The Sewing Mom

We are so excited to be adopting our new puppy next Sunday! In preparation for that, we’ve been puppy proofing the house and buying all the necessary supplies. I think though, most importantly, we’ve been trying to learn puppy training techniques. I found this great book, very simple to read and it outlines step by step directions on potty training, crate training and leash training, among other things. The book is called The Super Simple Guide to Housetraining and I find it very easy to follow. My 11 year old daughter has also read this book, in fact, she read it before me and highlighted important facts! I told my husband last night that he also needs to read the book because I want us to all be on the same page when it comes to training. As it says in this book, “consistancy is important when training your new dog.” We found our book at Petco and I’ve also seen it online at Amazon.
This will be our first time crate training a dog. This puppy is currently spending time in her crate, but with her siblings. It could be scary for her being alone. One of the breeders I was talking to highly recommended the Snuggle Puppy to put into the crate with the puppy. It is soft and a little bigger than some dog toys. It has a real heartbeat so the puppy will feel like another dog, possibly it’s mom is in the crate with her. It also came with 2 heat pouches that can be placed inside the Snuggle Puppy to provide warmth, like a heating pad. I couldn’t find this locally, but did order it online from PetExpertise.com.
I think we’re almost ready for the puppy’s arrival. I just need to finish reading my book and we have to decide if we’re going to bell train the puppy. This is when the dog uses her paw to tap a bell hanging on the doorknob to let us humans know she needs to go outside. Has anyone done this?
If you have any tips or suggestions, let me know!