Day 4...How am I doing?!

So on Saturday I picked up my first ever puppy Arlo, he was just over 8 weeks.

I'm 20 years old and I've never had a dog before in my life, so this was a huge step!

In the lead up to getting Arlo, I read books on puppys, dog training, staffys..you name it, I wanted to be prepared.

Basically I want to know if you guys can give me any tips on what I'm doing right/wrong..books are great, but there is a lot to focus on when it came down to getting the little guy!

At the moment, I've got him set up in a little puppy pen in my room, about 1x1.5m, with a bed, some puppy pads
in the corner, and a water bowl.
He stays in the pen when he can't be supervised/when I need to go out.

I've been taking him out to potty after eating/waking up/playing/every 2 hours at night etc etc and that's going well..however today he had an incident where I was out of the house for 3 hours, and instead of peeing in his puppy pad (which he hasn't once used), he pee'd on the floor of his pen, which is a hard lino surface.

I've been hand feeding him at the moment, using meal times as training sessions, just trying to get 'sit' happening and making sure he knows that he needs to behave if he wants to get what he wants.

Couple of questions I have....

When he's playing around in my room and he goes to chew things, I say 'No' and 'Ah Ah', and if he really chooses not to listen, I'll put him in his pen for a 2 minute time out, or until he's stopped whining.
What I'm wondering is..once you guys felt comfortable in regards to your puppy being pottyrained, when and how did you know that you could leave him unsupervised around the house? Obviously I don't want him chewing chords and whatever he likes, but when did you guys make the decision that your staff essentially knew what not to do, even when you weren't around.


I'm sorry for the huge post, I wanted to get everything out and I appreciate anybody who replies!!!

I know it's early days and patience is a virtue, I just wonna make sure I'm on the right track in every way possible!

Sounds like it's all going well so far. I wouldn't worry about the odd accident here and there, it'll happen but as long as you keep up the good work he'll be fine. You'll probably find that he'll be able to go longer at nights - I'd make sure he gets let out late at night and then be ready to scoop him up first thing, but otherwise see how he goes overnight. It's easy to get into the habit of needing company during the night otherwise.

Rather than reprimanding for chewing the wrong thing, I'd make sure there is always something nearby that you can quickly substitute if he does start chewing something that not a puppy toy.

I personally think it's important to start leaving them just for a few minutes from the start. It's much easier to avoid separation anxiety than to correct it. I would leave him with something high value that he can chew - one of the dentastix sort rather than a solid rawhide chew - so that he can start to associate you going out with something positive, and also have something good to do while you're away. Something else I find they like is cardboard, especially if you hide treats in an old cereal box or something, so they have to work out how to get in.

At the end of the day, though, puppies will always chew things they're not supposed to. It's part of exploring their world. The key is to make sure that valuable and dangerous things are well out of reach. Any electric cables should be switched off, for example, and put things like shoes in cupboards. If he does chew something while you're out, don't reprimand him as he won't know what you're talking about. Simply clock what he managed to get hold of and make sure he can't access it again.

Thanks for the reply Liz!

I bought him loads of chew toys to start with, a Puppy Kong, a Regular Kong, a tennis ball toy and some puppy sticks, but he won't give the kong/rubber stuff the time of day whenever I try and replace them with what he's chewing.
The cardboard sounds like a good bet as he's always going for plastic/clothing.

I even went to the effort of making this deluxe frozen kong with all sorts of goodies for when I went out..he took one lick and left it alone hahaha

the kong thing will come once he ubderstands what its all about. howie never showed much interest in them and i always had to help and show him with what was inside, hes now 16 weeks and loves them.

i also used to take him out every hour without fail and i think we have only had 3 or 4 accidents inside and that was more our fault then his.

sounds like your doing a great job though, keep it up

sound like your doing a great job  can only echo the above with the advice he will soon learn to love his Kong Harley was the same at the beginning we used to freeze low fat cream cheese or fish paste inside

I would give the puppy set meal times as structure and routines important , get some feeding bowls for the dog and have a period of an hour where the dogs eat their meal any thats left take away. I would also put the puppy crate in another room so they may get used to you not being there. Give the pup access to 2 or 3 rooms and block all other areas off i would leave a radio on for the pup if you are going away for a set period of time. Plenty of praise when they do their business on walks. Ignore any business in the house and waah with soap powder and water this breaks down the enzymes and they are less likely to do it in the same place again. If you have plans to use the crate as a sleeping place they may see it as a negative place if they are receiving time out here .

All excellent advice. I would also use some bitter apple on things you just don't want him to chew. I want to echo the advice about leaving him alone at progressively longer periods of time. This will help ease/prevent seperation anexity.

Sounds like you are doing a great job with the little one

Can't really add much to the above except an idea that it's not always a bad thing to leave him in a pen or a crate when you go out. If he learns that it is his safe area or a little den he will feel secure to be left in there and probably settle to sleep for the most part of you being away.

And a key thing I learned, a tired dog is a good dog! I know he is still too young to go out for walks, but doing lots of training and then when old enough, making sure he gets a bit of exercise before you have to leave him will mean he will be more likely to nap while you're out and less likely to chew and get up to mischief!