New Doodle

[Jana - Lilly's owner!]

We are picking up our ten week old doodle on Friday.  

We have done lots of planning and are super excited.

While I may be opening a big can of worms here, as I'm seeing that dog raising has as many opinions associated as child raising, I wondered what your biggest piece of advice would be?  

[Pam Lawrence]

A new puppy is so exciting! In the excitement of bringing our new pups home, I think we tend to forget that they are babies who require a lot of time and patience. There will be the challenges of sleep deprived nights, house breaking, chewing and all of the other puppy behaviors. Of course, then there is the joy of watching how adorable they can be, no matter what they are doing! My best advice is to spend as much time as you can with the newest member of your family, BE PATIENT, know that some behaviors are just phases that will pass, set rules and boundaries early, ask for advice whenever you are frustrated, and above all, shower them with love!!

[Marilyn and Sherlock]

Be patient..... you get out of it what you put in it.... know even at 10 weeks they can learn their manners.... a nd if you don't want a 50 pound dog to do it, don't let a 10 pound dog do it.

[Dawn and Molly]

Good luck!  We have had our new little puppy for almost 3 weeks now.  It is exciting, wonderful, and tough at the same time.  The one thing I wish I would have known before we brought our puppy home was to check out the "Doggy Dan" training videos.  He has a three day trial for $1.  I just thought his 5 basic rule were helpful.  It has been helping with some of the puppy madness we have been going through :).  This site is also a really good resource.  I did a lot of reading of old posts. Others advice helped, as well as knowing I wasn't alone in experiencing different "puppy experiences".  Post pictures when your doodle arrives!

[Jana - Lilly's owner!]

Thanks for the advice, all!

[Paisley C]

I can only speak from our current experience and a few things that have worked for us:).

We opted for crate training and on her first time into the crate (kept in a quiet corner of the busiest room of the house) on her 2nd day here she whined for 45 minutes and was ignored thoroughly with "momma" a few feet away slowing moving away every 5 minutes till out of view. She settled in immediately and have had zero issues since but we stuck by the 1 hour between potty access per month of age. We hung a bell by the back door she now can ring throughout the day when she needs to eliminate. We trained and treated her for the first few months every time we took her outside by placing the treat behind the bell so in getting it the bell would ring and we would also say outside so she would learn it. Works well and never once a dirty crate to contend with. If a crate is used size it to your puppy with many of them having a movable partition.  

Puppies may chew much of the time we have found antlers and soft durable chew on toys to work for her. Fetch, tug and chase toys will likely get great use and begin working with yourself and your baby on a leash etiquette early on.

Enjoy your new love!!!