The pains of being a puppy mommy

So I just got my first ever puppy this weekend. My boyfriend and I spoiled her rotten. We knew we'd have to gate her in the bathroom for while we go to work, so we tested it out... and she just whined and cried and whined and cried. It was the most awful thing ever! So I decided to stay home this morning. My co-worker told me to be strong, don't even talk to her when she whines. she'll stop... eventually. So I shut myself in our bedroom while I gated her in the bathroom with all of her toys. She whined and cried and jumped on the gate for probably a good 20 minutes.. but now she's finally quieted down. I'm so proud of her!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v18/forxthe xdamaged/CIMG1763.jpg

Me and my little Dakota :] She's an Alaskan Klee Kai (miniature Husky) and she's 9 weeks old!

Anyone got some fabulous tips for a first time puppy mommy?

We crate-trained our little guy, and it was the best thing we could possibly have done.  Definitely do not give in to her whining.  Don't even look at her -- if you give her attention when she's whining she'll learn that's all she needs to do to get her way.

Congrats on your new furbaby!

OMG.. SOOOO ADORABLE!!!!

Tips...dont spoin her too much - but dont neglect her either (although I highly doubt you will)

uhm...good luck with the potty training, make sure she knows that going wherever she wants is BAD. it might make you feel pretty cruel, but its a must. My family used to have a dog, and when we first got him and he went peeing everywhere, my mom kept pointing his head into it and making him sniff it and then really making it obvious that its BAD. I felt sooo bad for him at the time, but afterwards when he became completely trained it made sense.

Google 'crate training' for puppies - you'll find out all about the right size and method for crate training. You will not be sorry. Once she has her own little den she'll feel more safe and secure when you leave.

Also rubbing the nose in messes might not be the best way to potty train. I would definitely research it.

your friend was RIGHT! i know it's the hardest thing ever to ignore your crying puppy, but it's the best thing for them and your sanity. if she learns that whining brings mommy running, guess what she is going to do a whole lot of? and you got lucky, she gave up after 20 minutes, thats nothing!!

i can suggest for house training, take her out frequently, and praise her like she's the best dog on the planet when she does her business outside. make sure you are always watching her so you can catch her when she has an accident inside. don't scold her, just say "No no!" loud enough to startle her, pick her up and get her outside.  

also be CONSISTENT with everything. dogs do well in a consistent environment. if you don't want her sleeping on your bed, the couch, etc when she's an adult, then don't let her do it now. or at least make sure she is always invited up first.

once she has all her shots, get her out and socialized. not just with other dogs, but with all different people, different locations, different surfaces. exposing her to lots of things when she is young will help her grow up to be well adjusted.

also, sign her up for puppy kindergarten as soon as she is old enough!

Original Post by sk33ny:

uhm...good luck with the potty training, make sure she knows that going wherever she wants is BAD. it might make you feel pretty cruel, but its a must. My family used to have a dog, and when we first got him and he went peeing everywhere, my mom kept pointing his head into it and making him sniff it and then really making it obvious that its BAD. I felt sooo bad for him at the time, but afterwards when he became completely trained it made sense.

 i'm sorry, but do NOT rub your puppy's face in it's messes. that is a pointless, archaic thing to do that teaches them nothing but that their owner is mean.

a dog is not able to associate a punishment given after the fact to the action that brought it on. the only way to teach a puppy that you don't want them going inside is to CATCH them in the act, as i said above, and show them where you DO want them to go.

Original Post by kathygator:

Also rubbing the nose in messes might not be the best way to potty train. I would definitely research it.

Agreed.  Every puppy book I read said not to rub their nose in it.  In fact, don't discipline at all unless you catch her in the act (and then a shrill "AACK!" should do the trick.)  If she has an accident, take her out immediately.  Always praise when she goes outside.  Also, take her out right after she eats, after she sleeps, and after she's done a lot of playing.  If you decide to crate train, also take her out right after you take her out of her crate.  Soon you'll get a good feel for when she needs to go.  Accidents happen... our puppy Trogdor had one or two accidents a day for the first few weeks, but now at 16 weeks he's almost completely housebroken.

Another benefit of crate training is if you need some time to yourself, you can always stick her in the crate for awhile.  You've got to have a life too.

I second the crate training suggestion and also the 'don't rub her nose in it' assertion.

I crate trained my cocker spaniel and it was the best thing ever! It took about a week for him to 'get it'.. We kept the crate in our room at night and whenever he cried or scratched the bottom of the crate, we would take him out immediately. The first few times he didn't do anything so we would just bring him back inside and put him back in the crate.. the cycle was repeated every few hours over the course of the first couple of nights but once he went potty outside for the first time (at 3am.!), and got huge praises from us, he caught on pretty quickly.

We weren't as lucky with our second puppy which we got when she was 5 months old and already trained using puppy pads.. worst thing ever! she sometimes still uses the bathroom rug as her personal potty spot. yuck!

Another tip, stick to a schedule! they need a routine... mine get walked as soon as we get up which also takes care of the morning potty, they get fed as soon as we get back home, a little play time, some grooming and then nap time. Exactly the same routine at night.

Good luck!

thanks everyone! We are definitely planning on crate training, we bought one online but it was too small so we exchanged it for a bigger one, but it won't be here until thursday, so in the mean time we borrowed my parents cat kennel but its small too so she doesn't like it at all!

and I definitely do not plan to rub her face in her accidents, I've heard that even just scolding a dog for having an accident inside can lead to problems, like eating their own poop! how sad. Instead we take her outside and if she goes we tell her good job! and give her a treat as soon as she's done.

I would be better at being strong and ignoring her while she's whining but I live in an apartment and I think one of my neigbors is home... so I feel really bad!

So now what I'm having problems with is that once she's quiet and i want to bring her out, as soon as she sees me she just starts whining again! So I just turned around and walked away without saying anything but then she just started like screaming! It seriously sounds like there's a giant pig being murdered in my bathrooom :[

Original Post by hayleymajayley:

Anyone got some fabulous tips for a first time puppy mommy?

Stop spoiling the dog.

The crate should only big enough for her stand and turn around in it. Any larger and she will be tempted to mess on one side and sleep on the other. We got a large crate with a divider to confine the space better.

Yes. Consitent bathroom breaks - watch her and learn her schedule. She will eat, pee and sleep in a certain order. The sooner you know when she has to pee, the sooner you'll be able to take her outside in time. :)

Most of all - good luck and yay for baby dogs. :D

Original Post by hayleymajayley:

So now what I'm having problems with is that once she's quiet and i want to bring her out, as soon as she sees me she just starts whining again! So I just turned around and walked away without saying anything but then she just started like screaming! It seriously sounds like there's a giant pig being murdered in my bathrooom :[

 it's ok if she starts up again when she actually sees you, just make sure you are not going to her when she is whining. for example, you are in the other room, and you want to take her out, but she's crying. in that situation you should wait until she stops, even if it's only a brief lull, and then go in.

but if she starts whining again when she actually sees you coming, that's ok, just take her out like you were going to. you just don't want her to think that her whining is summoning you from the other room. does that make sense?

i so know the feeling about the neighbor! is it possible to talk to your neighbor? maybe let them meet the puppy (how could they be mad at that face?) let them know you are crate training her and apologize in advance if she bothers them?

you just need to be consistent, and if you go to her to shush her because of neighbors you are going to have a lot of trouble with crate training.

thanks jules :] good to know i can let her out if she whines when she sees me coming. that'll make things a lot easier! I've definitly been making sure to wait til she's quiet to go over there.

haha earlier i heard her turn on my scale haha wonder if she measured her bf% :]

no problem! one other thing, for now it's ok to go to her and grab her even if she is whining while you are approaching since shes so little.

but that will obviously be an annoying habit if she keeps it up. eventually you can get her to stop that by doing just what you said you did earlier. walk towards her until she whines, the second you hear a whine, stop and walk away. when she stops whining (even if it's just to take a breath) turn around and walk towards her again with a big smile. she'll figure out quick that whining sends you away and quiet brings you close.

that method also works great for things like jumping up, mouthing, attention barking, etc.

but for now with her being so young, trying to do that could mean the difference between an accident and getting her outside in time. and there's a good chance that once she gets used to her routine the whining will stop on it's own.  

I am such a fan of crate training - my dog loves her kennel - she will often just go in there for a snooze on her own.  I did though go through a rough patch where she whined and whined - I'm not sure that ignoring it is the way to go - some dogs develop a seperation anxiety.  I spent a couple of hours beside the kennel reassuring her that everything was okay when she was a puppy - she knew that I was there, but she didn't get out of her cage - a couple of days later she was over it and it hasn't been a problem since. 

Enjoy the puppy - but as mentioned above don't spoil her too much.  All the behaviours you are teaching her are acceptable now she will continue to do ... a small puppy jumping on you is cute now, but not so cute when they are full grown ... same goes for picking them up - if you don't intend to pick them up when she is full grown try to resist doing it too much now as well. 

The biggest thing I would suggest is make sure you socialize her to all sorts of environments AND take a puppy obedience training class ...

Have fun!!!!

aw sorry for the bad advice about the mess!

I guess it did seem pretty cruel =[

aw sorry for the bad advice about the mess!

I guess it did seem pretty cruel =[

Congrats on being a puppy mom! :D What a cute little doggie!! :D

Crate training is the best thing EVER. I made so many mistakes with my beagle because I had no idea what I was doing then. But when my parents got another dog after one had died, I told them to crate train her. She was potty trained in about 2 weeks. :o She's completely housebroken now and she sleeps in her crate every night (she goes in there on her own!).

It took my beagle over 6 months to become housebroken because we did a mix of newspaper, puppy pads, and outside. No crate. It was nothing but poop and pee clean up. He's completely housebroken now, but I wish I'd had crate trained him when he was a puppy. We attempted to crate train him, or make him sleep in a crate at night... but he would freak out so badly, he even tore OPEN his cage with his teeth! His inner german shepard power was released! He is terrified of cages/crates. So since he's 10 (11 in June!) I decided to just let him live how he has because I see no point in stressing out an old dog. He doesn't make accidents anymore anyway. :)

So yeah, a crate trained dog is awesome.

A cool toy I recommend, I don't know if you already bought one, are those kong toys. You can get one that's just for puppies and fill it with a little bit of peanut butter or some of her dry food, and let her work on it trying to get it out. It kept my parent's puppy from biting so much.

I'm afraid you're just going to have to let her cry.  If you don't, you'll never be able to leave her on her own.  I have friends who could never their dog and had to either take her with them or get a dog sitter even for a couple of hours. I agree about not rubbing her face in the mess.  It really is cruel and doesn't teach her anything except that Mommy and Daddy are scaring her.  She's a baby and she's gonna have accidents.  You can't do anything about correcting her unless you catch her in the act.  I highly recommend crate training.  It was so easy to house train Cody because we crate trained him first.  They have a natural instinct to not soil their bedding, so if you take her right outside from the crate, she'll get the idea that she's supposed to relieve herself outside.  I used paper training with all my other dogs and that works too, but it takes longer.  Once we could trust Cody, we gradually let him have more freedom until we could trust him to behave himself with the run of the house.  The crate is now in the garage and we only take it on vacation as a portable dog house.

For sure crate train - my puppy is 7 months and we put him in a crate from day one. The first night he cried like he was having a paw amputated, the second night a little whimpering, the third night, no problem. We have his crate in the bedroom with us, which I think is important for puppies since they are not used to being alone. That being said, it's important to teach him to be comfortable being alone or else you might end up with a case of separation anxiety. My dog has this, it's inherant in the breed, and it's a lot of work. I use doggie day care - LOVE doggie day care! Try to leave your puppy in a room and just get up and casually walk to another room where he can't follow. Start small and use different rooms, then go out the garage, and slowly increase the time away.

As far a toilet training, best is just to stay ahead of the game. About 10 minutes after pupper drinks, right after he wakes up from any nap no matter how long, at least once an hour take him out to do his business. You'll need to watch him like a hawk, and if you catch him having an accident in the house pick him up right away and take him outside to finish. Do NOT scold the puppy or he will associate going in front of you with being scolded and be shy about doing his business when you're around. If you don't catch him doing it, don't scold him! He has long forgotten about it and won't know what he's being scolded for.

As for training him to listen to you, dogs are pack animals. You are the pack leader, so act like it. Leaders lead, through doors, up/down stairs, etc - always lead physically. Try not to be physical with your dog to correct them though - the escalation should be a warning, body language, verbal, and only as a last resort be physical since a dog equates that as a fight. Also, dogs don't understand 'NO' or 'BAD', the understand body language and growls. It sounds dumb, but learn to growl (deep sounding like a dog) - it works like a charm and the puppy immediately understands 'whatever I'm doing I'd better stop!'. When I 'growl' at my puppy if he stole a shoe or sock to chew he would immediatly drop it. Now he never steals shoes, socks, or anything and only plays whith his toys and he's only 7 months. Oh, that's another thing - don't give him too many toys, only 2 or 3; otherwise he'll think that everything is his toy.

Good luck! Best thing I ever did was get my puppy!