2/2/12 Stella is 6 weeks old today and we picked her up from the breeder.
.
2/3/12 Stella was pretty good the first night. Rachel needed to hold her to get her to sleep but after that she slept 4 hours, went potty, then slept another 2 hours. At 6 am she was up and ready to play! We tired her out this morning so she'd be okay in her kennel for 4 hours while we worked. Dad came home and let her out at noon. She played and had her first carpet accident, even after peeing outside. We'll figure this out together.
.
2/4/12 This is our first true day home with Stella. Last night she slept 5 hours and then another 3. She is doing so good. For the most part 6 am means "I am up and ready to play". Thats a tolerable time! We are all working together to train her. We do NOT take her out of her kennel if she's whining. Whining means I need to go outside, so that is the only thing that happens. We carry the kennel to the door, open it and let her out to pee. Then it's back in the kennel, unless its the scheduled play time.
HER typical schedule
4 am: out to pee and back in kennel. No play allowed. Any whining in kennel after going back in and we simply say "No". She falls back to sleep. Her kennel is either on Rachel's bed or on my nightstand (its small enough to set there safely and she can see me as she falls back to sleep)
6 am: she whines to go out again and goes pee right away. The second she stands up from peeing--we give her a treat (small soft treat broken into a tiny part).
6:05 am: she enters the house and eats and drinks....we let her play for about 10 mintues --100% supervised; but we know after eating she has to poop about 10 mintues later so we watch her closely and then take her back out.
6:15 We have a large yard, and she loves to chase us as exercise. It only takes a minute and she poops. We reward her straight away with a treat and lots of love. We run around the yard a bit for play time.
6:25 am: now she has supervised play in the house. Its great having the 5 of us on puppy duty, because she is NEVER unsupervised. She plays with Saphira a bit but not much. Saphira still isn't sure of what to make of this new dog.
7:30 we take her out to pee again and reward her
7:35 she is back in her kennel. (Now if this is a weekend she is kenneled for a bit or anytime we are not 100% supervising her. I think it's important to kennel her some on the weekends too, so that she is not so stressed being there 4 hours on a weekday. On the weekends we do take her in and out of the kennel between 8-11:30 but always a pee time outside before inside supervised play)
7:30-11:30 she is kenneled while we work
11:30 Dad comes home from work and lets her pee, come in and eat a little, out again to pee/poop and then back in her kennel at 12:30
12:30-4:00 kenneled
4:00 released from kennel and put outside (we place the kennel right by the back door before opening it) and pees right away,(lots of love and praise) comes in to eat and drink
4:15 we take her back outside and she poops and is rewarded again
4:20 exercise time outside for about 15 minutes
4:35 pm Stella is given 100% supervised play in the house. If we need to eat or make dinner etc, and someone is not available to watch her she is kenneled, or put in a partitioned area of the kitchen where she has room to play on the tile, but cannot get into anything. She is NEVER given unsupervised play time
.....
She is only 6.5 weeks old but can hold her pee for 4 hours already. They say to expect the number of months old is how many hours she can hold it but she is doing great.
....
4:30-10 pm we try to keep her awake as much as possible, playing with her, taking her outside to play etc. We have been successful at this, and I think its why she has some nights she even sleeps 7 hours! Go Stella! IMpORTANT: After 8 pm she is not given any food or water. We think think this really helps with being able to hold her pee until morning.
10pm to 4 am: she sleeps!
