We (almost) survived the first week!!!

[Puppy Madness]

8 week old Derby has been with us five days now and I need to buy more paper towels and cleaner!!! Seems like all he does is poo and pee everywhere! First night was crated in my room- never again!!!  He whined all night . Night two was crated in the office and has been quiet all night ever since. He still poops and pees in the crate though and doesn't whine about it so I don't see it till the morning since he still has a bit of room in the crate to avoid it.  I've had to bathe him daily because of it,but need my sleep so I am hesitant to put an alarm on to get up in the middle of the night. I stop giving food/water at 6pm but know it'll be a while perhaps till he can hold it all night.  Other than that, he is a joy-sharp teeth and all.

[Anne G.]

I think it would be a good idea to get up around 3:00 to take Darby out to pee. It won't be long before he can hold it, but it is important that he gets the idea of where he should go. You can gradually increase the time you need to get up in half hour increments. That's what worked for us. Good luck! In the meantime, have fun!!

[Amber (with Maggie)]

Amy, Anne is being extremely nice. The puppy needs to be taken out more than one time in the night at that age.

The fact that you are hesistant to wake up in the middle at night in order to let a very young puppy out to pee and you stick it in a crate to hang out in its feces tells me you are not ready for a puppy. You are not crate training your puppy, you are using the crate as a holding area until you have had enough sleep and time to get around to your puppy. Puppy mills are known for treating puppies this way and it is a really good way to get a neurotic dog. Dogs HATE to pee and poop in their "homes" and this puppy is WAY WAY WAY too young to do anything else if you do not take it out at regular intervals.

My suggestion? get a cat. Return the puppy immediately to the breeder and let them know you kept the puppy in its own poo and pee in its crate because you did not want to lose sleep. 

[Midge and Gracie]

Amy, I just went through that with mine but no problems.  She kind of meowed in her crate which waas next to our bed and I would carry her out and bingo she peeed.  I did this twice during the night for at least 5 or 6 days and then down to a 3 am run to the yard.  She has never had an accident in her crate to this day and she is 14 weeks old.  Now she likes her crate but she is liking our bed even better and guess what she sleeps the nite on our bed!  In her crate she would wake up every four hours and woof so I assumed she wanted to go out.  Now she's a trooper.  Don't you just love the little puppy.  I am sad it is almost over now that she has grown although I have a mini and she will only be about 22 lbs.  We are totally in love!  Her name is Gracie.

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Sorry to chime in here but I just have to say that you have to be 100% committed to the training process or it just won't work for either you or the puppy.  This means that every time your puppy has an accident it is actually your fault and not the puppy's.  They simply can't physically hold it for any length of time.  I got Riley at 9 weeks and lifted him in the middle of the night for the first couple of weeks and during the day brought him outside on average every 20 minutes.  He was totally trained by 13 weeks.  The first few days are quite fraught as the puppy has just been wrenched from their siblings and mother, naturally it is hard for them.  It was exhausting and time consuming that's for sure.  But that's the deal and you have to do the work to get the right result.  If your puppy is soiling his crate he may also have  too much space.  Dogs do not happily soil their beds.  A change of attitude will do wonders for you both.

[Pat and Traveler]

I think Amy is gone.  Hope she and the pup do okay.

[Sharee & "Hope" Peterson]

I know it sounds insane but I never thought I would survive Hope's infancy - now wking on her teen yrs @9mos 65#-they are h are a breed all of their own-testing constantly and so SMART-you BOTH will be fine-read the below comments:

Doodle hugs,

Hope & Sharee