Puppy Care
This is some basic information on puppy care and training that we have found work for us. There are obviously many different methods and ways to train your puppy so do your due diligence and research what works best for you.
We always recommend kennel training puppies. Our puppies sleep in their wire kennel and are in their kennel unless it's feeding or play time. Puppies sleep a lot just like babies so we make sure that's where they sleep. This helps TREMENDOUSLY with successful and quick potty training. Dogs do not like going potty where they sleep and will let you know when they need to go. Of course accidents do happen. It is important to not punish your puppy when this does happen because they will not understand what they did wrong. Showing them an accident spot after it happens will not make them understand what they did. If you see your puppy going potty on the floor make loud noises like yelling "NO NO NO and clapping your hands" this will scare them and they will associate going potty on the floor with scary loud noises. Do not hit or spank your puppy doing this will make your puppy scared of you might make accidents worse or might make your puppy pee out of fear/anxiety and this is a very hard thing to fix.
We keep our puppies on a strict feeding schedule. This also helps with potty training. We wake up go outside to go potty then come in and eat and go back outside to go potty again. After everyone has went potty we will have play time and then nap time in the kennel. When everyone starts waking up we go right outside for potty time and more playtime. Their mother also nurses them at this time. Then it's back to nap time. We do not feed our puppies past 6:00p.m this helps minimize night time potty breaks and helps prevent accidents in the kennel.
I recommend bathing puppies every few weeks or so. Poodles and Golden Retrievers LOVE water and with that comes mud. Bathing them young will make bathing them as adults much easier. This also includes grooming get a good brush and make sure they enjoy being brushed. Finding a licensed professional groomer and scheduling regular appointments starting young will make your groomers life that much easier. A dog that is not afraid of the clippers is much easier than one being scared.