New yellow Lab puppy - help!
technology_love
Posts: 3,177 Forum Member
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Hi all
My fiance and I bought an 8 week old female yellow labrador - pretty much like the Andrex puppy on the telly.
She is adorable!
It's only been a week and I'm already losing the will to live.
Yes I know they are fully of energy (I grew up with dogs) but I'm struggling with getting her house/potty trained and getting her to sleep at night. I got about two hours last night!
She's been sleeping upstairs with us and although we put training pads down and put her on it every time she squats, she keeps pooing and weeing wherever she pleases. Last night we woke up to her sniffing and licking a "brown specimen" she had just produced. :eek:
So what to do? Any suggestions from other dog owners?
Tonight, she's going in the kitchen where we will put down lots of news paper. I do know she will scream her head off and living in a semi detached home, I know my neighbour will not appreciate it at all hours of the morning.
So tired this morning.......:sleep:
Any suggestions please?
TL
My fiance and I bought an 8 week old female yellow labrador - pretty much like the Andrex puppy on the telly.
She is adorable!
It's only been a week and I'm already losing the will to live.
Yes I know they are fully of energy (I grew up with dogs) but I'm struggling with getting her house/potty trained and getting her to sleep at night. I got about two hours last night!
She's been sleeping upstairs with us and although we put training pads down and put her on it every time she squats, she keeps pooing and weeing wherever she pleases. Last night we woke up to her sniffing and licking a "brown specimen" she had just produced. :eek:
So what to do? Any suggestions from other dog owners?
Tonight, she's going in the kitchen where we will put down lots of news paper. I do know she will scream her head off and living in a semi detached home, I know my neighbour will not appreciate it at all hours of the morning.
So tired this morning.......:sleep:
Any suggestions please?
TL
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Comments
We've had our dog two years and he loves his crate. He spends time in it during the day even when we are at home.
As for the toilet training, it takes a lot of time and patience. Let her out at frequent intervals and praise her madly when she performs in the garden. Lots of newspaper put down away from her food will help too. You will get there I promise. It's like having a new baby and it completely wears you out for a while.
Good luck!
My fiance is 10 weeks pregnant :eek:
Good advice though, thank you!
Any suggestions on where to get a crate from?
TL
reasonable prices and you will get 10% discount on your first order, we have a now 6 month old Sprocker, he was hard work for the first 2 Weeks, but soon got into a routine, the crate is a good idea, he now wanders off to his crate when in the house and wants his bed, without being told.
Very tiring, but persevere, it will get better, I promise!
Unfortunately you will just have to put up with a few sleepless nights while the puppy is adjusting. She's only 8 weeks old which is VERY young - i'm fairly sure that the best age to take a pup is at 10-12 weeks old.
The worst thing you can do is take the pup into your room, or even go downstairs when it whines at night. We went through a torturous week 'ignoring' our dog, when she was a pup, but within about a fortnight she was silent through the night.
I have friends, however, who got into the habit of getting up to see to their pup in the night and it is STILL whining in the night and its a year old now!
You have to be a bit 'hard ' in the first few weeks, but if you are firm and consistent it will pay off.
Btw a puppy is great practice for thesleepless nights with a baby!
Oh btw, there is a Pets Forum now where you may get a good few ideas, mine isn't helpful I know, sorry....
Seriously though, if you're expecting a baby then I'm sure this will seem like a walk in the park!
As for the leaving overnight my wife got up with our puppy (yellow lab) on the first night only because she was whinning, but she was as good as gold after that. She sleeps in the kitchen all night and only gets on the suite when I'm on the computer (get down dog you know your not allowed).
One other thing try not to leave her alone for long periods by herself, unless you want to buy new furniture, shoes etc. Play tug of war with her, a rope is good, but dont let her growl when she does it, if she growls stop pulling and dont play. If you are wondering why, close your eyes when you do it you'll see how scary it is. If kids get to play with her it could/will scare them and make them think she is aggressive. This was told to me by Guide Dogs for the Blind when I wanted to do puppy walking.
BTW you are going to have some wonderful fun times with her and she will be a wonderful companion for many years to come.
Wow - great idea to get a boistorous puppy that needs a very high level of care with a baby on the way.
You say you are a dog owner? Sounds like you've never had a pup before??? :eek:
Maybe ask for this to be moved to the pet forum and I am sure people will be able to make suggestions for you?
I am not a dog owner - too much hard work!! But you ignorance of expecting the pup (who is very young IMO) to be trained in a week is astounding.
Apologies I cannot be more supportive but it really bothers me how some people really do not consider the level of comittment they take on when they bring a pet into the home
The dog will learn the the paper is it's toilet. after a while move the paper out side the door the dog will then learn to go out side to the loo
Also when the dog has been asleep as soon as it wakes up pick it up and straight outside with him/her...when the dog has been the loo make a fuss reward the dog....
good luck
You mustn't go to her in the night or allow her in the bedroom. Make sure she goes out several times a day to empty her bladder etc. Give her plenty of playtime in the day so that she is tired at night. Our puppy was 8 weeks old when we got him and he only cried for the first two nights. He was quick to toilet train too. You only need to crate them for the first 6 months or so. Anyway a lab will soon grow too big for a crate but by then she should be settled into a routine. Actually it will all be good training for you for when your baby comes along.
Alternatively, look for a 2nd hand one on ebay or see if your local pet shops have a advertising board
As for toilet training, during the day time, it's a case of keeping an eye on them and spotting the tell-tale signs. Once you see them, whip them up off the floor, and pop them outside. We have a dog-flap in the kitchen, which is an absolute god-send, once they got used to using it.
For toilet-training during the night, I used the crate again. I put it in our bedroom, close to me, and shut them in when we all went to bed. Dog's naturally don't want to do anything in their bed, so when they fell the urge, they made a noise and woke me up. I'd get them downstairs and outside p.d.q. and after a short while, back to bed. It's hard work being woken up multiple times during the night, but both of our puppies were house trained in 1 week.
Once they were fully house-trained, the crate went downstairs into the kitchen, with the big comfy dog bed in it. During the day, our two come and go as they please in and out of their dog flap, but during the night they are both shut in the cage, and the dog flap is closed. We started shutting them in at night, after the night that one of the many many cats who live on our road decided to come in to our kitchen through the dog-flap. Now that was an interesting half an hour, getting our two calmed down and the feline invader out of our house!
I wish I was a fly-on-the-wall in your house!!!
Not really sure what I'm supposed to do with that information? If you must know, we paid a £100 deposit for her a week before Christmas. We only recently discovered my fiance was pregnant after we commited to a puppy -baby is due around August so I apologise for that if it offends you deeply. I actually think the nature of a labrador will be great for children - but what do I know.....
I grew up with dogs and several litters of chow chow puppies. I think it's a little different when you are a young child and the adults tend to do most of the training.
Christ, I never said I expected it to be house trained in a week. I just said it's been a week and I'm feeling the strain already.
Again, my sincere apologies if me posting the fact I'm taking a little strain offends you. Sorry -really.
Thank you for that. Very helpful.
You don't know me from a bar of soap and yet you judge me straight away. You even mention you could not handle dogs -"too much work" - so why bother posting?
All I came on here is for some advice and support, not a lecture from an ignorant person who knows NOTHING about my personal circumstances. Please don't bother posting back in this topic, it's not helping me at all. Apologies to the MODS if they read this - I don't mean to be rude.
Wow, great post.
Thank you for all that information, I will certainly buy a crate!
This is exactly the kind of information and advice I need - thank you
You really need to get her into a routine immediately. To pop her in the kicthen overnight will throw her, and she will probably bark and whimper all night for many nights.
When we got our dogs, we left the in the kitchen overnight from day one. The first night we got whimpering. The second night we got an odd whimper. The third night ... nothing.
I think you might have a job to get her to settle in the kitchen immediately now, so be prepared for a few more sleepless nights. I would recomend placing a ticking clock or a radio in the kitchen with her. They find it soothing.
As for the toilet training, all dogs differ in how long it takes to get them fully trained. My springer spaniel took a matter of weeks. But my other dog still had an odd accident after 5 months !!!! Buy hey, its all part of the delights of having a pup
Hi Porcupine
Great advice - someone else told me about the ticking clock idea, we do have one so I'll give it a go!
I appreciate it will be harder, now that she has slept upstairs. However, we have a puppy gate to keep her in the kitchen which is not too big. We'll just endure however many nights it takes to get her to sleep down there. I'm just worried about our neighbours - not fair on them if howling goes on for weeks/months at all hours but then again what can we do
I'm having a similar problem with my 4 month old puppy going to the toilet in the house but we've only had her for 4 days so not too surprising!!
Is there anything anyone can recommend to use to clean the area where the puppy wees and poos so that it gets rid of the scent? She keeps going to the same spot so even though I think its clean, she obviously knows different!!
Good luck with your lab, OP! we had a black lab for many years and she was amazing.
ooh just to add, OP why not try a hot water bottle (not to hot obviously) to keep her snug at night? I used this with a previous puppy and it worked a treat.
We have a dog gate too. I generally find the dog prefers them rather than a solid door as they can see into the house.
I know what you mean about the neighbours. When we got our pups, we popped a note through the next door neighbours letterbox explaining that we had a new pup who we are trying to train to sleep alone at night, and apologising in advance for any disturbance. Your neighbours will understand, and they will be pleased that you have kept them informed. After all, it wont last forever.
I didn't put any words into your mouth? You say yourself after a week you are losing the will to live - makes me question if you are actually cut out as a dog owner?
I've never had a dog, I was honest and said I'd find it far too much hard work.
My point remains the same though - it's only been a week. You cannot expect to have a very young pup fully trained in that space of time.
I actually think I was pretty helpful - I suggested you move your post to the pet forum (ask the mods to do it!). There are plenty of dog owners on hand to help and advise!!
I'm not so sure her sleeping upstairs is a good idea - ours slept in a warm basket downstairs from day one and he soon started sleeping through the night. The first night he whined for 40 minutes but we didn't go down to the him - it was hard but the second night he whined a lot less and by the third/fourth night he had stopped crying all together and slept through the night.
For toilet training I'd advise you to take her out every hour, as soon as she wakes up and as soon as she's finished eating (but you'll still get accidents).
I've brought up several puppies and never used a crate but I know others swear by them.
It's early days yet and she is very young.
Enjoy your puppy!