Puppy schedules are one of the most popular topics on my youtube channel every new puppy owner wants to get through the day with some sanity intact I don’t blame them in my new puppy starter kit I have a sample schedule for new puppies the schedule is pretty eye-opening for some people yep new puppies are a lot of work and that furry friend is gonna keep you busy the schedule for the young puppies but what about a few weeks later.
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The puppy has settled into your home
When the puppy has settled into your home but isn’t fully grown yet how does the schedule change for the older puppies the three to four-month-old puppy what to expect in the first year you’re gonna know we’ve got a lot going on at this age we have a puppy who is more curious and confident about the world starting to lose baby teeth and getting adult teeth in more coordinated physically.
This means he can run and jump he’s found his voice and is probably barking and growling and he’s hitting some of those peaks in terms of energy um I also forgot one this puppy is also forming some lifelong opinions about the world around him you, yes the human has a very important part in that now it’s not uncommon for puppy owners to have a lot of questions.
When puppies are three to four months old most people also find the puppy blues appeared during this time now that’s you I have something for you which I know has helped a lot of people now one of the ways you can tackle the puppy blues is to find a schedule that works for you and your puppy that’s our job today now before I share that sample schedule.
This age in the first year of life your puppy is developing
I want to tell you more about your puppy at this age in the first year of life your puppy is developing as much as a human develops in seven years in addition in the first year he’s losing about 28 baby teeth and gaining about 42 adult teeth that are a lot of teeth coming and going in a very short amount of time so I want you to think about how short these time frames are in puppies compared to humans now it’s normal.
Those puppies might be bothered by their rapidly changing bodies both mentally and physically you can see they might be able to jump and nip and bite and have zoomies so during this time you’re going to want to keep your patients high and your expectations low all right let’s talk about how to put together a schedule that hopefully meets all his needs oh and meets your needs too all right here’s what I suggest for a three to four-month-old puppy now your results may vary.
But this is going to be a great place to start your trial and error I’ll start this schedule at about 5 a.m with a young puppy by the time you get the lights and the camera and the talent ready well a puppy is probably asleep or chewing on the electrical cords and I don’t think any puppy could keep up with my youtube filming schedule except for the money I can barely keep up for you on filming day.
Our logo dog is going to help demonstrate my points
So monty our very real stuffed dog and also our logo dog is going to help demonstrate my points today monty gets up at 5 a.m and needs to go outside for his first potty break he may have to go out multiple times over the next one to two hours his system is waking up and everything is getting moving now after the potty break month and I have some playtime with the flirt pole and the rope toy he’s full of energy from that long sleep and he needs.
Something energetic to do we do this until about 5 30 a.m at that point he’s gonna need to take a break while I get my breakfast ready he’s gonna go into his pen that’s a good time for money to get his breakfast too he gets half of his breakfast on a snuffle mat and the other half out of a slow bowl feeder at about 5 45 he’s gonna go out for another potty break then.
He goes into his pen for some independent play time well I get my chores done it took some time and some training to get him comfortable with his pen some pups tolerate the confinement way better than others now if you have a pup who needs some extra confidence building to hang out quietly in the pen I have a fabulous game in my online course for you this pen time is a transitional activity to help monty get ready for his morning nap he’s been up for about an hour and based on.
Your puppy’s wake window might be a little bit longer
What I know of him is it’s time to get him down for some more z’s now your puppy’s wake window might be a little bit longer and he might need more play time in the pen or with you before he has to go to sleep trial and error is going to be important here I suggest that you keep a log of all your puppy’s activities and how he acts you’re going to start to see patterns of behaviour which will help you build an ideal schedule for your puppy Monty sleeps for a few hours and then at 8.
We’re about 8 15 he’s up and out of the crate for another potty break it’s time for some training sessions now that mommy’s well-rested and not too hungry we’re gonna do some exposure training by sitting on the patio to watch and listen to the world go by we do this for about 15 to 20 minutes now we try for another potty break in the potty spot briefly before heading back inside we’re going to do some training sessions inside too.
Where it’s less distracting month’s working on his leash skills so we’re going to play the close-to-knee game and revisit the confidence games in the crate we’re gonna end our training session with a short play session which helps with retention Monty loves tug so we do that with a few different toys I like to see which one is his favourite so I’m gonna offer two choices and see which one he likes now it’s time for another cooldown training’s hard work and money is ready for another snooze.
It’s not good to exercise puppies directly after a meals
He takes a nap while I’m gonna do more chores or get some work done at 11 30 a.m he’s up again for a potty break followed by lunch I use his lunch for some desensitization work I’m introducing him to a new harness by using the bumpit game money’s going to outgrow the old harness soon so this is how we get ready for the new one do you notice how I do training throughout the entire day money doesn’t have a long attention span.
So we work on these sessions in very short increments now I also watch his body language to see when he’s starting to lose focus after lunch we do some calming activities mani and I am going to take a walk just a little bit it’s not good to exercise puppies directly after a meal so we’re going to do some enrichment games while we wait to try to wait at least an hour after eating before doing any vigorous exercise with your dog now monty rides well in the car in his crate.
But if you have a bigger dog you might need a seat belt harness I have a link to one of those in the description below now we get to our decompression spot at about 1 pm and I spend about 20 minutes on this coming walk with him this is also an exposure session because this is a new spot for him since this is a critical time for positive associations with new things I’m careful not to take him to places where he might be overwhelmed or scared now.
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