New puppy - where to start?

[Newpuppyterror]

After much family deliberation we will be collecting our labradoodle puppy in 4 weeks.

DH had dogs as a child but has never owned one as an adult and I'm a total (total!!) beginner.

I've ordered a book recommended by the breeder - How to raise a Superpup. This should arrive soon.

But I'm completely ignorant. What does Day 1 look like? We are planning to get a crate. Does this go in our bedroom or in the kitchen? Do I need to set an alarm for toileting? What are puppy pads for?

What do you wish you'd known? What should I read/watch?

themuttyprofessor.co.uk/2017/07/20/crate-debate-crate-not-crate/

Didn't use puppy pads as I didn't want the dog to ever think toileting inside was the correct place.

I used a baby monitor and then set an alarm when he was more settled to listen for when he got up in the night for toileting.

I did use a crate but it was massive and just a safe area when I couldn't supervise rather than any toileting training aid.

The issue is that there are so many different ways to bring up a puppy and you get people who say their way is the only way. Whereas I think you find your own way.

There is a puppy survival thread on here (I joined one 5 years ago 😁) which would be worth joining as then you won't be on your own navigating a new puppy.

get lots of different chew toys and then get more!! And rotate them

favourites here were yak bars, coffee and olive sticks, nyla bones.

anything you don’t want an adult dog to do don’t let a cute adorable puppy do!

find a good dog trainer and go to puppy classes, not one where all the puppy’s get to run and jump all over each but one that’ll help your pup learn to be respectful around other dogs and for you to learn how to train them. This will be invaluable!!

feed a good quality food and if feeding dry you have an added bonus you can also use to do training round the house

i loved the easy peasy puppy squeezy book when we were first time dog owners

we crate changed and it worked for us perfectly, pup was kept safe overnight and slept through from around ten weeks. Gave pup a safe place to sleep and was handy if we needed to something without pup as it was impossible to puppy proof our house.

but mostly remember it’s your dog and they are all so different t don’t let anyone tell you what you should or should do and enjoy it!!

Should caveat ‘sleeping through’ was 1030-6 and now at 7 months can go 10-830 on the odd occasion that ever happens with young dc!!

I completely agree with BiteyShark that there are many ways to raise a puppy. I would run a mile from anyone who declares there is One True Way. Also do join the puppy survival thread. My pup is a year old and I still post on that thread.

FWIW here’s the approach I have taken with my puppies. I don’t use a crate at night. For the first few nights someone (either DH or I) sleeps near the puppy, then we transition to a puppy-proofed space. I have never set an alarm. My current pup woke at about 5:00 for the first couple of weeks, but after that he could wait until 7:00 or later. But that was very much the luck of the draw. Other puppies may need to go out through the night for weeks or months.

Also don’t underestimate how much your puppy will need to sleep. And if he becomes bitey or hyper, he probably needs a nap.

Above all enjoy your pup! Take lots of pictures. They grow so fast and change quickly.

Thank you so much all! Lots to muse on here.

Silly question but how do you know when the pup needs to go to the toilet in the night?

If your puppy is in a crate they won’t want to go toilet in their bed…. They’ll cry/bark/scratch/etc….. unless it’s a puppy farm pup, it’s normally pretty obvious they don’t want to poop in their bed (imagine if you really needed to go and the bedroom door was stuck!)

We have a rescue dog, she was a year old when we got her… she was not socialised properly at all. She was scared of puddles, people, dogs, the wind! You name it she feared it! She’s a changed dog now, we’ve had her about 1.5 years.

Based on my experience I’d say, socialising your puppy is really important but lots of people seem to think it’s all about puppy interacting with other dogs. It’s actually about puppy having as many positive experiences of the world as it can in the first few weeks/months - so it’s about meeting other dogs/people, but it’s also about feeling water in their paws, the wind in their face, knowing baths are ok, having you firmly hold their paws and it be ok (nail clipping), playtime with the hairdryer (on cool!), brushing, seeing humans with umbrellas (I’ve seen a fair few dogs get totally freaked out by umbrellas!) etc. They need the people they trust to show them this weird human world is ok. A lot of people will carry their puppy around the block to take a look around before they have the vaccinations, then they can sniff the air/hear cars etc.

That all said, dogs trust told us to take it easy initially…. You don’t want to have puppy leaving their lovely mummy and siblings, going to this whole new environment and then getting totally overwhelmed by new people and things.

We’ve also read ‘easy peasy puppy squeezy’ which is a really good fairly cheap/short book. And we joined our local dog walking Facebook group…. Madam fluffy butt used to be terrified of other dogs after getting bullied in her old home, she now hangs out with a ‘pack’ of about 15-20 dogs on a register basis… finding such a lovely well balanced group has done her wonders, she’s amazing at dog greetings (she reads the other dog and if it’s a young puppy, she plays but respects the breaks / shake offs … if it’s an older calmer dog she says hi politely). We also went to the dogs trust puppy school, which was useful and quite cheap. They suggested stuff like playing hide and seek at home with your dog to help with recall etc. someone in the dog walking group said to do puppy ping pong too…..neither realised that our dog is glued to us! But a lot of people do struggle with recall so a lot of people seem to give advice about it.

If we didn’t have our old rescue Shih Tzu collie cross (mix from each end of the scale! Clever and stubborn!!) I’d love a labradoodle… my DP’s sister has one and she’s such a lovely dog! Your phone will be FULL of pictures!

If they're in your room, you'll hear them wake up and be able to take them.

If they're downstairs you may need a camera or baby monitor so you can hear them, but be aware that by the time you wake up and get downstairs, it may be too late.

Mine always slept upstairs and woke us when he needed a wee. He never had an accident overnight.

The first day is magical and amazing. Have loads of cuddles and take lots of photos.

Toilet training:
Make sure your garden is safe.
i’d recommend you fence off a small area for them to toilet in
carry them out every hour, put down, wait up to 10 mins-if they go give them some gentle praise and have a little play.
if they don’t go, take them back in, keep them off the floor (carry or cuddle on lap ) and repeat in another 10 mins.
You want to get them used to going as soon as they go outside rather than thinking it’s playtime.
look out for signs such as sniffing or circling that might indicate they need to go.
always take them out as soon as they wake up from a nap.
You’ll get to know how long your puppy can go for quite quickly and can probably increase the stretches of time every few weeks and can relax a bit on the ‘keeping them off the floor’ thing once you get into the habit.
we toilet trained our pup like that and had barely any accidents (less than 10).

sleeping. We had ours in a and then a pen. Slept downstairs for a week until he was sleeping through. Again, we were lucky in this regard!

after a week or 2 you will hit the bitey phase which is quite challenging. Wear jeans, shoes and tight fittting clothing: turn away if they come at you biting or have a long toy ready to play with them with so you don’t become the toy. If they do bite then turn away or leave the room. No interaction. They are probably tired and need a nap.

you will spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

get them used to a collar quickly. They say to get them used to a lead or harness too but ours just wanted to chew on them. Was absolutely fine having them on when he was allowed out for a walk.

Start as you mean you go on. Don’t let a little puppy do something you wouldn’t want an adult doing.
there’s another recent thread here on what piece of puppy advice, read that it has lots of things that people wish they knew.

Gosh we didn't really do any of this. No crate, no puppy pads, no getting up in the night.

We took her out every hour - hour and a half during the day. She had a few accidents inside but under 20 in total.

We taught her to sit, stay, come etc with treats.

She never chewed anything she wasn't allowed to. I mostly wfh as does my bf so we were able to supervise her.

I met @BiteyShark on that new puppy thread!! Great support.
Theres a great dog group on fB. Dog training advice and support. Check it’s the one sally bradbury is associated with. They have files on the first night.

There's a Facebook page to follow called 'train my puppy' who are really good qualified trainers and behaviourists. They also moderate a group call "puppy training help and advice " I found this group a godsend in the first few weeks. Join it now and start reading!

Currently have a 5.5 month old pup - have crate at night (a big one!) and now sleeps through 8:30-5:30/6ish and then whines to go for a wee and then comes for a cuddle. I still have her in the bedroom (and now thinking that's where she'll stay once we get rid of the crate in a few weeks).
She was toilet trained after a couple of weeks of constant supervision (looking for her sniffing the ground and circling and then whisking her outside and lots of praise when she went)

Socialisation is really important - but to everything, not just other dogs! So cars, farm machinery, other animals, busy streets, hoovers, you name it.

I'd recommend Zak George on YouTube where he goes through from day 1 with his puppy (really detailed and a full series from 8weeks to over 2yrs old or however old his dog is now) and I found that useful even after having ddogs before the current.. (who is completely different from the old dogs just as they were completely different from each other!)

Good luck! If you want any recommendations of things we got for her etc then feel free to PM me

Thank you so much for such lengthy, helpful replies! I've found a viper-free corner of MN!

I was half expecting to get my arse handed to me for choosing a doodle / not having had dogs from birth / being ignorant and irresponsible!

This is all so helpful. I'm going to keep coming back to it and ask more questions as they come up.

Here's one - in the night, taking the dog to the toilet, does she need to be on a lead? (Don't fancy chasing a dog around at 3 am but also seems weird to put a leash on when presumably the aim is to do it quickly?)

Here's one - in the night, taking the dog to the toilet, does she need to be on a lead?

I'd play it by ear. We never used a lead for ours but she was always good at coming back in. If she'd shown any inkling of trying to make 3am playtime we would have used a lead.

That’s why it helps to fence off a small area (we just used chicken wire or you could use a pen)

Here's one - in the night, taking the dog to the toilet, does she need to be on a lead? (Don't fancy chasing a dog around at 3 am but also seems weird to put a leash on when presumably the aim is to do it quickly?)

It depends entirely on the dog!

We never needed to as ours would literally go out, pee and come back inside. We were really lucky as our breeder has already began to toilet train him so I didn't find it very difficult.

I also never have collars on my dogs while they're inside as I don't like the strangulation risk, so sorting out a lead and collar at 3am would have been a right pain in the bum and would possibly have led to accidents if I wasn't quick enough

My puppy started off in our room, but after a few nights made it clear he would rather be downstairs in his cosy crate with our other dog nearby. We go to bed at 10 so I woke at 2 for a week for his wees etc. Then he was OK till 6. I gradually pushed back the night time wake by fifteen minutes every five days until he went through to the morning, which happened remarkably quickly. We had no overnight accidents at all and very few in the daytime.

Pippa Mattinsons book The Happy Puppy is quite excellent. I say that after thirty years of Labrador ownership. Much more meat than the Puppy Squeezy book.

Labradoodle & labrador breeder here! Highly recommend a strong roomy dog pen or playpen inside the house with bed or open crate and pee pad or paper in. Very handy just for somewhere safe to leave the pup at night and popping out or going upstairs etc. Shutting pup in a room isn't as safe and they can chew, eat, scratch and damage things. Get a camera you can view live on your phone to keep a check on pup when you're out or in bed upstairs at night.
Long lasting chew or stuffed Kong if you go out so they associate going in the pen as a positive thing. (Good idea to have several dry runs standing outside house with camera viewable on phone to see how long it takes for pup to settle as they will cry to start with.) Not saying you will leaving pup a lot but there will be times no-one can in the house so planning for this from the start is a lifesaver! Also stops you worrying what pup is doing when you aren't there.
Designate an area of your garden for the loo and section off and lead them there each time. If pup is paper or pee pad trained can put this on the area to start with. Talk to the breeder about the pups routine with them and try to mimic their set up and routine at home.
Chewstop or similar
Urine neutraliser
Supply of food puppy is currently on. You should get some with puppy pack but not much.
Well fitting collar with tag and harness and lead.
car seatbelt or harness fittings
Good heavy water bowl, ceramic so can't be knocked over.
scatter feeders or slow feeder bowls are good.

Following with interest as we are also getting a labradoodle in 4 weeks!!! Ours will be 12 weeks old so a little further on. The happy puppy book mentioned by a pp is great and we are also watching the Zak George videos.

Forgot to say whole of life pet insurance! Petplan are good as they can pay the vet direct but I'm sure others do. We have an Instagram page and invite owners to follow us. Each litter we send all owners the updated list of Instagram accounts of other owners so they can follow each other and keep in touch. Not all use it but works quite well.

The book Easy Peasey Puppy Squeezy is a good guide and very down to earth book.

I had our puppy in a crate at the bottom of the stairs, I could hear him from my bedroom and got up when he cried. Whenever he cried I took him straight out for a wee/poo.

Our puppy picked up the premise of going to the toilet in the garden really quickly but I was watching him like a hawk most of the time!

Thank you! The Zak George videos - so many of them on YouTube! Where should I start?

For a collar / harness, will I need to keep replacing these as puppy grows? I'm so sorry if I'm asking ignorant questions!

Can I use the same crate as a puppy bed that we would use in the car to transport her?

All the books you've recommended should be arriving today!