When I get my puppy he will be 8 weeks old.
What should his feeding schedule be like? including water.
Should he have get food all the time? or should he only get fed a certain amount at certain times during the day? Should he get food/water before his bedtime?
Puppies should always have access to water during the day but food should be limited to set meals only.
I like to feed puppies who are between 8 weeks and 15 weeks old three times per day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Water should be "cut off" about an hour or so before bedtime to help decrease the amount of accidents that will occur.
Some fun things you can do with your puppy and his food (if you decide to feed kibble) are this:
Teaching "Come"
Throw a piece of kibble down a hallway
Call puppy to you (happy, happy voice - big excitment - neighbours think your crazy kind of excitment)
When he comes to you praise and throw another piece.
Puppy only gets another piece if he comes to you
You can also use the clicker for this, ever time the puppy comes to you click and then throw the piece of kibble again.
Click means reward EVERY TIME
Sit/Down/Etc.
Use the kibble as training treats to teach various commands.
Make it all fun!
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Have you thought about what food you are going to feed? Considered a raw diet? Grain free kibble?
yep... 3-4 times a day for a puppy that old... it will help you out with potty training too, you will know when the pup needs to eliminate if you know when he ate.
it is also great for training purposes, as elisabeth pointed out.
Thanks guys!
Do you know how long after a puppy eats when he will have to go potty?
Should I take him outside right after he is done eating? or wait awhile?
My potty routine looked like this (Stark was potty trained in 2 days!):
Activity and amount of time I waited to take him out:
Drink of water (even just a lick) - 5 minutes
Full meal - 15 minutes
Play time - right in the middle of play (puppies get distracted and most accidents occur during play time). I would stop the play, take him out, bring him back in and continue our play.
*Every 1/2 hour he would be let out during the day. At night, I would let him tell me (barking or whinning) when he needed to go out. Keep shoes by the door or by your bed because you will need to HUSTLE!
For potty training, I followed this method:
- Take puppy to the area you want them to use to potty.
Edited to add: By take, I mean carry. If you allow them to walk, you are more than likely going to have a potty accident. Don't set them up to fail. I carried my two German Shepherds (around 20-30lbs) during training.
- Say, "go pee" or use a word you want them to associate with potty time.
- The second, and I mean the second they start peeing praise them.
- When they are dribbling (almost finished) say, "good pee" and treat them (even if they aren't fully done or are still in a squat).
- Get super excited, bring a toy out to play and pull it out the second they are done pottying! Like, neighbours are going to want to call the crazy house kind of excited over this! You want them to know how happy and what a good job they did.
When they pee inside, just clean it up and don't involved the puppy. No, "bad puppy" or "what did you do?", nothing. Just clean it up using a good enzyme cleaner and continue on.
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