Tips & Tricks

BRINGING HOME PUPPY

Congratulation! You've made the decision to grow your family by adding a Wonderful Woofie from Big Rock Labradoodles. Bringing home a new puppy is so exciting! But, there's a lot to remember, so here are a few tips and tricks — especially for the first few weeks at home — to help you with the transition.

Remember, your puppy comes with a lifetime of support, so please do not hesitate to email alanathebreeder@gmail.com, if you have questions.

DAILY SCHEDULE

Here is a suggested daily schedule for your first few weeks with your puppy. After a few days, you will get into a groove and become familiar with your puppy and his/her signals.

The puppies are on The Complete K9, ultimate turkey/beef with organ meat and tripe. This is an Alberta only monthly delivery service. If you do not live here, or cannot order a month at a time, we suggest Pets go Raw, Legacy or Carnivora from your local raw food pet store and that they are fed breakfast, lunch and dinner with fresh water. Continue to feed them this way to help with your house training. By three-four months you can discontinue the lunch feeding and just do two meals a day. Always remember that young puppies are fed 10% of body weight with RAW, so be sure that you are checking puppy's weight often and increasing food accordingly. This percentage lowers throughout puppyhood and stabilizes at approximately 3.5% in adulthood (starting at around 10-11 months, longer for males).
As soon as your puppy wakes up in the morning, take him outside by carrying him out. If you let him run out of his kennel, he will squat to pee right away.
Bring him in to eat as soon as he has done his business outside. After he is done eating and drinking, take him out again within 15 minutes. Puppies have small bladders and digestive systems, so he will have to go again. He should poo this go-round.
Bring him in, play with him, and he will likely nap.
When he wakes up he will need to go outside again. It's much like potty-training a child; consistency is your best friend. Your puppy is very smart and will catch on quickly.
Continue the above after every meal. In the afternoon he will need to play and sleep as well.
Be sure to take his food and water away after supper unless you've really been playing with him and he's thirsty. But he must not have food or water overnight because he will poo and pee all night long.
At Big Rock Labradoodles, your puppy has been going to bed at around 10:30 p.m. For the first while at his new home, he will probably cry at night without his littermates, but this will pass. To help him adjust, have him beside your bed in his crate and reach down to comfort him, give him his toy that smells like his siblings and he will adjust to it.
You'll have an earlier day than normal for the first while, but week by week you'll begin to see a difference as your puppy adjusts to your schedule. He will eventually begin to wake when he hears you wake up.

YOUR HOME

Please don't leave your puppy alone all day long. It will not go well. If you work, you need to hire or find someone to check on the puppy once a day for the first while. You can also check into doggie daycare or hire a dog walker to break up the days.
Do not give your puppy the run of the house until he is much older. Instead, either crate your puppy or block off an area of your house for him to be in, such as your kitchen, laundry room or porch: an area that he can have accidents in.
We don't recommend putting your puppy on carpet for a long while since he will likely think it's grass and pee. If you want to take your puppy to a carpeted area to watch TV, etc., hold him or put him on a leash. This way he is beside you and you'll be able to notice him sniffing around.
When your puppy is sniffing and walking in circles, he is going to pee or poo. You'll get to know his signals very quickly. If there is an accident, don't get angry. Calmly but firmly say NO and take him outside. He needs to know you are displeased but at the same time, they are a very sensitive breed of dog. They don't require strong, heavy-handed discipline but they do need firmness.

CRATE TRAINING

This is the method of house training that I personally recommend and it involves the use of a crate. The idea behind using a crate for house training is that you use a crate that is just large enough for the puppy’s bed. Dogs, by nature, do not like to soil where they sleep. Crate training encourages puppies to control their bladder and bowels. During the day, puppies who are 4 months of age or less only have control for a few hours, though, during the night, it can be longer.
During housebreaking, whenever the puppy is inside the home but cannot be watched, he is placed in the crate. This might be while you are cooking, reading to the children, or even away from the home. The last thing you do before you put the puppy in the crate is take him outside to his favourite spot. The first thing you do when you take the puppy out of the crate is another trip outside. No food or water goes in the crate, just a blanket and maybe a chew toy to occupy his time. Overnight is definitely crated time. As your faith in the puppy grows, leave him out for longer and longer periods of time.
Most people do not recognize an important advantage of crate training. It does more than just stop the puppy from messing in the house. It also teaches the puppy something very important. The puppy learns that when the urge to urinate or defecate occurs, he can hold it. Just because the pup feels like he needs to relieve himself, the pup learns that he does not have to. This is thought to be the main reason why puppies that have gone through crate training have fewer mistakes later on.
What size of the crate should you buy? You want to purchase a crate that will be large enough to accommodate your pup as an adult. For this reason, it is essential that you purchase a crate that has a divider. You can place the divider anywhere you need to within the cage, to only leave room for puppy’s bed.
Using too large of a crate can often cause long term problems. The puppy will go to one corner of the cage and urinate or defecate. After a while, he will then run through it tracking it all over the cage. If this is allowed to continue, the instincts about not soiling his bed or lying in the mess will be forgotten and the puppy will soon be doing it every day when placed in the crate. Now a house training method has turned into a behavioural problem as the puppy’s newly-formed poor hygienic habits become his way of life.

OBEDIENCE

Make a point of going to obedience classes and practising. The puppy will love the time he gets to spend with you and all the praise he gets because you are his favourite thing in life! Australian Labradoodles are very, very intelligent and love to learn.
Puppy socialization classes are such a great asset to the training process: you get good advice on how to behave with a puppy and it lets the puppy play with other puppies, which is good for socialization.
Before going out the door of your home, always put a leash on your puppy and make him sit first before exiting or entering. "Dave sit," then put the leash on, then "Dave come" when you are ready. He will learn to sit before running out the door. Never let him charge out the front door without your permission. Your dog trainer can help with this as well.
A very valuable command to teach your dog is "wait." This command, taught at obedience class, will help keep your dog safe when opening car doors, on the street, etc.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Your puppy will go through different stages as he matures.
Here are some general guidelines for puppies’ stages of development after they leave us here at Big Rock.
The socialization stage: Three to twelve weeks
A puppy needs occasions to meet other pets and people during this stage.
By three to five weeks, play becomes important as a puppy becomes aware of his or her surroundings, companions (both people and dogs), and relationships.
The influence of the puppy’s littermates increases at four to six weeks as he or she learns more about being a dog.
From four to twelve weeks, a puppy’s interaction with people becomes more influential. With littermates, the puppy learns to play, develops social skills, learns the inhibited bite, explores his or her social boundaries and hierarchy, and improves physical coordination.
By five to seven weeks, a puppy needs positive human interaction as he or she develops curiosity and explores new experiences.
A puppy has full use of his or her senses by seven to nine weeks. A puppy is refining his or her coordination and physical ability and can begin to be housetrained.
At eight to ten weeks, a puppy can experience real fear involving everyday objects and experiences. During this stage, a puppy needs support and positive reinforcement.
Enhancing responses, advancing social skills with littermates (proper contact), and investigating the surroundings and items takes place from nine to twelve weeks. This is a good time to begin elementary training as a puppy will begin to focus on people.
The ranking stage: Three to six months
Ranking (dominance and submission) within the household or “pack,” including people, is seen and used by a puppy in this stage.
A puppy’s playgroup, which may now include those of other species, becomes influential in his or her life.
Teething and chewing begin.
A puppy experiences another fear stage at four months of age, so be prepared with positive reinforcement and introductions to objects and situations.
The adolescence stage: Six to eighteen months
A puppy is most affected by human and dog “pack” members.
A puppy may challenge people as part of exploring his or her dominance in the “pack.”
At seven to nine months, a puppy will begin exploring more of his or her territory, prompting a second chewing phase.
A puppy will experience the beginnings of sexual behaviour if not spayed or neutered.

KIDS

If you have kids it's VERY important that they don't roughhouse with the puppy. It's very tempting to play rough games like tug-of-war or holding up a toy teasingly and getting the puppy to chase it, etc., but this will train your puppy to play aggressively and treat your kids like littermates, which is too rough and can lead to problems when the puppy grows into an adult.
Instead, have your kids play games like fetch or hide-and-seek with him. Supervise the playtime with the puppy and, if it gets too rough, immediately remove the puppy from the situation by putting him in the X-pen or the crate for some quiet time.
Teach children the correct way to behave around the puppy.

Feel Confidant Taking Home Your Labradoodle or Goldendoodle Puppy With Tips & Tricks by Big Rock Labradoodles | Canada | USA