Episode #174 Creating Routines with Your New Puppy

If you’re like me right now, you have a new puppy and you may be wondering what happened to my life? When will I get it back? Right? I’m right there with you. So today I want to talk about routines. How can you navigate having a new puppy and running your regular life - kids, work, the gym, household chores, sleep, etc. I promise it’s possible and having done this many times, I’m happy to offer some tips! 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Puppy Training Podcast, episode 174, creating Routines with your New Puppy. This podcast is designed to help you on your journey of becoming best friends through love and learning, as you train your own dog from home, and I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is the Puppy Training Podcast and I'm your host, amy Jensen. Way, this is the puppy training podcast, and I'm your host, amy Jensen. Hello and welcome to the puppy training podcast. I'm super glad you're here. Thank you for listening.

Speaker 1: 0:33

While we named this the puppy training podcast, we do talk about all things dog, any age, so I'm glad you're here, no matter your situation. If you're like me, right now you have a brand new puppy and you may be wondering what happened to my life. When will I get it back? Right? I'm right there with you guys. So today I want to talk about routines. How can you navigate having a new puppy and running your regular life kids, work, the gym, household chores, sleep, whatever it is? I promise it's possible and, having done this many times, I'm happy to offer some tips. But first a few things I want to make you aware of.

Speaker 1: 1:09

Basic training with Bella, our new nine week old puppy, starts this Tuesday at 3 PM Eastern via zoom. You can register on our site by logging into our members area, then click classes and courses, go to basic training and sign up. That's it. This is included in your membership. It is a six week course. It's puppy kindergarten in your own living room. I promise you're going to love it. For sure it's good to go to an in-person class too, if you want. Your puppy will enjoy being with other puppies and that socialization is important. But the knowledge you'll gain in this six week zoom course will put you as the star of that class, and who doesn't want that, right? So check it out. If you have a new dog and want to know how we train our dogs to be calm, well-mannered family members, that's a great place to start. So basic training six week course. It's all recorded. So if that today in time doesn't work for you, that's okay. You can hit play anytime of the week. All right, I get it.

Speaker 1: 2:04

A new puppy is like having a newborn baby at your house. Only they don't wear diapers and they bark. The good thing that they are cute, right? I say that a lot. Good thing you're cute. It's a good thing you're cute. Honestly, though, I love it. I love this phase where they have the puppy breath and they snuggle into you for safety. They where they have the puppy breath and they snuggle into you for safety. They pounce, they play and they tease with toys. They look at you intently as they sit to try and get that next reward. Ah, it's so good, so fun, but it can be a lot in the beginning and it can feel overwhelming.

Speaker 1: 2:37

First things first. I highly recommend taking the first three days off when you bring your new puppy home. So plan on it, schedule your puppy's homecoming around a weekend If needed. I know it's not always possible for all of us to get away from work, but doing this will set you and your puppy up for success in ways I cannot overemphasize. Set up a pen, so an exercise pen, a play pen, whatever you want to call it. That looks like the one at their breeders's home, so similar to what your breeder's setup was. I want you to recreate that at your house.

Speaker 1: 3:08

I attached a Midwest pen to Bella's full-size crate. She has a water bowl inside with toys, chews and a soft mat to lay on if she wants to. Sometimes puppies want soft beds, you guys, and other times they just want the cold, hard floor. Totally normal. It usually has to do with temperature. I fed her using food, puzzle toys in this pen, my hand, some in her bowl and then I placed that bowl inside the crate to help her.

Speaker 1: 3:32

Like her crate, I set a timer and then I would just take her potty outside in my private backyard every 30 to 40 minutes. So this was the routine for the first, really three days. Anytime she fell asleep, I let her sleep and then I would take her outside as soon as she woke up. I didn't want her to potty in the pen, so twice a day I put her in her crate to sleep right after a play session. She'd had a drink and she'd gone potty and then I'd put her in the crate for a nap and I literally sat right next to her. I'm not just in the same room as her, I am right next to that crate with my leg touching the door of the crate until she fell asleep. Yeah, then I would get up once she was completely asleep. I'd get up and go do things that I need to do, whether that was catch up on sleep, like take a nap, or I use that time to catch up on laundry, dishes, make a dinner or a lunch, um, help kids with homework, et cetera.

Speaker 1: 4:19

So do plan on three days of, yeah, being with your puppy as much as possible, helping them feel safe and setting up that pen to look like where they just came from. That's where they're going to live for the first three days. They're in that pen there. You know the crates attached. They can go in and out of the crate, so the crate doors open and, um, I do use a smaller uh crate that fits her to move around my house. So for those crate times that I was talking about, I have a small portable plastic crate that I would just move to the living room or I'd move to the kitchen or I'd move to my office, things like that. But the pen is attached to a crate, her full-size crate, and she can practice going in and out of it and eating in it and all sorts of good things. So that becomes her decompression zone. This is where she gets to learn about her new environment, start to feel safe in her new environment. But it looks like home as best as we can, right? So if you have a family, letting them know that those first three days will be a bit out of the normal, as someone needs to be by the puppy to help them feel safe as much as possible. At my house we just rotated. My daughter would play with Bella in the pen while I made dinner. My husband took a turn every morning while I went to work out. You'll find, by doing so your puppy will relax in their pen and relax in their crate because they feel safe. Now I have two spaces the Bella's crate and then her pen that's attached to her full size crate. Those are two spaces that she feels safe in.

Speaker 1: 5:45

For days four, five and six, we came and went a lot. I would stay by her crate for five to 10 minutes until she fell asleep and then I'd leave for 30 to 60 minutes while I knew she was napping. If she was awake in her crate, I'd make sure to come and go. So I'd leave the room for two to three minutes. She couldn't see me anymore and then I'd walk back in and I'd do dishes or whatever needed to be done. And I did that throughout the crate time, adding the time that I was away. So adding time to that to make it a little longer. Was there whining? Absolutely. Did she settle herself when she could see me. Yes, don't make it about the whining or your puppy. Simply come and go, helping them build trust that you always come back. Day six, we all left the house and went to church for an hour and a half. The next day she did two two hour crate times, one in the morning, one in the afternoon while I went to the gym and the other in the afternoon while I worked. So you can see, within the first week we went from being by her a lot to her being independent alone. It happens quickly, but it really is important that those first three days we help them decompress and feel safe. This also helps build a bond with you.

Speaker 1: 6:50

Recognize puppies don't know how to be alone and it is our job to help them learn this. They come from litters of multiple puppies. They are often found sleeping on one another. We call it a puppy pile. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen. We're playing with each other for entertainment. This is new. For our puppies to come to our house where they are the only puppy in the playpen or the crate, there will be crying and whining, as they are communicating with you. They want to be where you are. They want to be with you. They want to do what you're doing, but they can't always be, and that's kind of a hard lesson. But it's important to teach our puppy that lesson. Teaching your puppy to be alone is a gift you can give them, even if at the beginning it doesn't seem like a gift.

Speaker 1: 7:27

Doing this process, most puppies will settle themselves within five to 15 minutes or so. If they get really worked up. Or they start to get really worked up, go sit by them for two to three minutes until they calm down. Don't look at them or talk to them. You're just there. Your presence is a comfort to them. So I read a book or I check my emails, but I'm present.

Speaker 1: 7:45

Once they calm down, go about what needs to be done. Yes, that first week is going to be a bit messy. Your life is going to be different and your schedule you had before is gone. But after that first week, if you follow this advice, you'll start to settle into a new routine that works for you, your family and your puppy. That actually looks pretty similar to your old routine. You'll start to schedule crate times when you need your puppy to be alone. Old routine You'll start to schedule crate times when you need your puppy to be alone.

Speaker 1: 8:12

Knowing those times, two hour slots in the beginning, plan on feeding them an hour before, train them for five to 10 of those minutes, play with them, make sure they get a drink and they go potty. They can also play in their pen and entertain themselves. Then it's crate time and you can now have the next two hours to do what you need to do. When your puppy is three months old, they can hold it in a crate for three hours, four months, four hours. At that point, I always give my dogs a break at four hours if possible. If I can't, I have a neighbor come over or I hire someone on rovercom to come let my dogs out and give them a break. So if you work again, see if a neighbor can come, let your puppy out for a potty break and a play session and then put them back in their crate. If you don't have any neighbors you know or trust, you can hire a dog sitter, as mentioned on rovercom, to help.

Speaker 1: 8:56

Puppies are social creatures and they enjoy being with their people, so it's important that we provide this interaction with them throughout the day. Let's talk for a minute specifically about morning routines, when you're trying to get kids out the door for school and you have a puppy who wants your attention. Here's what my morning looks like to give you an idea. As I have two kids, I'm getting off to school each morning. Obviously this works for us and hopefully gives you some ideas of how you might structure your morning. Do what works for you, but that word structure is going to be your key.

Speaker 1: 9:25

Bella right now is waking up at 7am. That's when we meet as a family for morning prayer and study. So I take Bella out to potty right away. Then I grab some long, dangly toys that are fun for her and give them to family members to engage with her without the biting. We sit in the front room on the floor letting Bella run from person to person to play while we discuss. This is a good time to reward her for sit to say please, using her toys. If you have young kids at home, they can interact with your puppy through the play pen. That will prevent a lot of biting. Definitely get an exercise pen for your puppy, you guys. It is as valuable as the crate.

Speaker 1: 9:59

Now, at seven 15, I run the morning carpool, so Bella comes with us in her crate in the car. This is a great outing opportunity. She gets to meet the people who get in the car and she gets to go for a car ride. As an adult I plan to take her places, and so when she's young like this, I want to get her used to car rides. Morning carpool works great. When we get back home, it's time for her breakfast. She's in her pen eating out of a food puzzle toy. While I help my other daughter get out of the door to school, I try to get in two to three minutes of sit to say, please practice luring her into a down a roll, maybe go to bed, whatever positions I can think of to just start to see what she'll offer me. And then she gets the rest of her breakfast in a bowl that's in her crate. This just helps her like her crate.

Speaker 1: 10:40

Once my daughter leaves for school is just me, my husband and my older dogs. My older dogs get up at 8 AM, so at this point I take them all outside. We play in the yard. We work on, sit to say please for a few minutes and I clean up the yard. Once Bella goes potty we can come back inside to play some more. I often at this point we'll put her in her playpen while I get to work on emails, blogs, podcasts, calls, et cetera.

Speaker 1: 11:02

This is when I want her to entertain herself. So this is when she needs to start to learn how to self-manage, because I have things that need to get done, so this is a good time to pull out a good chew to help her entertain herself. You can also drop a few pieces of food every so often to give her something to find and reward her for being calm. We call that food scatters. We want our dogs to learn to entertain themselves, so I give them plenty of time in their pens and crates to practice this, and in their pens and crates they have toys soft toys, hard toys, squeaky toys, crinkly toys, things that she will find that are fun and she starts to learn how to play with toys.

Speaker 1: 11:38

Now, if she comes to the gate and starts to whine at me or whimper at me, I try to ignore it. I'll wait for a break in it where she's sitting to say please at this point. I've taught her sit to say please, so if I see her in her pen doing a sit to say please, I do want to acknowledge it. I'll go over, drop a little food scatter or give her a little belly rub or some kind of reward for asking so nicely for a bit of attention from me, and then I'll let her go back to entertaining herself. And we repeat this process in those first few days home.

Speaker 1: 12:06

I am modeling what I want my dogs to do, what I want this new puppy to start to do. We play hard but we also settle often. Now Bella's pen is set up in my office area so she can see me come and go easily. Yes, again, as I mentioned, there's some fussing at times but she works through it. That's important to let them work through their frustration. And but she works through it. That's important to let them work through their frustration. And, as I mentioned, if she does her little sit to say please, I'll make sure to reward that. It's you have to notice those because they're quiet. They're not the barky, whiny hard to not pay attention to behaviors. It's the nice sit to say please, quiet behavior. But you've got to notice those and reward those, even just a little.

Speaker 1: 12:46

At 9am she's ready for a morning nap, so I take her out to go potty and then I put her in her crate, sit by her for two to three minutes until she calms herself down. I like to turn on the rain sounds and a fan and then I go to the gym. Okay, I'll stop there before I bore you all with my entire day. Actually, I love my life, you guys. I so appreciate the business that I have and the clients that allow me to do what I love. But you get the idea right your routine will evolve over time.

Speaker 1: 13:10

So, while I preach, structure your day and set a routine. That's super important. You also have to be somewhat flexible in the beginning to work with your puppy's needs too. It may take two to three weeks to figure out what works best for you, your family and your pup. You guys, that's okay. It's 100% okay to be messy. I promise. Try to relax and enjoy your puppy Every day. It does get a little better, a little easier, simply because you start to fall into a routine.

Speaker 1: 13:40

As I speak, baxter is stretched out on my tile floor sleeping and Bella is also at my feet sleeping on the tile. I mean, you guys, it's a balmy 60 degrees here in Utah today, so we are soaking up the sunshine and the pups are loving the cool tile floors and I'm working and we're settling into a routine week two with Bella. So, yeah, sometimes she sleeps at my feet and that's okay. All right, you guys, you can do this. If you need any help, we are here to coach you through this. That's what my entire program is about. We want you to be successful raising a puppy to live with your family. Please contact us. Set up a one-on-one session with my trainers. You can reach us via email to ask us questions. We want you to succeed. Have a great week, you guys, and happy training questions. We want you to succeed. Have a great week, you guys, and happy training. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other puppy training question, visit my site, baxter and Bellacom, to contact me.