hello, we have our newest memeber of the family arriving at the end of September called flo, a golden lab, we are so so excitied but I'm now completely obsessed with studying everything I can and to get as much useful information as we can. So I thought I join the forum as it's aways nice to speak to real people! Ok so from day one of puppy arriving our plan is to get her used to and loving her crate and from the first night have the crate in our bedroom next to the bed as for the rest of her life we will be letting her sleep in her own bed in our bedroom. But I'm worried about the weeing at night. I'm fully prepared to be taking her out during the night but should I put a puppy pad in her crate. My problem with that is the breeder is using pads with her at the moment and she is responding really well to them but as I'm at home with her most of the time we didn't really want to use pads we just wanted to be on the ball and taking her out constantly. Can I stop using the pads straight away or will that confuse her? Or should I take her outside with a pad to start with so she wees on the pad but outside? And then what should I do through the night? Do they we a little bit less at night? (Might be a stupid question) We have always had dogs but never from a puppy so all this is new to us,, thanks in advance!
Welcome to you from Mags, Tatze and Mollie from Manchester UK Tatze is my pet dog, a black Lab and she's four years old. Tatze means 'paw' in German. Mollie is my fourth Guide Dog puppy, a black Lab who is ten months old. I strongly recommend the Happy Puppy Handbook, its brilliant. Yes, you can stop using pads straight away, they soon start to rip them up anyway. Some pups don't need to wee at all in the night, others go two or three times, you never know which yours will be. All depends on how quickly their bladder matures. Pads are great for clearing up accidents, I cut them in four. But definitely don't use pads outside, she'll be fine from day 1 weeing on gravel, stone, concrete or grass. Be sure to get some special cleaner like Simple Solution as other cleaners smell of wee to puppies. I hope you've found this, highly useful, part of the site - I refer to it often - http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies/ The preparation is half of the fun, I am also excited as my new pup, Keir, arrives this Friday! Eeeeeeeep!
Hi and welcome to the forum! I live in Northampton in the UK and have one 18 month old fox red lab boy called Bailey. Bailey was my first dog with my OH, although I had dogs growing up, I have never raised a dog from 8 weeks old which we have done with Bailey - sure we have made many many mistakes along the way, but so far all three of us are still here and doing well! Mags has it pretty much covered - I had pee pads ready for Bailey's arrival and he had destroyed half a pack in about an hour of arriving - my goodness do they manage to rip them into tiny bits!!! Like Mags I used to use them (cut in four) for cleaning up rather than having them down for Bailey. You will hear them if they need to go out in the night - that said Bailey slept through right from day 1 and we've only lost one nights sleep with him and that's when he hurt his tail swimming and he couldn't get comfortable so was walking all over me all night (and if I'm going to be awake with the dog so is my OH!). Until Flo arrives (lovely name) you are not going to know how she will be, but during the day yes they tend to wee more than at night. Whatever just remember to take loads of pictures as they really do not stay small for long - that wonderful puppy look quickly goes and you then have a teenager which for Bailey is a puppy trapped inside an adult sized body! Also you need to post lots of puppy pics on here as we all love seeing pics of new pups
Aww thanks for getting back to me everyone!! We are so excitied! Did you use a crate at night for yours to sleep in, we were thinking we will just do this until we feel she a little bit more control over her bladder, does that sound about right? So It won't be so much for training more just so she has a safe happy place to be, but also for when she is still little we can put her in there if we have to pop out! Any advice on the whole crate thing? ❤️
We did exactly what you are planning - crate in our bedroom that we eventually took down and replaced with a dog bed. From night one, we used the crate and got up to take her out every time she cried as we did not want to use puppy pads. She was sleeping solidly through the night by 12.5 weeks and we slowly de-crated her at night (we had her crate with door open, dog bed or with us as options in our room). It was a tiring few weeks but you will barely remember it once she starts sleeping through!
I clicker train without the clicker lol i use a short, sharp 'good' just as you would a clicker and keep this sound for training.
