We were prepared to be sleep deprived for a while and because one of us gets back to sleep easier our schedule was pre-determined – one on night duty and the other gets morning duty.
Day 2 was spent getting used to each other primarily. Cedar exploring the house and yard, supervised at every moment, and training his humans to puppy proof the home better.
His biggest challenge the first day was navigating the stairs. With the kitchen and master bedroom being up and the family room down, we did a lot of carrying up and down – specifically to bring him outside every 2 hours to potty. At night he was carried down and outside 3 times and only had one “accident” in his crate. By day 5 he was getting it and would sometimes go stand at the door, or drop a toy and stare at us. Great progress.
The 3rd day, with help from some yummy treats, he learned how to go up the stairs on his own. Going down was a bit more scary and he only managed that on day 5 when he was left alone upstairs at one point and got very brave. Then, there was no stopping him. At that point we put a gate at the bottom of the stairs. We still had to watch him every second or he chewed on something, or had an accident somewhere. Now, doors get shut and the gate closed to keep an eye on him.
We have schedules for feeding and activities that we follow each day. The breeder started him on a raw diet which is more work than typical kibble, but a raw food diet is supposed to be better for pets, So he gets; dehydrated raw kibble, bones, and raw fish. We also add Kefir (which he absolutely loves), bone broth, fruits, eggs, and veg. First time watching him eat the chicken neck was kind of gross, but it will help keep the teeth healthy, so we will get used to it. That’s him in his crate with a chicken neck.
The schedule for activities had components for socializing, crate training, walks, play time, and obedience. We found out very quickly that if he is not occupied with playing, learning, or eating, he will be chewing something with his razor sharp puppy teeth and OH MY they can hurt. We started teaching “Leave it” on day 3.
Trying to do some gardening with a puppy around is almost impossible. It’s like picking berries – one for the basket, one for me…… Every branch, twig, cutting, is a toy and forget trying to pile them neatly.