New Puppy Owner "Brittany"

Hi we just picked up our 9 week old Brittany ON sunday afternoon,
We purchased it a large crate which it will sleep in at night and dureing the day while are at work.

Our first night ( last night ) was terrible, the puppy cried all night long
along with today.

We were told to put no blankets in the crate, but putting a chew toy in would be a good idea, The puppys crate is located in the liveingroom

is it best to keep that area dark and quite? or would a radio playing on low help?

I made the mistake of going down every hour to let her out as I felt bad for the puppy. I know this ia NO NO i guess the best thing to do is
just leave it crying and it should adventually fall asleep correct?

approx how long will this night crying last for? and any tips that have worked for others to help the puppy feel more comfortable

thanks
Dave

 

Hi Dave and welcome! :m22:

I'm sorry I don't have any advice for you as my dogs run all over me and I am just the staff here--in perpetual clean-up motion. But I know there was a thread about how to crate train...I can't seem to find it right now though. I think it was under something else. Maybe someone else will chime in. I just wanted to say hi and that we love pictures! :m7:

 

Ya I contacted the breeder and she told me its normal for a new puppy
to cry for the first few nights.

if someone could locate that Link for me that would be awsome

thanks.

I'll try to post a picture up, I took today of our 9 week old Brittany
"Hunter" we named him tonight.

thanks
Dave[/img]

 

Hi and welcome!

I only have my opinions as my dogs also walk all over me, but when I brought my Pom home at 8 weeks old, she cried the first night (she did have a blanket in with her ~~ still has her blanket at over a year old). The second night, I put a wind-up alarm clock under her blanket so that she could hear the ticking and that did help alot. My second Pom that I brought home at 3 1/2 months even got his own blanket and wind-up alarm clock the first week just so I felt better (he still doesn't care about his blanket, but Lacie does). I don't think it helped him any, but it did me. He never cried once. I was the baby, not him. LOL.

I am sure one of the experts will be on soon to answer you.

Forgot to say that my male Pom is also named Hunter.

 

Hi your puppy should have a blanket or beeding in her crate.

Does she settle when your there with her if this is the case spray and old t-shirt with your deodrant or aftershave and place this in her crate with her along with a teddy and a wind upo ticking clock.

Put the clock under her blanket this gives her the feeling of being with her mother still and makes her feel safe.

When she is crying let her cry she will soon learn crying will not get your attention unless it is to go out to the toilet.
Puppies are like children once they learn that you will come running when they do something then they will carry it on, They will even cry for longer if it knows your going to go eventually.

Putting the crate in your bedroom may help but i never advise that.
When going to bed do not make a fuss over her simply place her in her crate say goodnight and leave, She will see this as bed time and its time for sleep.

Make sure you do this the same time every night and you get up the same time every morning this will get her into a routine and hopefully all will be well.

The more you give into her crying the more she will do it, When she is crying when you leave the room ignore her and when she is quiet praise her give her a treat if this is how you wish to reward good behaviour, She will soon learn being good gets her attention being bad gets her ignored.

Mike

 

I found this link for you hope you find it helpful..

http://www.inch.com/~dogs/cratetraining.html

Mike

 

I do advocate putting the crate in the bedroom, but only if it works for you. I find that dogs settle much more quickly if they are not alone at night. My adult dogs are crated at night in our bedroom and will be for the rest of their lives (unless my husband suddenly decides to let them sleep on the bed, LOL). My foster dogs sleep crated in one of the kids' rooms.

Having a radio on softly or classical music may help. Obviously, don't put on something with loud, fast music.

As Mike said, do NOT pay attention to her for crying, or you are rewarding her. Just ignore her. You have to catch her being good at first. If she is quiet even for 2 seconds, praise her. Gradually require her to be quiet longer before praising her.

During the day, try to make the crate a positive place to be. Feed her in there with the door open. As she gets used to that, try closing the door while she eats but open it as soon as she is done. Throw treats in there and praise her for going in to get them. Try closing the door and sitting next to her and feeding her treats through the bars and then let her out. Gradually increase the amount of time the door is closed. Then start moving farther away from her or leave the room entirely, but only for a few seconds and come back and praise her (assuming she is not crying). Work up to longer absences. If she falls asleep, put her in the crate but leave the door open at first. As she gets comfortable with it, close the door but open it as soon as she wakes up.

Do remember that a puppy needs to be let out several times at night to potty. A good rule of thumb is that she can "hold it" for her age in months plus one - so a 2-month-old puppy can hold it for about 3 hours. Set you alarm for every three hours and take her out, but don't make it fun. Try not to talk to her and don't play with her. Keep as many lights off as possible. Bring her to the spot she is supposed to go and then after she is done, bring her back to her crate and leave her very matter of factly. She should learn that getting out at night is only for going potty.

Puppies are a LOT of work, but it is worth it to put the time in now so you have a well-behaved and well-trained dog.

By the way, you keep calling the pup "it." Is "it" a boy or a girl??

 

Thanks for all the Great freedback

This place is awsome

Problem I face is, Mother works 8am-5pm, I work 4pm-3am
the schedule we have "hunter" on is this

mother gets up at 6am feeds puppy and takes puppy outside at 7.30
then crates him to get ready for work. I get up at 12pm take puppy outside ( first thing) then feed him and hes outside every 30 minutes as i see him sniffing around. he then goes into crate at 3pm and mother gets home at 5pm ( = 2 hours in crate) she then goes to bed at 10pm and hes crated from 10-3.30 when i get home) thats around 5.5 hrs. he still hasnt peed or pooed in crate but i know thats a long time for him ti hold it in.

The breeder told us nothing in crate as he may chew chunks off and swallow, But i know when hes awake and out of crate he likes to sleep on pillow

is there any type of bedding i can purchase from a petstore thats not chewable?

thanks
take care
Dave

P.S how long does it normally take before the puppy is no longer going on the floor? we are bothing working as hard as we can to take him outside ( seems like 50 times a day) half of the time we dosent go on floor inside till after we bring him back inside from being outside he seems to go in the same locations all the time for eaither number 1 or number 2 we keep these areas cleaned well with a vingar wash she he doesnt smell it we also take what he does inside and take it outside to his designed area so when hes out there he smells it ( is this the correct thing to do) ?

then again we have only had him for a few days now it will take awhile I guess. I just HATE to hear him cry and look so sad as it makes me feel bad.

also he has a bad habit of chewing everything he can possible gety is mouth on.. outside he loves wood chips and stones, i find myself always pulling them out of his mouth when i see him pick something up

is all this chewing and biteing normal for a young puppy? everytime we see him chewing something we say NO BAD HUNTER then give him a toy he can chew.

I guess it all doesnt happen overnight. it will take awhile to get him a schedule he works with

 

Thanks. Sorry we called "him" puppy till we picked a name took us 2 days to pick a name. its now Hunter and hes a male.

thanks for all the awsome information

take care
Dave

 

You can try a bed or blanket in the crate, but if he chews it up then I would remove it for safety. I know the shelter where I volunteer says the dogs chew up their blankets all the time and they have never had a problem, but I always worry about impaction or a fiber getting tangled inside the dog, which requires surgery. I have a dog who eats her bed if crated during the day, so we used to have to take it out and leave no bedding for her. At night she doesn't eat it so she can sleep on her bed then.

Do leave something safe for puppy to chew on in her crate, even if she can't have the bedding. She is teething now, and yes it is normal for all this biting and chewing to be going on! I prefer bones like Nylabones or other safe chews rather than something like rawhide or pig ears. Both of those items can be dangerous.

It sounds like he is on a pretty good schedule, assuming he is out of the crate from 3:30am until 6am when your mother takes control of him. Do make sure he has as much out-of-crate time as you can manage, even if that means you are tired! It sounds like he is holding it well in his crate, which is good.

You NEED to stop him from peeing in the house. He has become used to that spot and that surface to pee on. You might try cleaning it with an ezyme-based cleaner such as Nature's Miracle.

Watch him like a hawk! If he gets near that spot, grab him and hustle him outside and bring him to where you want him to go. Stay out there with him and tell him a command word - like "go potty" or "hurry up." Say it again when he actually starts to go, and then praise him! Bring treats out with you so you can treat him as soon as he is finished. Let him play for a minute or so and then bring him back in.

Always bring him outside immediately after waking up and also soon after eating, drinking, or playing. Also bring him outside at least once an hour. If you see him sniffing or circling, bring him outside. When in doubt - bring him out! You will start to recognize his "I am going to pee now" look. You have to be very diligent and watch him like a hawk! Gate him into the room you are in or tether him to your belt loop with a leash so you don't lose track of the little guy.

Maybe you can put something over his favorite pee spot temporarily? It might be inconvenient to have a box or something sitting in the middle of the floor, but maybe it will break the cycle. Dogs get used to peeing on a certain surface, so you need to get him used to grass being the only place he goes.

If he does start to squat inside, interrupt him with a loud noise, pick him up and hustle him outside! If you take him out and he doesn't go in a reasonable amount of time, bring him in and watch him very carefully - like don't even blink - for signs of having to go (or crate him if you can't watch him) and then bring him back out every 10-15 minutes or so until he finally goes outside and then praise the heck out of him!

It's a LOT of work, but it's so worth it in the end to have a dog that is reliably house trained. The key is that you MUST go outside with him EVERY TIME and stand there so you can praise him when he is going. Tell him what a good boy he is while he is peeing/pooping and then treat him as soon as he is finished. Putting a command word to it is helpful as well.

 

Thanks allot again more

This place is awsome,

Ya its hard to keep him " Hunter" a good schedule but he seems to not mind, Hes starting to learn NO, as whenver hes chewing something I grab his nose and hold it and GRRRR at him ( as this is what breeder told me to do), hes still chewing and bitting but hes still a puppy. Right now I wish I could be home all the time but unfortunally I cant because I gotta pay the bills, As we all do, Boy puppies are just like kids arnt they?

at what point in time would you suggest Obidience training? taking him to one of those courses?

I Later plan on training him for "Field" and have already talked to breeder about this so thats all good.

thanks again

take care
Dave

P.S how do I post photos? :lol:

 

Make sure when you take something away from him and tell him no, you also replace it with something he can chew on. It is very important to show a dog what he CAN do rather than always scolding him for what he can't.

Ask your vet about when he can start a puppy class. As soon as the vet gives the okay as far as immunizations go, enroll him in a puppy class. It's great for socialization as well as beginning training.

When it is safe to bring him out, socializing him is very important. You want him to be exposed to as many new situations as possible - other people of all kinds, other dogs, loud noises, cars, etc.

 

Your patients will be rewarded. It's been years since I had to cope with a new puppy but I do remember the absoulute wails of agony that emitted from that tiny pup each night for the first week or so. I also remember having to bring his box into the bedroom next to my bed and hang my arm down into the box to get him to sleep.

Jamiya said:

This is very important. Best start as soon as is safe. I got Duke when he was seven months old and weighed sixty pounds. We all went to the park where I was going to walk him while Dukesmom rollerbladded around a roadway reserved for bicycling and rollerbladding. While she was putting on her skates we started to walk down the shoulder of the road. Around the corner came a whole pack of bicyclers in their brightly colored shirts and Duke freaked out went absoutely nuts. I had just calmed him down when a bunch of rollerbladders came around the corner and scared him silly again. When I saw Dukesmom approaching I hollered at her to call Duke so he would know it was her. For the next few visits all we did was sit on the curb and watch the parade of bikes and rollerbladders and he soon became used to the action.
Point is to exposed the pup early and often to all sorts of experiences, including car rides, other dogs and people.
There used to be a "rule" that you couldn't train a pup until it was at least six months old but I see now you can start as soon as your vet tells you it's safe.

 

Thanks once again More..

Ya Its now been 5 nights since we purchased Hunter, He now crys very little when put into his crate at night, only for the first 5-10 minutes or so then he lays down and sleeps for a few hours. Ya talking about NO sleep, its been a rough week allright, I work 4pm-3am hes normally getting up when I get home I play with him take him outside by the time hes laid down and napping its already 4.30am dureing this time I make my lunch for the following day shower and get ready for bed, Ive been putting him back in his crate at 5am mother is up at 5.30-6 am she plays with him then puts him outside then back into crate by 7.30 ish. hes normally up and crying around 9.30 to go outside ive been getting up takeing him out then back into teh crate and I'm up by 11. and dureing the night its been hard to get much sleep, But he is getting better it all takes time and patients I guess, Tonight when I got home at 2.15 am ( got off early)
he was sound asleep but then woke up when i came to his cage, I took him, outside and praised him. he came back inside then 1/2 hour later I noticed him whimpering at back door, I took him out and he went both number 1 and 2. i really praised him at least hes makeing progress.

has anyone had issues with puppies likeing to eat rocks? for some reason everytime I take hime outside he finds a stone to chew on which I end up pulling out of his mouth?

as for the chewing on everything in the house, Ive been grrrrring at hime and saying NO then giveing him a bone then a minute later saying GOOD HUNTER...

ya its takeing time but it will come

P.S how do I post pictures?

thanks again
Dave

 

hmm, one more thing to add

Not sure if everyone has this available to them or not, But Is Pet insurance a good thing to purchase? specially with an already $$$$ puppie?

or whats your experiences

thanks again

Dave :wink:

 

Some insurance may be worth it and some is not. You have to look very carefully at what they cover and what they don't and then compare it to what you would be spending at the vet. For instance, some insurance covers shots and check-ups, so you would need to compare their prices to your vet's prices. Then look and see what kinds of conditions are covered. I think this one has been mentioned here before, so you might look into it: http://www.petinsurance.com/affiliates.cfm?ec=CI0033. Myself, I just put money away every month for pet expenses, so if something happens I have some savings to deal with it.

The fact that your puppy whimpered at the door to go out is very, very good! What a smart puppy!!

It is so worth it. At the beginning it's just like having a new human baby in the house. But training him right from the beginning makes him much easier to live with later. It does get better in only a few short months. In the meantime, try to enjoy his tiny cuteness! There is a reason babies are so cute - to counteract the huge amount of work they take to raise!

My dog also liked to eat rocks. She doesn't do it much anymore. The chewing will get better as Hunter gets his adult teeth in over the next few months. Some dogs just love to chew, but teaching him what things are okay to chew on will definitely make it better for you.