Episode #201 The First Few Weeks With Your New Dog

Ready to transform those delightful but challenging first weeks with your new puppy into a journey filled with joy and success? Join me, Amy Jensen, as we explore the secrets to building a strong, loving bond with your dog through gentle play, training games, and cozy cuddling sessions. Discover the art of crafting a secure and comforting environment for your puppy by introducing new experiences at a pace that keeps them happy and confident. I'll share insights on establishing predictable routines that not only help your puppy feel at home but also set the stage for lifelong good behavior. With positive reinforcement as our guiding light, you'll learn how to encourage more "yes" moments and minimize frustrating "no's," setting your puppy up for success from day one.

Chapters

• 0:00 First Weeks With New Dog’
• 9:49 Establishing a Puppy Routine

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Today we are talking about the first few weeks with your new dog. There's a few key things to know, and I'll give you an example of what your daily schedule may look like. Welcome to the Puppy Training Podcast. I'm Amy Jensen, founder of Baxter Bella, the online puppy school. Here we are all about helping you create the best possible experience raising a puppy, from training tips to practical tricks, all aimed at fostering a happy, well-behaved dog who truly feels like part of the family. So if you are ready to enjoy the journey and strengthen the bond with your dog, let's get started. Hello everybody, thank you for listening to the Puppy Training Podcast. I'm so glad you're here.

Speaker 1: 0:46

Last week was our 200th episode and we announced inside of it that we have a giveaway. So many of you did exactly what we asked. You went right over to our Instagram, you found the 200th podcast episode post and then you left us a comment and I have been loving them. There are so many great ideas as to what we should talk about next on the podcast. So thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing them. I'm currently working on creating a schedule with all of that good content and we'll start to include those in the show and the coming months. So thank you again. And we've chosen a winner. So we just picked at random and the name I landed on was Sarah Barker, 0818. So, sarah, dm me, send me a message and I'll connect with you and we'll get you your package sent, all right. Well, that is fun. Thank you for participating Today. We are on episode 201. We'll just keep going. So a great topic for the day.

Speaker 1: 1:42

You know you're bringing home a new dog soon. What's that going to look like? What does your daily schedule look like? What are the first things that you want to be aware of? Let's dive into it. So, first and foremost, building a bond with your puppy. You'll hear us say here at Baxter and Mella, a lot relationship comes first. So we want you to build a strong bond with this dog. We want them to trust you, we want them to be happy and willing to work with you right. So not only does it enhance your relationship, but it also supports your training efforts, because a puppy who trusts and feel safe with you will be more eager to learn and follow your guidance. So we encourage you daily to spend dedicated time engaging in activities that allow your puppy to feel connected to you. That might be gentle play, it might be training games, it might be quiet cuddling sessions. There's a lot you can do, but we want it to be a good interaction between you. So be mindful of your puppy's comfort level and try to avoid overwhelming them with too many new people or too many new sounds or activities at once. We want to move slowly, especially when they first come home. Let their stress levels come down. You'll start to see when they are relaxed, and then we want to establish routines that will help them feel safe and secure. Routines are predictable and we can help these puppies settle faster in their new environments because they know what to expect Now, finally, we want to practice that positive reinforcement as much as possible.

Speaker 1: 3:10

We want to be saying yes to our dogs rather than no. I have a podcast episode all about the yes, no loops, so if you haven't listened to that, go check it out. It's one of the first ones on our podcast roadmap that we created for you. You'll find all of that on our website, so you head over to our website, click podcast and you'll see what I'm talking about. Um, but we want to say yes more often than no. How often are we telling our puppy. No, that can be frustrating for them. So, especially in the beginning, look for the good behaviors. If they're not giving you any, show them. Show them what to do. Use a little piece of food and lure them into position. Mark, yes, pay them. And now they're getting yeses and rewards instead of no's and frustration. Okay, so that'll all strengthen the association between you and happiness, just joy of being together, and your puppy's going to feel that Okay.

Speaker 1: 3:59

Number two is house training. House training is going to be at the top of your list because dogs pee and poop and puppies do it a lot. So house training is going to have to be one of the first things that you focus on. Uh, we're going to start establishing a consistent routine. So puppies have small bladders. We need to take them out frequently. If they're up and playing, running around having a good time, getting drinks of water, they're going to need a break, probably every 20 to 30 minutes. If they're sleeping, they can hold it for a few hours during the day and at night, depending on the age of your puppy. Typically, we see eight to 12 week old puppies, some being able to sleep a good eight hours. Others might need one potty break in between those hours, but fairly quickly by that 12 week mark, puppies will be sleeping through the night.

Speaker 1: 4:46

So with house training, we want to make sure that they are getting outside regularly. Anytime they've eaten a meal or they woke up from a nap or they finished playing, anytime there's a transition, take them potty. You want to choose a designated potty spot outdoors if you can. If you don't have a private outdoor space, then we want you to create an indoor potty area. You could use a small bathroom or an exercise pen. That's fine, but this will help our puppy learn that there's a designated place to go. Now we praise and reward our puppy each time they relieve themselves in the area to reinforce that behavior.

Speaker 1: 5:20

We don't want any power struggles around going potty. So if you need to make the initial potty area a little bit bigger so your puppy's easily going, great, do that. We will work on shrinking it down to a more specific location soon. We just don't want to create frustration around going potty. If they go potty, that's a good thing if it's in the area where we're wanting them to go. So you're going to just be doing that a lot. It's a lot of potty trips, but you're being consistent that anytime there's a transition, that's when we take the puppy out to go to the bathroom and then we're just watching them like a hawk when they're inside with us.

Speaker 1: 5:51

If you can't supervise them, that's okay. That's why we introduced them to crates and exercise pens and we'll talk about that in just a second because you need to have a space where you can put the puppy, where you don't have to worry about what they're doing. Right, you need a break. So we talk about crate training and that's where that comes in to help you out. Remember, accidents will happen, especially early on, so we want to avoid punishing our puppy. We just want to simply clean up the accident. We want to make sure that we don't leave any lingering odors. So use a really thorough cleaner, as puppies may be attracted to eliminate in spots that still smell. So clean it up really well. Do better next time watching your puppy when they're out and about, and if you can't watch them, then we use the crate. So that leads us right into crate training.

Speaker 1: 6:36

Crate training provides our puppies with a safe, comfortable space that they call their own. I think of it as their little puppy bedroom. So we start by introducing our puppy to the crate. Gradually we're going to make it a very positive experience. They can have toys in there, they can have chews in there, they can have a cozy blanket inside. We want to let our puppy explore the crate at their own pace and we, over time, encourage them to spend short periods in there alone with the door closed. So in our program we have a crate training class. We teach you all about it. We teach you exactly how to achieve success with crate training and how to help your dog like their crate.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Now, next would be teaching basic manners with sit to say, please, I love this behavior for all of my new puppies. Puppies bite, they chew, they jump, they bark, they dig. They do a lot of behaviors. If your dog is sitting, they can't be doing any of those behaviors. So not that your puppy is going to be sitting all of the time, but if I see my puppy running across the room to me, I'm going to anticipate they might jump, they might bite my ankle. Instead of waiting for those two behaviors to happen, I'm simply going to put out a target hand, lure them into a sit mark yes, and then pay them. Take a few steps away. Repeat. Take a few steps away. Repeat. Take a few steps away, repeat and pretty soon my puppy is learning. Oh, I get really good things when I go to Amy and sit. I go to Amy and I sit right.

Speaker 1: 7:54

The trick is to reward it. It's a quiet position, it's a calm, neutral thing, it's not boisterous, it doesn't hurt. So sometimes we miss it. Sometimes we don't give our puppies attention when they come to us and sit quietly. So notice those things. And if they don't know how to do that in the beginning which they won't you have to teach them. You have to show them do that and then over time they start to do that on their own. So this simple technique teaches puppies impulse control. It introduces them to the idea that they must work for rewards and they learn what works, what behavior gets them rewards, and they'll start to do it on their own, as I mentioned.

Speaker 1: 8:31

So think of that. Think of a behavior in terms of what do I want my puppy to do? Okay, start with sit to say please. That's where you're going to start the first few weeks. If you don't train them to do anything else, great Training will come. First few weeks, build a bond, house training, crate training, sit to say please, okay, all right. Next the biting, biting will happen.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Puppies bite. It's normal, it's common. You do not have an aggressive dog. Very few percentage of young puppies are what we consider aggressive Very, very few. So some people think that they have an aggressive puppy because they're bitey and mouthy, but more often than not it's just a normal puppy. Okay, they play with their mouths, they explore the world through their mouths, so it's normal for them to use their teeth.

Speaker 1: 9:14

Now we want to teach them that we don't really like that as humans. They have no idea that we don't like that, so keep that in mind as well. When our puppy bites, you can just kind of do like a right. A little noise that kind of surprises them or startles them. We don't want to scare them, we just want to surprise them so that they stop biting and then we can immediately redirect them to something better. So a chew toy that sit to say please game that we just talked about is great. We can redirect them into a pen or a crate with a chew. We just want to be consistent and patient and they will learn the boundaries, okay. So we want to create a consistent routine for them.

Speaker 1: 9:49

Let's dive into schedule just a little bit as we um finish this podcast out for the day, so that you can establish a nice routine throughout the day that will keep your puppy in a more manageable state. They're not going to hit that zone four over a threshold as often. Okay, so basic schedule. I'm going to give it to you in a nutshell. We have an entire spelled out schedule for you in our program, our first week together program Um.

Speaker 1: 10:15

But just to make it really simple for this purpose, if your puppy wants to sleep, let them. They need a lot of sleep during the day. Okay, when they wake up, I want you to take them potty and then you can play with them or do some training sessions with them, short sessions, five to 15 minutes at a time. Offer them a chew and see if they'll settle down after that and go chew something and then guess what they probably need to go back to sleep. So we let them uh and know some puppies are going to need help going back to sleep.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Not every puppy is going to be like hey, I'm feeling tired, it's time for my nap. They might get more bitey or more mouthy, or you try to redirect them and they won't. They don't take a toy or a treat. They just want to bite you, right? They're just irrational. They're over threshold, zone four is what we call them. So they need to go to sleep.

Speaker 1: 10:57

That's where the crate comes in, or the playpen. They need downtime, quiet time, okay, and then when they wake up, we take them potty and then we do it all over again. So, if you want to just think of it on the hour, at the top of the hour, we take them potty, we do some training, we do some play, and then we offer them a chew. See if they'll settle and chew something for a little bit. Make sure they get a drink of water, take them potty again and then we put them right back in the crate or the pen for a nap and then we repeat Pretty simple Okay, that's going to be the first several weeks. That's what your day is going to look like. Really, all right. Hopefully that gives you some good tools.

Speaker 1: 11:33

Now remember that consistency is key. Try to keep the routine the same throughout the days. It doesn't have to be super precise, but if your puppy can anticipate oh, I have nap time from nine to 11 and nap time from one to three and nap time from five to six they will start to settle into those. There will be some puppy whining and some tantrums like I don't want to be here, I'd rather be out playing, or I want to be with you all the time and they can't be. That's pretty normal. But if you set up that routine, that schedule, they'll kind of fall into that schedule and realize, oh okay, it's nap time. She'll come back in a little bit.

Speaker 1: 12:06

Uh, we also want to avoid, especially at nighttime, when you're putting them down for bed at night. We want to avoid late night stimulation. So it's pretty common that puppies between eight and 12 weeks will need that one time. You know. Nighttime break, maybe once, right, so maybe 4am, 2am, somewhere around there. That's okay, get them up, take them out, leave the lights low. You don't need a food reward in the middle of the night. You can just praise them good girl, and then right back to bed. So don't make that a party or you'll be up in the middle of the night regularly, okay, and then we do want to phase that out.

Speaker 1: 12:38

So if your puppy will sleep, let them sleep through the night. Don't be waking them up. If they will sleep, um, if they do wake up and you notice, oh yeah, they need that potty break for this next little while, next few days. Great, you can even set an alarm, maybe a half hour before they usually get up. You get them up, you take them out. Usually get up. You get them up, you take them out. You bring them back to bed and do that for a few nights and then try not doing it and see if they'll sleep through the night.

Speaker 1: 13:00

And then patience patience with raising puppies is important. So, yes, it can be challenging in the beginning but with time, patience and a routine your puppy will adjust and they'll develop really good habits. And we're here to help you. We have an entire first week together program. We have a preparing program before that and then a first week together program and then we move you right into our basic training, which is our puppy kindergarten. So we would love to just coach you through that entire process. Okay, all right, thank you for listening. I hope you have a wonderful week. Happy training. Thanks for tuning in to the puppy training podcast. I hope today's tips help you feel more confident and excited about raising your dog. Remember, with a little patience and consistency you can create a loving bond and a well-behaved pup who's a joy to have in your family. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with fellow puppy parents. For more resources, visit Baxter and Bella online. Until next time, happy training.