We felt 100% prepared, but after 1 week we feel totally overwhelmed. We have so many questions!

Hi all.

My partner and I took home a beautiful show Lab puppy 1 week ago. She is 9 weeks old now. We did countless hours of research, read books, forums etc and felt totally prepared to take her on. But now, everything is much harder in practice and we're finding a lot of conflicting information. Could someone please help me through our questions? We've read through a lot of articles on this site and it's been very helpful, but there's still a few uncertainties.

1. We have a crate & pen setup - she has a crate within a pen. The pen area has puppy pads down in case of accidents. However, I am off work with her for 2 weeks and then my partner is off work with her for 6 weeks and so we're able to supervise her the majority of the time. This will not always be the case though, and she'll be left in her crate/pen for a few hours at a time when we return to work. Should we be letting her roam freely around the house with us now? Or should we still be putting her in her pen a lot during the day to get her used to it, even when we're in the same room as her?

2. She LOVES playing in the garden, and now she often just sits by the back door and whines to go out and play. Now, it seems everyone can agree on never giving in to her whining. However, some sites say we should just ignore it, other sites say we should scold her with a sharp "QUIET!". Do we ignore, or do we scold?

3. Her breeder told us not to get up in the night to let her out as it sets the expectation that she can just hold on until we come down for her. However, a lot of places online say we should wake up a couple of times in the night to let her out. Which is it? We tried both - one night we just got up at half 6 and cleaned up her poo and wee. Last night I got up at 2am to let her out - she'd already pood in her pen. Got up again at 6.30 and she'd pood again, and then she pood again as soon as we brought her back in after taking her out to toilet!

4. Do we need to let her try to do things she's not supposed to so we can divert her away? Example, should we let her attempt to chew something she's not supposed too so we can teach her it's wrong? How will she learn otherwise?

I have so many more questions, but I'm just so exhausted I can't thing straight enough to type them up! Thanks for all your help.

 

I've raised 3 Labs (having said that, my most recent is a devil dog monster, so please feel free to ignore any or all of my advice).

Personally, I'd get rid of the puppy pads if you're able to supervise her much of the time. I also think it's unreasonable to expect an 8 week old puppy to hold her bladder all night.

Don't ignore the whining because she may need to toilet. Take her out on a leash so she learns it's not fun times - it's pee/poo time. She can start enjoying frolicking around the garden when she's completely toilet trained.

You don't need to set her up to fail in order to teach manners. Believe me, she absolutely will find opportunities for you to teach her how to behave appropriately in various situations. It'll happen over a period of time - no rush.

Hope I've been of some small help and good luck!

 

3. I initially didn't get up to my puppy - mistake. I then set my alarm for 3 hours after we'd put her in her crate for bedtime. Then took her outside. Set alarm for another 3 hours and did the same. If puppy has elimated before those times, set alarm earlier, if not then set alarm a bit later. A pattern will emerge over a few days and you will get an idea of when to set your alarm and take her out. Eventually, this goes down to once a night and then they last all night. Seems like an eternity at the time but actually doesn't take that long she was completely clean and dry day and night by 18 weeks. The sleep deprivation I experienced was unpleasant and I often couldn't think straight and I really struggled. You will get there.

 

This is very normal and will pass xx

Ignore, don't scold. Scolding is attention and will encourage more barking. Ignoring means back turned and no words at all. As soon as she's quiet, treat and back to normal.

 

Oh - and the answer question 4 is no no no!

The more 'puppy proof' you can make your home the better. Anything which was great fun as a pup will also be great fun to a 27 Kg Lab!

I learned this with Tatze, we used to play with her with the sweeping broom - fun all round. Now I can't sweep without Tatze being out of the room, her adult jaws destroy brooms in seconds. As soon as she sees it she bounces round like a pup - she's four years old.

My motto is 'don't do anything with a puppy that you don't want a grown Lab to do'

 

Hey guys, thanks so much for all your advice so far! The puppy pads are purely to make clean up easier - as far as I know they're not scented to encourage her to toilet on them.

 

Hi,
I have Cassie, now 15 months, so last year I was right where you are now. I get what you mean about conflicting advice.
I didn't get up through the night, I value my sleep and felt that she kept me quite busy enough in the day. I was quite lucky as she soon settled at night with little crying, and I got up earlier than normal for a while to clean up. The poo's and wee's just got less over time and by 12 weeks there was nothing at all. She had a crate with her bed in and the door open. She hasn't had ant accidents overnight since 12 weeks.
I don't mean to give further conflicting advice but this is what worked for me

 

Hi @IndytheLab, most of us here can feel your pain!

I don't think anything can really prepare you for the whirlwind that a lab puppy brings to your life.

All lab puppies are different and so will be dry and clean at different stages.

I didn't get up in the night either. My pup had a crate which was unlocked so she could leave it to wee and poo. I left newspaper on a section of the kitchen floor by the back door. I was very lucky in that she only cried a couple of times on night two. She always eliminated on the paper.

Some think putting paper/pads down delays their training and I was prepared for this as I didn't want to get up at night. However, my pup seemed to learn very quickly and probably within 4 weeks I was locking her crate at night.

It's fantastic she will have you and your partner around for 8 weeks and you can start to teach her at some point about being left alone so she is ready when you are!

 

Hey guys, thanks again for all your advice. Still conficted about whether or not to let her out to poo/wee in the night as again, it appears that some people here are all for it and others don't feel it is strictly necessary. I will add that my parents had a lab and they never got up to let her out when she was a puppy. My partner and I are barely sleeping as it is, and our moods have been affected pretty heavily - I think there is a minor case of the puppy blues coming on so perhaps we're best leaving her through the night so we can catch up on sleep. This is probably the issue we're most torn about, so I'd really appreciate any further input from other members.

There is one more thing I'll add which I'm confused about.

I fed Indy at 7am this morning and it's now 12:40, so she's gone almost 5 hours without pooping. Brilliant! Yet last night she poo'd TWICE in the 7 hours she was in her crate. What gives?

 

Ouch. That's a lot to expect from a 9 weeks old puppy. Ours came to us at 7 weeks and needed around 3 toilets trips during the night. I think it's good to do this because they get used to doing it outside straight away. Things get easier, and our boy managed through the night after about 11-12 weeks.

It's great that you and your wife can be at home for the first critical weeks. We did the same and toilet training was relatively easy. Out after every meal, out when he woke up, etc.

We let Nelson roam around, but only in the main living area. It means there is less risk that you don't notice a random pee in another room.

Also once settled in (a week or so) start getting the pup used to being alone in gradual increments. 1 second, 2 secs, etc, 1 min, 90 seconds, etc, an hour, 2, 3, 4, etc.

Exactly our experience!

 

Hi Snowy, thanks for your input. I could survive with 3 sleep derprived weeks... I'm sure kids will be much harder! Maybe I will stick to getting up every few hours for her? It's just so tough! So many conflicting suggestions!

 

I was super prepared before my first puppy came home, but no amount of reading and researching can truly prepare you for the real deal. When my latest puppy came along, I knew I had it in the bag. I'd done it all before, so knew what to expect. But that's not the case. They're all different and you need to find what works for you and your puppy. Other people can just give you their experiences. So, here are mine to add to the mix.

Willow (first puppy) went in a crate at night from the first night, and I set an alarm every couple of hours to get up, so she would never toilet in her crate. This worked really well, but obviously you have to put up with some disturbed sleep for the first couple of weeks, until you've extended the time to cover all night.
Shadow came to us at 14 weeks, so I won't include him.
With Luna, I decided to go with the crate-in-pen arrangement, so I didn't have to get up and she could just toilet in the pen away from her bed. It didn't work like that, as she had no worries about going to the loo, rolling in it and then shouting about the fact. So I still had to get up several times a night to clean her and the pen. In the end, it was easier just to crate train her as I had with Willow, and that worked. However, it took many months until she was able to last all night.
Was this anything to do with the setup I had used? Crate training and getting up, or letting her go in her pen?

Nope. It was just because that's how long it took her to mature. And the fact she's a bit of a weirdo who didn't care about sitting in her own puddles.

There is no "best" way. It depends on you and your puppy. You'll find your way, don't worry. And even if the way you end up choosing isn't the quickest way, you will still get there in the end. Everyone does

 

By the way, Luna pooed SEVEN TIMES that first night.

Puppies aren't always regular, and it's not always a regular progression from one night to the next. Don't sweat it

 

Yes - the upheaval can cause this too.

 

I wasn't quite sure where it was all coming from! All perfectly formed, and regular size. I swear she must have lost half her body weight that first night

 

There's plenty of good advice above. The only thing I'd add is that we put newspaper by our back door overnight. For some strange reason all of our last 3 dogs (2 Labs and a LabX) used the newspaper instead of the floor for widdles. It made things easier to clean up and was cheaper than puppy pads.

 

We put newspaper down with Jet too. Her pen was in our dining room and pee would have run down the pen floor onto and into our hardwood otherwise.

And just because I want to brag about how wonderful Jet was and hope you are all jealous, she was clean overnight from the time we got her at 7 weeks old. Oban wasn't.

 

We got up through the night but Stanley used to always let us know when he needed to go. I never had to set an alarm he just started yapping whenever he needed out - at first twice, then once.

It lasted about 8 weeks until he was 17 weeks then one night he just slept through

 

We used a crate in the Bedroom at night, and a pen in the kitchen during the day. IIRC, after a couple of weeks we were able to sleep though the night, but if she whined we would take her out and bring her right back in.

I don't think I would give a 9 week pup the run of the house. I would give them the run of the kitchen while you are there with them and can watch them closely. When Cooper was about 16 weeks we had to leave both Cooper and Tilly alone in the house (4 days) with a part time dog sitter while we went to a wedding in Mexico. We have a dog door to the back yard, and there were very few accidents, but some chewing damage. We tried to keep them in the family room on the lower level when the sitter was not there, but it did not work all that well.

We have never used pads or paper, because we wanted our dogs to learn to go outside only. We don't have a dog door at our ski cabin, but they are very good about letting us know when they have to go out.

Now both dogs Cooper 2, Tilly 11 have the complete run of the house and we have almost zero problems.

 

Hi - just to add another opinion - choose what works best for you and your pup. Make the choice and be consistent - if you are happy getting up in the night to take your pup out, great, if not, that's great too.

I had puppy pads to begin with - but Bailey just attacked them and after three days of clearing up hundreds of tiny pieces of puppy pads I gave up! He went to town on newspapers too! Luckily I have easy clean floors downstairs and I was very lucky with him overnight never needing a night time poo or wee, so just lots of enzyme cleaner in the first few weeks - remember to follow the instructions on the bottle about how to use the cleaner - my OH being a "I don't need instructions" sort of person just sprayed it and wiped it right up and Bailey kept weeing in the same place in the kitchen, until I cleaned it up and left the cleaner down for the two minutes it needed - funnily enough Bailey never went there again!

I never scold Bailey - I redirect, so if he is doing something I don't want him to do (frequently) then I get his attention on something just as exciting but safe. This takes time and it is not an overnight success story - but again be consistent with how you do this. Our pups are clever little things and they pick up everything very quickly - but they don't speak human...my OH used to lecture Bailey and while quite amusing it had no effect whatsoever!