Our new little lady pup will be joining our family in 3 weeks and I would love to know tips and advice for the first few weeks! what do you wish you had known when you brought them home for the first time? Thank you! X
Hi Claire. We brought home our 8 week old lab pup 10 days ago and it has been a whirlwind! Great fun but I had not anticipated how relentless it would be. I am following the house training regime in the The Happy Puppy Handbook which is really working but is very tiring and all-consuming as it involves going outside every 30 minutes to start and getting up in the night. It has however paid off as I now have a 9 week old puppy that is totally clean in her crate and has had only a few accidents in the house in 10 days. It helps if you can put everything else on hold for the first few weeks. I am lucky as my kids are grown up so imagine this would be trickier with small children. I have had moments of wondering what on earth I have done (and I have always had dogs before - just never a puppy) but I can already see it will get easier. Also, I was not prepared for the biting - I invested in a pair of sturdy 'granny' slippers that protected my ankles making it easier to ignore and train her out of it (still working on that one!). Good luck!
