Puppy-proofing?

[Melaniee]

Hi there,
The last puppy I had, well only puppy, was when I was 7 yo. So it's been...a while!

What do I need to do? I've been going around likening it to having a crawling baby. So the smallest things are going up a couple of feet (I know, dogs grow quickly but it will give us a good head start!), what else? Do they chew wires like cats do? I am expecting to have to keep many doors closed for a while, but I'm thinking more of when the puppy is WITH us and we're going into a room.

TIA!

[nd_deadhead]

I recommend a couple of things: first, crate training. i used to think putting a dog in a crate was a horrible thing to do until we got a 7-month-old lab. At first we put him in the laundry room when we weren't home (and he proceeded to chew up the linoleum). If he had the run of the house, he would invariably chew up one thing: a pen, the TV remote, usually something small, but still. We would not be happy when we got home, so he was miserable. When we crated him, he couldn't get into trouble, and we were all happy to see each other! After a few months we were able to leave him out when we weren't home, and by the time he was 2 or so we gave the crate to my brother.

The other thing to do to keep your puppy safe is to keep him with you at all time in the house, by putting him on a leash attached to you rbelt. This prevents him from sneaking off and peeing in a corner or chewing table legs; it also ensures that you will not forget about him, and make sure he goes outside on a regular schedule. Obviously you take him off the leash to play - just make SURE you take him outside after a few minutes of running around!

Have fun with your pup!

[Melaniee]

Thanks, yes crate-training sounds horrible to me but it seems to be all the rage these days. The people we're getting her from are big proponents, my parents got a dog a few years ago and they did it as well. I get that it's a good thing, but the thought of putting my "baby," in a cage is a foreign one, but it is what we will be doing. Growing up, my dogs always had a nice fluffy bed to sleep in! The most confined would be the nice fluffy bed gated off in the kitchen/dining area (linoleum).

Interesting idea about hooking the puppy up to us. I hadn't thought of that! I'm thinking that being as summer vacation has just started and we have two children, puppy is going to be getting lots of attention for the next couple of months so I definitely want to take advantage of this time to get us all off on the right foot.

Thanks!

[nd_deadhead]

When we got our current dog, we confined him to the foyer of our split-entry house when we weren't home (baby gates at the top of both sets of stairs). This kept him out of trouble, gave him a bit more room, and allowed him to sniff noses with the Lab under the top gate (the lab was really old by this time, and the puppy pestered him a LOT - it was best to keep them separated when we weren't home).

His crate was next to our bed. At first we closed the door at night (so he wouldn't wander around and pee all over the house in the middle of the night); by the time he was about 6 months old, he was putting himself to bed at night. We'd go in the bedroom and find him curled up in his crate! Eventually we took the door off, and he still slept in there (later we allowed him to sleep on the bed, but not until he was 2 or 3 years old).

[Geigerin]

I second the crate recommendations! There are two books I recommend to all of my friends who are getting a dog:

How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend

and

The Art of Raising a Puppy

Both are by the Monks of New Skete and focus on incorporating your dog into your pack. I found it helped with introducing our large dog to other animals and young children, as well as establishing a healthy relationship with each other.

[gingerstar]

I had a hard time with the idea of a crate, too, since like you, the dogs I grew up with never had crates, and it seems so.... anti-AP! And the first two nights nearly killed me - but that was all it took, and my dog loves her crate, enough that she just goes in on her own to lie in there, even without being told, and is always happy to go into it at night.

Another great puppy book is My Smart Puppy.
Also, anything by Patricia McConnell, like Family Friendly Dog Training.

[just_lily]

How old is the puppy?

We got our younger dog when he was about 4 months old. When we were with him we confined him to our living room/dining room with baby gates so that we could watch him and make sure he wasn't about to squat somewhere. Long after he stopped deliberately peeing in the house he would still have accidents - it was like having a kid.... he would get busy playing and forget and leave little dribble trails.

Teething was tough. He would look right at me and start chewing on the coffee table. We just provided a lot of appropriate toys and watched him a lot.

We crate him when we leave (my older dog HAS to be crated or he will eat our house), and just have the dogs in our bedroom at night time. Keep him somewhere you will be able to hear him at night, because you will need to make nighttime potty runs for a while. I think our guy was 8mo before he "slept through the night."

[Melaniee]

She is 12 weeks and one day and is peacefully sleeping in her crate. Thank you everyone. They'd already starting her sleeping in a crate at night before we got her. She has a crate within a small puppy pen. I'm reading "Before and After Getting Your Puppy: The Positive Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy, and Well-Behaved Dog" (which I believe I saw recommended here and also two friends). The idea seems to be if she doesn't have any accidents she earns one space at a time. The pen is her first space, then she'll earn (in our case) the room the pen is in (we'll put BACK up the baby gate LOL), then the next room and so on until she gets the run of the house.

She's a love! I am so glad this all came about during summer vacation, I had NO idea how time-consuming it would be and I am happy to do it but I don't see how anyone could do this while having to dash off to work/school, etc. Right now, I realize it's only day two, but we're working on her schedule here!

Oh, and since we're all AP...she slept through the night without crying! LOL. Though we're NOT bed-sharing.