Weddingbee boards

SO excited!

We're getting a puggle at the beginning of April.

She was born Feb 4th and will be 8 weeks when we bring her home.

We've named her Lola.

Here are 2 pictures of her last week.

If you have any tips for getting a puppy, let me know!!

How adorable!!  I wrote some of this a few months ago in response to a post from a person having a hard time with their new puppy.

We brought our puppy home when she was 8 weeks.  During potty training, I would definitely recommend taking your puppy out basically every hour.  With my puppy, if I knew that she should need to go (i.e. recently ate, woke up, etc), I wouldn't come inside until she had went potty, even if it was a really long time outside.  

I don't know if you are planning on taking her out on a leash to go potty or if you have a fenced yard.  If you will be using a leash, I would practice with her on a leash when you are not expecting her to go potty as well - make it fun - play with a toy, learn how to go for walks, etc.  My puppy could walk on a leash within a few weeks of getting her because we made it fun.

Regarding in the house, until she is potty trained, you may want to consider blocking the rooms so she can only be in the room you are in.  We used a crate training method - if there was a time we couldn't watch her for whatever reason, she would go in her crate (which was where she had food and water and toys - she very rarely barked after she was familiar with the process - we did not use the crate for punishment) and she was fine (it was short periods of time).  As she got older, we started to allow her more freedom - first she was able to go in one or two rooms without constant supervision, and then it increased as she proved she wasn't having accidents, chewing the furniture etc.  

We use treats and verbal praise for good behavior.  We try really hard to focus more on the good behavior than the not-so-good behavior that she occasionally displays.

Thanks everyone!

Great tips too.

We're not crate training her but she will be in the laundry room when no one is home and at night.

There is a puggle in my building named Lola!! lol

She is sooooooooo cute!

For housebreaking we did this for our german shepherd:

We crate trained him from the beginning and had him sleep in the crate and when we were gone and no one was home had him in the crate - puppies HATE going potty in the crates because it is like "their territory" and they don't want to be on top of it. So that helped out a million percent to ensure that we wouldn't come home to any surprises. Other than that, just be patient and take him out A LOT. Take little training treats outside whenever you take him and whenever he goes potty praise him and give him the treats right away.

I'm not big on using the potty pads either - I agree that I think it would seem confusing... like "it is ok to go inside the house sometimes, but not always".

Just heard from the family we're getting her (they had puppies but aren't a breeder) from that Lola had her 1st shots and was vet checked yesterday and passed with flying colours :-)