Bringing home puppy

[Alivia Quallen]

We are bringing our puppy (a girl) home on Saturday.  I am kind of nervous about how the night is going to go.  We are driving 6hrs to get her and then turning back around and coming home.  So, we probably get home around 7pm.  We are leaving very early in the morning.  We plan to crate her at night and leave her crate in the kids T.V. room.  We are turning that room also into the "puppy room" with two gates at least till she is doing pretty good with potty training.  She will have a blanket that she is coming home with that will have the scents of her brother and sisters on it.  We will put that in the crate with her and I guess I want to know how other's first night went and if you can give me any tips.

 

Thanks,

Alivia

[Sue & Lily Grace]

I am waiting for an ALD to be born so no tips, but I wanted to tell you how happy I am for you. Congratulations and enjoy. Will be watching for any tips that may eventually work for me.

[John and Finn]

Well for us it was hard the first few nights but Finn was not crate trained so that made things very difficult.  The blanket in the crate was a problem for us but I know it works for others.  It made Finn hot and he seemed to think it was ok to potty on. We used a bell at the front so he could tell us he needed out and that worked great.  He rang that the second day and now it is second nature for him.  That is all I have.  Good luck.

[Joyce Orland]

She will probably cry and whine. I had one of the stuffed dogs that has a heart inside that beats. Lucy liked that. We are very lucky Lucy took to her create immediately and sleeps very well. That's the only thing that Lucy does well, the biting and nipping is driving everyone crazy and their teeth hurt!

Good luck don't give into the cries, she will get used to it and love it. If she cries, she may like a radio playing soft music. Give her a chew bone so she will have something. What ever you do don't take her out of the create, she will learn to cry to get your attention and nobody will get sleep. 

It can take awhile, but when they learn the create is the best thing. They are safe. 

[Alivia Quallen]

I bought a kong and I also bought the dog bones that you can freeze for her teething.  I have heard the dog with the heart beat works but I am going to see if her blanket that is coming with her will hopefully work.  I think we might still have a sound machine that the kids used as babies so if the blanket doesn't work I will try it.  I also heard putting a t-shirt with your scent in the crate can work.  I don't want to confuse her though with my scent and the scent on the blanket of her brothers and sisters. 

[Stephanie]

We also had a 6 hour ride home with Perry,  the breeder was nice and didnt give her breakfast so she wouldn't get car sick. Her advice was not to suop unless she got restless.  I think we only had to stop once for her...   the rest of the stop were for the humans! LoL.  She literally laid in our laps and slept the whole time!  We fed her once home.  We did the no food / water  past 6 pm?and were relentless on constant trips outside and lots of praise - she caught on quickly!   We also went the route of her "room"  being separate...  We have no room in our room for a large crate. so I made a place in my sewing/ computer work room.  Which actually turned out perfect, because  when we are here in the afternoons / weekends...  we are in here with her  and she is MUCH mor elikely to go in her crate all by herself to sleep , cause  I'm here on the computer. Otherwise,  I wouldn't trust her to be in our room alone...   so I'd much rather her have the non carpeted area.  This came in EXTREMELY fortunate when she accidentally got diarreah a few weeks ago..   both myself & hubby said that if it HAD occurred on the carpet - we would have had to rip it up.  

 

She wimpered a bit her first night, then from second night we made her room in my work room and from then on, she never looked back..  she settled right in.  We also praised and made the crate a good place to be w/ treats etc.    Having her sleep in her own room for our family, personally , was one of the best decisions we made. Now when we take her w/ us out of town, She and I both make the transistion WELL because  she doens't have a come apart if she can't sleep in the same room...  which when staying with company you can't always assume, that just because they are brave enough & gracious enough to host our puppy, that they  want that puppy & crate in their carpeted bedroom! LoL -  Honestly she gets to go MORE places w/ us because I assure our guest, how pleasant she is in her crate, well behaved & good sleeper. We usually place her in the kitchen where most people have the most durable & forgiving flooring, for our peace of mind :)

 

We were also VERY consistent with  her schedule those first few weeks...  she come home from the breeder accustom to "light outs/ bed @ 9 pm.   One last potty break @ 11 pm and then  wake up @ 5:30 am.   She eventually weaned herself off the  11 pm potty  break and can  easily sail past the 5:30 am wake up time!   We have also easily been able to wean her off the no food/ drink past 6.   She eats @ 5:45pm ish... and  gets treats/  water as she needs...  and doesn't have any crate accidents. Her bladder is better than mine!

the one mistake we made was trying to cut  out her  3x's a day feeding.... the puppies  still need to eat at least 3 times a day!  we fixed it went back to 3 x's a day and was great after that!

[Stephanie]

Oh - I forgot,  we also had a toy that smelled like her siblings,  and a snuggle puppy w/ heartbeat.   That worked well,  now she loves to just play w/ her snuggle puppy!

 

[Alivia Quallen]

I am so glad that you replied You made me feel so much better about her being in another room while sleeping.  I think what we will do is when the kids go to bed which is no later than 9pm we will put her to bed.  My husband and I can always retreat to our room to watch tv after the kids are in bed. We are usually in bed anyway once we put them to bed!  Its so funny how dogs need a schedule just like babies do. 

 

My parents and Husbands parents live two hours away from us.  So, we DEFINTELY want to get her trained in her crate right from the get go.  She will be going with us when we go to visit them.  Our first visit is the 17th of August and I want her to be comfortable in her crate. 

[Stephanie]

I know

[Rachel and Ollie]

I am the hated one who actually had a puppy who has slept through the night from day one (I got the hard to house train card instead). I like you will, had a blanket that smelled like his siblings and mom. I also used a snuggle puppy. I really think the snuggle puppy saved me here. He loved it. He would lay on it every night. (He actually used this until about 6 months old when it became a little too mangled) I attempted to take it away sooner but he was soooo restless the night he didn't have it. Ollie sleeps next to me because I live alone and really like him near me. 

He went through a phase there for a while where he would whine when I put him in, but I would just tell him to stop it and he did. We still use yummy treats to get him in and a kong with peanut butter and kibble when I leave.