4.10.2012

Life with a Puppy

Almost instantly little Roscoe had both Joel and I wrapped around his puffy paws. And while he warms up to his new house and surrondings, Joel and I are trying to understand how to be parents to a puppy. We're trying to get him on a schedule, and so far it has been too bad.

We're trying to push for him to sleep at least 7 hours straight without having to get up or howl, and last night was almost an A+. Joel took him outside one last time at 10:45, and then  put him in his crate. After 5 minutes of howling, he fell asleep until 5:45am when he woke us up with some of his whining. His second night home he peed in his crate. The vet recommended we put up a puppy wall and pull away his water bowl at 6, so that may have helped him as well.

As soon as we get outside, he will always pee - and if he is going to go #2....it'll be within the first 10 minutes of being outside. He's only had a handful of accidents in the house, but he needs to be let out every 2 hours if possible.

He's very happy with bones and squeaky toys, and really doesn't like to be out of my sight for too long. For this week, I'll be home with him all day everyday, but next week when I start work, things are going to get a bit more interesting. We are interviewing dog walkers today (....which is weird), but we are hoping to only need their services twice a week at most, since their going rate out here is $25....for a half hour!

We're pretty clueless, so if you have any tricks of the trade, or good ideas for a new puppy we would really appreciate it!

3 comments:

  1. We pretty much did what you all are doing. We took Sammy out at least every two hours and gave him a treat when he went outside, and got up early to take him out. Surprisingly we didn't have an accident with him while he was crated and his accidents in the house were pretty few. He learned pretty fast but it does take some time, every dog is different. I'd do every two hours for the next few weeks, then increase that time. Good luck! :)

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  2. I don't really have any tips or tricks but from what you just described it sounds like you guys are doing pretty well! And having you home all day with him for his first week will definitely help with the transition.

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  3. Sounds like you're doing great...that is wonderful progress for his age and how long you've had him! You might also want to consider bell training, or something similar. You can hang a bell by your door, and have the dog ring it each time you go out, so it can then tell you when it needs to go. My bff does this with great success. My dogs wanted to go out constantly to play, so didn't really work for me :)

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