# Bringing Puppy Home Tomorrow- need advice



## Riggins (Oct 1, 2010)

Hello everyone! So, tomorrow is my puppy arival day; i'm picking Riggins up in the morning and have taken 6 days off of work to get him assimliated to his new life as much as possible up front. I wanted to ask for some advice from owners who have been thru this before. If you have any tips for the first week I'd greatly appreciate it. 

Thank you


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## Rokko (Sep 29, 2010)

Congratulations! I have a 9 week old that I have had for three weeks, so everything is still pretty fresh in my mind.

First and foremost, go to bed early tonight. If your puppy is like my Rokko, you will be up a couple of times at night and you will be missing a good night's rest and looking forward to your next cat nap.

Make sure you have all your supplies before you pick up your pup, go straight home after you pick him up and introduce your puppy only to members of the household for the first day. Rope toys are really good for young pups. Save the harder chew toys for when their adult teeth are coming in. 

We are still working on potty training, if you are going to be away for more than 3 hours at a time, get the puppy used to training pads. It makes cleanup a lot easier. My puppy is not quite old enough to last until I return for lunch, so I have his crate inside an exercise pen. This way he is able to wander into and out of his crate (and get used to it) while you don't have to worry about him soiling in his crate while you are gone, a huge No-No! I also control the timing of when he eats so I could better predict bowel movements to help with potty training. Rokko eats three times a day.

I got Rokko used to me feeding him after he sees me eat. It is a sign of showing him you are dominant (alphas always eat first) and eventually it allows you to make dinner in peace while your pup plays with his toys.

I slept in the same room as my pup for the first few days. He could smell me and hear me throughout the night and it helped to keep him calm. After a few nights, I bought a cheap baby monitor so I could sleep in my room and still hear him when he needed to go outside. I am hoping he lasts the whole night soon.

I hope these tips help a little. One last thing, take LOTS OF PICTURES! In just a few short weeks, he will not be the same pup you brought home.


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## Riggins (Oct 1, 2010)

Thanks for the heads up Rokko! 

I'll be getting to bed here pretty soon! 

I'm taking a unique approach to the first few months by taking my pup to work with me and keeping him in his crate in my truck. It's just me looking after him so this is my only option. Every couple of hours I'll take him out for a bathroom break and some affection. If it was summer time this would not be an option as I'd probably cook the pup, but the temperature has fallen quite a bit to allow this plan to work. 

I like your plan of eating first before feeding Riggs; this well help in establishing my alpha roll. 

Last night I charged both batteries for my camera so pictures will be a plenty. 

BTW, my breeder was the one dressing him up in the hoodie, I'm probably not going to get that creative...cute nonetheless. 

Thanks again!!


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## Chestersmum (Jun 21, 2010)

I'd say one of the really important things that sometimes gets forgotten is get him used to being left alone.

Because seperation anxiety is quite common in this breed I found it's something I really needed to work on with our pup.

I practiced lots (and lots!) of ignoring while he was excited, moaning, barking etc. I would ignore every single time I came back into contact with him and a few minutes before I left him. 

I work from home so my pup was with me 24/7 but I found that he started to bark and yelp if I went upstairs or somewhere he couldn't follow. I didn't want this to extend to full blown anxiety when I left the house so we work really hard on making sure although I am around all of the time he is not actually with me (hard as that is!)

People do different things at night .... personally, we took his water up at 9pm. Put him outside for a wee and then bed about 10:30pm with no fuss or talking. Left him until 3am when I set my alarm. I would take him outside, again no fuss or talking and straight back to bed. I found within about a week he didn't really want to get up at 3am so I left him until the morning. He's been quiet and dry through the night from day 1.

We also didn't have any problems with toilet training. He never once went in the house but I think this was also down to me being around 24/7. It was also the summer so every half hour I would be putting him outside to go to the loo. I found it worked really well 

Good luck and he looks so cute already!!!


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## cookhamjames (Sep 9, 2010)

I fully expect, that just like us the first weeks tiredness will make you really grouchy. I can remember that we felt like giving up after just a week. But preserver because you'll come out the other side so happy! Just remember that the tiredness makes everything feel
100 X worse than it actually is. Best of luck.


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## DarDog (Aug 15, 2010)

Yeah, don't judge anything by the first week ! I was so tired, and my partner was away, so it was just me for the week. I was exhausted, and continually thought "WTF were we thinking???". I haven't had any children, but I feel like it was a puppy version of post partum blues.

I hope it's going well, and that you and Riggins are getting familiar! Again, next week, things will be infinitely better


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## Riggins (Oct 1, 2010)

Thank you for the reminder to not judge this first week as what life will be like with him every day. I had so much fun with him yesterday except for when it was time to go in his crate. Luckily he only screamed bloody murder for 20 minutes before he slept for an hour. 

Today he pulled out a blanket that the breeder gave me that was rubbed all over his mom and the next 45 minutes consisted of him whimpering and giving me the saddest looks. He's definitely missing his litter mates and mom. Now he's passed out on my lap dreaming away. 

When he gets up I'll start placing him in his crate and leaving for periods of time, gradually increasing the duration. I really like the idea of not getting to excited/ignoring him when I first see him in attempt to hedge against the seperation anxiety. With my work schedule this seems like a good route for me. 

Thank you for all the insight everyone!!


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