Newbie with a few more questions

[Cammy Todd]

Hi everyone - I have really enjoyed Doodle Kisses the past week.  Thanks for all of your posts and replies in this group - it has been so helpful.   I do have a couple questions specific for our Izzy who is almost 11 weeks.

1.  How to play with her inside?    A little background.  Izzy has had 4 accidents since we brought her home 2 1/2 weeks ago, only one in the past two weeks.  I take her out A LOT (after crate time, when she wakes up, after playing, after eating).  We do quite a bit of our playing in the 3 car garage right now because it has been raining/storming a ton in Kansas this week.  I'm curious what ideas who have to play in the house with her?  The only room we will let her in without direct supervision is the large master bathroom.  It has tile floors that she loves and I can shut the doors on both sides.  She does really well in there.  I have tethered her in the kitchen a few times while I'm working in there.  I have no confidence yet in her not peeing on the carpet (all accidents have been on carpet) and our house is a VERY open floor plan.  The kitchen is hard wood floors and the living room is carpet - it is completely open so no way to block it off without tethering.  Just need some ideas of games to play inside with her with this kind of setup.  We have played a few games of tug and short fetch but I have kept her on a leash.   Is this bad?  

2.  Games the kids can participate in?  We have been working hard on the nipping/biting and she has almost completely stopped with me but not quite yet with my girls (ages 5 and 8).  They are getting better at handling it, but are looking for ways to play with Izzy that will keep her engaged.  We do go on short walks with the girls on their scooters.  Izzy does pretty good - she just wants to keep up with them!  

3.  At what age did you start trusting more on carpet?  I know I am a little paranoid, but I would rather be cautious.  We do watch TV for about 45 minutes at night before my husband and I go to bed and Izzy is up on the couch with us.  I think she would rather be down on the ground though as she struggles to get comfortable for the first 15-20 minutes.  I am thinking about getting one of those plastic computer chair mats to put down on the carpet so she can lay next to us on the couch.  She seems to like the cooler, harder surfaces better.

4.  How do you do bell training if you are restricting their freedom so much?  It seems like a catch 22! She has to have some freedom to ring the bells but can't do that if I'm tethering or crating her.  

Thanks so much for reading this LONG post and taking time to respond!

[Sharon Vogel]

Our girl is 4 months today. For number 4, I tether her within reach of the bells sometimes. The first time she rang it by herself was so exciting. But she is 17 Weeks and we still don't trust her on carpet. Our trainer said 2 weeks with no accidents is his definition of housebroken. We are definitely not there yet. We have 2 and 5 year old boys and their play time with her has to be very structured. But I think they love doing the commands I give them like, take the toy, tell her sit, throw the toy, etc. And I'm always standing there ready to tell her to "be nice". They can really get her hyper, and we want to avoid that. Oh lastly, I've heard that flirt pole is a great activity for indoor play, just make sure she doesn't jump up a lot because of her developing skeleton. I've been meaning to make my own. But YouTube has tons of videos. Anyways congrats on your puppy!

[Dexter Doodle]

It sounds liike things are going really well with Izzy. Once she is able to get a little more freedom it gets so much easier! It will go by quickly, but I can try to help you with my personal experience.

1. Most play at that age was training. I constantly trained Dexter mostly using just plain Cheerios. When I had another person with me we would do a lot of recall. It took Dexter a while to know his name. In the beginning when he had trouble getting it we played a "monkey in the middle" type game. He would always run to the person with the toy. Other than learning the basics, we would play fetch. Once he got a little more freedom I would put him in a down stay and play hide and seek. I would have my son follow him to avoid him doing anything while I hid and called his name.

2. My son was older and it was still difficult to get the nipping under control early on. I had him take part in training to be seen as a leader. Since I don't have experience with younger ones (my son was 13) I'll leave that to someone who has.

3. I have a very open floor plan too. My downstairs is all hardwood, but has many area rugs. I removed the rug in my family room because that is where we usually were and was very nervous to put it back. I would say it was about when he was 14 weeks when I gave in. He was accident free for a good 2 weeks then. (Never had another). Dexter never liked carpet or bedding. He pushes it to the side in the crate and always chooses the cool hardwood to nap on. He was not cuddly at all as a puppy, but once he matured a bit (maybe 5-6 months) he decided cuddling on the couch was great. Sometimes when he was really young, he wouldn't settle for a little tv time at night. He was usually overtired. He would get extra nippy. We would have to pick him up and hold him as still as possible. He would finally let out a big sigh and would usually settle at our feet after and nap.

4. I got the bells at 11 weeks. Dex had access to the French doors because they were in the kitchen right next to the family room (open floor plan) where we were with him. I still had him near me at all times, but if I saw him headed toward the door, I let him go. He figured out the bells in 3 days, but I still took him out if I thought it had been too long of a break between the last potty time. I was crazy with avoiding accidents, but by 5-6 months I was able to let him tell me when we wanted to go out.

Izzy is still young. For me, that time wasn't the most fun! I was too worried about potty issues, whether the nipping would ever stop, and what other issues would we encounter. Dex is 9 months and I look back and realize I worried for nothing. The hard work paid off just like everyone told me it would. You are off to a great start!

[Cammy Todd]

Thank you for the advice.  I have read many of your posts from the early days.  I'll be honest, at first they completely freaked me out but I truly appreciate that you didn't sugar coat things.  I, too, have been feeling so  overwhelmed with the responsibility of taking care of our new puppy.  The girls have been trying to help, but my husband left last Sunday for several days for a business trip and I think I cried multiple times each day.  If I wasn't crying, I was so anxious and stressed that I lost six pounds and wasn't sleeping well at night.  I still feel overwhelmed, but it seems to be getting a tiny bit better with each day.   I work three days a week (we own a small business) and are able to take Izzy to work with us.  But, again, I have the primary responsibility for her care there and that is stressful too.  I left her with my husband one day last week to go out to lunch with my mom and she had her first accident in a week.  I was so disappointed.  He had been playing with her hard in his office and went to take her out, but stopped in the kitchen to talk for a minute and she peed right on the floor.  Not her fault, I know, but I feel like all the hard work from the previous 10 days had been wasted.  I do know accidents happen and that I need to relax.  I just miss my former life - that is the complete and honest truth.  I know that I will grow to love Izzy more each day.  

Focusing on the good things - 1.  for the past 6 nights, Izzy has slept from 7-8 hours each night - yay!.  2.  We have made progress with the nipping.  We are not there yet, but progress has been made.  3.  Daytime crating is going ok.  She whines when she can hear us nearby (only during the day).  But, this is getting better.  Sometimes I put her in the guest bedroom in her crate so that she will settle easier.  4.  We started puppy classes last week and they completely wore her out!  First night she slept 7+ hours!

Thanks again for your honesty.  I don't really feel like I have anyone to talk to about this.  My husband thinks I'm being a little over the top anal and paranoid and most people who have never had a puppy just don't understand!  

[Sheeba Daniel]

Hi - I just posted about our struggles about potty training and nipping (which I didn't mention in the post) but wanted to let you know I share your feelings -  this is much harder than I realized it would be to have a puppy. In some ways, a little harder than having a newborn - or maybe I have just forgotten how tiring that was. I too feel like I am constantly training, cleaning up accidents, correcting nipping, etc. We are enjoying our Tessy and she is really a sweet dog but oh, boy, raising a puppy is hard work! My husband reminds me to take time to enjoy Tessy - as I too can be too focused on doing all the right things to ensure this puppy is a well-behaved dog. It sounds like we brought home our puppies at about the same time - just wanted to let you know that I can relate! 

[Kelly & Zoe]

TRUST me - it will get better!! Both my husband and I felt the same way for the first couple of months - what the heck did we get ourselves into!  Looking back, it was completely worth it - we have a loving sweetheart of a dog who is well socialized, gentle and loves and is loved by everybody.  That's what it means to have a 'dood!  Izzy will grow out of bad habits if you keep on the training and stay consistent.  

Good luck!  It will get better!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We bought an ex-pen that we stretch out to block off some of our open floor plan rooms - like the ones with carpet.

[Kelly & Zoe]

For #2 - one of our favorite indoor-rainy weather games is 'find <human>' - indoor hide-and seek.  We each take a few treats and one person keeps Zoe with them  (doing sits, and such) while the others hide around the house.  One hidden person says 'come Zoe' and Zoe has to find them.  When Zoe gets to the person, she has to sit, (gets a treat!!) then a 'wait' command until the next person calls.  We have a two story so that tuckers her out pretty good :-). It's a fun game and re-enforces some basic commands like sit, come, wait.

[Kelly & Zoe]

I forgot to add - often the person who is with Zoe will say 'find <so and so>' and that also teaches her our names.