NEED HELP!! new newfie puppy

[Astrids mom]

Hi  I am so glad  I found Big Paws Only. I am a new newfie mom and I am having a bit of a hard time. Astrid my puppy is so sweet but seems to have a lot of seperation anxiety. She cries and barks herself hoarse while in her crate at night or when I have to leave her at home. She also poops and peas all over her crate and then I have a very yucky puppy. I drove her home friday night 8/05/05 and I have not slept since. Pleaes tell me that it gets better then this. She does pretty good with going potty or as I say doing biz in the day time. I do get up to bring her out at night but she has already gone all over herself!!

Has anyone else had any issues like this? Im new to this puppy stuff and now I get why people say having a puppy is like having a baby!

[Bear]

Hi and welcome to Big Paws. I feel terrible for you and Astrid and don't know what to say - the pros will step in shortly I'm sure.

I can tell you this tho - it does get better! It sounds like Astrid is going to need a little more patience and work but he will certainly come around.

Michael~

[Jessdryden]

Hi Astrid's Mom!

Don't worry, it definitely gets better than this!     A new newfie puppy--yippee!  We have a 7 month old newfie girl, Sasha.  We didn't have this exact problem, but there are lots of helpful, knowledgeable people here who I'm sure will help you.  Poor Astrid, scared to be alone and Poor Mom, no sleep since Friday!   

Welcome to BPO and don't worry, it will get better!

Best wishes,
Jessica and Sasha

P.S.--when you get some sleep, be sure to share lots of photos with everyone here--we love newfie puppies!   

[moseskoko]

 Good luck with the pup. I can't say I know of a situation like that with a Newf. Newfs are usually very good at crate training. I would like to recommend that you take your Newf outside a little more frequently. When I bring my pups home I take a couple weeks off from work and keep a constant eye on them. My Moses (my most recent Newf) trained in about 2 months. If you can get any additional help to take out the pup she will do much better. As for the separation anxiety each dog is a separate case I find. Best of Luck w/ Astrid. Also remember positive reinforcement.

John

[AC]

Hi Astrids mom, I'm a new newfie owner as well. My first night with our new dog was in a hotel room and he whined so much my wife had to slept in the other bed in the room while Angus slept with me as I pet him down almost the entire night. We do not have a crate for him and gave him his own area in our front porch to sleep, we left it up to him to go there as we put his toys and food there for him but he slept in our room for the first 3 or 4 nights. Every day when I got home from work I sat and played with him in the front porch, gave him treats and combed him. Now he goes there on his own, after only 2 weeks! He would still like to come to our room but it is a 2 story and we don't want him to climb the stairs so much. Make that crate seem like the best thing since sliced bread and maybe he will change his ways.

[Khiori]

How old is your puppy?  I remember potty training my pups and it was go outside (at night) every two hours.  Then a couple weeks later, three hours, etc.  They're just babies and can't hold it for a long time.

As far as crying - where is her crate?  You might have better luck if you put the crate in your room.

I'm sure there will be others along with more ideas.  Congrats on your new baby!

[brigid67]

Oh - I am so sorry about you and astrid...  I know it will get better.  I have a dane pup who is 12 wks old and I know how frustrating it can be.  I am by no means an expert and my crate is currently in route (I hope).  I did crate train my poms though.  Make sure the crate is only big enough for astrid to stand up and turn around...a larger space will just cause the pup to poop and pee in it.  Make sure you take her out to the bathroom right before she goes into the crate and as soon as you let her out...praising them when she goes where you want her too.  Never use the crate for punishment...  should be a positive thing being in the crate.  My pom had terrible sep. anxiety.  So we started out by putting lots of really good treats and favorite toys in the crate.  i Would let her sniff it out 1st and get used to going into the crate.  Then I would close the door and use the command home.  Then i would sit near by so she could see me and go on about my business... then I would keep doing it getting farther and farther away.  I never rewarded whining and crying by letting her out of the crate.  It took a good week or so before she was ok with being in the crate and then she actually liked it and would go in by herself sometime.

I know I am going to have a hard time with Willow cause she is a velcro Dane...but hopefully it will go ok.

How old is your new pup?

Timmie

[maggieb]

How old is Astrid?  Cooper would mess in his kennel thru the night when we first got him.  He was about 7 weeks.  He also cried alot the first 48 hours.  But that all resolved itself with a little time and development.  As far as house breaking him- we had to take him out every 15-20 minutes early on or else he'd have an accident.  I remember feeling like it would never get better (with the biting too) but it will, so keep up the training and don't lose hope.

[sobe]

Our Newfie cross is 6 months old now , I can honestly tell you that it does get better. Takes a while though.
My suggestion for what it's worth : can you move the crate close to your bed so Astrid is not alone?  We had Moose on our bed in between the two of us , now he has moved to the foot end of the bed and he sleeps there.
As for training, I took Moose outside all the time , thought at times I was going to go crazy , lol. But it worked. If he pooped or peed outside I'd praise him like crazy and give him a little reward ( one bit of dry cat food worked ) . If he peed inside I'd say nothing but simply cleaned it up . Once you get into a routine it becomes easier, but those first 14 days or so were not very enjoyable poop and pee wise.  He simply went when he had to go, he didn't care where he was. So it was up to me to constantly monitor him.

Now we've pretty much got it figured out, but Moose still doesn't warn me. He'll wander to the back door but if I don't catch it he still has the odd accident.
Mind you, he more than makes up for it with love and affection.
hang in there, it does get better!

[Astrids mom]

Thank you all so much for such fast supportive responces!! Astrid just turned 9 weeks on monday so she is just a little baby girl. Another issue I have is that I got her crate big enough for when she is older so I have sectioned it off for now but she still goes in it. I have a friend at work who is going to lend me a smaller crate that is much more portable and I will try her in my room for a few nights (kitty will be very mad at me) that may help.

She really is adorable pooping and barking aside. She has already learned to sit and it is so cute. She will run over to me and just sit down as if to say "ok im sitting where is my cookie". Im just a bit overwhelmed with lack of sleep. Thanks again for all the warm welcomes. I will post pictures soon.

[newflvr]

Hi Astrid's mom!

It will get better WE ALL PROMISE!!  I have Chester who is now almost six months old and he's completely housebroken and totally wonderful.  YOU WILL GET THERE!  I agree with everyone else about taking him out often and spending as much time as you can with him.  In The Monks of New Skete's book, they suggest having him sleep right next to your bed and then keeping them with you on a lead most of the day for the first few weeks so that he learns that you are his companion and his needs will be met by you.  We did that with Chester and he's been SO easy to train after that.  We haven't used a crate, although most people swear by it, because a Newf crate is just so HUGE.  Remember that Newfs don't think of themselves as dogs...they completely identify with humans so the more time you can devote to him at these earliest stages, the closer the bond you'll have for the rest of his life.

We are all so excited to see pictures and PLEASE keep us posted on how it's going.  We have all vented frustrations here and celebrated successes together.    We want to celebrate with you!!!

Chester, Cowboy and Me

[shangrila]

First of all, welcome to BPO!

When did you get Astrid? I'm guessing a week ago since she is 9 weeks and pup's are generally kept with their mother and litter until 8 weeks. If you got her at a younger age than that, it would deffinately slow down the potty training process since the mother teaches them hygeine.

As far as the seperation anxiety goes, I would deffinately say that it is because she is young and new in your home and scared. If you can have the crate in your room it will make a huge difference - instead of waking up and thinking 'where am i? i am so scared and alone' the pup will wake up and think 'where am i? oh yeah, i see my new mom over there. she will protect me'. If you can't do that, perhaps you can put a rag or something with your scent on it so that the pup can at least smell you there.

As far as messing in the crate, there are two problems. One is that you need to have the crate small enough at first that the pup only has as much room as she absolutely needs,. so that she can't go pee in one corner and lay down in the other. The other is that, like other people have said, at such a young age you have to take the pup out every couple hours, even if it means setting an alarm to wake you up 3 times a night, because there bladder just isn't physically big enough to hold it that long. Limiting water at night is also important, as is making sure that you don't put the pup in the crate for the night without making sure they both poop and pee.

You want to try and get the messing the crate situation under control as soon as possible, because once the pup is forced to soil the crate, they will start to think it is normal to go in the crate and loose all the good 'dont potty where you sleep' lessons that their momma dog taught them.

[lins_saving_grace]

Grace is a little over 6 months and is going biz during the day when we're home and in the evening very well.  In her crate at night and the day while we're at work she will have an accident once in a while.  It was every day for a long time...but it's once in a while now.  She has a towell in her crate to keep it off her while she's sleeping.
She's awake at 4:30 am or lately since she just got fixed and I have tranquilizers for her she is sleeping till 5:30.  It's not unnormal to have accidents on the towell.  It's just the personality of the dog.  Lady took no time to potty train...Grace is a high energy dog and wants things her way. 

[lins_saving_grace]

YEAH!  Rubbing the towell on you is a great trick.  I do that for Gracey, but she still is an early riser.

[jabear]

Hello Astrid's Mom! I am so glad to have another Newf owner on board.    I remember the sleepless nights and am glad that I don't have them anymore.  Things do get better with time and patience. Just keep doing what you are doing and incorporate the advice from the pros here. They know how to help you and ease some of your stress. Where are you located?