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Writer's pictureJeanne Harris, MA Psychology

Santa Brought A New Puppy...Now What?

Confinement. Yep, remember when your brand new baby, niece, friends baby started to crawl? They weren’t left to go anywhere in the house, put anything into their mouths, chew on anything, stick their fingers in electrical sockets, you get my drift? Your new puppy is at that same stage. By staying with his mom and litter mates until at least 8 weeks he learned some canine “social graces” and then he came home to you, all wide eye and kind of quiet. You thought, “this is going to be a piece of cake!” Until the first night.


Your pup doesn’t miss mom because she left the whelping box as soon as her pups could eat on their own, with her work done she played with them sometimes but the remaining days were filled with pups learning puppy “rules” how to “get along with others” and hopefully getting some socialization with humans. At eight or nine weeks it was time to go to their forever homes and one by one the puppy pile got smaller.


The first day in your home your pup is adjusting to the new sights, smells, noises and commotion, taking it all in and then night comes and its quiet. It’s time for puppy to go to bed in his crate. Back home he was confined in a litter box and an enclosure. Put the crate somewhere out of the way so he can have a place away from the household noise, such as the laundry room. It’s best not to put the puppy in a bedroom. You need your sleep and he needs his. Later, when he’s rock solid potty trained, he can sleep with you.


To help him sleep don’t let him have water one hour before bed and make sure he goes potty right before he retires to his crate to sleep. Put a potty pad at the end of the crate. You are potty training him for outside, this is for emergencies. Put him down with a warm towel or blanket from the dryer and one of his new toys he played with during the day. Close the crate. Go to bed.

He’s going to wake up and wonder where he is and where any of his remaining litter mates are. If he has to go potty, he will go to the end of the crate and use the potty pad. If it’s only been a couple of hours and he starts to make a fuss, DON’T go to him. Put earplugs in, don’t give in to the begging of your children or your husband. He will settle down and go to sleep. If you go to him you will set the whole process back. For those that remember sleep training with a toddler or have heard about it … same thing. Most pups will sleep about six hours, then take him out to potty and be ready because his day has started!!!


During the day puppy plays in his puppy play pen which is an enclosure about 4’ x 4’ and 36” – 48” high. It can be exercise fencing for dogs or baby fencing for toddlers, something that he can’t get through. He has his water and food here, an emergency potty pad and something soft to fall asleep on. He can come out to play but remember…. pups play, potty, eat, potty, sleep, potty, wake up, potty, look at you, potty…


When you are done with supervised play then puppy will need to go potty outside and then back into his play pen. He doesn’t need to run through the house chasing feet, biting hands. Ask little children not to stand over his enclosure and tease the puppy, let him sleep or play by himself. Play time is when it is supervised with an adult.Whew! You made it through the first day! There’s more to learn about raising a puppy! Everything is covered in dog training with jeannes obedience courses.

Puppies can start training at 12 weeks old! Remember… Happy Dog, Happy Life!

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