# Early Puppyhood Milestones



## jean (Feb 17, 2015)

The first couple of weeks with our little Vizsla puppy were really hard (crate training is emotionally tough!). Now that we've had our little guy just over a month, things have gotten so much better. He's a handful, but we have all figured out the routine a bit better. He's the sweetest puppy, and makes us laugh every day with his antics. Every puppy is different, and I'm curious what the range of experiences are on those key puppy struggles: potty training, crate training, and biting. 

How old was your pup when he/she:
- came to live with you?
- slept through the night (no whines/accidents)? In crate? Where was the crate located?
- was able to be in the crate alone during the day for 2 hours with no messes and no whining/protesting? 3 hrs? 4 hours? 
- really enjoyed / liked the crate?
- stopped having any accidents in doors, 100% of the time?
- stopped the shark attacks?

To answer for myself:
He came to live with us at 8 weeks.

He slept through the night at about 9 weeks, crate in bedroom. He slept through quietly the first night, but peed a little bit on his blankets, so we took him out (whether he made noise or not) once per a night during the first week. 

For daytime crating, it was probably 10 weeks before we got to 2 hours, 11 weeks before we had him alone for 3 hours. He's 12 weeks now and can usually just over 3 hrs, but not 100% reliably (whining/being stressed is the issue rather than potty accidents). At 8-10.5 weeks, he was mostly a disaster in the crate during the day as we all tried to figure out the best process/schedule.

He still is not at a stage where he enjoys the crate and often whines about it. He goes in happily for kong treat, but often starts complaining after a bit. It is usually just crying rather than barking, and he doesn't seem distressed - just doesn't agree that he should be in there!

He's 95% potty trained and has been since about 10 weeks. But there was an accident a few days ago, and there have been a few others. I can't claim complete victory yet (though some of those accidents were human error).

I'll let you know on the shark attacks!


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## redd (May 25, 2014)

We've had Redd since he was 7 1/2 weeks old. He is now 13 months old.... and still quite a puppy!

He was mostly potty trained by 9 weeks and no accidents period after 16 weeks. He can hold his bladder now for 12-13 hours overnight.

He hated the crate, but once we put it on the bed with us (not kidding) he settled right down and slept through the night. Over a week or two we slowly moved him to the floor, then across the room to the corner. No whining in the crate by 16 weeks and started to like his crate, sort of. He still doesn't love his crate because it means he is away from us.

Didn't walk well on a leash until around 8 months. Great off a leash. 

Shark attacks lasted 5-6 months, until those teeth came out. I do NOT miss that phase. We had bloody hands for months!

We put him on an electric fence at 18 weeks, trained well with no problem. We bought an e-collar at 6 months and have been running him off leash on mountain bike trails since he was 7 months. He is now 13 months and is fairly obedient, however these dogs are wicked smart and definitely have a mind of their own. He still likes to push his boundaries. But he is a really good dog, happy, goofy, super lovable. Great with kids, strangers, other dogs.


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## Vizsla_Luka (Sep 8, 2015)

Hi Jean,

How's your little pup getting on these days?

We have had our Luka who is 4 months old today, exactly 2 months today. We brought him home at 9 weeks old.

Thankfully he has never had an accident in the crate, and slept through the night from the third night, though granted they were short nights! We would take him out for his last toilet break around 11pm and I wake up early anyway around 5:30am so this was the pattern for the first few weeks. He never barked or cried in the night after day 3, for which we are very grateful! We always crate him at night, next to us by the bed. He is only allowed in our bedroom for when he goes to sleep - in his crate. Crating at night has been useful for us, as he's had no problems sleeping in hotels and other unfamiliar places he has been with us.

Now he goes for his last toilet break around 10pm and sometimes won't go out for his morning toilet break until 9am and still no accident or whining. I think he's a sleepy head. If we do wake him up early, for example if we have to take him to day care or classes, it takes a good few minutes of persuading and sweet talking to get him to come out of his crate. I find this quite endearing 

I work from home, so I crate him in a different room for a few hours in the morning so I can work and he will sleep. I do the same again in the afternoon, and there have been times where I've had conference calls and had to keep him in there up to 3.5 hours, with no accidents. He's definitely stopped howling, though sometimes he will wince and whine a bit in protest, though even that has been much lower in volume over the last few weeks compared to before.

I've not so far left him alone in the crate when I've gone out of the apartment longer than 2 hours, and I'm not sure if he whined a lot I tried to ask neighbours but none seemed to be home at the time….when I go out to put the rubbish out or run errands I video him on my mobile (duration between 3 minutes and 20 minutes) and so far he whines and howls for about 2/3 minutes and then settles down. Though depending on how awake he is, he will periodically whine depending on how long I'm out.

He's definitely not a lover of the crate, but it sounds like Vizslas are this way inclined from what I can see on this forum. He will occasionally go in on command with the lure or a treat, but the only time he will willingly without protest go in there on command is at night when we crate him up next to our bed to go to sleep. Once in however, he's generally tolerant of it, and after some people watching, tends to go to sleep.

Potty training wise, he definitely knows not to do it in the house, he never pooped inside the house, but has had accidents mostly by the front door as recently as a week ago. Having said this, he has only had a dozen or so accidents in the whole time he has been with us, and I counted about 8 in the first 4 weeks of him being with us. I do put all of his recent accidents down to our error, as I am still conscious we only have a limited period of time after he wakes up from a long nap to take him downstairs! He had plenty of accidents in the corridor to the lift, but lately he seems to be able to hold it even without us carrying him for his first toilet break in the morning (mainly due to fact that he's getting too heavy to carry!)

You can also tell when he's really had to hold it for a long time, as he'll pee multiple times in a short walk. Poor guy!

As for shark attacks, I don't know if for Vizslas this is the same thing as the zoomies, but Luka has not had any tantrums lately. Long enough anyway that the cuts on my hands have healed up 
He was however doing this regularly until say 2 weeks ago. I was really having a lot of problems with it, as quite often it would happen whilst we were out and he was on a leash, so he'd just attack me relentlessly and whilst I could get him to settle down for short periods of time, as soon as we start walking again he'd set off. Our breeder had told us that as he was one of the most dominant in the litter, if he acted out, to shake him by the scruff of his neck, say NO loudly and keep his behaviour under check.
However I was reluctant to do this as I wanted the first weeks to be about bonding and establishing a relationship of trust and positive communication. We never shook him, and we never told him "No". Ever. Rather, we redirected him to toys, doing tricks, etc. to stop him from doing what ever naughty thing he was doing. This worked to a point but the shark attacks were just getting really vicious and painful, he would go crazy growling, running around, jumping and showing teeth, so one day I grabbed him by the skin on his neck, I didn't shake him, but I said "NO" really loudly. He immediately stopped, and I've not had any episodes of that magnitude since. Now it suffices to say "No" sternly and he stops when he gets over excited. I'm really hoping that's the end of crazy shark attacks….hope I'm not being naive.

How have the shark attacks been for you now that your pup is a bit older?
Also, how is your pup off the leash? So far Luka is very well behaved, and comes when called (though sometimes he'll just zoom off straight away in the other direction), sort of reliable with "leave it", "stop", "Look at me" etc...I know that this will change in a couple of months, I wonder if we should be prepared for long leash training...


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## ks310 (Sep 28, 2015)

Woah some fast potty training by your puppies! Im hoping things go as well with my girl who comes home this week!


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## Vizsla_Luka (Sep 8, 2015)

Spoke too soon....Luka had an accident last night...he's 4.5 months old! Gah!


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