The first days
- Keep it quiet. Although everyone will be keen to see the new addition, try to avoid having lots of visitors for the first few days.
- Establish a routine. So that your puppy finds it easier to understand its new family.
- Time out. Plenty of love and attention is great but allowing them to have a quiet place to retreat to is also very important. A bed or crate in a quiet area of the house is perfect for this. Your puppy must be left alone when it chooses this place, and everyone to respect this.
The first nights
The first night it might be the first time they are away from mum or their littermates, or simply a big change, albeit it a nice one, in their routine. The latest research has discovered that leaving puppies to ‘cry it out’ can have a very damaging effect on their abilities to cope with being left at other times and can increase the chances of developing separation anxiety. So, follow our steps…
- A tired puppy is a sleepy puppy! Ensure your puppy has had human attention, an appropriate level of exercise, and some mental stimulation to make them extra sleepy at bedtime.
- If your puppy toilets just before bed they will feel comfortable and more likely to fall into a deeper sleep.
- Keeping puppy feeling warm and secure is vital also so a covered crate (of an appropriate size for your puppy) with cosy blankets in is ideal.
- A big cuddly toy sprayed with Pet Remedy or Adaptil will also help so your puppy if they wake up and feel anxious in the night. These are scents and pheromones that reduce anxiety.
- Always ensure puppy has fresh drinking water.
Where should puppy sleep?
It is best to start them in your bedroom, in a covered crate (pop a blanket over to make it den like). Your puppy will know you are there which will be very comforting, but they will also learn that this is quiet time that involves sleeping as opposed to play. If puppy cries in the night, it may be time for the toilet, try to make this a calm and quiet process as opposed to a time for games or fuss, as we don’t want puppy to start crying for attention.
But what if I don’t want puppy to sleep in my room as an adult?
That’s completely fine, if you have a house with a landing, you can move your puppy’s crate a few inches each night till they reach the end of the landing. If you decide you’d like them to eventually sleep downstairs, the transition from end of landing to bottom of stairs can then occur. Once they can hold their toileting in overnight and are not going to potentially hurt themselves on something in the night when unsupervised you can decide whether to continue with the crate, or not. Many dogs love their crates and see them as their own little safe space!
» Read our article: Puppy essentials: Crates and playpens
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