Your Puppy's First Week at Home

Most people bring a puppy home with a bag of toys, a new lead and a list of tricks they want to teach by Christmas. Then day three arrives, nobody has slept, there's wee on the carpet again, and the list goes out of the window.

That's normal. Here's what actually matters in week one.

1. Do less, not more

Your puppy has just lost their mother, their littermates and every smell they've ever known. The instinct is to fill the day with cuddles, visitors and new experiences. Resist it.

For the first three or four days, keep the world small: one or two rooms, the same few people, quiet. A puppy that feels safe learns quickly. A puppy that's overwhelmed learns that the world is a lot — and that belief is much harder to undo later.

2. Sleep is the whole game

An eight-week-old puppy needs somewhere between 18 and 20 hours of sleep a day. Almost every "hyper", "bitey", "won't settle" puppy we see in Halifax is simply exhausted.

Build the day around naps. After roughly an hour of being awake, put your puppy somewhere calm and dim — a pen, a crate with the door open, a quiet corner — and let them drop off. If they're biting your hands and spinning in circles, that's not playfulness. That's an overtired toddler.

3. Toilet training is a maths problem, not a discipline problem

Take your puppy outside after every single one of these: waking up, eating, drinking, playing, and every 45 minutes in between. Stand there quietly. When they go, praise gently and reward.

When there's an accident indoors — and there will be — clean it with an enzyme cleaner and say nothing. Telling a puppy off for weeing doesn't teach them to go outside; it teaches them to go where you can't see them, which is behind the sofa.

4. About the crying at night

A puppy crying alone at night isn't manipulating you. They're eight weeks old and they have never been on their own before.

For the first week or two, sleep near them — a mattress on the floor beside the crate, or the crate beside your bed. You can move them out gradually over the following weeks. You will lose far less sleep this way than by trying to tough it out, and your puppy learns that being alone isn't frightening.

5. Socialisation is quality, not quantity

The socialisation window closes at around 16 weeks, and there's real pressure to cram everything in. But being dragged into a busy Halifax town centre on a Saturday isn't socialisation — it's a flood.

Better: sit on a bench at a distance and let your puppy watch the world go by while eating something nice. Traffic, buggies, umbrellas, men in hats, other dogs — all seen calmly from far enough away that your puppy stays relaxed. Calm watching beats forced meeting every time.

6. What we never use — and why

No shouting, no lead jerks, no "alpha rolls", no shock or spray collars. Not because we're soft, but because they don't work: they suppress the behaviour you can see while building the fear that causes it. Every method we teach is reward-based and backed by evidence.

The honest summary

In week one your only jobs are: keep your puppy safe, keep them rested, get them outside often, and don't frighten them. Sit, stay and recall can wait — they'll come far more easily once your puppy trusts you.