Hellobee Boards

So cute! I’ve had dogs my whole life including a couple of puppies, they are great! You really don’t need a ton of stuff—bowls, a collar, one or two beds are givens, but they don’t need a ton of toys besides things to chew on. You’ll want a crate at least for while you’re potty training, possibly longer (a lot of dogs like them). If your labradoodle expresses more of the lab side a ball and chuckit are great, too, especially if your littles want to throw further. Planning for potty and obedience training, exercise, socialization, and routine vet care will serve you really well at this point. If you’re new to dogs a good trainer is worth their weight in gold. They’ll teach you how to teach the dog so that you can be consistent. And you’ll probably want to do a vet check when she comes home to cover your bases even if she’s been checked by the breeder.

Have fun!! You’re definitely going to need patience but I am a firm proponent of pets for kids!

@erinbaderin: Yep, like pp said, it'll be a bit like having a newborn with the waking to go out! I think the rule of thumb is something like they can hold their urine for one hour per every month of age. When you go out with her, even at night, always go to the very same place and say the same potty phrase to her. Something magical happens around 8-12 weeks and it'll start clicking for her, and she'll already have that established pattern to draw on.

We kept our puppy in her crate right next to our bed for faster night trips. Our dog, now 11, still loves her crate and knows it's her room. Feed her in the crate to establish a safe and happy feeling for it from the beginning. Also, be sure you get one that will fit her when she's grown but comes with a moveable divider that you will put up and move as she grows. You only want enough space for her to be able to turn in a circle and lay down. We padded ours with towels until she was potty trained, then we removed the divider and gave her the whole crate and a fluffy bed insert. The towels will help make accident cleanup easier and the divider will ensure she doesn't want to have an accident in her bed and will ask to go out instead. Otherwise, she'll just walk over to the other empty side of the crate and go there.

For teething, get a hollow puppy Kong and fill it with peanut butter, then freeze it. That'll keep her entertained for a while! Also, wet and freeze old hand towels in the shape of a rope to soothe her teeth. We trained our dog to go to her crate with a repeated phrase and a peanut butter frozen Kong from an early age because she always got it when we crated her before going to work. In no time she would RACE to the crate when we went to leave.

Also, when they're very little, we mixed yogurt into her food with some water to soften it, but I'd ask your breeder or vet if they still recommend that and for how long (I can't recall).

We also bought this playpen that we kept in our living room. https://www.chewy.com/mypet-plastic-dog-pet-yard/dp/111456

When she was very little and still didn't know the house rules or wasn't potty trained, we followed the rule that she had to earn free reign around the house. We took her in and out of the playpen of course, but when we were busy, she was in there with toys and her water and space to play. We then unfolded the pen and used it to block off access to certain rooms, expanding her access from room to room as she grew. It helped maintain her "destructive" area and let us ensure we wouldn't end up with pee and poo all over the whole house.

@erinbaderin: I would move it upstairs, because you’re going to definitely want to crate at night and you really need to hear her when she cries to go out. Also she’ll sleep better being close to you. She’ll howl all night downstairs alone. Our crate is downstairs now and our dog just has a dog bed upstairs in our room, so it’s not forever! I used it as my bedside table actually! We did crate our dog at night until she was firmly out of puppyhood to avoid her getting into things that could hurt her at night.

And we just used regular peanut butter! She still comes running when we open the jar

@erinbaderin: Yes to regular peanut butter (and cheese), dogs love it, but be super careful with your kids that they don’t cross contaminate the human peanut butter with anything that’s been licked by the dog. A friend got REALLY sick (went to the hospital) when we were kids because she shared peanut butter with the family dog. Now it is clearly terrible but it made total sense to a third grader.

We just brought this little punk home and I won’t say we haven’t regretted it a few times

He actually came home at 8 weeks and holds it all night (we took him out for two nights and he didn’t go. Then he slept through the 3rd). He’s fairly easy except (and I’m super open to advice here…)
He seems to think that my younger two (6 and 2) are puppies and nips and bites at them much more than the rest of us. He gets into a frantic mood when they’re around and loses his mind. He doesn’t do this with our 8 year old or us. Or maybe he’s just super nervous around them (and them around him). We will probably reach out to a trainer soon, but for now we just keep everyone separate.

@erinbaderin: yep, that’s what I read too. Just the third tip worked for us - our puppy was one that got more excited when we’d say ‘ow’ or yelp, and getting the kids to not pull away when there were puppy teeth on them proved to not at all be possible, haha. The puppy/kid relationship is so tricky, because at least for us, even if the adults did everything right, getting kids to be consistent and reinforce the right stuff was so hard! I think that made it take a bit longer. Worth the hard times though, my kids are obsessed with their fluffy little brother now that they’re not scared of him anymore.