Positive Puppy Experience

Since we see lots of “puppy blues” in this group, I wanted to share my experience of no puppy blues!!

My puppy is just about 6 months old, we got him at the beginning of January. He’s a rescue border collie mix (with German shepherd & Norwegian elkhound).

Let’s start by saying my fiancé and I are very lucky and have great family support to help us get through puppyhood!! So I absolutely feel this is a contributing factor to our relatively stress free puppy phase.

Crate Training + Sleep

We started this immediately. We took a solid day introducing him to his crate, and after night two he was golden. No pee breaks or whining through the night. Since then, he sleeps ~9 hours in the crate at night. We were lucky enough to somehow get MORE sleep with a puppy as we go to bed earlier to ensure he gets his rest.

Enforced naps: We did enforced naps, and we still put him in his crate for naps as most times, as he won’t go nap on his own most times (he will nap on the floor or couch but it’s not quality sleep). For the first time last night, he went into his crate on his own🥹.

Biting/Destroying Things:

We utilized a lead inside the house and outside. This has been a HUGE help to prevent him from not getting into things he shouldn’t. We never gave him the opportunity. We still use the lead but majority of times he is off it, and thus far, he hasn’t attempted to chew anything he shouldn’t. He had a short phase of testing his boundaries with me and nipping (also right before he started losing bay teeth).

Potty Training:

He’s done really well with this. With the lead indoors, he couldn’t go off without our supervision to have an accident. We were watching for potty cues like a hawk (still call him back when he wanders off for too long). He still had some accidents of course, but minimal & hasn’t in a long time. He goes to the door and will bark when he needs to potty.

For the first while, using a lead outside was very helpful. We also didn’t play in the backyard at first, as this was solely potty time until he understood.

Lead/Tethering Indoors:

-Settles great now and I really think this contributed a lot to it. He can also play independently.

-We have a cat, and they’ve become best pals & play all the time. Lead/tethering was helpful by creating a safe space for our cat to engage, without the risk of chasing, lunging, etc.

-Same as above, was been a game changer for potty training & not getting into things.

9-5 Job:

We both work in office (😢). We have family living up the road, and they come check on our pup in the morning & afternoon currently.

Command Training/Manners:

He’s such a smart boy! He knows: paw, lay down, spin, centre, place, paw, crate, leave it, stay, sit. In progress: “drop it” and “meal time” (so he’s away from our table when eating or out of the kitchen when cooking).

Doing great with loose leash walking 80% of time (which honestly is fine with me, I let him sniff and when I use our recall word, he’ll continue on most times).

Areas we are working on:

-Recall: Still a work in progress. Especially when he gets wound up with our cat.

-Not jumping when excited (ex. Visitors).

-Not eating sticks outdoors 😂.

-Barking when he sees people/dogs from our living to window: he doesn’t always do this, but it’s a solid 50/50 chance.

Sanity

My fiancé and I made sure we still made time for “me time”. For me, that’s going to my spin studio 3-4x per week or having a bath & reading. For him, it’s gaming with his friends. We ensure to give each other our down time.

After our Golden passed away last April, our pup has brought so much joy to us and our cat! We adopted our Golden at 1.5 years old, so this is our first puppy. It is a lot of work yes, but for us, so worth it! 🤎.

If you have a puppy, hang in there! If you’re thinking of getting a puppy, don’t let the puppy blues scare you! Just do lots of research and preparation before puppy comes to set yourself up for success.