Four month puppy update with cricket!

It’s been over a month since we surprised the girls with Cricket, and it’s endlessly sad how time has flown by! As first-time puppy owners, we received a lot of advice from experienced puppy people, many of whom warned us that the puppy stage would be more difficult than a newborn baby. This could not be further from our experience! Here’s how it went!

Cricket has the cutest little behavior. He is trained, which they worked on at the Puppy Daycare where he went before we brought him home. Charly and Willow weren’t crate trained so we weren’t quite sure what to expect, but with the puppy it’s been so helpful! He sleeps there at night, takes good long naps there during the day, and we are comfortable leaving him outside to eat for an hour and a half!

Unfortunately, potty training is a work in progress. We’re serious about taking him outside around the clock and he’s so good at going #1 as needed, but it looks like he’s got anxiety #2 because he’s saving it inside. I’d say the messes are less and less, but he still catches it.

One thing he learned in the Kennel was press the little bell at the back door to alert us when he needs to goooo. In hindsight, we wish we had the same watch he used on the very first day. When we bought the watch I think he had lost that skill so we are trying to teach him that again now!

Besides all the cleaning, we can’t imagine life without cricket! The girls are absolutely obsessed with everything about him, as are Chris and I. Cricket thinks Polly is one of her little puppy playmates, and Polly likes to pretend she’s a puppy! There is a lot of fun and giggles going on in our house, which makes our home much happier.

One thing we did for our last Bernese Mountain Dog, Willow, was get a trade Farmer’s Dog food. Willow became a healthier and more energetic dog when we made the switch, so we’ve been feeding Cricket their fresh human-grade dog food since day one at home! He really loves it and eats like a champ which makes me happy because I can’t wait to see a little more fat on him!

Now he’s a mini, so he won’t grow to the full size of a Bernese Mountain Dog, but he’s gaining about three more inches and about 12 more pounds. He is already about 18 years old and is on the right track!

Another ongoing homeschooling is teaching him No jump on people to say hello. I actually think it’s the cutest thing, and I know he’s just a playful little puppy right now, but I’m hoping to teach him so that when guests come over, he won’t jump on them. We’ve also been told to wear a leash and keep him with you when you’re doing things around the house so he doesn’t think he has the whole house free! At least until he is fully potty trained and not looking for a chew.

Quite frankly, we’ve had to roll up a couple of rugs. For example, the front carpet was one of Cricket’s favorite places to potty. He also marked his territory on the bonus room runner behind the couch. We have used Folex (the holy grail of carpet cleaners) to clean up accidents and we just watch him and try to teach him as much as we can. We actually received a bunch of potty training tips from our loyal love letter subscribers that I thought would be fun and helpful to share!

Potty training tips from readers!

There’s a great book called How to housebreak your dog in 7 days Shirlee Kalstone is the best $9.99 you’ll ever spend. I swear by this book and have recommended it countless times. I give it to all my new puppy friends and it worked for them too.

Hey! Congratulations on the puppy, it’s lovely. One thing that helped teach my dog ​​#2 outside was to take the actual accident inside out and then show him where it goes – outside. For some reason it clicked with the puppy and he stopped going inside. Worth the effort! 😉 Happy New Year!

I can’t recommend this portable steam cleaner enough! It’s a good gift for cleaning up puppy messes.

For #2’s anxiety (which my brother’s dog has), we found that taking him for short walks helped, and I always gave my puppies a treat when they went #2 out.

Hey there. We trained our dog with a small bell on a long string tied to the back door handle. Kind of like a clock to be pushed, but not permanent. Every time our dog went outside, helped him hit it and eventually he did it himself. There’s no need to actually get something permanent, but just make sure it’s close at hand.

Hope that helps – it helped us.

Julia I have trained many puppies. Go to Amazon and buy puppy pads and then put next to the door. They are disposable and save you from all the mess. You wrap them up and throw them away. Congratulations. Trust me, you’ll be fine.

Along with all the helpful posts, I wanted to share some of the cute dog products we have and things I’ve been eyeing!

Cute puppy essentials!

1. Tennis balls 10 dollars
2. Pillow dog bed 54 dollars
3. Two-bowl feeder $159
4. Pet food storage container 69 dollars
5. Dog brush 10 dollars
6. Collar Walk Kit 88 dollars
7. Soft rope toy 6 dollars
8. Hand stamped pet tag 25 dollars
9. Box $595

Shop Cute Dog Essentials

Thank you for following our puppy journey!