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

Thanks so much for all your help and advice guys. Indy has now had 2 nights in a row without mess, so hopefully this is a good sign of things to come.

 

Hello IndyLab,

You are not alone!! We got a 12 week old lab at the beginning of the month, and have also been agonising about managing sleep, 'alone' time and housetraining. Haven't had a new puppy for decades, and the intensity of the first weeks has been quite a wake up call - at 4am with howling puppy who won't settle, we wonder what on earth we've done! We're experiencing a really awful winter storm here in NZ, heavy rain and a flooded garden are making night time toilet visits to the garden a very miserable experience for our pup and ourselves.

Our present issue (apart from our house sitting in a giant puddle) is our puppy peeing and rolling on his back when greeted by visitors .. as we have teenagers, the visitors are very excited to greet our new family member and forget our advice on ignoring him until he's bored with them. So when we're kneeling on the floor, mopping up yet another puddle, they are instagramming the hilarity to their chums. Bah.

Onwards and upwards - one day soon we shall have forgotten all this palaver and be enjoying our well-adjusted dogs with the benefit of a full night's sleep!

 

Welcome to the forum, Amanda

Hope the storms and the peeing and the wakeful nights all pass soon enough! You'll be stuck with the teenagers rather longer

By the way, you can send some of your rain over the ditch - it's dry as a bone here.

 

Isn't it winter there?!

We've had overcast and storms the last few days. Woke up to thunder and rain today. I never thought I'd be saying, brilliant, it's raining!!!

So says someone who has weathered the storm before!

It's boring, but it passes and we end up with our wonderful companions on the other side

 

Hi Amanda,

Yay someone from NZ...

The joys of getting a puppy in winter....something I hope not to do again.I think if I do get another puppy someday, it will be in spring/summer...

Tina

 

Hey, I'm just wondering, where you got your puppy from...just seeing if it's from the same place as mine☺