Hello I picked up my 8 week old puppy Phoebe on Friday night. She is gorgeous but I am exhausted!!!!! First two nights were not great - very upset when in her crate and soiled crate in between checks. It's horrible hearing her cry! However last night (night 3) much better. She actually took herself to her crate so I stayed up late and let her sleep for a bit with door open. I then took her for a later toilet trip close to midnight and then put her to bed. She didn't cry! Up at 3:30 and she had a wee and again didn't cry. Up at 6am and all clean!!!! Hopefully this will continue. I am looking forward to reading everyone's post and learning from others experiences as I am completely new to this - it is very daunting!! I seem to spend most of the time in the garden at the moment as I am trying to predict when Phoebe needs the toilet - just hoping the rain stays away!!
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Hello and welcome from me and my two dogs These first days/few weeks can be exhausting but they do pass and once your little one sleeps through the night, you will feel much more able to tackle anything during the day . Oh that hanging around in the garden, I remember it well , it makes it so hard to get anything done, but honestly, hang on in there , this tiring part of ownership will soon pass and you can then look forward to when you can take her for walks and get her well and truly shattered
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Hello Jo, Welcome....this is a wonderful Forum. You will get answers to all of your questions because we have all gone through what you are going through. Hang in there. Yes, the first few weeks are really hard. Specially if you are new at having a puppy as I was....mine is now almost nine months....a beautiful almost white male Lab called Cooper. The nights will get better.....just be consistent. Their bladders are very small when a puppy.....during the day bladders seem even smaller! Taking them out to the garden every half hour will save you from pools of wee in the house that you have to clean up not leaving any scent of it, which is quite difficult. The nights do get better as days go by. You will be able to gauge how long you can leave Phoebe in her crate before she has an accident. Things DO get better....promise. Just be as strong as you can these first few weeks. How is the biting going? That was my major problem. Biting was awful.
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Hello and welcome from me too. 5 year old black Lab called Lady here. I didn't have to go through the early puppy stage as we inherited Lady at 6 months old so all the hard work had already been done. Pictures of new puppies are compulsory! I'd love to see a picture when you've figured out how to post one that is. ;D
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Hello and welcome, I'm esther and we have hollie 5.5month old black lab. Oh and I've got hubby and 3 kids also Sounds like you are doing really well, it is hard but put in the hard work now and it will pay off later on. Hollie is our first pup we have always had older rescue dogs so it was a real shock to the system. Watch out for the crocodog phase....it will happen!! But lots of advice on here.
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Welcome! I remember that so well - both the heart-breaking cries at night, and also the time spent on house-training. It took me just a few days to realise that my entire purpose in life was to be a lavatory attendant for a small dog. Exhausting and nothing else in my world got done. Hang in there - it passes, it really does. If you are like us you'll go through several phases of "OMG what have I done???" and "OMG my puppy is a monster" and "OMG I can't cope with this".... Don't panic, it is all normal, just come onto the forum here and let off steam to us.... As a new puppy owner I got so much great advice and support from the lovely people here. Looking forward to hearing all about Phoebe's adventures.... lovely name! Rosie
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Welcome from me and my two bundles of joy. I second what Kate says. However shattered you are, and however emotional this can make you feel, just keep thinking the bad stuff only lasts a short while and the good stuff lasts a lifetime
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Hi Jo and Phoebe! Welcome to the forum. Its a steep learning curve. The "OMG" phase WILL wear off. Enjoy her puppyhood before you blink she will be a teenage hooligan There are loads of new puppy owners so lots of support and lots of people to listen - and give knowledgeable answers - about pooping and other topics you would not even belive you would ever be having a conversation about. Just....enjoy! Jac and Lilly x
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Welcome from Mags, Tatze (19 months) and Gypsy (6 months) Yes, it's exhausting! Harder work than a new baby (no nappies!) I'd do it all again in a flash 'tho! In fact I will be doing it all again in July or August ;D ;D
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Ah Thank you everyone - it's lovely to get reassurance. I haven't yet worked out how to post a photo of phoebe - will try and have a read when I'm back from the garden!!
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! One very useful tip - Simple Solution or watered down (clothes) bio liquid to clean up accidents. Every other cleaner smells of wee to pupsters and they like to wee where they have weed before.
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! from a teeny tiny black 6 year old Lab known as The DivaDog and her human
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Hello to you and Phoebe!!! My Bella is a milk chocolate girl and just turned 11 weeks....and yes...exhaustion is my middle name at the moment - we got her at 7 weeks old, and have had a bit of a rocky start with her....between soft poo and a UTI, the poor little girl has been round the black...but we are showing great improvements now... nothing a trip to the vet's office and some antibiotics to make her feel much better. Potty training has ben a challenge because of the issues above...but we finally seem to have had a breakthrough with her. She alerts us with a determined sit and stare thing, can be told to "wait" while we get jacket, shoes, etc before we head outside to do business. She also has a bell on our door at the house, and she has finally made the connection to ring it to get our attention. I think just learning her habit and her alert method has been the biggest thing for us. We are using a crate for her during the day, we have one at home and one at my hubby's work...and she is learning to not whimper and take nice naps. She will put herself in the work crate, but she isn't so fond of the one at home - but we are making progress there too. Bella is allowed to sleep on the bed with us at night. : Mostly that's a choice my hubby made, but I'm not pushing the issue even though I think a crate overnight until she is sleeping through the night is a better idea. We got Bella partially to heal our broken heart after we lost our last lab mix, Izzy....and Izzy was a bed hog....so hubby thought that Bella should just be a bed dog too. : I might feel differently if HE got up with her in the middle of the night for potty breaks./...but he doesn't. For now, Bella manages about 4 hours at a stretch before she wakes me to take her out....I'm hopeful that as she recovers fully from the UTI that the interval with stretch out some...but I'd rather not push the issue for her sake....bladder infections are miserable...so I feel for her! :-[ Anyway....enjoy Phoebe...and yes...please post a picture of her soon... xoxo
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Hi and welcome from Chepi and me. I am new to this too and was exhausted to start with but so in love with my pup it was like having a baby again : tiring but you keep going. You will get into the swing of it. It's helpful to post anything you want to say here as you will find lots of support. If you are in the south of the uk at the moment you will probably have a sodden garden; mine is slowly turning into a mud garden as the rain has been full on recently, so I hope you are coping ok with it. Cuddles to phoebe! And well done you, keep up the good work and snooze where you can ;D
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Hi and welcome from me and 15 month old Harley it does get better as everyone has said. In a few weeks it will suddenly get easy and you will forget how hard it was
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Hello from Molly and me. You are exactly a year behind me. I picked up Molly, age 8 weeks, exactly a year ago yesterday. Yes, the first month is very hard, trying to both toilet and crate train them. I found Molly trained like a dream, with luck you will be "on top of it" by Christmas. Her last few accidents were down to me not getting her outside when she told me she needed to go. Remember to clean up indoor accidents with an enzyme product specially made for the job. No matter how much you scrub with ordinary cleaners it still leaves that little whiff that says to a pup this is the place to pee'. You are doing great with the crate training. We still use ours, Molly sometimes gets in it by choice as we leave the door open. I have always referred to it as "bed" ready for the day we get her an ordinary bed. I just say "off to bed" and she trots into it. Raising a Labrador pup isn't easy, but it is SO worth it.
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Hello from Inca and I! Inca is now nearly 15 weeks old and although I haven't forgotten how painful the first month of sleep deprivation and toilet training was it already feels like a long time ago! Inca finally slept through the night at around 12 weeks and now she can do 8-8.5 hours no problem. It took us a good fortnight to get her toilet trained and even now we sometimes have the odd accident if she's excited or we mistake her signals for something else but generally it feels like the tough bit is over! It's great to know that everyone on the forum goes through the same thing.
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! we also got our dog when she was 5months old previous owner forgot!! that she was incontininant she had constant urine infections and then we found out she had one kidney damaged and not working so had it removed take your pup out every half an hour also vet told me that pups can double wee so if they do one they may do another quickly after dont know if others on here know if thats right but lots of help on here
Re: New member - I'm exhausted!!!!! Welcome to our Lab family. It does get better, honest. I will expect to here from you again soon when the "biting" phase starts. Again it will pass.
