BY: PAWS AND LEARN TRAINING CENTER<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We brought home an 8-week-old yesterday, and I have been flooded with people asking what I\u2019m doing differently. So let me break down the three things I do in those first 24 hours that change everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. I have a safe space ready BEFORE<\/em><\/strong> the puppy comes home:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A gated room. A playpen setup. A hallway with barriers. Whatever it is, it\u2019s puppy-proofed, it has everything they need, and it\u2019s theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We spend a lot of time in there bonding those first hours. But here\u2019s the key\u2014it also saves my sanity. I\u2019m not stressed about every move the puppy makes because I know they\u2019re safe. They can\u2019t get into anything dangerous. They can explore without me hovering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, they get out. Yes, they get held. Yes, they come on the couch with us. But that space? That\u2019s their home base. That\u2019s where they spend most of their time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. We start a potty and sleep log immediately:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first place this puppy went when he arrived? Outside to potty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I log every potty trip\u2014when we went, whether they went, what happened (pee, poop, or nothing). I log accidents. I log naps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because puppies already have a schedule\u2014we just don\u2019t know it yet. This helps me figure it out fast so we can get ahead of accidents instead of constantly cleaning them up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. The puppy learns to be alone\u2014starting day one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know the temptation is to hold that puppy constantly. And yes, we hold them. We bond. We snuggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But we also put them down. We leave the room. We start teaching them that being by themselves is safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Someone\u2019s usually nearby for the first 12 hours. But we\u2019re not in their space the whole time. We\u2019re in and out. They learn that we come back. That they\u2019re okay without us right there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because if you wait? It gets so much harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I get it\u2014you want to soak up every second. And if that makes you happy, do that. But if you want to set yourself up for long-term success? This is how I do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More to come on each of these\u2014but if you\u2019re bringing a puppy home soon, start here!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY: PAWS AND LEARN TRAINING CENTER We brought home an 8-week-old yesterday, and I have been flooded with people asking[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,405],"tags":[22,12,15,18,54,565,557,553,8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smokymountaindoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smokymountaindoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smokymountaindoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smokymountaindoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smokymountaindoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.smokymountaindoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6293,"href":"https:\/\/www.smokymountaindoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6292\/revisions\/6293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smokymountaindoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smokymountaindoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smokymountaindoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smokymountaindoodles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}