Tomorrow we are officially Doodle parents!

[Misti]

Tomorrow afternoon we pick up our little lady... Ive been reading for weeks about crate training/potty training, but all of a sudden Im feeling very nervous ( like a new mom). Ive seen so many different schedules and I have no clue whats the best one to use. Im a stay at home mom so I will be home with her all day. Can you all share your actual crate training schedules with me? Also... What size collar should she have? She is 8 wks... The small size looked too small so I got a medium (10-16inches). Is that ok? Have I mentioned Im really nervous??? Lol

[Teresa and George]

I know how you feel, Misti!  We just brought our puppy home 3 weeks ago--our first puppy ever.  It's great that you will be home with your pup--it will make it a lot easier to get her settled in.  

When we first brought George home, we took him out in the yard OFTEN to give him a chance to do his business. As soon as he got up, right after breakfast, and every hour or so during the day.  He pretty quickly developed a predictable schedule of nap time, play time, and potty time.  We hung bells on the kitchen door and rung them with his nose every time we took him out to potty.  Now he rings the bells when he has to go.  I still take him out pretty often, just to be on the safe side.

I don't know about your pup, but George did not want anything to do with the crate for the first few days (he slept in it at night from the beginning).  So, during the day, I'd leave the crate door open and drop all kinds of yummy treats in there throughout the day.  He started going in there to look for treats and pretty soon was OK with being in there for short stretches during the day.  He's fine with it now.

Just take it one day at a time.  You and your pup will figure each other out!  It's scary at first, but it's fun!

Teresa

[Candice & Bailey]

Teresa, I could have written what you just wrote! That's exactly what we're doing with Bailey too! From the bells on the door, to the taking him out every hour or so and putting the treats in his kennel to make it the fun place to go! It's working well for us. He still whines and cries if he's left alone for any length of time, but he's starting to get a bit better.

[Chelsie]

I remember being nervous the day I went to pick up Sam. I did lots of research and even paid for a puppy kindergarten class for a week before I brought him home. Take lots of pictures because they grow so fast!! I think your collar will be fine. We have used that size since bringing him home...it was a small as it could go at first, but now, 2 months later, we are almost to big for it at its largest size! As far as crate training I am lost! Sam never learned to like his crate. During puppy kindergarten the breeder said he really didn't like it and she had never seen a puppy not learn to be ok in it. I spent the first week and a half sleeping in the basement, husband has a crazy work schedule and needs his sleep, with him while he was in the crate and he would just cry and cry. I did the whole shhh...it's ok....I'm right here bit and pottied him at appropriate intervals. I covered his crate with a blanket and that made it worse. He always seemed so hot in his crate that I took out all bedding and blankets...nothing worked!! Sam moves around from spot to spot all night long and prefers the hardwood floor over his bed. He also sleeps stretched out as long as he can get! I think these factors just made him so uncomfortable in the crate he hated it. Needless to say Sam sleeps next to our bed on the floor...all night from 11 to 7 without a peep, unless he is switching spots! The crate never worked for us. I hope this isn't the case for you! Post lots of pics of the new addition! Very exciting times!

[bruce weinberg]

Hi, I'm Amy, Bruce's wife. We are leaving in an hour to pick up our 12 week old doodle, Fluffy. You sound just like me -- nervous as a new mom (my stomach has butterflies and I didn't sleep well last night!). Never owned a dog before and I have all the same questions you do, so I will be following this post very closely! Good luck!

[David Louie]

We brought Charlie home @ 8 weeks. Breeder had her crated with her mom & siblings so she was already partially crate trained. We usually crated her at around 9pm. She woke us up around 4-5 am for
potty time. I would take her out for her to do her business & then back into crate until around 7:00am our usual wake up time. After about 4 weeks she started to get us up at 7:00am with bit of whining & banging on crate. Her house training went pretty good. Took her out whenever she woke up from sleep or nap, after every meal, which meant every 1 to 2 hours during the day. I wrote down the time for every pee and poop during the first month we had her and you can soon see a pattern of when she had to go. As she got older the intervals to pee got longer. We used kibble for treat after potty. Charlie is 6 months now & she walks over to the door & barks when she needs to go out to potty. We tried the bells but she only wanted to play with them. The first month was hard and tiring for us but the reward was a crate & house trained puppy with very few accidents (none in the crated & only a couple times during the first month). By the way, we are first time dog owners with no experience. The Internet & this site is a wealth of information.

[Stephanie]

Congrats!! You sound like me before I brought my first puppy home five months ago! I also researched for days about things like crate training and schedules, and worrying about collar sizes (I picked medium btw, which fit him well when adjusted to the smallest).

I also had a schedule planned out for him and everything looked realistic to me. But when I brought him home, there were  just a few problems...

- He wouldn't pee every hour or after playing like everyone says a puppy should (He held it anywhere from 3-6 hours. Whenever I took him out to try, he would roll around in the grass and come back in with ants all over him. I quickly decided he wasn't going to go out every hour.)

- He didn't love his kibble and picked at his food, throwing off his poop schedule (He usually only went twice a day).

- He always fell asleep in my lap when I had scheduled play time to wear him out before my bedtime (and of course, he'd be ready to play at his scheduled bed time)

Since most of the schedule revolved around regular potty and feeding times, and Beckett was nowhere near regular, I decided to throw out the schedule and just made things up as I went. I don't know if it's good or bad to not have a schedule, but I like to think that it trained him to be a flexible puppy. He now rings a bell to go potty every 4-8 hours and will hold it if no one lets him out (the crate was a big help here- I just put him inside if I couldn't keep an eye on him and it had been a few hours since his last potty break), he waits quietly in the kitchen to be let out in the morning whether it's 7am or 10am on weekends, he always poops after breakfast now so I can control when he poops by controlling what time breakfast is, he plays when I'm ready to play with him, and he naps when I leave him alone in the kitchen or in the crate. I've heard that doodles do great with routines, but I also think they're great at adapting!

So, if your puppy turns out to be anything like mine was, don't worry too much. You won't ruin her if you're forced to abandon the schedules- everything will be fine! Have fun!

[Jill & Tugboat]

Hi, Misti,

Congrats on being a new doodle parent.  We brought our new addition, tentatively named Kolsch, today.  He's 8 weeks. 

We got a medium collar and it's just a tad too large, but we're going with it.  It doesn't seem like it will come off over his head too easily.   He's already wearing it and doesn't seem to mind.  We have a 3 year old Papillon who took weeks to get used to her collar.

We're planning on doing the crate method, too.  I used that with my previous dogs (this Pap and two Shelties that we had for their 14 years) and it worked fabulous.  Our method was, I'm sure similar to what you've been reading.   They were in the crate anytime we couldn't keep eyeballs on them.   That may sound like a lot of time, but for us, it really wasn't.  Overnight (obviously), and then an hour or two throughout the day.  Potty breaks were immediately upon leaving the crate, after every meal, and anytime we saw signs that they might be getting ready to go or, at a minimum, every two hours at first, then going up to three, and so forth.  Our female Sheltie was reliable after only a week, the male a couple weeks.

Good luck - I'm sure you'll do fine.

[Dawn B. Roy]

I'm dying here waiting on news of sweet baby girl Olive. Throw me a bone!
Hope the drive was safe and you are loving on your precious girl right now!

[Misti]

Ha! Im a sleep deprived new mom! ;) She actually is an angel...she only cried during the car ride home but as soon as we got home, she was so happy and playful. Only one accident in the house and we pretty much have pottying outside down. She even went number 2! Yay! I took her water up at 11pm and put her in her crate ( which she napped in a handful of times on her own) and she slept until 2am ( with a few whines here and there). I took her out to pee and back in crate until 4am. She was ready for the day at 6am today. So all in all it was a pretty good day for not knowing what the heck Im doing! Lol. The kids adore her also- I have a 9 1/2, 5, and 2 yr old... So she is going to get plenty of love and attention! :)) I will try to upload pics when shes napping later.