Miton's First Day (and night) home...how are we doing?
Well, we picked up Milton from the breeders yesterday. We had a two hour drive to get home and he slept in his crate the whole way. I couldn't believe it. Anyway, since he's been home I wanted to share some of the behaviour's we've noticed and make sure that my fiance and I are handling everything correctly. Here's the scoop so far 1) Yesterday he had a few bursts of energy but nothing too crazy. He was a little nervous when he first got home but he settled in pretty fast. He even had a 2 hour nap in his crate. Last night though....  Bark and wine like you can't believe!
I can't say we weren't expecting it but it did raise a question for me. You're supposed to take them outside to pee every few hours right? We did that, like clockwork. Half the time though we pulled a warm sleeping dog out of his crate to do it though. That worked out okay but everytime we put him back in his crate he'd go psycho for 15 minutes before going back to sleep. It may be better to wait until he wakes "us" up but the problem with that is we'd be responding to him everytime he cries. What's the best scenario here? 2) Humping - Whenever I take him outside on his leash he runs at my leg and humps like a crazy man. Is this normal and what should I do to prevent it? I find if I push him away he just thinks I'm playing and comes back at me even harder. 3) Blankets - We brought a blanket of his home from the breeders. It smells like pure evil. We also tossed a few old towels into his crate with this stinky blanket. Well, every once in a while he goes crazy whipping the blankets around and trying to dig his way through the bottom of the cage. What's that about? 4) Nighttime - We put a small crate beside our bed within reach of my fiance's hand. It didn't really seem to help. I know all of that behaviour is pretty normal for a pup, especially on his first day home. This post was more for me to make sure we're handling everything as we should. |
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| Hi Welcome home to Milton....
You are pretty much doing things right, how ever I would not wake Milton to potty, he will let you know when he is awake and that is when I would take him out. As far as the smelly blanket. After a few days he won't need it anymore and you can wash it. And as far as him scrunching it up, remember he is used to sleeping with his littermates and he will want to simulate that and scrunching the blankets up will do this. My Scarlet is doing the same thing 
Scarlet will bark and howl when we are crating her too....she usually settles in about 5-10 minutes, if not we take her out for another potty break then back in. But its never play time when she howls at us...that just tells them if I howl they will come get me to play. Humping....seems to be more a boy thing, just take him off you gently and distract him with something else. My male used to do this but the females never did. Having his crate in your room at night is a good idea because then you know he needs to potty. |
WizardMerlin wrote: Hi Welcome home to Milton....
You are pretty much doing things right, how ever I would not wake Milton to potty, he will let you know when he is awake and that is when I would take him out. As far as the smelly blanket. After a few days he won't need it anymore and you can wash it. And as far as him scrunching it up, remember he is used to sleeping with his littermates and he will want to simulate that and scrunching the blankets up will do this. My Scarlet is doing the same thing Scarlet will bark and howl when we are crating her too....she usually settles in about 5-10 minutes, if not we take her out for another potty break then back in. But its never play time when she howls at us...that just tells them if I howl they will come get me to play. Humping....seems to be more a boy thing, just take him off you gently and distract him with something else. My male used to do this but the females never did. Having his crate in your room at night is a good idea because then you know he needs to potty. Ditto... it sounds like you're doing fine, whining at night is very normal the first few days. Congrats!
And welcome to Milton |
| Thanks for the feedback.
If I take Milton outside whenever he yelps or wines though, doesn't that tell him I'm giving into him. I guess the suggestion was take them outside to pee, not to play fetch. |
| It is teaching him that he needs to tell you he has to pee by barking. Better than the silent pup who just pees in the crate or on the floor!
The important part is to only do potty and praise for that, then right back to bed. Don't give into the temptation to play with him in the night. Save that for the morning, at whatever time is really morning at your house. This will set the pattern for what time the day starts at your house. Congrats on Milton coming home! |
| When we first brought Bingley home at 8 weeks old we took him out to potty as close to 11 pm as possible. As soon as he went we put him in his crate and went to sleep. We set out alarm clock for 2 am. We got out of bed, took him out to go potty again, and then went back to sleep. At 5:25 ish we got up again and brought him out before we began getting ready for work.
Every week we pushed the middle-of-the-night alarm back a half hour. So the week following it was 2:30, then it was 3:00, 3:30, etc. He learned very quickly this way, never had a night accident, and learned to sleep through the night without whining. I highly recommend it!  |
Quote: When we first brought Bingley home at 8 weeks old we took him out to potty as close to 11 pm as possible. As soon as he went we put him in his crate and went to sleep. We set out alarm clock for 2 am. We got out of bed, took him out to go potty again, and then went back to sleep. At 5:25 ish we got up again and brought him out before we began getting ready for work.
Every week we pushed the middle-of-the-night alarm back a half hour. So the week following it was 2:30, then it was 3:00, 3:30, etc. He learned very quickly this way, never had a night accident, and learned to sleep through the night without whining. I highly recommend it! Thanks, I'll try that. I think we were setting our alarm for every 2 hours last night. If I can go a bit longer I certainly will!! Didn't Bingley cry at all during the night though, even in the beginning? Milton was a train-wreck last night. I guess I need to distinguish between "let me out to pee" and "let me out I hate this crate". What's weird - he loves both his crates during the day when the door is open...as soon as it shuts though - YIKE. I guess it IS his first day home. |
| Welcome home, Milton!!! Sounds like you are driving the parents crazy. It sounds like you are doing all those fun puppy things. Keep at 'em and they'll come along. XOXO, Fozzie |
The_Grudge wrote: Didn't Bingley cry at all during the night though, even in the beginning? Milton was a train-wreck last night. I guess I need to distinguish between "let me out to pee" and "let me out I hate this crate".
Yep - I just let him holler away if I knew he had just relieved himself. If I wasn't so sure than I would bring him out but just like others suggested we tried to make it a serious potty break without playtime, too. I don't recall this happening often at all. Have fun!!!! |
| Welcome home Milton!!!
I just went through the same thing. Our little boy was a screaming terror the first night. He whined for HOURS straight, and we took him out and did the "potty" thing in the middle of the night. I'd say the first 2-3 nights were REAL bad, he was settling in straight after. (crate training is excellent as far as I can see with the potty and him knowing that's his "sleepy room" as well as his own independant space.) It's been what, over a month, and he goes in the crate at 10-11pm at night and doesn't wake up at all until 7am. No accidents, no whining, and no waking....maybe once in a while he'll wake up and nibble at his puppy kong or his nylabone keys (highly recommend those)!! As for the humping....Matisse was humping the day after he came home. I was told it's more of a dominance, territory thing than it is a sexual thing (because still is a baby afterall). Whether it's true or not, I don't know. |
| welcome home Milton , Dutch came home at 8 weeks and right from the first night she never cried to get out of her crate which was beside my bed from about 9/10 at night to about 6 the next moring and never peed in her crate , out of the crate (she was only in the crate for sleeping)was another story, untill about 3/4 days ago (she's now 6 mos.)she was a peeing machine in the house. She is so quiet about when she has to go I miss it sometimes and so I'm going to try to teach her to ring a bell on the door. Dutch would hump my leg and I would gentley push her off using my knee with a no and then turn my back and now she doesn't do tht anymore
good luck and it will all work out fine I'm sure |
| When we have a puppy at home, (like now) they are in the crate for longer than not in the crate. They do not like to mess their crate (some dogs do and they are harder to train)and will whine or cry to come out. That is when I take them out to potty. I only let the puppy out of the crate to play AFTER a successful potty. Most will not whine(let us know they need to potty) while playing, instead they will just stop were they are and pee. That is when it takes longer to house train. Mine are pretty reliable between 4 and 5 months and then it isn't as necessary to keep them crated as long. Mine have always loved their crates, its their 'safe' place. And when they are a puppy they are sleeping a lot of the time anyway.
With Scarlet I am doing something slightly different, in the kitchen I have an xpen around her crate. She has a bit more room, can see the other dogs and in the xpen I put papers just in case for accidents, she is still letting me know when she has to potty (but I have to be FAST to get her lol) so far since yesterday she has had only 1 accident. We also have her on a schedule. She is up at 6am, outside to potty, then it is breakfast for all the dogs. Again a potty break. Playtime until 8am. Back in the crate for a nap, she will usually sleep until 10-11 am, potty time again, play time for about an hour...I see when she is getting tired and then back in the crate...we do this most of the day. At night we take her out around 10:30 to potty and run in the dog run and to bed at 11pm. Last night she went to sleep in the crate without a single peep. She did whine at 4am, I took her outside, she pottied, then it was back to bed and again, she didn't whine. She slept until I got her up at 6:15 this morning and we will start all over again  |
| Something you could do to prevent humping is put a leash on him when you take him out-- it sounds like it's happening outside, right? Even if you have a fence, having them on a leash keeps them to the business at hand so they don't go romping off for playtime. Designate a potty spot, and take them there. They shouldn't be walking you all over the yard. If they have a set spot, when you take them there, they'll know why they're there, and it will go much faster and better for you down the road.
I stand in one spot and let harley walk around me on leash, but he doesn't get to take me all over the yard. This has worked very well for us instead of walking him over the yard as we did in the beginning. Also, if he's on leash, you can easily keep him off your leg, so prevention is key there. Good luck! |
| Well night #2 is in the books and he did much better.
Rather than putting him in his little travel crate beside our bed, we left him in his wire crate (with the door shut) out in the puppy-proofed area of our kitchen (right beside the bedroom). For whatever reason he seems to like his wire crate better, actually, he's sawing logs in it as I type this. Anyway, he rarely wined at all last night and he only woke up 3 times. We let him outside each time. The only thing that concerned me was that he never went when we let him out last night and I found a little pee this morning on one of his blankets. I may move the divider in his crate today to make it a little smaller and I'll definitley wash the "pee blanket" before tonight. So yeah, I know it's only day 2 but he's already getting better on the leash as well. I have one of his "antics" to report as well. This morning he had a little pee accident beside the floor vent in our kitchen. In order to clean everything thoroughly I took the cover off the vent. Well, when I did he manage to push a tennis ball into our duct work  Crazy fool! |
The_Grudge wrote: I have one of his "antics" to report as well. This morning he had a little pee accident beside the floor vent in our kitchen. In order to clean everything thoroughly I took the cover off the vent. Well, when I did he manage to push a tennis ball into our duct work Crazy fool!Sign him up for golf lessons.
He sounds like a sweetheart, he is getting settled in his new home. Be consistant with the breaks for potty, and give a key word consistantly. Take him to the same area each time.He is just a baby Bobtail , but soon the "concept" will click. Giving a keyword, is useful over time. In 50 mph nor'easter winds today- gave Bogart the keyword, and presto business is done and he is returning home for the entertainment portion of the day, watching tv. Yes, he has me trained too!  |
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