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Getting new 4 month old puppy July 30,2016?!?!

8K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  Dee Dee 
#1 ·
Hello
I am getting a fourth month old Chocolate Havanese puppy ,Ava, this Saturday. I have bought everything. EVERYTHING!!!!
But I am still confused about house training.
Should I use????
X-pen
Crate
Puppy apartment crate
Litterbox in X-pen

What do I use during the day?
What do I use at night
Hubby is not agreeing to let puppy in bedroom


My thoughts are to let puppy stay with us this weekend in bedroom sleeping in puppy apartment. I read that I can start moving her farther away each night( for Hubbys sake.)
Or if Hubby says no I can sleep with her in family room for a few nights?

During the day I plan to use ex-pen with crate and litterbox, along with taking puppy outside. Do I take her out the same door each time (clicking and treating) or does it not matter which door?

Is this too much, will I confuse her?
I am confused
 
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#2 ·
Welcome to the Forum! Love the name. Can't wait to see photos!

We were told not to let Shama sleep in the bedroom at all if we don't want her to always sleep in there. For that reason, we camped out in the living room while she slept in a crate within her ex pen in the dining room for the first three nights we had her. She slept well and didn't seem to mind when we eventually slept in our bedroom overnight, leaving her in her ex pen. It's the only place she's ever slept in our house, and it's convenient when we travel because we can take the ex pen and recreate her little "apartment" wherever we go. At both of our parents' houses, we sleep on different floors than Shama, and she's always been fine.

When Shama was young, we left the pink training tray in her pen overnight and during the day when we were at work. Eventually, we had our dog walker remove the tray at lunchtime, and then we removed it overnight. Now we only put it in the ex pen if we are going to be away for at least four hours during the day. (I've read that dogs can "hold it" better at night when they're not active than they can during the day when they're awake and active.) Some members of the Forum believe small dogs should always have access to an indoor potty, but we like Shama to go outside to potty with only rare exceptions. She seems to be able to handle it.

I would recommend you always use the same door when taking Ava outside. My biggest regret is that we didn't keep Shama on a leash long enough when taking her out to potty. We always took her to where we wanted her to go to start our routine, but then, because we have a fenced-in yard, we let her go off leash pretty quickly, and we lost control of exactly where she goes. Maybe had we kept her on the leash longer, she would have learned that there's only one place to potty in our yard while the rest of the yard is for play. Currently, we take her to the starting point, then she wanders to wherever she feels like pottying, so we have to watch her in order to know where to pick up her BMs. Yes, we could put her back on the leash, but . . . (She was just spayed, so we take her on a short leash now, but she likes to run, so she tugs on the leash. It's stressful because she's not supposed to run in order to heal from her surgery, and it seems like she's hurting her neck/trachea by tugging/running like that . . .)

Remember to click and treat as she potties and never when she comes back in from pottying as she'll never get it that you're happy about the pottying if you do it that way. (She'll think you're just happy she came back in the house.)

Good luck with Ava. You will get lots of advice from people here. Don't hesitate to ask.
 

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#3 ·
I think you need to be clear on how you want to potty train your puppy. If you want to train for outside only I would use a regular crate and take the puppy outside on a leash to potty. This way you are sure whether the puppy has gone or not. This is important as far as knowing whether you can give the puppy supervised freedom in the house, or also whether you can ignore whining during the night. I do not like the puppy apartment crate because it does not reinforce to them that you don't go potty inside the crate where you sleep.
If you want to train for inside potty also, I would use a set up with a crate inside an expen. Then you have an area in the pen for potty, whether it is pee pads in a tray or a litter box. If you use this set up you can set it up anywhere in the house as it is not as important that you can hear your puppy if they need to go potty. With the crate training set up I like to be able to hear my dog during the night. Molly sleeps in a crate on the floor in my bedroom. When I first brought her home she did need to potty during the night and I could hear her if she cried to go out. As an adult dog there have been times that she had an upset tummy and needed to go potty during the night also.
My last dog slept in a crate downstairs from the bedrooms. I remember sleeping on the kitchen floor the first couple nights and then the couch for awhile. She eventually ended up in our bed!
 
#4 ·
I have almost the same set up as ShamaMama, except I don't have a crate in expen. It doesn't look like it in the picture but it is 6' x 2'. Loki is only 15 weeks so I leave the pad in all the time. When we first came home, he would go in the expen to use the pad when he was out in the family room ( which is almost all the time I am home it is puppy proofed and baby gated from the rest of the house.). Now he rings the bell to go out.

I wish I had been better about taking him out on leash. We only have a 6'x5' foot patch of grass in the back. He is good about peeing there but he wanders away to the bushes to bm unless I stand there and don't let him leave the grass.

As for sleeping, I started off with him in an 18" x 24" crate in our room. It was fine at first when he wanted to go in the middle of the night because I could hear him. soon, if it was before 4 he would go back to sleep but after 4 he thought it was time to get up and would bark when I put him back in his crate. Also, I am a lite sleeper and so is he. I would wake up if was rooting in his blanket to get comfortable and he would wake if my husband or I got up to go the bathroom. A few weeks ago I moved him downstairs. The first night he we went to bed fine but barked from 4:30-5:30. My husband held my arm to keep me from going downstairs. Lol! Since then he is quiet until he hears me come down between 6 and 6:30. I cover the end of the expen with his bed with a blanket, tell him nite-nite, and go upstairs about 9:30.
 

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#5 · (Edited)
#6 ·
Welcome and congratulations! :wave: I had the same set up as Barbara and ShamaMama. The first few nights I kept my two in a soft sided carrier on the bed so I could put my hand in if they whimpered. After a few nights I moved them to the ex-pen downstairs. They both were very good about sleeping through the night. Now Truffles sleeps in our bedroom and Scout on the bathroom floor. Scout likes it cool! 😊 Hope we get to see pictures of Ava soon!
 
#8 ·
Thanks ladies
Sounds like a resounding no on using the puppy apartment.
I will set up the ex-pen with litterbox at one end and crate at the other for when we leave her.i will take her out, same door on a leash during the day.
I am just getting her because I was busy moving my kids to Texas and Seattle. Breeder does lots of socialization and Ava's siblings have all just gone home in the past two weeks.
Praying for a good transition!
Will attempt to send pics soon!
 
#9 ·
My Cassie also came home at four months and had lots of socialization at her breeder. She was being held back to be a show dog along with her brother but the studs family had a personal crisis and couldn't take them as planned...so she got to become a family dog with all the love and attention you could imagine! I talked with several breeders who also mentioned that they were not letting some pups go until they had sorted the show quality ones, but it was clear they were going to get quality time with other Havanese ( not just just litter mates, but other Havavese of different ages and litters,aunts, uncles and cousins!)

I say this so no one is worried that bringing home an older puppy is a problem if you are dealing with a good breeder...of course, we immediately got her into a puppy class and play group to get her used to dogs of all different sizes! She still prefers Havanese playmates.
 
#10 ·
Chocdiva 1, looking forward to seeing your pictures. Heather, I think it's cute that Scout sleeps on the bathroom floor. We have so many beds for Shama, but often she'll just lie straight on wood or tile floor. (To anyone looking for a new day bed for their pet, Shama loves her elevated bed from Bostonista By Zoey. It allows air to circulate underneath her . . .)

https://www.facebook.com/BostonistaByZoey/
 
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