This is just a general guide with a few tips and tricks for adjusting to having your new fur baby join the family. When you first bring your puppy home they will be very overwhelmed and stimulated more than they ever have been in their life. It is common for them to be timid and shaky to show their nervousness. They will also sleep a lot because of this. The first 2-3 days with your puppy will be filled with the most naps you will see from them in a long time. The best thing you can do is move slowly with them. Give them a small space where everyone stands back and let them explore. Then give them more space and let them walk through the areas they are allowed to be in at your house, this is best done after you recently saw them go to the bathroom so an accident doesn’t happen while they’re exploring. It is totally okay to just sit and snuggle them those first few sleepy days too.
Here is the schedule of how your puppy lived their day-to-day life when they were in my care. (Note* each litter ranges a bit depending on the time of year but this is a general outline of what a typical day would look like when we are raising puppies and possibly help understand why your puppy is tired at certain times or when they are used to eating). At 7:00am I cleaned their pen from the night before and then gave them fresh food (1/2 cup per puppy per feeding), water and their toys to play with. They ate and played with toys and litter mates in their pen until around 9am and then would nap for 2-3 hours. (Till around 1-2pm) They would get fed again around 2pm and then play again nap again. I fed them dinner around 6pm and afterward they would play on and off in their pen or outside until they were asleep for the night. Oddly around 10pm every night the pups all seemed to get a “second wind” and got really playful and rowdy for a good 20-30 minutes. The puppies all slept together in a pen that had carpet and hard wood flooring with their beds on the carpet and pee pads to use as they pleased which were regularly cleaned and replaced. The puppies were all really great about going to the bathroom on their pee-pads in this contained area in my house. I highly recommend confining your pup to only part of the house instead of giving them full reign of the house until they are potty-trained, being more likely for them to use the pee pads. Once they start peeing in the carpet or a certain part of the house it’s really hard to break the habit because smell and pheromones will be left behind that they have gone to the bathroom there before so their instincts will tell them to do it again. Puppies naturally have the urge to pee as soon as they wake up. If you have your puppy napping on you or in a place that doesn’t have a pee pad nearby, just know the second they are starting to stand up they are also looking to pee somewhere. They will eventually grow out of this but I personally would not let my guard down about them being 5-30 seconds away from peeing right after they wake up until they are around 6 months old.
The bladder is a muscle and it must be worked to build strength allowing your puppy to hold its bowels longer. It is normal to find that your pup has gone to the bathroom many times in the middle of the night because they are used to being in a situation where they could go whenever they needed to. To build the bladder muscle here is a good schedule for taking them to the bathroom at night.
Week 1: 8pm, 10pm, 12am, 2am, 4am, 6am, 8am
Week 2: 8pm, 10pm, 2am, 6am, 8am
Week 3: 8pm, 10pm, 6am, 8am
Week 4: 8pm, 10pm, 6am
If at any time you go to take them out and they have made a mess in the crate add a time back for 2-4 days until you stop finding accidents again and continue on with the night time routine. If you are not in a situation where you can wake up in the middle of the night, the best option would be to put them in a closed off area at night where you could leave their crate door open and let them go on the pee-pad in the middle of the night. This will save a lot of stress for you from having to clean the puppy’s bedding every morning or for the puppy to have to be sleeping in its own mess.
This is only recommendations for night-training. My frenchies were not fully potty-trained until 6 months old. Once 6 months rolled around it was like they magically got it and it was great, so don’t give up or feel like you’re doing anything wrong, it just takes time! I hang a bell from my door and every single time I would take my puppy outside I would take its paw and make it ring the bell, it could not go outside unless I made them ring the bell, it took a few months but eventually they started doing it on their own and now my dogs all ring the bell to let me know they need to go outside and it’s great, I highly recommend this method. Patience and repetition is key in all aspects of training your puppy.
I start by taking my puppies out every 10-45 minutes and tell them to go “pee” and if they do I praise them, SO MUCH, if they don’t I bring them back inside and try again in 20-30 minutes. If I catch them in the act of using the bathroom inside I clap my hands at them and give them a sharp NO, and then immediately take them outside (after I make them ring the bell) and say “go pee outside” if they do go outside I praise them so much if they don’t I bring them back inside and keep a close eye until I can get them to go outside. I do not give treats for using the bathroom outside because they need to learn that going to the bathroom outside is just part of life not a trick or a game they get rewarded for. I do not scold puppies or rub their noses in their mess if I have found an area in the house they have had an accident but I didn’t see it. Dogs are very instinct learned animals and don’t understand that they are in trouble for having that particular accident because it did not just happen. They are more likely to think you are just upset and when you are upset they get pee or poop rubbed in their noses and this will cause them to fear you and a fearful dog is only the beginning to behavioral problems. If you find a mess in the house not sure when it happened your best bet is just to have a really good pet cleaner to get the smell out of the area and keep a closer eye on them and learn their behaviors and signs that they might need to go to the bathroom. Puppies have something about their brain development that by 4 months old they are harder to train than before 4 months old, it’s still very do-able but it will be easier if you can do as much as you can to teach them before they turn 4 months old.
Also know that diarrhea is very common in puppies once they first go to their new homes. You can give them things like a small amount of canned pumpkin and rice with chicken broth to help sooth their tummies. Should it last longer than a week go have them checked by a vet. Your pup was given a clean bill of health by my vet before they left my care but keep contact with me should any problems come up.
Puppies are ready to start obedience training the same week they go home with you. There are some great training programs out there I can refer to you but here are many things you can do on your own at home right away. Sit, Stay and Come/recall command. Start by teaching the sit command. Start with cooked chicken, whether its boiled, canned or grilled this is the same protein their puppy food has in it and will be the most gentle on their tummies. Start by letting them try a tiny bit of the chicken to get them exited and wanting it. Then hold it over their nose and say sit while at the same time gently pushing their bum down to the floor. Give them the treat once their bum sits on the floor and in your happiest happy voice say “good sit! That’s a sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! Good sit!” Really emphasizing the word “sit” to them and making it stand out helps them understand that this is the important word you are wanting them to learn. Do this over and over until they sit their bums down all on their own. Take a day or two to really enforce this with them. Make them sit in different areas all over your house. Once you feel confident they know what a sit is then it’s time to move on to “stay”. Put them in the sit command but don’t give them the treat. Instead say “Stay” very seriously/confidently, if you say it too happily they will run to you thinking they’re about to get a treat. So once you say stay take 1 step back then step forward and give them the treat and praise them saying, “Good Stay!” just in the same manner as mentioned above about the sit command. Really emphasize this new word you’re wanting them to learn. Sometimes if necessary I also put my hand strait out in the “stop” gesture while I say the word “stay” and that seems to do the trick if just the word doesn’t. Do this stay command several times with only taking 1 step back then move on to 2 steps back, this is usually where they will start to walk towards you and if they do, you then give them a sharp “No” and put them back in the spot they were. Give the sit command and give them a small treat and small praise and then say stay in the serious command voice. Take 1 step back and give them a treat and then say stay again and take 2 steps back. Repeat this until you are able to successfully able to take 2 steps back and proceed to get to 3 steps, 4 steps, and 5 steps. Once you are able to make it 5 steps back (this may take a day but may also take up to a week and both are okay.) Then it is time to start the recall command. Use whatever phrase you plan to use to recall your puppy back to you. I use the phrase “Come!” but others I know are “Here!” and their name. I personally don’t like their name because their name is used so often throughout the day and that could dilute the seriousness of the command. So once you are able to take 5 steps back and 5 steps forward to give your puppy their treat without them moving then put your puppy in a sit and stay, take your 5 steps back then say “Come!” they may come strait to you right away and they may be confused and not sure what to do. If they come right away then congratulations and keep repeating this for 10-20 minutes over and over and over every day. Once they get to you put them in a new place to sit and stay and take your 5 steps back and recall. If they don’t come to you when you call them that first initial time then wave the treat in the air and say “Come!” again, this should work but if it doesn’t then take 1 step forward and repeat the recall command. This should work but if not keep taking 1 step forward and repeat the command until they finally walk to you. Then start over by putting them in a sit & stay, take your 5 steps back and repeat. Just like the other 2 commands you must use your happiest happy voice and say “good come!” and use that recall command while you love on them saying how good they did by listening to that word. Just as mentioned in the praising for the sit command. With all 3 commands it is important to get to the point where you are only saying the command once. This enforces a better and quicker response from your dog with listening right away over time. It is also important not to train when frustrated. Dogs feel your energy. They know when you are stressed out and frustrated, the happier and excited you can be while training the quicker they will learn. Once you have mastered the basics of these 3 commands with your puppy it is then time to start pushing all of these commands further. Make your puppy sit in every room in the house and all over outside whether it’s your yard or the park or both. When giving the stay command keep pushing how many steps back you can go, eventually get to the point where you can turn around and go walk in the next room over and slowly walk back to them, walk all over your house, walk from one end of your yard while they are at the other, walk from one end of the field in a park to the other end. Then include recall with the stay command and teach them to come from the kitchen to where you are in the living room. Make them learn to come no matter where you are in the house. Make them learn to come to you when they are at one end of the park and you are at the other. You just have to start with these baby steps and that will give you the solid foundation you will desperately need to have the good obedient Frenchie I know they can become. If you can put a solid 20-30 minutes every day training with your puppy it’s an investment that will pay off for the rest of both your lives.
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