Puppy Schedule

[llannon]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

Hi, We collect our little man tomorrow (Monday), and wondered what a starting schedule looks like with regard to feeding, exercising, eliminating, sleeping, training etc...

We are planning on crate training him, and just wondered if anyone had a daily schedule worked out that is a good starting point...ie 7am get up/toilet 7.15am breakfast etc...

I have also read in a book I got out the library that you shouldn't exercise a dog for 2 hours after it has eaten, or 30mins before, due to potential bloat! Is bloat a problem with whippets?

Any help appreciated, so hopefully we can start off with the right sort of routine...our little man will be 7.5 weeks old.

Many Thanks

 

[Seraphina]

With a new puppy it is best to take him out about every hour, and EVERYTIME he wakes up from his nap, and after every meal. Watch his beahavior carefully and you will notice that before he pees he starts walking in circles, faster and faster, it looks as if he is frantically searching for just the right spot on your carpet. Once you recocgnise this you can grab him and take him outside. Take him outside just before you go to bed, making sure he goes to toilet, and run him around to tire him out, so hopefully he will go to sleep. You can try to get him to sleep in his crate from the day one and prepare yourself, your family and the neigbors for couple of weeks of sleepless nights. Or you can just take him with you to your bed and do the crate training first for short periods of time in day time. Get his crate to be his den, with his toys, place he is happy in. Put him there when he is tired and falling asleep. Once he has settled down, got used to you and his new suroundings he will be lot happier to be left locked in his crate.

Don't know about "routine" :lol: if he is crated you will wake up at a day break, when he will start screaming.

:luck: :luck: :luck:

Bloat is quite unusual in Whippets. However, taking a dog for vigorous exercise immediately before or after meal is not a good idea. Just think how you feel; would you like to go for a jog immediately after eating big meal?

 

[Paula Roberts]

We always give our new owners a written schedule of what the pups do every day and what times they do it, the new owners can then follow this for the first few days then make it better to suit themselves, i would ask your breeder for one of these. :luck: with your new puppy and lots of pics please. :thumbsup:

 

[julie_s]

We've had our new puppy for just over a week now, and I can't say we began on any strict schedule, but we seem to have settled into our own schedule over the past week. Here's a few things that have worked out well for us this week but I'm no expert.

Toilet training

We take her out every time she wakes up and 15-20 mins after meals, and if we ever spot her doing the sniffy-circle thing. We get her to walk out with us instead of carrying her, so she know the way. If she looks like she's going to do the toilet outside we tell her to "go quickly!" and I think she's already learnt this . We've only had two little accidents over the past week and they have been my fault for not being on the ball. I think the way she was raised also had a lot to do with how clean she's been in the house so far.

Night-times

We decided not to crate train her as we live in a bungalow with a hall for her den. As I'm quite a light sleeper and I had her in my room in her bed next to my bed for a few nights, so as soon as I heard her moving about I took her straight outside and she would do the toilet and then go straight back to bed, for the first couple of nights she would cry a little and try to get out of bed but I just got up and popped her straight back in bed with her teddy without acknowledging her. This has worked for me and now she sleeps in the hallway which is just outside my room til about 6 and she'll come and wake me up. I pop her in the garden to "go quickly" whichy she does now and then she come's back in and goes back to bed.

So we've kinda settled into a routine that suits us... she also seemed to know it was a sunday today and slept til 9:30 ah a lie in!

I think these first few weeks are crucial and they don't last that long so it's worth getting up in the middle of the night to let her out and it'll make it easier in the long run.

Anyway enough blethering from me... good luck :luck: and have fun with him, they really brighten the day!

Julie

 

[~Helen~]

Try here for new puppy advice: FAQ New Puppy where there are a few old threads and questions which people have asked before and got useful info.

Also here, regarding exercise: FAQ Exercise

And here: FAQ Sleeping

And I'm sure you'll want to know about worming and flea treatments: FAQ Health topics

Try having a browse around FAQ in general, I'm sure you'll find it interesting and informative. There's quite a lot on vaccinations, which I expect you'll find helpful when the time comes :thumbsup: