Henly Update and QUESTIONS

[Mary M.]

I have been MIA these last two weeks because my life has CHANGED!!!  We picked up Henly 2 weeks ago.  :-)  She's 10 weeks old today and I'm taking a few minutes to pick your brains!!

Training has been going really good, I think.

She sits and is learning to stay.  She lies down but is more apt to do it if we're down on the floor with her (especially if there's a treat hidden in our hand guiding her to the floor - haha).  She's not into lying down if we're standing up.  She's nipping a lot but I think she's learning...I think.  She does a lot of fetch.  She's not the best at "drop it" but she's getting there.

We bought a Bob a Lot toy which makes her work for her food.  We use it for lunch and dinner.  She loves it!  

We take walks frequently.  Not real far or anything but she's doing OK on the leash.  Sometimes great and other times not so great.  But boy do I feel proud when she's just prancing alongside me, loose leash and we're walking together!!!

After 3 bumpy nights, she now sleeps in the living room in her crate.  She's slept through the night on only 3 occasions (from 10:00pm - 6:00am).  She's up anywhere from 2:00am - 4:30am - we take her out to pee and then she falls back to sleep in the crate.  At what age did your doodle start sleeping through the night consistently?

House training is going good because we are pretty diligent about getting her out...and she spends a fair amount of time in her crate.  When she wakes up, she barks and we take her out.  After playing or eating, we take her out.  We write down what time she goes out and what she does (Pee or Poop).  My question is when do you start to give her a little freedom to see if she's actually learning anything about telling us when she needs to go out?  I realize 10 weeks is still very young.  But when should we start giving her a little testing freedom?  12 weeks?  16 weeks?  WHEN???  :-)

Henly's 10 week vet appt is tomorrow.  After that, I'm starting her pet insurance.  

I also plan to change her pet food.  I think I'll pop over to the Food Group now and see if Karen can help me out.  I don't know if she checks this main forum regularly.

All in all, I think we're doing pretty good.  We've been socializing a TON.  By the end of this month, I estimate she will have met 40 people and 5-7 healthy (neighborhood) dogs.

The breeder was adamantly against us taking her to Puppy Classes, which I was really bummed about.  She wants us to wait until she's 5 months old.  I just feel like there's so much she could be learning now but I also recognize there's some risk.  I was going to talk to the vet about that tomorrow.  Anyone have thoughts on this?  There is a very nice facility that offers Puppy classes for pups under 20 weeks. 

Sorry for the length.  We're just so excited to be doodle parents!!  

Thank you for your feedback!!  (I love this site)

[Paul & Michele]

Henly is so cute. We get our little girl next week. She looks almost like Henly white on chest and all. We can't wait. Your going to have so much fun w her.

[Mary M.]

Thank you!

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Sounds like you and your puppy are doing well.  I have had several puppies and one slept through the night from eight weeks and one went seven months before sleeping through the night.  Average was around three to four months.  Pick up her water about two hours before bedtime, unless there is some reason she needs it later.

"Freedom" is a long time from now.  Learning and always doing are not at all the same thing.  Then there's the "teen-ager" stage usually around 18 months.   I am probably a little OCD with my dogs but I am constantly vigilant until about 8 months if there have been no "accidents".  Then I still take them to pee before meals and before bed.  The longer you keep her from peeing in the house the better she will be in other situations.  Since you are going out with her anyway associate a word with peeing - something distinctive.  I just use Go Pee, but I have heard lots of other commands from "take a stroll" to "wee-wee'.  Teaching peeing on command is useful in traveling, visiting, having a dog sitter and changing homes. 

Ask your vet about the twenty week issue.  I would wait, myself.

[Mary M.]

Thank you Maryann! 7 months - egads! hopeful it's sooner than that.

We've been picking water up around 7/7:30. We go to bed at 10pm

I'm afraid of the teenage phase! Sounds like we should continue as we have been...crate, potty, play, potty, crate, throw in some food, repeat... We say "go potty"

Heading to vet in about 40 minutes & will check.

Thank you!

[SoSa]

Ace is now 16 weeks old. We got him at 7 weeks. He started sleeping through the night within days of him being at our house.

We are just now starting to give him some freedom to roam around the house, but with extremely close supervision. When he's not crated, he's been tethered near the door that we use to take him out. It's a long tether so that he can have some room to move around. He's now really good about knocking on the door when he needs to go out. I am not ready to say he's completely housebroken yet, because I know the minute I say that, he'll have an accident. But, I am now giving him freedom, off of the tether to roam, to test how he does. So far so good. I've had to move my office to the kitchen to be near the door for him and I'm looking forward to being back upstairs in my office. I just need to make sure that if he's up there with me, that he knows to go downstairs to the door.

[Mary M.]

Thanks SoSa. You've given me more of a timeline.

[Allee & Sue]

My doodle Allee slept through the night the 3rd night we had her. The first 2 nights she cried in her kennel/crate. Someone advised me to turn on a radio. So I put a radio near her crate and I don't hear a peep out of her any more. She's in it from 10 at night until 7 in the morning. I guess she just wanted to hear voices!

[Mary M.]

Well, I do leave the radio on when I leave the house. I may try it overnight. Thank you!

[Allee & Sue]

On training, I started Allee at 8 weeks old. She just finished her 2nd set of 6 week classes and she did fantastic. We are starting agility classes tonight. This should be fun and hopefully she will release some of her high energy!

[Mary M.]

That's amazing!

My vet encouraged it - at least she encouraged it at the facility I was asking about Interestingly, they also offered puppy classes through the vet & my doc seemed more excited about the training at the other facility.

I'm thinking about trying this Wednesday...may have a conflict but the following Wednesday, for sure.