It's home!

[puppypalavas]

Got our puppy today.
Been about 8 hours since we’ve had her and I’ve got puppy blues already!
She’s doing ok toilet wise. Maybe 3 inside, 3 outside and a poo outside.
Got her confined to the kitchen at the mo and she’s got a playpen in here.
We’ve got a deep sided box for her for our room tonight.
We’ve put her in her playpen probably 5 times, for short durations, 15 mins or so.
Then we went to the shop to find a box for her for tonight, so we were out for 40 minutes.
She’s howls and cries and barks solidly in her playpen.
As soon as she’s quiet we go in and praise her. Sometimes getting her out and sometimes leaving her in there.
Every single time though she has barked and howled in her playpen until she’s vomited. She’ll be losing weight at this rate.
Am I doing the playpen thing right?

Great news op.

Brilliant. Well done!

We are only 6 months in front of you with our first dog. Puppies are such a shock to the system!

What you decided to do is what we did. Except within a very short amount of time he was waiting for morning for a wee/poo and slept solid 8-6! When it wasn’t a reasonable hour he refused to go out for a wee so I let him sleep.

We now let him sleep by the sofa until we go to bed. Then I wake him and pop him in his pen. He just lies back down and goes to sleep.

He’s not pleased to be in his pen in the day but he’s a danger to himself if I leave him out of it unsupervised. He might cry for ten mins but it feels more like complaining than distress anyway. If he knows someone is in, he’s much louder!

Yep I finally feel like we are getting there!
Work plans for next year are to get someone to let her out and stay with her for 30 mins in the middle of my work shift, so she’ll be on her own for 1 hour either side of that.
She’s been left on her own for an hour today in her crate and slept the whole time. But i would prefer to give it another 6 weeks before she’s left for 2 hours in the day.
Totally didn’t dawn on me that she’d need her jabs before doggy day boarding either! Should have known really, but we’ve not used day boarding before!
We need to wait until 2 weeks after her 2nd jabs so it will be February before she can go to day care.
She’s booked onto dog training classes in January too!

Didn’t intend to have her in her crate for an hour today, but put her in there for her afternoon nap and I fell asleep with my little one by accident. It’s been a tiring few days! Anyway, we both woke up before she did!

That’s brilliant!

So...
Everything still going swimmingly.
I’ve read lots of articles saying that it’s good to get nap times in the crate.
So we did this today. She had 3 x 1 hour naps in the crate, usually after a big play of tug, or chasing balls or having zoomies in the garden.
This is along with 30 mins x 2 that I did the school run today. Got a friend to run my LO in and out so didn’t take as long.
So she was in her crate for 4 hours in total today, split over 5 occasions.
She also goes down 10pm-6pm in her crate.
So she’s in there 12 hours out of 24.
People are saying that in the wild dogs usually spend 16 hours a day sleeping in their dens, and she doesn’t mind her crate at all, in fact for the nap times I opened the door once she was sleeping but she still slept for an hour in there on 3 occasions.
Does 12 hours a day seem like a lot though to be crated? I know it’s probably just the equivalent of her spending that time in a dog bed, but I feel bad that she’s caged in.
And I also know that they don’t see it as being caged, they see it as their den.
We have a cover for it and she’s got 6 blankets in there that she roughs up to make it cosy.

Mine is two and still sleeps in a pen overnight. (May risk changing that soon!) She’s in there overnight. At least 7 hours.
When she was a pup she used to have one long sleep after a walk in the morning. Could easily have three hour nap in the crate!
If your dog is happily resting then they’re not moving around. If they’re happy in a crate they are more likely to sleep well as they feel secure.
Sounds great. Certainly doing WAY better than I was at that stage!!

Yeah she’s quite often in there by choice, with a bone, or chew toy, or sleeping, or just chilling while I do the school run (school run obviously not by choice for her!!!)
Just feels like she’s constantly in there!
She obviously does have lots of time out playing, but where she’s only 10 weeks and sleeps so much I feel like she’s never out of it!
Will leave her be if she’s happy though!

They sleep a lot in the early weeks. Doesn’t feel like it though does it?!

Well done OP, sounds like you've nailed it. With regards to nighttime routine, I've never got up through the night with any of the pups I've had. It's just been last garden trip at our bedtime, then no fuss, into bed, lights off, and see them again in the morning, usually 6-7 am. Maybe a wee on night 1-2 but then dry and clean going forward, (with lots of praise in the morning of course😊)

OP I think you’re doing really well. It’s a lot of crate time but you have the door open in the day so she is choosing it. It will naturally reduce when she starts sleeping less anyway.

So glad that puppy ownership is proving more fun now. She sounds like a lovely little thing.

We are getting there!
Question of the day... we are letting her out for a wee at 1.30am and 4.30am.
This morning at 4.30am she didn’t particularly want to get out of her crate.
When we did get her outside she did eventually do a poo at 4.30am.
It also takes her 5 mins to settle down after her 4.30am wee as she thinks it’s morning time by then and wants to get up.
Do you think we could just let her out at 2am? She’s in her bed from 10pm-6am, so she’d have 4 hours either side of a wee to hold it.
Or do you think stick to 2 toilet trips per night?

Sounds like you’re making a lot of progress with her.
My pup went all night without the toilet from about 11 weeks. Though I think that’s unusual. He just didn’t want to wake up and go out in the dark!
Try one toilet break and see what happens?

We are just going to try 2am tonight!
Fingers crossed.

How did you get on?