Give me the low down on puppies

[Anonymous]

We have owned 2 rescue dogs, the first we adopted was close to a year old (she sadly passed very suddenly from leukemia a few years ago) and the second was around 18 months old (now 7.5ish). We attempted to work with a rescue to get a 2nd dog recently, but unfortunately they wanted to meet indoors & refused to wear masks. We now have a chance with a second rescue who just placed 11 puppies into foster homes. One of the foster moms offered to let us come meet her puppies in her backyard, which is perfect for us. Never having had a young puppy before, I would love to hear what we’re likely in for as far as house training and possible sleep issues. The puppies are currently 7 weeks old and will stay in foster homes likely for at least 2 more weeks. We have 3 boys (11, 7, & 4), I SAHM & DH has worked from home for years. Also, DH & I have only had females, both growing up & as a couple... is there a reason to get a female vs a male? Current dog is female if it matters.

[Anonymous]

When my dog was a puppy, I remember wishing I'd kept my Baby Bjorn, so I could wear her! She just cried and wanted to be held when we first got her. That didn't last long, but it did surprise me. I'd never had a young puppy before. It was work, but gosh was she cute!

[Anonymous]

We have had a puppy for 3 weeks now, the puppy is 11 weeks. the big issues for me are house training and chewing. We are working through them and we adore the puppy but they are real. Also, crate training is vital IMHO.

We were not planning to have the puppy sleep in our room but we now do, mostly because the room is quiet when the puppy needs to get to sleep and our house is otherwise loud until too late for puppy. Right now we put him to bed in his crate around 9 and take him outside to urinate at 3-4 am when he gets restless and then up about 7.

I am really liking kikopup videos on YouTube for assistance with training. Lots of stuff out there but she is so calm and I can do what she suggests with our puppy and it is working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have had a puppy for 3 weeks now, the puppy is 11 weeks. the big issues for me are house training and chewing. We are working through them and we adore the puppy but they are real. Also, crate training is vital IMHO.

We were not planning to have the puppy sleep in our room but we now do, mostly because the room is quiet when the puppy needs to get to sleep and our house is otherwise loud until too late for puppy. Right now we put him to bed in his crate around 9 and take him outside to urinate at 3-4 am when he gets restless and then up about 7.

I am really liking kikopup videos on YouTube for assistance with training. Lots of stuff out there but she is so calm and I can do what she suggests with our puppy and it is working.

One more thing, we started out with him getting up for the day about 6 but it has slowly migrated to 7 as his need to urinate during the night has spread out.

[Anonymous]

We have a four-month-old Goldendoodle who we got in mid-March.

I was prepared for the puppy to chew up our house. I was not prepared for the puppy to chew up us!

In the late afternoon when the dog gets the Zoomies I need to put him outside or in a room separate from the kids, otherwise he bites with razor-sharp teeth.

He’s not being mean or purposely aggressive, but the effect is the same. He particularly likes to bite my youngest child (age 8).

I’m very eager for the teething stage to end!

But when he’s not in his grizzly bear late afternoon state, he’s the sweetest, most love able, cutest dog you’ll see!

[Anonymous]

Foster mom here, recently fostered a dog and she got adopted during the pandemic. We had no-contact meet ups/adoption. Try Homeward Trails.

[Anonymous]

We adopted our dog as an 8 week old puppy a couple of years ago from our local humane society. She was pretty easy—we lucked out that she has always been pretty chill and awesome with our kids and people/other dogs. She’s an Australian Shepherd mix and about 60 pounds now.

We kept her in a crate in our bedroom at night since DH and I are on the ground level of our house. It was like having a newborn with having to go outside in the middle of the night and it seemed like it rained a lot the first month we had her. I don’t remember how long we had to do that. She seemed to get the hang of being housebroken just when I was starting to pull my hair out over the accidents. We bought one of those Bissel spot bot carpet cleaners and that has been great to have. We’ve always had a bell hanging from the door out to our deck so she can let us know when she wants to go out.

She was pretty good with the chewing and biting—never really got nippy or mouthy with us, but the kids learned pretty quick to put their shoes in the closet and not leave stuff laying around. She did chew on some wooden furniture a couple of times but that was on us for not supervising as well as we should have.

Because she came from the humane society, she was spayed right before we took her home. Most sources say you should let them go through one heat cycle before spaying, and this is my first dog so I have no idea what dealing with that is like.

[Anonymous]

What breed of dog? Bigger ones can hold it longer. Our golden was house broken and sleeping through the night in less than a week, but smaller dogs definitely need to pee more often. Some breeds are also just easier to train generally. In general, most of the sporting dogs are easy to train (retrivers, spaniels, etc.) and the herding/guard dogs are more independent and a bit harder to train, but that’s kind of a generality.

The teething/nipping is a pain. If they nip you, yelp, replace your fingers with a toy, and praise chewing the toy.
Big praise is key with puppies. Our trainer said you should look like an idiot praising your dog effusively when they do the right thing.
Males are definitely easier to get fixed, but I otherwise think the differences between the sexes are overstated. The advice about timing of the fixing varies by breed—for larger breed males its important for joint health that they go through puberty. Less important for small dogs. And the evidence for females is more mixed, as puberty increases the risk of certain hormone related cancers for female dogs. There are a bunch of studies on this from the last 5 years or so.
Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What breed of dog? Bigger ones can hold it longer. Our golden was house broken and sleeping through the night in less than a week, but smaller dogs definitely need to pee more often. Some breeds are also just easier to train generally. In general, most of the sporting dogs are easy to train (retrivers, spaniels, etc.) and the herding/guard dogs are more independent and a bit harder to train, but that’s kind of a generality.

The teething/nipping is a pain. If they nip you, yelp, replace your fingers with a toy, and praise chewing the toy.
Big praise is key with puppies. Our trainer said you should look like an idiot praising your dog effusively when they do the right thing.
Males are definitely easier to get fixed, but I otherwise think the differences between the sexes are overstated. The advice about timing of the fixing varies by breed—for larger breed males its important for joint health that they go through puberty. Less important for small dogs. And the evidence for females is more mixed, as puberty increases the risk of certain hormone related cancers for female dogs. There are a bunch of studies on this from the last 5 years or s
Good luck!

OP here. They’re a mix of lab, German Shepherd, and heeler... so not small, but not huge. They will be spayed/neutered in a couple weeks, and then go back to foster homes for a few days to recover before official adoptions.

Thank you all so much for the tips so far! I didn’t realize how much an issue teething could be. We do still have gates we can put up, as well as a couple nuggets we can use for barriers. Sounds like investing in another crate is a good idea.

[Anonymous]

It varies so much. I’ve had four puppies (toe makes and two females) through the past 14 years, and I’ve had three who were relatively easy, and one (currently 5 months) who is killing me with her chewing. Her digging up my yard isn’t much better.

But the good news is after a rough time housebreaking at first, she took the longest of my puppies and had the most indoor accidents, we have that down. And she can hold it overnight for 10 hours (she’s a very large breed). I did set my alarm to get up overnight for the first 6 weeks we had her (got her at 9 weeks). And no sleeping in.

I was really worried with socialization (I do have a male who had fear aggression) during this stay at home time, but luckily she’s very friendly with the UPS driver and others who have made their way to our house (mostly lost, we’re on a driveway and get a number of lost drivers).

Puppies are great fun, but also a lot of work. This one is my last, but going by the ages of your kids, I’m a lot older than you and too tired on a good day.

Good luck! It’s great if you to get a rescue.

[Anonymous]

Oops, cell phone typo: two males and two females.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What breed of dog? Bigger ones can hold it longer. Our golden was house broken and sleeping through the night in less than a week, but smaller dogs definitely need to pee more often. Some breeds are also just easier to train generally. In general, most of the sporting dogs are easy to train (retrivers, spaniels, etc.) and the herding/guard dogs are more independent and a bit harder to train, but that’s kind of a generality.

The teething/nipping is a pain. If they nip you, yelp, replace your fingers with a toy, and praise chewing the toy.
Big praise is key with puppies. Our trainer said you should look like an idiot praising your dog effusively when they do the right thing.
Males are definitely easier to get fixed, but I otherwise think the differences between the sexes are overstated. The advice about timing of the fixing varies by breed—for larger breed males its important for joint health that they go through puberty. Less important for small dogs. And the evidence for females is more mixed, as puberty increases the risk of certain hormone related cancers for female dogs. There are a bunch of studies on this from the last 5 years or s
Good luck!

OP here. They’re a mix of lab, German Shepherd, and heeler... so not small, but not huge. They will be spayed/neutered in a couple weeks, and then go back to foster homes for a few days to recover before official adoptions.

Thank you all so much for the tips so far! I didn’t realize how much an issue teething could be. We do still have gates we can put up, as well as a couple nuggets we can use for barriers. Sounds like investing in another crate is a good idea.

What rescue is this? Sounds like a great mix, and we've been thinking about getting a puppy too.

[Anonymous]

Our breeder told us the worst pairing was female-female, then male-male with the best pairing being female-male. We went with a male for our female dog and they get along splendidly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our breeder told us the worst pairing was female-female, then male-male with the best pairing being female-male. We went with a male for our female dog and they get along splendidly.

I have heard this as well. I would probably get a male in your situation, as much as I love females (they pee all at once - so much easier!!).

Sounds like a great mix! Our female beagle was nuts as a puppy, but they are known for being a slightly difficult breed. Luckily, she potty trained super easily in her crate and calmed down a lot after about a year. Consistency is key.

[Anonymous]

Puppies are so cute but as others have mentioned, constant work. I used a piece of linoleum and a play pen - it was great for when the puppy was awake but couldn’t be fully supervised. His crate was in there during the day but open and in our room at night.

The thing I would be worried about right now is socialization. There are specific age windows where you want to make sure the puppy interacts positively with strangers and other dogs and I think covid will make that really tough.