New puppy daytime schedule

[firsttimewoofy]

Hello - first time dog owner and I I’m a new pup on Friday!

Ive read they needs lots if sleep, stimulation etc. So I’ve put this schedule together. Would you tell me what you think or if I’m being too optimistic? I plan on taking him out every hour for toilet breaks as well as the ones scheduled in.

8am - take pup out to potty

8:15 - pop in crate with some toys

8:45 - training session with food

9:15 - toilet break

9:30 - put in crate for nap

11 - play time in pen

12 - training session with food

2 - pop in crate for nap

3 - play time

5 - take out and about for socialisation

8 - meal

10 - crate for bed

Ive read that it’s best to use their food allowance to train them so they don’t become overweight so I might just do that over the day rather that attempt it at set neal times
Overweight? Where have you been reading this stuff. Your pup is 8 weeks old and growing fast. It needs 3 to 4 meals a day to be healthy. It will not be overweight from eating the recommended amount at mealtimes. And training at 8 weeks is going to be pretty minimal. What kind of dog is it?

Oh, and there is pretty much no way your eight week old puppy will sleep quietly in a crate from 10pm-8am. No way on earth.

Ours was up at 5-6am for a good month or two and would have needed to go out probably 2-3 times in that time period.

You're getting a puppy - not a robot. They won't instantly fall into some kind of schedule you've made for them. And please, please don't make them spend all that time alone in a crate

Tbf I think OP's heart is in the right place, I've also read to use kibble as training treats (although my dog isn't daft and spits it out) but I don't think it means give them their full meal that way. Maybe keep 10-20g out of their breakfast and use that for training for 5 mins at 10am, for example. And our trainer advises to ditch the bowl, so you could try to feed all their meals in snuffle mats/Nina ottoson toys/in games. These are worth looking into OP, although the snuffle mat was the only one we had much success with in the very early days. She didn't have the attention span for much else.

Also it's a good thing to go into it knowing you need to enforce naps. We struggled with this, nobody told our puppy she was meant to sleep 20 odd hours a day! The crate didn't work at first so we also just let her crash where and when she landed, but if you can use the crate to enforce naps it must make life easier. Overtired puppies are not pleasant. But also, just be aware that your puppy might not nap on your schedule/might hate the crate.

When mine was a puppy she was like a leaky tap and I used to take her out every 20 minutes. Does depend on breed, but once an hour sounds a long time for a young puppy to wait. Also, puppies have a habit of not doing what you want. You could be in the garden for a long time waiting for a pee or poo (and you have to wait!). Similarly, with feeding, some puppies are very fussy and /or unsettled in their new home and have to be tempted to eat. Like a lot of people with puppies, I worried that mine was going to starve for the first week because it was so difficult to get her to eat.
Your pup will definitely need 3 to 4 proper meals a day, not food in return for training success. A puppy that small can only take about 5 minutes of training at a time anyway.
Mine was only crated for safety reasons ( e.g front door open). The crate was put away for good when she was about 9 months.
I used to get up once at night to take her out until she was about 6 months. Because of this, she never had an accident in her crate. You will have to do the same with yours, otherwise you will have a distressed puppy every morning covered in faeces and urine.

THank you! Yes I’ve read about ditching the bowl, and hand feeding which is what I was planning on doing. But I will go with the flow and see how it goes. I’m generally quite a laid back person so am even surprising myself with being so organised but I thought having a schedule will help keep me focused just as much as anything.

Yes I’ve read that they should nap a lot which is why I’ve scheduled in these crate times for naps.

But don’t worry I don’t plan on leaving him in a cage for all that time. It’s a small place and I will always be in the room or nearby and the crate is in a play pen so he will have access to that too.

Also, don’t know if it was that I didn’t make it clear - I definitely don’t expect him to sleep all the way through!!! That’s just the time for going to bed and waking up but I fully appreciate I will be up several times in the night for toilet breaks and that he might wake earlier in general anyway.

In fact that’s the other thing I wanted to ask. I was planning on waking up 2-3 times in night to toilet him. Should I wake him if he is sleeping or just leave be and wait for him to wake me if he needs to go? I will be sleeping next to him.

When I said it’s a small place, I meant my home is small not his crate! Just before I get jumped on.

So he won’t be left alone and defenceless in a small crate, in a remote wing of the house just in case people were worried.

That’s interesting about the meals. I was planning on weighing out the daily allowance of food and then hand feeding that throughout the day rather than just set meal times. But maybe that’s not a good idea?

That schedule won’t work!
Pup will need to be taken outside to toilet after eating or drinking or playing or sleeping and about every half an hour too. If it doesn’t go to the toilet you will need to watch closely and get back outside at the first hint of needing to go.
Puppies do need mealtimes. You can schedule those.
Naps I would play by ear.

I think you have good but unrealistic intentions.

Is your puppy even used to a crate? Mine hated it and wouldn't even consider napping on there - he would cry and scream until he was sick.

Naps will most likely be on your lap

Hi op, I am a bit like you and like a schedule and being prepared. I would wait to meet your pup and get to know them a bit before you start working out a schedule for the day. I hate to break it to you but I think your 8am start is very optimistic! I think you need to be prepared for 6am starts and lots of night waking for a few weeks. We only use a crate at night and then a play pen during the day if we can’t directly supervise. It’s very full on, your life will revolve around your puppy for a long time. In all honesty I found the early weeks of owning a puppy harder than having newborns!

@firsttimewoofy

That’s interesting about the meals. I was planning on weighing out the daily allowance of food and then hand feeding that throughout the day rather than just set meal times. But maybe that’s not a good idea?

That is a great idea. Do it! although you may want to keep the food at similar times in the day to help digestion and also make sure you do not have a hungry puppy but hand feeding via training is a fab idea

You are right to think through a schedule for your puppy. It may be better to think of the things you need to do but be more flexible about timings

Your puppy needs to have 5 key outlets each day :-

toilet trips as you have daid when they wake after each meal, every 30 mins when awake

mental activity enrichment puzzle feeders, playing training games, and exploring new things in a fun and safe way

physical exercise human play, playing with toys, going on a walk or playing with other dogs be careful to avoid chasing, slippery suervices and jumping or climbing

supervision When your puppy is not in their pen supervise to ensure they do not get into mischief or danger and also to keep on eye on the need for toilet breaks

alone time Start off with a short absence whilst your puppy has something fun to do.eg scatter feed when you pop to the loo. Gradually you can extend the duration as long as your puppy remains relaxed

If your day starts at 8am with a puppy you are very very very lucky

@firsttimewoofy we didn't get our pup until 14 weeks so I can't really comment on an 8 week puppy. But I will say that after a week or 2 of getting to know our pup he got himself into more or less of a routine. We did have to force his naps because he wouldn't just lay down somewhere and sleep when he got tired, so he got overtired and bit us to shreds. So once we'd worked out how long he would typically be awake for before turning into a land shark, we would preempt it by putting him in his crate with a bit of kibble or a kong. Again, I don't know if a younger puppy would be more likely to just lay down and sleep, and of course all pups are different anyway.

The best thing I did for my puppy and my sanity was joining the puppy survival thread on here. It's so supportive and non-judgy and so so helpful. Come and join us!

@firsttimewoofy

That’s interesting about the meals. I was planning on weighing out the daily allowance of food and then hand feeding that throughout the day rather than just set meal times. But maybe that’s not a good idea?

You could try it but that ten minutes puppy sat with her Kong was the ten minutes I managed to grab tea and toast. It was the only time I got to myself. We also did scatter feeding as she wasn't keen on the bowl (fine now at 6 months). She wouldn't have been able to pay attention for long enough to get all her food into her if we'd done it all through training exercises. How are you planning on crate training? Feeding meals in the crate is meant to help give them positive associations.

Regarding toilet training, if they're asleep don't wake them. They'll hopefully wake you if they need out.

There is a very good FB group 'Dog training advice and support' which has heaps of information on puppies. Join n that!

Also, some breeds won't just 'take a nap', but will keep going and overtire themselves - so down time - put them in their quiet comfy place - and a bit of gentle ignoring until they get the message and take a snooze.
Out to toilet every 20-30 mins, as soon as they wake or have eaten. Be prepared for accidents with kitchen paper and cleaner of choice on hand.
They are likely to get unruly and not be great with children at first due to bite jumpyness and sharp puppy teeth, but this will turn around nicely with your guidance.

Lay the rules down early - decide which rooms puppy will be allowed in, whether allowed on chairs, upstairs etc and be consistent.

They are a handful. You will likely need to sleep near them for a week or two to let them know you're there and you get a feel for how often they wake to need to pee.

Mostly, I would say the first few months are about house-training, bonding, good manners, and healthy growth & activity. It's not easy! But worth it.

The first couple of weeks are all about toilet training and bonding with you (necessary for recall training). Take the puppy outside after every nap, play, training session, meal obsessively. Decide on a cue word.

Decide where in the house you are happy for the dog to go and beg, borrow, buy a couple of baby/puppy gates.

Weighing the daily food allowance, into a jar, is a good idea, we still do it and Pestypup is nearly two. Aim for four meals before 16 weeks, they have tiny tums and a lot of growing to do. The pup will probably have the attention span of a gnat, some food allowance goes on training then pop the rest in a bowl or on a mat, they get hangry.

Socialise from the start, not easy at the moment. Carry your puppy around the neighbourhood, let it see everything especially things like the dustbin lorry. We used a large canvas shoulder bag and clipped her harness to a loop inside.

A schedule is a great idea but it may be a few weeks before the DPup is ready to join in.

We didn't wake ours at night - she let us know if she needed out for a wee - there'd be a tiny little whine or a tiny little woof. We used a crate at night as she was in our bedroom.

Friends slept downstairs with theirs for the first week and then put out puppy pads at night in the kitchen. I don't think a night time puppy pad made any difference to the daytime toilet training.

You do need to pop out with them every half hour for the first few weeks, after every play and when they wake up.

I thinks its quite good to have a schedule in mind - I did - it went completely to pot after a week of not enough sleep, endless biting and cuddles.

I think it’s good to have a schedule in mind and I wish we’d had one sooner because I really struggled in the first few weeks. Our pup has never ever just flopped and slept even at 8 weeks - she would just keep going, biting, chewing furniture etc. When we pop her in the crate she settles down and naps straight away. She’s 22 weeks now and getting better at relaxing but we still enforce downtime.

What we did do was spend a lot of time at first making the crate a positive place to be, feeding in there and playing crate games etc. We slept near her for the first couple of weeks, we didn’t put her in the crate and let her cry or anything. I know they aren’t for everyone but I think crates are a useful tool and I think it also massively helped with potty training.

Is your puppy even used to a crate? Mine hated it and wouldn't even consider napping on there - he would cry and scream until he was sick
Yes do bear in mind that not all dogs take to crates, it might just be coincidence but noone in my friend group has ended up using them. My puppy, no matter what I did to make the crate an appealing and safe place for him, screamed blue murder every time he was in it. It was horrendous. I think we had almost 2 weeks of hell before we got rid of it and have never looked back. Sleeps at night and in the day in his little bed

Thanks for all the advice. Very helpful. Will keep it easy going. Re the crate, always a chance he’ll hate it but It’s unlikely as the breeder has been creating the pups and they’re to wandering in and out of one.

Not the end of the world if he does though.

Mine was crated at the breeders too, but not alone which is the big difference. He has his mum and siblings around him for comfort - when he came home with us he was on his own and it was a whole different ball game

Good luck! And definitely join the puppy survival thread

Incidentally - my pup was ok in the crate with door closed if asleep during the night, and if I was close to let her out to pee when she woke during the night. She definitely prefers to nap in her crate with door open during the day. As you have a pen, this shouldn't be an issue if your pup is similar.
There can be nasty accidents with crates and small teeth/jaws if a pup has been left alone in too active a state, so best on all fronts if the crate experience is positive.

Mine was also crated at the breeder with his mum and siblings. Maybe that's why he hated it so much as he was used to being with them in there.

Would you even need a crate if you have a pen?
And yes do join the puppy survival thread I got some good support on there

@firsttimewoofy

That’s interesting about the meals. I was planning on weighing out the daily allowance of food and then hand feeding that throughout the day rather than just set meal times. But maybe that’s not a good idea?

I wouldn't soley hand feed - it's not practical. What about if he needs to go to the kennels or stay at the vet? He needs to be used to associating bowls with food and eating from them. What breed is he? If he grows up fairly large the constant hand feeding will get tedious pretty quickly.

By all mean use some of his diet as training rewards but also feed him normally too.
You don't want to end up with a dog that starts stealing/resource guarding food because he's not used to it in a bowl or because stealing is easier than waiting for you to dole it out.

You can also use slow feeders/puzzle feeders if you want to make mealtimes more interesting

@firsttimewoofy

That’s interesting about the meals. I was planning on weighing out the daily allowance of food and then hand feeding that throughout the day rather than just set meal times. But maybe that’s not a good idea?

I wouldn't get a dog used to being hand-fed all the time.

Also for puppies, set mealtimes are the best way to help them with toilet training. If food goes in at certain times, it'll come out at predictable times and it'll make toilet training so much easier.