Our adorable puppy, Smoky, is 9 weeks old and on the whole we are all settling into organised chaos well! However, our most challenging time is first thing in the morning. I understand that Smoky is very happy to see us after sleeping alone all night in the kitchen/diner and realise that his constant nipping and jumping around is for attention from us humans as he has been starved of our company for 6-8 hours. However, all the training techniques we practice during the day (which he does well with) seem to fly out the window for the first 2 hours of the morning and is making us all grouchy. We take him in the garden to do his business and let him have a nose around, play with him and his toys, ignore him when he gets mouthy, we train him with treats so he ignores our feet and ankles as per the instructions on this website which he remembers most of the day but completely forgets in the morning! He is just a whirlwind of teeth and attention seeking behaviour, such as chewing and tinkling on the carpet, especially when I'm ignoring him because he is nipping me. I'd take him for a walk to run off some of his excess energy but he isn't due his second set of jabs until the end of January. The house rises between 6 & 7am (we have a 5 & 9 year old) but we aren't feeding Smoky until 8am so he doesn't expect breakfast too early once the kids have learnt to lay in a bit lol! Do you think we should feed him earlier? Might this calm him down quicker? Does anyone have any suggestions please or do we need to just weather the storm?
Hi and welcome to the forum. I'm no expert but it sounds as if you have s perfectly normal puppy who is very pleased to see you and who has plenty of energy after sleeping the night . A good way to tire puppy brains is short training sessions, works better than walks, but that's probably not practical when you have 2 children to get ready in the morning. Have you thought of using a stuffed long or perhaps one of the wobblers so he has to work for his breakfast and keep him occupied while you're busy? If bringing his breakfast would help I would, you can always slide it backwards again as he gets older. You could also start training a cue for going to his bed/crate and rewarding fir sitting nice and quiet, even if only for a few seconds to begin with and gradually extending. It is very useful to have a bed/crate/mat type of cue for all sorts I situations where you want your dog to be in a certain spot while you're busy. Good luck
Welcome from Hattie 8 years and rescue boy Charlie 5 years. Nothing to add to Rosemary's great advice just wanted to welcome you and Smoky who sounds perfectly normal! Enjoy the forum. xx Helen
Hello, and a very warm welcome I'd think about how you are managing him during this time when the household is busy, humans are getting ready for school/work etc. and there is a small puppy running around getting into all sorts of mischief. After he has been out, had a play, some attention etc. how about a puppy pen? Or some baby gates? Things that allow him to be close by the family but where he can be popped when he can't be watched etc. or really gets too nippy to tolerate. A nine week old puppy, a household getting ready for the day = management required. It's not the time to either train a tiny puppy, or expect him to remember what he learned yesterday.
8am is fine for feeding him I agree that a puppy pen or baby gates would be best while the mayhem is going on. If you stuff a kong with some soaked kibble and freeze it it'll keep him busy for a while, especially when he's hungry! I used hedgehog chews and rice bones for my pups for this purpose when they were tiny. I also kept some 'special' toys for them to be given only when I wasn't able to interact with them. (goodness it seems a long time ago - Twiglet is 7 months old now!) PS - love the name Smoky!
Thanks for your suggestions and for your lovely welcome! We have a puppy kong already on its way to us to provide something challenging for his mind. I also love the idea of training him to spend time in his basket when we are busy so shall combine these ideas. My hubbie has shut him back in the kitchen some mornings when he gets too nippy. I was unsure about this as I wondered if this was just removing him from the situation rather than helping him to cope. It sounds like when enough is enough though, removal isn't a bad thing so my hubbie was doing right, which he'll be glad to hear lol! Thanks again - I'm sure I'll be back for more help with our cutie!
Popping him into the kitchen is fine as long as it's only for a minute or two as a timeout and not a form of punishment. Can you use a stairgate across the door so that he can see the family, just not get to nip them. This is a very uncomfortable phase but soon passes
It isn't possible to put a stairgate up as the doorway between the lounge and kitchen/diner are double french doors. We have stairs going up and down from our lounge (no doors) and have stairgates at these. When we are playing with him we often stand the other side of these for a minute or two and ignore him to discourage any inappropriate mouthing of us humans but he is relentless in the mornings - we'd never be anywhere but behind the stairgates! Hopefully giving him a puppy kong after he's been toileted and been played with for a while will redirect his boisterousness so we can get on with breakfast and getting ready for the day. As is always the case, once everyone has left for school and work - he curls up in his basket and falls asleep leaving me to get on with the chores!
Don't worry about popping him back in his crate, with his breakfast in kongs. Don't feel you have to give that food away for free, in a bowl. You can pack it up in several kongs and he can spend 45minutes eating it in his crate....
Thank you - I feel better knowing I'm not being a mean mummy for popping him away especially with a Kong full of breakfast so we can get on!
