Labradoodle Forums banner

Own one doodle, getting another today! Need advice!

4111 Views 30 Replies 20 Participants Last post by  keywee
I'll try to keep this short.
We are probably crazy, but tonight we pick up a new doodle puppy. It happens to be free and was offered up to us and I couldn't resist. The basic story is that the breeder (hobby breeder, this pup is from her 4th litter) had this puppy leftover after it's sale fell through. She planned to keep him but then had a relative fall ill that she will need to help care for. She doesn't want/'have the time to go through her advertising and screening process for a new sale of him and so she put the word out to some friends. She is the friend of my friend who immediately thought of us since we already have a doodle. He is an Australian Labradoodle, cream with apricot highlights. Oh my is he cute!!

So...Marley (our current doodle) is an F1 that we re-homed from someone at 11 months old and she's now 23 months. She's got the typically nutty doodle traits, but has settled into a nice routine and can stay inside the house alone when we are all not home 2 days a week and doesn't get herself into too much trouble.

This will be our first experience with a puppy. I will need a lot of guidence from all of you experts. My overall concern is just how to integrate this tiny puppy with an adult dog especially when there will be some times each week that they are alone at home. Here are some of my questions-

1. Do we need to keep Marley and the new puppy (not yet named) mostly seperated? I would think they should meet, he's 9 weeks and his siblings left home last week and there are other dogs (his parents plus another) in his current home, so he's been around other dogs, but I don't know if Marley should really play with him too much. (He has had his first round of shots.) I'm just nervous that Marley will be beside herself with excitement to have another doggy in the house and play too rough with him and bother him or somehow get him sick. Or get nutty being seperated from him within the house. I assuming I should use the same consideration for a new puppy just like an infant child.

2. Marley's previous owner did not crate train. She learned to go to her bed and learned all the basic commands and was housebroken. In our house she has her bed, but has freedom at night to roam the house and generally sleeps on the floor next to our daughter's bed or on the foot of her bed. Like most doodles, she just needs to be near someone and give/receive love. The downside to this is she's often not ready to settle into bed until midnight or later and wants in and out of the house a few times before settling down. However we are getting a crate for the puppy and plan to crate train him. I'm just wondering if it's doable when Marley has a different routine? We wouldn't mind crate training Marley too, but she's so used to sleeping with our daughter I don't know how realistic it is to re-train her.

3. Our house is mostly carpet. I'm hoping to proactively minimize the accidents and will be diligent about potty breaks outside. With such a tiny puppy, do we keep him contained in a space using baby gates right now? I can't imagine him roaming the house at this stage, but there's a good section of our kitchen/breakfast nook we can close off with baby gates or even our master bathroom. And if we keep him in the bathroom, we can shut the bedroom door and keep Marley totally out of sight if that is what is best for both. Also, 2 days a week I'm at work so he would be inside all day. There's no one to let him out and neither of us work close by to come home at lunch. Is this a total problem? Marley has learned to control herself so I'm assuming we can eventually reach that with the puppy too.

Thanks in advance for the advice!!
See less See more
21 - 31 of 31 Posts
Wow, great looking dogs, both of them! Little Osky is a cutie pie...Congratulations!
Here is a nice site for crate training: http://www.inch.com/~dogs/cratetraining.html
It also gives some ideas about potty training...but you probably already know all of that stuff! LOL
wowie!! Osky is simply the most adorable little doodle puppy and looks like stuffed animal come to life!!!
i love that last picture...so sweet

congrats !!!! :D
Congratulations on Osky. Oh, he is so cute!!! It would be so hard to resist cuddling him 24/7! Enjoy! :D:D:D
G
Osky is too cute!! I am sure you will have lots of fun and laughs with those two!!!
Thank you all for the compliments and advice!


And I must note a correction that my husband pointed out to me. The correct spelling is Oski. He is named after the UC Berkeley California Bear mascot, Oski.

So I stand corrected....and Osky is now Oski. :D
Hahaha!!! :D :D Osky is a little stuffed animal!!! Best of luck to you!!! No advice! But I will take this as a lesson learned by you for me: if I ever get another pup, I will make sure I have at least a week off of work!
How sweet!! Congratulations!!
Oski and Marley together .... great picture ... too cute!

One bit of advice about nighttime and the crate ... Ebbe too, resisted and then whined when crated for the night. I found if I stayed in her field of vision (the bottom of our bed) and READ to her, she settled down quicky and went to sleep!

I think I did this for about a month ... eventually moved to my normal spot on the bed ... but kept reading aloud, then was able to quit! Since I have to read something anyway before I go to sleep this was an easy fix and got her used to the crate in a very short time!

Good Luck, they are darling!
What a pretty puppy! When we got Cub we had some accidents on the carpet and hard wood floors. Thats just something you have to deal with when you get a new puppy. You just clean it up and hope the training won't take too long. Beavis is our older Beagle mix that is about 14 years old and HE trained Cub. We had a friend that said he would train him and he was right. We would take them both out and Cub would see that Beavis did his thing in the yard so he did too. My husband said he had never seen a dog get trained so fast. In about a week Cub was sitting by the door. I took him out and he did his thing. They are very smart dogs and he will learn quickly.
OMG Osky is sooooo cute! I agree, he does look like a stuffed toy. What a sweet little guy.
Let me offer a warm and sincere, albeit late, CONGRATULATIONS!!! They are just adorable!

We also have 2 doodles, Sawyer and Huck. We rehomed Huck when he was 5 months, through our trainer. Sawyer was about 18 months at the time and, like you the first night was tough because Sawyer was so excited he just could not settle down! Sawyer was gentle as can be for the first few months while Huck jumped all over him, biting his ears, trying to get his attention. Now he "scolds" him every once in a while when Huck gets on his nerves. They really seem to enjoy each other's company, though and have complimentary personalities.

Anyway, Despite any hardships, I hope you enjoy Double-Doodle-dom!
21 - 31 of 31 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top