We are getting a puppy

[CoachPiggyStardust]

We’ll be getting her in about 6 weeks time. We’ve had puppies before, 4 of them in fact, so we’re not novices but the last time was 10 years ago so it’s all a bit vague.
I’m looking for recommendations for good books on bring up puppies because I’m sure things have changed since we last did it.
Also dog crates. Recommendations for good ones? She’s a Curly Coated Retriever so will grow up to be a fairly large sized dog.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dog-Training-Behaviour-Solutions-stress-free/dp/B09ZCL5PN9

Based on the guides from the Facebook group. Steve Mann is good too.

Brilliant. Thank you,

How exciting! Such a lovely breed too, I haven't seen one for years. Have you picked a name yet?

Join the dog training advice and support group who write that book - they saved my sanity with my dog!

Make sure you join the right one - it’s got 349k members but there is another one with a similar name who advocate dodgier training practices

A retriever will be finecsuvh a good breed .

We need a photo 😑

Definitely recommend that group. They saved what little sanity I had left when we got our first pup. Separation anxiety cured using their advice. Also look at what they say about crates. I do use them for pups but it’s not a case of putting pup in and closing the door. And yes. Where is the pic. Puppy tax!!

I am so sorry. It was really remiss of me not to include a picture. Our girl will be black.

Thanks for the book recommendation, I’ve bought it and applied to join the Facebook group.

I’ve not used a crate before so any advice on that will be welcome. We’ve got 2 older dogs and when they were puppies we had a Utility Room attached to the kitchen where they could be safely put to bed but that’s not possible any more.

We carried our very sleepy pup to bed and popped her in a crate in our room by our bed and just reassured her until she slept. She woke up in the night for a wee so we took her down and then took her back to bed, doing the same. This was fantastic for a few weeks then she tended to be more active at bed time so we let her take herself in and sleep after we'd turned off the light which she did for 7 - 8 hours initially and now she is an older pup (9 months) 9 - 10 hours or until we get up! She doesn't have the door shut now but she is a bit of a fidget so we pen her onto one side of our bed. She chooses to sleep in the open crate after a few minutes of faffing.

Day time is different. I am still training that as it takes a while. I personally have never crated a dog in the day but do train it for vets, travelling, camping etc. We haven't left ours much yet - we've just started to train it but she is really good at not chewing anything so she is just left in our main room. You have to spend weeks and months building value in the crate as a cool place to be and done properly it's a very long process. I did it with my last dog. Pup is quicker as she's never had a bad association with it but still we're not there yet for any length of time.

Incidentally she spent a day at the vets when she caught an infection when she was 4/5 months old and they said how happy she was to be in their crates - much more than any other pup they'd had in so it does pay off.

Thanks for that Newpeep. She’ll probably only need it for night times generally but we camp a lot and I’d like to know she can be secured.

What’s the group called please ?

Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy Steve Mann. Really useful. I read it over and over before pup arrived!

Susan Garrett's youtube channel / podcast is amazing. It totally changed my vision of dog training and focused a lot on problem solving.

Enjoy!

Pippa Mattinson's The Happy Puppy was my best book, and like you I was no novice. Excellent on retriever breeds.

Thanks so much. I’ve been reading the guides on that Facebook group and have reserved some of the books at the Library and ordered the rest.