Tips For Surviving The First Night At Home :)

[Lassman]

Tomorrow we are picking up our gorgeous doberman puppy. We plan to have her sleep in her crate beside my bed. Just wondering about any pointers you guys have about surviving the first night away from her mother and litter mates. How many times should she be taken out to go to the bathroom at night? How to stop/minimise whining?

Thank you xox :D

[dididog]

How exciting! I replied in your other thread about exercise but I didn't realise you were getting your puppy tomorrow! Can't offer much advice other than make sure she has toiletted right before bed and limit water before bed because my puppy was pretty fine with bed time, fell right to sleep with only a bit of whining. Once she has fallen asleep treat any whining through the night as a probable need to toilet, make sure she has stopped whining before you take her out of the crate though so she doesn't learn to whine for attention all the time and that she goes right back to the crate after toileting. She may not whine though so just set yourself a few alarms just in case. I think with my pup we went to bed at 11, woke up at 2 to go outside and then 5.30 for another toilet trip and then woke up at about 8. You're lucky since she's a bigger dog you won't have to take her out as often as a smaller dog. Hopefully you'll get an easy puppy like mine that started sleeping through the night after the 3rd day :) have a great day tomorrow with your new puppy! (and post some pictures!)

[tdierikx]

If you have her in a larger cage style crate, I'd suggest one of those plastic oval bed-basket things with some soft bedding and a teddy bear large enough to simulate a littermate for her to snuggle up to. Worked wonders for singleton fosters I've had over the years...

Some pups will scream blue murder for what seems like forever their first night being crated - but they WILL settle once they realise you are not going to come get them out. The longest I've had a pup have a tanty is about 20 long minutes. The best tip I can give you is to only put her in the crate once you are ready to turn out the light and go to sleep yourself - don't be reading in bed or the like with the light on, because she will not be happy about missing out on whatever is going on, and she will let you know about it in no uncertain terms...

Another tip is don't be playing with her straight before bed... my fosters all got couch cuddles of an evening, falling asleep in front of the TV... then we calmly went to bed/crate and lights off.

Most of my fosters managed to go through the night without needing to go out for potty breaks - but then again, I only sleep for about 5 hours... if you are the type that needs/wants more sleep, then you are probably going to want to keep an ear open for when she gets unsettled during the night, and take her out when she indicates that she needs to go. I never limited access to water for any of my fosters - they can dehydrate very quickly.

T.

[dotdashdot]

I was so lucky that our "first night" was driving back from Brisbane airport until 1am, she slept most of the drive and then after a toilet break and a quick introduction to her sister (our other dog) she just slept straight in her crate.

We had set up the crate with a puppy pen attached - crate contained bed and the pen had newspaper and a puppy pee pad. She slept like a dream!

In normal cases though I would toilet the very latest that you can (for us 10-11pm) and then 3am and then 6am. This is the sort of plan we followed in the early days. Occasionally she would have to use the pee pad but she whined minimally so we didn't hear her.

[Lassman]

Thank you all! Will definitely keep all your tips in mind. And will post some photos of her later this afternoon when we pick her up :D

[persephone]

Oh..and start as you mean to go on .... ;)

Also ..remember - pup needs to learn to be comfortable alone..not to have her humans with her 24/7 :)

[Mjosa]

As a breeder when my babies go to their new homes they go with a travel bag :laugh:

The bag contains the following.

A blanket that your puppies litter mates have slept on, I do not give it a wash as it contains familiar smells, a toy that they have all been playing with and two days supply of the food that the puppy has been reared on, I feed fresh and Royal Canin, plus they get a puppy pack from Royal Canin which contains a packet of treats and booklets on how to care for your puppy.

I think that all responsible breeders supply similar to what I have listed.

I have just homed four puppies with the above travel bag going with them and all new owners have said that their new babies never made a murmur.

Best of luck with your new baby girl.