First Night
A puppy's first night or two away from his mum & littermates will probably be absolutely awful for him - and for his new owners. He will cry and howl and be quite pitiful. There are other methods, but I recommend the tough love approach - keep him awake in the evening so that he's really tired, put him to bed with a few bits of food and some safe toys, and then turn out the lights and go to bed. And put in your earplugs. And don't return to him no matter how heartbreaking his cries.
Ukko at home in his crate during his first week home.
Because you know what happens if you return to him and give in, right? Yes. He will throw a tantrum everytime he wants something, secure in the knowledge that if he barks and howls for long enough, he will eventually get his own way. And he will do the same thing every single night when he goes to bed...
It usually only takes a couple of nights for him to give up and go to sleep. Then once he is happy sleeping at night, if he then wakes up and calls, he almost certainly needs to wee and/or poo. In the interest of his house training, it's then a good idea to drag yourself out of bed and take him out to do his business so he's not forced to do it in his sleeping area. He would rather not soil his bed, but if he has no choice, then he will do so and will thereby learn that it is acceptable to do so in the future.
Alone Time
The other routine your new puppy must learn is to spend time alone. Again, being alone will be all new to him. Each of my puppies gets to spend a few minutes alone as part of my socialisation programme, but that's very different from learning to stay at home while you go to work for a couple of hours.
So, whatever you do, don't wait until the day before you go back to work to start worrying about leaving him. Start the alone routine straightaway on his first morning with you. You take him out for his morning ablutions, give him his breakfast, take him out for more wees & poos, do some playing, more house training, and then when he's tired, put him in his crate with some toys and leave him alone. Get him started on what is going to be his normal morning routine.
Even if you don't work and you plan to spend most of your time with the puppy, he will still need to learn to be left alone, so it's a worthwhile exercise regardless.
Furniture, Chewing, Upstairs
Finally, you need to decide what your adult dog is going to be allowed to do and what he is not going to be allowed to do and then apply those rules to the tiny, adorable puppy. If you don't want your big galoot of a wet dog to lie on the sofa, then don't let the irresistible 8-week-old ball of fluff on the sofa either.
Neka wasn't allowed on the furniture, so she would sleep with her head on our feet. So cute!
And then we decided that having the animals on the furniture was actually ok with us. Just as well.
If you don't want your dog jumping on people, then don't let the tiny puppy jump up either. The same goes for letting the tiny puppy chew your fingers. At first it's quite cute. Then it really isn't. In fact, the same goes for chewing anything. Decide what your puppy is allowed to chew, which rooms he is allowed to use, whether or not he is permitted upstairs, and then enforce the rules rigidly. Rigidly. Don't make exceptions - ever.
Why not? Because the important thing with all matters of successful dog training and raising a well-mannered, well-behaved adult dog is consistency. Do the same thing everytime and demand the same behaviour of your dog all the time and at all occasions. The bottom line is this: your dog will do whatever you teach him to do, and whatever you allow him to do. If you allow him to do something once, he will think he can do it forever. So be careful to only ever let your puppy learn what you want your adult dog to be.
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