One week update

We have now had our sweet Charlie for one week! What a great dog he is :)

I have learned so much over the last week about dogs. Blaine and I went to the library Wednesday to pick up some books. I checked out the latest book by Cesar Milan, the Dog Whisperer. I devoured the book in the span of 3 days.

It was so helpful! Some of the things I have learned and am trying to internalize:

Dogs are not humans, do not treat them like a baby. They don't like the high squeaky voice. It over excites them.

Learn to be the pack leader. Set boundaries in the house. Know the goals you have for training your dog and stick with them.

Do not put an over excited or over anxious dog in a crate. This will lead to further anxiety with the crate. Wait until the dog is calm to put them in the crate. Do not acknowledge whining. Acknowledge the dog when the whining has stopped.

Use calm assertive energy with the dog. The dog needs to know that you are the pack leader and will protect and take care of him as well as set protective boundaries.

Take the dog outside to potty frequently when house training. Do not give the dog the opportunity to have an accident in the house to avoid having the dog associate the house as a place to potty.

Redirect biting and chewing behavior to appropriate chewables. Have plenty of chewable items and toys available for the dog.

An over-excited or over-aggressive dog in probably not getting enough exercise. Make sure the dog has frequent opportunity for walking and playing.

These are just a few of the things I have learned. I say this all the time, but knowledge is so empowering. With these combined techniques and the overall temperament of our new dog we are having a great experience. We have gated off a set area of the house for Charlie. With the house being over 5,000 sq ft that is just too overwhelming to a new puppy. The areas he can freely roam when we are home and supervising him consist of the kitchen, breakfast room and family room. All other rooms or areas are closed or gated off.

Initially Charlie whined when I would step over the baby gate to leave the area. I ignored the behavior but praised him upon returning when he was not whining. He whines now only for a second before calming himself. He loves his crate! We keep it open during the day. When he is feeling overwhelmed by the kids or tired he takes himself to his crate and snuggles down for a rest.

As far as accidents...We have had him for a week today and only 4 accidents! All occurring before Wednesday when I began reading the book. Since Wednesday I began recording the times he peed or pooped outside and took him every 2 hours when not in his crate. He does not mess in his crate at all thank goodness! We are now down to going out every 4 hours. Today he actually went and sat by the patio door to indicate he needed to go out. We use the same door every time we go out and tell him "potty outside". He has really got it down now, we stopped using the doggie treats as a reward about 3 days ago and now just verbally praise or pet him after going.

As far as chewing...Charlie is a puppy and has a definite need for chewing. He loves the corners of our area rug in the family room. We frequently redirect his chewing by placing an old beach towel over the corner he is chewing on, as well as constantly provide him with a raw hide bone and lots of chewy squeaky toys. In those instances where he insists on chewing on the rug it is usually because he has extra energy he needs to burn. Rather than become frustrated with the chewing we have found that a quick 5 minute walk outside or some intense fetching of chewing toys calms him down enough to be redirected back to chewing on acceptable objects.

As far as jumping...Charlie is a puppy and does jump. As cute as it is and as nice as it is to have a puppy be excited to see us, we are trying to stop the jumping. I realize some people may not like a puppy jumping on them. We are trying to teach Charlie to gain attention from others by staying calm. We are teaching him to stay/sit currently. I have taught the kids to stand still and put their hands out in front of them while saying "stay". Poodles as a breed are a smart dog and Charlie has caught on very quickly. When he jumps on me I know turn my back to him and wait until he is calmly sitting before I pet him. It takes some of the fun out of having a new puppy but we have to keep the end goal of having a calm dog in mind for the long term.

Some pictures of Charlie's first's:

First Walk

First Bath

(It scared him to death! He hated it but didn't whine or bark, just shook the whole time, and it did lead to an accident later)

Well, one week down. Hopefully as the summer progresses we will all get more settled in. We are supposed to get Charlie's sister, Lola, around July 4th. We could get her next weekend, but the jury is still out. We are planning to go visit family in Savannah for the 4th and I want to ensure that we have housebroken dogs that can tolerate lots of children before we go. Thus we may wait until our way back from Savannah to get Lola. The breeder is two hours away from us so time our trips with other travel that way works well.