AB Puppy schedule question

[Raj and Teddy]

Hi Everyone,

We finally picked up our puppy (Teddy) on Saturday June 20th, we were able to pick up a mellow F1B (should weigh about 18-20 lbs when he grows up), he was the darkest apricot male. Julie was very helpful in us making the decision on which puppy to choose from. It has been a very positive experience so far and he has brought so much happiness to our family. This is our first puppy and I am amazed at the intelligence of these puppies. He has been doing pee and potty outside, we have been diligent in taking him every 1.5 hr and teaching him to use the poochie bells. We are also walking with in our fenced backyard with leash, walk 10-15 mins every 2- 3 hrs. He is sleeping from 10:30pm till 5 am. during night. His vet has given him clean health and he had his next shots.

My question for AB puppy owners is regarding schedule that AB gave, its been very helpful and we are following it and its working great for us. 

We take our puppy out for bio break @ 10:30 pm, and then he walks to his playpen and goes in his crate and goes to sleep. We get up at 5am and take him out for a quick pee and then I put him back in his crate, first couple of days, he whined for 15 mins but we did not given in to it. Then we come down @ 6:30am and give him breakfast and water and then take him out for potty and pee and he does that within 10-15 mins and then we walk with him for 15 mins in backyard and then bring him inside. My question is

1. How long do you continue this schedule of waking up @ 5am and then putting the puppy back in his crate and then waking up @ 6:30am and giving him his breakfast? Do you push the 5 am wakeup to a later time and give your puppy breakfast early?
2. If we stick to 5am wake up and breakfast @ 6:30am, how long do you continue doing this, upto 16 weeks or even later? Do you gradually stretch the 5am wakeup to a later time?

Thanks

Raj

[Jenny and Cooper]

Congratulations on your new puppy! Teddy is just adorable!!! I was looking at my old post regarding the same issue. About a month and a half after we got Cooper, he slept in til 5:50 am. So I think soon after he slept til 6 am. He's 5.5 months now and sleeps from 9:30-6:15 am. Good luck! I think you have a great puppy on your hand, already slept til 5:30! Ours only slept til 4 the first night and then 5 after that. :)

[Raj and Teddy]

Thanks Jenny, We will continue waking up @ 5am and maybe every week, start extending it by 10 mins. I am surprised how quickly these puppies learn, like after two days when he whined  @ 5 when after pee break we put him back in his crate and we did not give in, he stopped doing that from 3rd day. I just take him out @ 5am for quick pee break and put him back and close his crate and playpen and he lies down. The snuggle puppy has been a great thing to get. Another interesting thing is that we leave the door of crate and playpen open when he awake and when he is ready to go to sleep, he simply walks himself through his playpen to his crate and lies down every time he wants to take a nap.

[Jenny and Cooper]

You did your homework a lot better than I did. I wasn't was good as you are so I had a rough time the first two weeks adjusting to a new life style waking up at 5 am vs 7 am. Lol I also did not put Cooper back in the crate until 6:30. He stayed up til about 7:30 where he would nap til 10 am. Cooper also didn't volunteerly walked in his crate for me when he was tired. So you are doing an awesome job!!! Teddy sounds like an awesome doodle too. We also got the snuggle puppy and Cooper loves it still! But we stopped using the heartbeat. I agree that Julie did a great job preparing these pups before she passed them down to us :)

[Margie Grady]

Teddy is so cute, Raj!  Congratulations!  You and your family will fall more and more in love with that puppy as time passes.  AB doodles are the BEST!

Shortly after I brought Abby home (maybe a week or so and once she was used to me and her new home) I began to slowly change the nighttime schedule to fit my lifestyle. (I'm a late to bed and late to rise retiree).  So I began to keep her up later (increasing by about 15 minute increments every two to three days, once I was sure she had adapted to the new time) with a good play session an hour or so before bedtime.  Then out for potty just before into crate for the night.  That way I changed her bedtime to between 11:30 to 12:00 and her wakeup time adjusted as well, though I had to ignore her the first few days since she was ready to go at 5:00.  But I found 7:00am to be my earliest threshold so that's what we shot for.

Puppies can go increasingly longer and longer times through the night as they grow and mature a bit.  By three months, Abby was totally on MY schedule and we were both MUCH happier.

I had her crate in my bedroom and she learned to whimper just a tiny bit if she really needed to go out off schedule.  At those times, we went out and then immediately back in with nothing more than a "good girl" and right back into the crate until I was ready to have her be up.  But most of the time she slept or waited patiently in the crate until I woke up.  She could tell the minute I woke up and would be at the ready when I got up tolet her out of the crate and then headed to the door to go out for potty.

The most important thing to remember is that your puppy should adjust to your lifestyle and you can make the rules of training a puppy work for you.  Just always be consistent in what you do so that Teddy knows who is in charge.  Like young children, these very smart puppies WILL test the boundaries from time to time---just so you know.

Enjoy these very special days!  Puppies grow so fast and before you know it, Teddy will be a big boy  I envy you this time!!!!!!

Feeding schedule is also basically what works for you and your family.  There is nothing that says that a dog must be fed at 6:30.  I fed Abby between 7:30 and 8:00 and then between about 5:30 and 6:00.  That is the same feeding schedule we have in place now though dinner often gets pushed back because she always eats AFTER me (leader of the pack and all that).

[Raj and Teddy]

Thanks Margie, We had pretty much the pick of the litter and decided to pick a mellow and mid size puppy (Teddy will be 18lbs fully grown).  I do agree about AB, and so glad that we decided to go with them. I have been impressed with their professionalism. 

I am more of early to bed (10:30pm and up by 6am), so If I can push the puppies schedule to 6am that will work the best as once I am up at 5 am, I have tough time going back to sleep. I am going to use your suggestions and try to change Teddy's schedule. We are feeding him at 5:15pm but its early for us for dinner as our dinner time is 6:30pm. Its funny how my whole family talks about "Being the Pack Leader" for the last couple of months but I do see the importance of it. I have been doing some of the stuff from Doggy Dan and its interesting how it changed Teddy for doing 10 minute walks in our backyard 3-4 times a day. Before he would be hopping all over, not listening but Doggy Dan's method, he started following and really being part of the walk. He got used to leash pretty quickly although i did get a puppy harness too.

Teddy has started his usual teething issues and nipping at stuff, we have been giving him chew toys, rag cloth dipped in water and kept in freezer.  

I agree he will grow fast, I have kids that are 15 and 12 and cant believe how years went by so fast.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I wouldn't wake a sleeping puppy; if he sleeps in longer let him.  Your long term goal is to stretch his bladder so that he can sleep until you want to get up.

[Raj and Teddy]

Hi Nancy,

I totally agree about not waking a sleeping puppy. So far Teddy has been cooperative with schedule.

We are not waking Teddy up, its just that when we come down around 5am he is up so I take him for quick bio break and then bring him inside and put him in his crate and he goes back to sleep. We are gradually increasing the duration and now waking up around 5:15 am and the idea is to push it to 6am. He is started to do pee on command, with potty its taking a little bit more time.

Raj

[s s]

Hi Raj, congrats to you and the family on the new puppy! We went shortly after you and immediately picked out our Zoe with Julie's help. Zoe been following exactly the same schedule as her brother. Super smart pup who has already added so much joy to our lives. She loves to crawl into one of our lap's at the end of the day and fall asleep right there. We have started some grooming and I was surprised how accepting she was. Teddy sounds like a good-natured pup as well. He looks very similar to Zoe. Although frustrating to keep her away from chewing things she shouldn't, she's very eager to please and we just have to remember puppies to learn how to learn. Will check out Doggy Dan as we have many, many distractions in our garden.

[s s]

[Raj and Teddy]

Hi S S,

OMG, Zoe looks so much alike to Teddy, they really look life stuffed toys. These pups are very smart. We have a west exposure backyard and currently we have been taking Teddy to the backyard for his business, however past couple of days have been hot in Bay Area and its amazing that Teddy quickly learnt to do his business before 12pm, as later in the afternoon when its hot, he wants to go for a quick # 1 and wants to head inside the house and do his # 2 more like 6:30pm. We had AC running 24 hrs and he loves it so much to sleep in a cool environment. He has learnt doing his business outside and ring the poochie bells, today he rang the bell after 45 mins of doing both # 1 & 2 and we thought he is just ringing it to go and play outside and did not take him outside, long behold, he ended up doing # 1 in the house on a towel. So far we have had 2 accidents which have been our mistake as we overlooked things.

We have been using steel comb for grooming, groom him in the night when we give him a treat (Kong with frozen peanut butter and fruitables treats) which keeps him busy while we groom him. We use bitter apple spray and thats keeping Teddy in check w.r.t. nipping, we spray it on our legs and arms. Also we use west paw interactive treat dispenser and he loves it, plays with it for 30 mins and gets tired and keeps him from nipping us.

We are also taking him for short car rides daily.

He has brought so much happiness to our family, I can't even express in words. Enjoy Zoe, we do feel Teddy has grown in a week :-) and I am sure pretty soon he will be fully grown.

[s s]

Love hearing about Teddy! You are right - they grow fast! We spend lots of time with her everyday but still notice a difference from even a week ago. She's still a tiny pup but she's definitely heavier now than when we brought her home from Modesto.

Zoe isn't really into the Kong right now, unless it's coated with yogurt. Her favorite foods so far seem to be yogurt and some smoked trout (we offered a tiny bit of the latter to her when it was bath time and it kept her occupied). Since she doesn't seem very food-motivated, we want to keep her from getting picky and are trying to introduce new foods slowly.. peanut butter is next up on the list. Funny thing is, we have Purebites freeze dried chicken treats that most dogs love but we sometimes have to call her back after potty to get her to notice them. Favorite toys are any squeaky plush toys and a Kong Wubba. We are working on training with a clicker, which we recommend highly.

[Raj and Teddy]

Hi SS,

Teddy is food motivated, we have him in the family/breakfast/kitchen area and whenever anyone opens the pantry door, he perks up and goes to the pantry right away. We have his food also stored there in the Vault container. 

We have been less adventurous with introducing new foods as we have been focussed on potty training which has been going better than I had expected. He has access to our family, breakfast and kitchen are freely and we put him in his crate when he sleeps. He is able to hold himself longer and is able to do #1 within minutes of being outside and also very prompt in doing # 2 and has been ringing the poochies bells. We are also getting to understand his needs and schedule better.

We primarily use Kibble from TOTW for training and his primary food, only give him fruitable treat and old hubbard cookie once a day. Our vet told us to only feed the puppy "Lactose Free" yogurt, I have bought a non-fat yogurt and have made a treat with a kong filled with apples/bananas and yogurt but have not given him as yet. Another thing is low fat cottage cheese, otherwise he said the puppy will have diarrhea. Now that he is at our house for 2 plus weeks we may try to add additional items. We may give him frozen fruit juice as a popsicle, the ones that are sugar free.

These puppies do bring lot of joy and love getting belly rubbed.

Raj