The day finally arrives, the day when you finally get to bring your new 8-week old puppy home!
Everything is new for you and especially for your new puppy! And it can be exciting and a little scary all at the same time.
In this post, we’d like to simply share our personal recommendations with you on what to do when you first bring your new puppy home with hopes to make this big transition a little less scary as possible, so that you can simply focus on relaxing and enjoying your newest little family member!
Once you arrive home, allow your puppy to relieve himself by placing him on a preferred/designated spot in your yard to establish potty training immediately. If he doesn’t go right away, give him a few minutes to explore in your yard, and then try again before going into your home. And when he does finally go – be sure to give him positive praise in order to communicate his success! Maybe even a treat, too…
Next, let your puppy explore his new home/environment a little, under your constant supervision and while talking to him during his exploration. This helps your puppy feel more at home and also allows him to discover his new surroundings.
Then, show him his new quarters whether that’s a crate/dog bed, playpen/room. This establishes both comfort and security for your puppy, not that he’ll always need to be confined to this place/area, but helps distinguish where will mostly be / “his own space”, during training over the next few weeks.
Later, feed + give your puppy some water in a designated spot, teaching him to sit while holding his collar, then by saying “OK”, letting him go to eat and begin forming good eating habits early on. And we highly recommend not leaving any food or water out during these next few weeks of training until your puppy is fully housetrained.
I probably don’t even have to mention this but I will for the sake of importance – give your puppy lots of snuggles/bonding time before putting him to bed. This helps your puppy feel safe and comforted amidst all the newness he’s experiencing.
Finally, place your puppy in a safe, confined area for bedtime. We highly recommend a confined area for the time being as well as during your weeks of training, with a warm/soft place to sleep with their momma’s transitional blanket as well as a puppy pad close by to allow him to eliminate on, as needed. (Not essential but possibly helpful: a large stuffed animal to snuggle with to help him feel comforted and also a small fan running in the room for white noise. We use a fan at night for our puppies which seems to help a lot!)
And yes, your puppy will most likely wake up at least once during the night and will continue to over the next few weeks, as they’re experiencing a whole new environment as well as learning to sleep without their siblings beside them, but we encourage you to stay consistent and patient over the next few weeks as it will all be well worth it in the end!
For there’s nothing better than a well-trained dog, well, maybe a well-trained doodle-dog 🙂
We hope this post was helpful and as always, feel free to reach out to us with any questions!
Much love from our family to yours,
The Gibson’s
