Do’s And Don’ts Of Bringing A Puppy Home: Training Your Puppy
How do you introduce your pup to their new home? It’s important that you show them around and introduce them to their new environment. But how you introduce them is crucial. They should not be free to roam and pee indoors, or sleep anywhere they want from the very first day. Training your pup on how you want them to be indoors is the first step.
Your set up will most likely have:
- Their little place bed in the living room.
- A crate in your bedroom to help them settle at night.
- A corner where their food and water bowls are.
- And toys for chewing and enrichment in both their resting spaces.
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Getting Your Pup Potty Trained
First things first, once you arrive home with your pup, take them to a corner in the garden to potty. Most likely they will need to pee as soon as they arrive.
Use the command, “Go Potty’, to start their training, they start hearing the command in connection to the action. If successful, say a big “YES!” as a marker to let them know that this is good behaviour. You want them to know what will get them praise.
How do you mark good behaviour?
You can also use the training clicker in place of a verbal yes. Clickers help you mark the exact moment good behaviour is done. Make sure to give them a lot of praise. Using Well Done and Good Potty, hypes them up and celebrates the good behaviour.
With a new pup you’ll be taking them out every couple of hours and doing this. Eventually they will start to make the connection that peeing needs to be outside. And when they successfully pee outside it’s a great thing.
Ultimately, you can get them to pee on command. Even alert you when they need to go outside! This avoid them from having too many accidents indoors from the very beginning.
The key is to also see the signs of when they need to pee. They become a bit restless and start sniffing the ground. Keep an eye on the stance, for female pups they will crouch down to pee.
Grab them and run outside as soon as they do this! And for male pups they stand very still to pee. It’s called a ‘juvenile lean’ posture with their back legs extended back to pee.
Another sign is, sniffing the floor. The minute you see them get up, walk around and sniff the floor, it’s time to take them outside. Give them the command and wait until they potty and praise them.
Soon you will have successfully created a habit and a command, which in the long term will be super beneficial. Especially in the cold winter months when you need them to be quick!
Teaching Your Puppy ‘Place’
As mentioned training them to potty on command and outside is the first step. The next step is training your pup to settle on their place bed and in their crate. This helps them have a space for themselves where they can relax and feel safe.
What is the importance of a place bed?
We have a place bed in the living room for our two pups. It’s a raised bed with a breathable mesh, keeps them cool in the summer. It also helps prevent dirt from building up. It’s easy to pack up and take with us when we travel to set up elsewhere.
Once the pups are accustomed to being on their place bed, wherever we travel with them, they are happy to settle on it.
The way to start training them is with a handful of kibble. You call out ‘Place’ as a command and use a visual cue to begin with (so pointing at their place bed) and lure them onto the place bed.
When they step on, they get a reward and a “Good Place’ praise, and to step off on command we use the command ‘Free’. These two commands get repeated over and over again within a 15-20 minute window. Puppies have a short attention span so you want to catch them whilst they’re able to engage.
Soon enough the pups understand ‘Place’ to mean their bed. You want them staying on it until you give them the ‘Free’ command. This prevents your pups from wandering around the room whilst you are relaxing, watching TV and even eating.
It creates an environment where both you and your pups are able to enjoy a space. Without them running around and trying to climb on you and the sofa.
Crate Training Your Puppy: To Crate Or Not?
It’s quite important for your pup to be able to settle at night. There is nothing worse than bringing your new puppy home and it crying and whining all night long. If you don’t train them early this will be every single night when it’s time for bed!
For starters, you want your pup to feel super comfortable with its crate. We have a collapsible fabric crate, this allows it to be transportable, for long road trips.
We keep it mainly in the bedroom next to us. The reason for this is it stops separation anxiety from early on. They still feel close to you and can still communicate with you. And you can hear if they need to potty in the middle of the night.
When we travel, we pop it in the boot and our pups are calm and immediately settle. They know what time it is!
How do you start the crate training on the pups first night?
How we got our pups trained, was making sure their first night was spent in their crate. As I mentioned, we place it next to our bed, so the pup knows they are close.
Some people make the mistake of placing the crate in the living room and going up to bed. Leaving the pup alone all night only lets it work itself up.
It is a process. In time you will be able to move them out of your bedroom to an outdoor kennel. It took us about 3 months. But our pups are happily crate trained. They know it’s time for them to relax as soon as they’re in there.
I’ve added a video below that really helped us understand how to get your pup settled. We found it super helpful and it definitely worked.
Should I wake my 8 week old puppy up to pee at night?
This is why it’s important to have your pup close by in the very early days.
In our experience, we tried to take our pup out every 2-3 hours whether it needed it or not. This is just to give it a chance to relieve itself. Using the ‘Go Potty’ command each time.
You’ll also find that if the pup wakes up during the night and shuffles around they might need to go. Don’t take any chances! Its better to be safe than sorry.
There will be many sleepless nights for at least the first month, but it gets better I promise! And once your pup gets it, they’re a dream!
I would recommend placing a puppy pee pad either underneath the crate so your carpets in the bedroom are protected. Or underneath their bed or blanket in the crate. Just to catch or prevent any leaks
This is not to encourage them to go in their crate or on the carpet. But there is nothing worse than finding accidental pee soak into your carpets. Unfortunately, it might encourage them to keep peeing in the same spot if they can smell it.
What are the hardest puppy weeks?
Being prepared helps to reduce some of the chaos. It doesn’t completely remove it, but it helps make some sense of things.
We found the first month to be the toughest. Especially when the puppies don’t know any commands and have no training.
However, I would say after 3 months of consistent daily training, both our pups were in a place we were happy with. And if I may say so, a lot better behaved than a lot of dogs in our area! I overhear other dog owners whispering to their dogs, ‘If only you were like that’.
Hopefully this article helps you teach your dogs some basics and helps to break down the steps and process.
Remember, it takes consistency, time and patience. Firm and consistent corrections make more of a lasting impact, than harsh angry corrections. Your pup looks up to you and is bonded to you , don’t jeopardise this and you’ll have a lifetime companion!
