The First Few Nights With Your New Maltipoo
It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of owning a new puppy, but there is a lot of responsibility and patience involved in settling your puppy into your home. This is her first time away from her momma and it’s a completely new world for her. Here are a few tips to help her settle in:
If you decide to have your puppy sleep in a crate at night, just know they will whine and cry the first few nights if they’re not used to it by now. Many new puppy owners first response is to give in to this whining and take them out of the crate to nap with you. This could turn the 2 or 3 days of training into 2 or 3 weeks. You will need to train your puppy to love and trust that the crate is a safe place to sleep.
Now, just to be clear, there is a difference between your puppy’s whining and crying because they want out and the whining because they need to go potty. Because your puppy is still young, he will need to be let out to go potty every 2 hours for a 2 month old, every 3 hours for a 3 month old and so on. As your puppy gets used to sleeping in the crate, they should start whining only when they need to get out and go potty. You will soon learn the difference between the two cries.
SCHEDULE TIME OFF TO BE WITH YOUR PUPPY
It’s a good idea to take some time off work, at least for the first few days to spend time with your puppy and help her get used to you and her new home.
PUT YOUR PUPPY ON A SCHEDULE
Just like human children, puppies thrive on schedules. It is much easier to potty train as well as teach the basic commands when your puppy is on a schedule. They love to know when they will get to go outside to play and go potty as well as when they will get to have quiet time to take a nap. Below is a general schedule that we use for our puppies in training. You do not have to follow this schedule exactly. You can change it to fit your schedule.
7:00 AM - Go out to go potty
7:30-8:00 AM - Breakfast
9:30 AM - Crate for nap
11:30 AM - Potty & Play
12:00 PM - Lunch
2:30 PM - Potty & Play
4:30 PM - Potty
5:00 PM – Dinner
Give your puppy 20 minutes to eat and then put food away for the evening.
No food after 6:00 PM, No water after 8:30 PM
(for puppies under 5 pounds, no food after 8:30 PM)
6:00 PM - Potty & Play
8:00 PM - Potty & Play
9:30 PM - Potty, play and then crate for the night.
If your puppy whines between 2:00 & 4:00 AM they may need to go potty. This will continue for a few weeks until the bladder matures.
KEEP YOUR PUPPY IN A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT
This is a new world for your puppy and she doesn’t yet know where to go potty or which items are toys and which aren’t. There are many opportunities for them to wreak havoc in your home, but if you take some extra steps to control her environment until she learns, this transition will be much easier.
When your puppy is inside, she should either be with you on a leash with your undivided attention, or in a controlled environment such as a puppy pen.
BUILD TRUST AND PATIENCE
It’s almost a guarantee your puppy is going to whine or cry the first few nights.