First time dog owners - Advice wanted

[hippysunshine]

I’ll be getting a puppy in June so trying to get myself organised and plan as much as I can whilst I wait for the pup to come home.

We have never owned a dog before so looking for as much advice as possible really.
Apologies if these questions are obvious, but I’ve only ever had cats, which are very different from dogs.

• He will have a crate that he can escape to, in his own quiet room, so we will need a bed/mat for there, but then does he also need a bed in the main living area? Any bed recommendations? Happy to pay for a long lasting and good quality bed if needed.
• He will be a very large dog, prone to bloat, so was considering adjustable height bowls, but I have seen conflicting advice about this helping and causing bloat. Does anyone have any experience with this?
• Where should the puppy sleep on his first few nights at home? Do we take him out for toilet breaks during the night?
• Any advice on introducing a new puppy to a cat within the household?

Thanks all 😊

Breed?

What breed is he? I personally wouldn’t spend very much money on anything for a puppy - they grow really quickly and can be very destructive, it’s just not worth the investment.

In terms of where they sleep - that’s up to you. You could start off with them in their crate but with someone sleeping on the floor or sofa nearby to reassure them and let them out to the toilet - or you could have the crate near your bed so you can lie down and sleep in comfort.

With the first technique, you slowly move away and back upstairs as the puppy settles, with the second, you slowly move the crate further away until the puppy is where you want them to be. You’ll need to get up through the night for the toilet - our puppy slept in our room so we didn’t set alarms and just got up when he woke us.

How old are your cats and have they ever met a puppy before?

Great Dane, Bernese i’m guessing if prone to bloat? I have height adjustable bowls and a slow feeder for my Goldies (also prone to bloat - although it’s much rarer than the two I mention above).

I wouldn’t buy a puppy anything - old tea towels and maybe one toy. They will destroy it. I’d also not let them out to toilet unless they ask for it - dogs can hold it surprisingly long. My Goldie boy held it every night from the first night the rest of his litter went home. 😄

Adjustable height dog bowls are a good idea for bigger breeds.
At night put the crate next to your bed and if the puppy wakes and doesn't settle take puppy out for a toilet break. Keep it as boring as possible. It helps if you get them to associate cues with this. Good wee wee, when they pee for example really helps to speed things up

I got the book Easy Peasey Puppy Squeezy before bringing my puppy home and found it very useful, lots of practical advice.

We used the crate initially and haven't ever bothered with a dog bed but mine is a small breed and allowed on the sofa!

Guessing Labrador?

Prepare for destruction 🫣🤣 I wouldn’t buy them much either initially. They’ll possibly chew a bed. Ensure you keep things like mobile phones, remote controls, books, anything you value (especially if contains batteries or anything harmful - including socks and tights, towels etc) out of reach. They can steal and choke on things, you may not even realise.
My Lab had raised bowls as he got a bit older, when he was a puppy he would pick the bowl up and toss it, even the water bowl was not safe.
If you have a coffee table I would remove anything breakable, due to tail action.
Check the garden for any poisonous plants and don’t sprinkle things like slug pellets. Beware any household cleaning products (around the toilet etc bottles of bleach). Ensure there are no loose wires or cables, plastic bits around that pup can chew.

When we got our pup, we already had two cats, they got on really well, they loved the dog and would lay with him. Initially there was a bit of a settling in period, he was the sort of dog that was happy for the cats to be the boss. We also got another kitten when he was about 4, the first meeting was quite something, dog was very excited, tiny kitten hissing etc! They shared a brilliant bond.

Our pup did a fair bit of destruction, chewed the spindles on the stairs, shoes if he got a chance, he was quite difficult to house train, he would happily wee outside, but not poo, often he would hold on, and poo when he got home. He was a collie. We had him for nearly 13 years. He was such a character, very loving. We have never got another dog, it is such a big commitment, pleased we had him though.

we didn’t have a crate, they weren’t a thing when we got him, he liked to sleep in our bedroom with us, which he did, until the babies came along, we moved him out and changed our bed. He accepts the babies as they arrived no problems whatsoever. He was quite a healthy dog, other than being prone to ear infections, main cause for veterinary visits.

Good luck OP, just accept there will be ups and downs, and honestly some days you will think whatever have I done, but you will get through it and have a lovely loyal dog for many years.

My main advice would be consistency. Decide what boundaries you want from day one with regards to furniture, beds, access to rooms etc and stick to that rather than try and train them out of things later. Some things are cute as a puppy but not so much when they are a teenage arsehole (especially if big)
If they chew anything its your fault for letting them get it so puppy proof well

I really really recommend the book The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey.

What I really like is that she explains how they think so it’s easier to avoid the mistakes we all make.

The best bit I liked was imagining playing a game where you have to go into a room and touch a certain object, but you don’t know what the object is. The person who knows can’t say anything - they can react but absolutely no words.

Thats exactly what it’s like for a puppy.

'The Happy Puppy' by Pippa Mattinson is excellent.
At night I let my puppy go from 10-2 then took him out. Every three days I got up fifteen minutes later until he could go 10-6.
He had an inch of newspaper in his crate, with vetbed and fleeces to snuggle in. He had an other bed in the sitting room.

Knowing the breed would be helpful.

Best thing we did was put a stair gate across certain areas, particularly during toilet training phase - much easier to wipe accidents off hard floors than carpet

We also decided that the dog would not be allowed in our bedrooms so we had a stair gate on the stairs for about a year. She's never been upstairs

We kept our puppy downstairs in the crate on the first night and every night since.

Make sure you go to decent puppy training classes

Can I ask if you slept downstairs near the crate at the beginning and how long you needed to do this for?

Nope.

The dog was downstairs and we're upstairs.

I think my DH got up at 3am for the first couple of days to take her out for a wee. Then after a few days of that we got up a bit later around 5am.

On the first night, she cried for about 20 minutes, on the second night she cried for a couple of minutes. Nothing since then.