find invaluable.

One is 'Dog Training Advice and Support' which has a selection of excellent guides to puppy/dog training available in their 'files' section, including guidelines for crate training, leaving the puppy alone, and a general 'you and your new puppy'. If all that fails, there are professional dog trainers on hand to answer specific questions.

The other one is called 'Canine Enrichment' - lots of information there about stimulating games and puzzles for dogs.