How long has your "puppy phase" lasted?

[Alissa Edwards]

We're bracing ourselves for puppy terrors - and I hope we're pleasantly surprised. Our last vizsla we adopted when we were DINKS (double income no kids) and life was so different. We now have three kids, 7, 4.5 and 18 months, I work from home, etc. 

I'm wondering how long to expect to need to focus on potty training, nipping, chewing, jumping, etc. I know this varies by dog and breed type (we're getting a double-doodle (labradoodle/goldendoodle cross), but how long in YOUR experience have you dealt with these behaviors in your pup? (Or if you're still dealing with them, how have them improved and how old is your dog now?)

If you're one of those people that has had incredible success with the puppy phase in any category, please share what you did!

[Jen and Annie]

Overnights, Annie slept int he crate. and when not in the crate, we were watching her every move. She was fully potty trained within about 2 weeks, we brought her home at 10 weeks old. There were a few accidents (maybe 3 or 4) up until she was about 5 mos old, but these were my fault for not recognizing her queues. Bring treats with you every time you go outside. If puppy goes potty outside, throw a huge party with excitement, praise and treats. An 8 week old puppy will likely have to go potty: after every meal, as soon as he wakes up, after playing.
We never took our eyes off Annie, so that if she squatted to pee in the house, we could say "NO" and quickly pick her up to take her outside, and praise her when she finished outside. In the event that you do have to clean up an accident, don't make a big deal of it. Just clean with an enzyme cleaner and keep a better eye next time. Any time that Annie did have an accident in the house, it was my fault for not paying enough attention to what she was doing. I found that HUGE praise sessions when she went potty outside was a good driver for Annie. She learned really quick that when she went potty outside, she got a party....and when she went potty inside she got nothing. Puppies are not born knowing where they should go potty, so patience and paying close attention will go a long way. All the best! Puppies are fun and exhausting!

[Jen and Annie]

Annie is now a year and 9 months old. For biting and nipping, it is inevitable and will likely last for at least a month, if not longer. What we did was yelp like a puppy to get her attention. Every time she bit, we would yelp and pull away and with age, it gets better. For chewing, If you supervise, you can quickly take away shoes, belts or whatever your puppy is trying to chew on. If the puppy is unsupervised they can do a lot of damage in very little time. I personally feel like the key to most puppy issues is enough exercise and constant supervision.

[Julie and Max]

I agree with Jen, exercise and supervision are key to any puppy problems. I leashed Max to me for the first while, so that he was never alone. I did not crate, just a personal choice. If and when he did have an accident, it was always my fault for not paying enough attention. He got it pretty quick though, and I was pretty pleased with how fast he was potty trained. I did not find the yelping worked for me for the biting, but time outs work really well, I also taught bite inhibition which helped a lot with dealing with the biting phase. Now he almost never puts his teeth on anyone even in play but if it does happen by accident while playing it's very gentle, and I do believe the bite inhibition helped so much with him understanding he has to control his mouth that he can hurt us. I walk a LOT and Max has off leash time every day as well as many sessions of fetch and hide and seek. I started on obedience and trick training pretty much at day one eight weeks. Puppies are incredibly smart, they just don't have long attention spans. I kept training short to five or so minutes per session about 3 times a day, and I always make it fun, if he is having a hard time with something, I go back to something he can do well and praise him for that. Never pet or praise for excited behaviour, but do pet and praise for calm behaviour. Max is six months old now. I always get comments on how well behaved he is for a puppy. He still has his moments of course, like when we see other dogs, or he wants to eat a dead thing, but we're working on those. Just remember to relax and enjoy the puppy days they don't last for long, good luck!

[Alissa Edwards]

Do you do timeouts in the crate? Or just stop playing with him?

[Bug <3]

I got my puppy very young (6-7 wks)! When sleeping I had her in a crate. He was very nice to me and seriously slept through the night the third day I brought him home. I think this was largely due to the fact that I created a den atmosphere by covering his crate with a blanket.

When potty training I eventually decided to use potty bells to train him and he did fabulous. Like the other people said he will need to go after he eats and after he is crated and after playing with you. When you take him outside use a consistent word to indicate the task ie "go potty". Definitely don't scold him or punish for accidents. This can actually make him associate going potty in general is bad and will hide from you inside the house when he goes. Treat and celebrate successful potty trips outside. I reinforced with the word again. "Good job go potty". Do not treat him when he rings the bells. I actually treated him while he was pottying (like mid stream) for him to really connect what the good deed was!

Those have been my most successful tips on training. Best of luck. Just remember that if you ever feel like the process is overbearing frustrating and a complete mess you're failing at... We've all been there, and it will pass :)

[Debbie Daniels]

this is right on ...I wish they had a like on here :) 

[Missy]

potty training will take some time. I think our success was due to the fact I gave concentrated effort in the beginning. Potty training was my ONLY focus, meaning I didn't have anything else on my calendar to distract. He was 9 wks when we picked him up, and by week 12 I was confident he understood-potty goes outside.  we only had a few accidents in the house but he was NEVER unsupervised. by 4 months he got more unsupervised time as I trusted him to ring the bells to go outside. and the frequency of needing to go out was shorter too by this time. we are at 10 months now, and I feel we are good. we even go to friends houses and he does well there too.

nipping was present when we brought him home. we yelped like a litter mate and stopped giving attention to him. then redirected with a toy. within a week, we didn't have any problems with this.

chewing: he was always supervised, and anytime he offered to 'taste' something he was not allowed, I would say NO and redirect with an appropriate toy. I had some nylar toys that I would rotate and only give at certain times-it made them more appealing i think.  I also worked on the command DROP immediately.  we never had major correcting to do with this, but again he was always supervised and corrected in the beginning. at 10 months we are experimenting with leaving him uncrated in the house while I run errands. (of course I make sure trash can is covered) and we have done fine. the remote was even on the couch one day and I was amazed he didn't chew it.  these pups are very smart and I am convinced they know what is appropriate, but they could get bored one day!!

jumping up on people we are still working on. this is where I think I failed on puppy hood. i should have from the beginning had him on a leash and while introducing him to people, kept him in a sit position. put the leash on dog. take the leash to the floor, step on the leash. then hold the loose end in your hand. allow people to come to you, then when the dog tries to jump, he is restricted. since we have been working on this method for the past month, we are improving.

[Dynamite & Doodle]

Every puppy is different, so you'll get a wide variety of answers. Darwin is 10 months old now and he has mellowed a lot in the last couple of months. He's content to curl up near by on the carpet here and there during the day so I can sew. He gets 1 or 2 good walks every day plus playtime with kids in the yard or basement if it's too cold outside.

My mom has a standard poodle who is ten years old and he was very high energy for 7+ years. When she was at my house visiting from halfway across the country when Darwin was 7 months old she couldn't get over how calm he was. She had to keep reminding herself he is still a baby. His needy puppy stage was fairly short. We got him when he was 8 weeks old and by the time he was about 4.5 months old I couldn't recall the last time he had nipped.

We have a three floor house so we gated off half the main floor and that was his domain for the first few months. As he got older we started bring him to other parts of the house. Like others have said, we didn't leave him unattended at all. He was always supervised. We still have our gates up because stairs are not good for developing hip joints and also because he likes to go up to the kids' bedrooms and find stuffies. We'll keep the gates up until he is 1.5 or two. He does like to follow me around the house and I let him come with me, but if I need a shower and there is no one else to stay with him I know he'll be safe in the gated kitchen/living room. That's where his crate is too and he likes to sit in the chair by the window and watch the world go by.

[Stephanie and Ragley]

This is exactly how Ragley is. Her nipping phase wasn't even truly a phase as she just jumped after clothes for a week or so and was easy redirected and has had no issues with it. If we are outside, she displays happy puppy energy, but for the most part when we are inside she is content to just lay down near people and chew on her toys. She is a little over 4 months old. I am well aware that she is an exception though haha and I do make sure she gets plenty of stimulation (exercise, toys, training) each day

[Dynamite & Doodle]

Yes! Jumping after clothes, he did that for a little while too. We went for lots of little walks, just up and down our side of the block to meet the neighbors and I think that helped a lot. A good puppy is a tired puppy. So many goldendoodles that I know are super smart and laid back too. My mom says Darwin is everything she loves about her poodle, but without the crazy.

Darwin hasn't destroyed a single thing in our house. He knows which toys are his and he chews on those. Once in a blue moon he'll grab something that isn't his and go sit by the door pretending that he gets to have some alone time with it, but I just hold my hand out, say "give" and he drops it into my hand damp but unharmed.  He really is the perfect dog. He doesn't even bark when people come over.

[Stephanie and Ragley]

hahah sounds like Ragley! She is an expert sock thief! She loves to carry them around and relocate them, but all it takes is a "Ragley, drop it" and she looks me in the eye and spits it out, dropping it onto the floor lol its kinda cute, but I try not to let her know I think so...

[Debbie Daniels]

:) about the alone time !