22/03/2024
Top tips for puppy’s first nights at home....
A puppy’s first few days in their new home can be a little worrying for them. They’ve been taken away from their mother, litter mates, known humans, and rearing environment; basically, everything they know as safe.
Bedtime can be an especially worrying time for new puppies but with a little bit of forward planning, kindness and reassurance puppy will soon be snoozing without a care in the world (like Mabel pictured)
-if possible, try to collect your new puppy in the morning so that they have most of the day in their new home to settle in before bedtime. Picking up a puppy late in the day and expecting them to be able to settle and sleep is asking a little too much.
-make sure you have prepared a safe space for puppy prior to their arrival. A crate lined with comfy bedding with a blanket or crate cover over the top is the perfect spot.
-Use an Adaptil or Pet Remedy diffuser in the room your puppy will be sleeping in. Make sure this is switched on before puppy comes home.
-For at least the first few nights you will need to be with puppy so that you can reassure them if they wake up and panic in the night. Either camp out on the sofa close to puppy’s crate, or start off with the crate in your bedroom and over the course of a few nights move it closer to where you want puppy to be sleeping longer term.
-Please don’t leave your puppy to ‘cry it out’, it’s mean! Puppy needs to learn to trust you and leaving them to panic and get distressed is damaging to this trust.
-Set your alarm for once in the night to take Puppy out for a toilet trip, they won’t be able to hold it all night to start with.
-Don’t be tempted to play with puppy just before bedtime to tire them out, this is likely to have the opposite effect. Instead let puppy participate in a calming activity such as a chew toy or snuffle mat filled with a small amount of food.
-Try to keep the first 2-3 days following puppy’s arrival nice and quiet. Trying to introduce them to too much at once could overwhelm them.
-Remember that puppies need a huge amount of sleep and rest- 16-20 hours a day!
