5 Week Old [M] American X English Staffy Puppy, HELP ME!!!

[haneul2]

Hi guys!

This post is going to be long but PLEASE, if you know anything about raising puppies away from their mother/littermates @ 5 weeks, share your knowledge with me! I am STRESSING.

Firstly, I know 5 weeks is too early for a puppy to be taken from his mother, but this is the situation we're in. I am aware that up until 8 weeks it is important for puppies to be with their mother and littermates to be socialised, but in about 6 hours we will have a 5 week old English X American Staffy. We are taking him to the vet immediately after we pick him up to get advice on vaccinations, worming, food etc.

I want to do EVERYTHING I can to make sure our pup grows up to be calm, good with kids of all ages and other dogs.

I have a LOT of questions and I've been doing so much reading I've been confusing myself by trying to pull all the bits of info I've read together. I'd really appreciate not just bits of information but a structured response/feedback to each of the following questions so I can calm down!

BEDDING/SLEEPING

Our puppy will be sleeping in our laundry, which is about 3 meters from our bedroom. We have a fluffy, soft bed on one side and then the rest of the floor is covered with a couple of layers of towels and a sheet over the top of this so his little claws don't get caught in the towels. There will be no exposed tile in his enclosure. We also have 2x hot water bottles we can swap out regularly. My questions are:

- Should I also get a heat lamp for him to make sure he stays warm? It's quite cold where I live at the moment.

- Should we A. get a baby monitor or B. have him sleep in our room? If so, at what age should we move him out to the laundry?

- When he whines/cries in the middle of the night, what do we do?! Do we wake up and play with him every single time? What age should we stop doing that, so he doesn't associate crying = I get attention.

POTTY TRAINING

I am aware that it's not possible to start properly potty training until 8 weeks (correct me if I'm wrong). My questions are:

- Should we give him a pee pad or something similar in his laundry set-up? I read somewhere about giving younger puppies different "surfaces" and something about shredded newspaper but I don't know what that means!

- When he pees/poops, should we take him outside and start using "go toilet" or another command? But obviously not expecting him to get it right now.

- What age should he transition to a crate? I'm guessing it's too soon for a crate right now?

SOCIALISING

My parents have 2x Maltese Shih Tzus (fully vaccinated), and they will be looking after our pup when we are unable to (but ideally not for more than an a couple of hours). My questions are:

- Is it okay for our pup to be around other dogs that are not his littermates/mum at this young age?

- Would it be silly to organise play dates with older dogs? I have a few friends with medium/large breed adult dogs and wondered whether it would be beneficial for our pup to socialise with them.

- Every time he is awake (until he is 8 weeks), we should be engaging with him if possible - is this correct?

- I own my personal training studio and work from 5:30am - 7:30am and then 9:30am - 10:30am most days. I was going to bring my pup to the gym in the early morning and give him a similar set-up to what we will have at home in the office, which you can see from the gym floor. Obviously it can be a bit noisy when people are training, loud music, people wanting to pat him and sometimes other (small) dogs coming into the gym. Is this going to be too much stimulation for him? I can close the door and check on him every 20 min or so, or leave it open if it would be better.

FEEDING

- How often should we feed him?

- Should we feed him in the night as well?

- What age should we decrease the frequency of his feeding?

BEHAVIOUR

- Biting: I've read that we should say "ow" or make a pained noise when he bites us. Do we do this just when he bites us too hard, or bites us at all?

- Jumping Up: My biggest concern (after biting or general aggression) is that when he is fully grown, he will jump up on people and scare them, or knock over little kids. Obviously he is tiny at the moment, but when and how do we discourage jumping up?

WALKING/GOING OUTSIDE

We won't be taking him out on walks until he has got all his shots. However:

- Is it okay to take him into our backyard at this young age?

- Should we start putting a collar/lead on him to get him used to it now?

TOYS/AMUSEMENT

We bought 1x Puppy Kong, a knotted rope toy and 2x tough canvas plush toys.

- Is there any others toys we should buy?

- What can we put in the Kong that is "safe" for him as a pup?

If you made it through to the end of my post, THANK YOU - I hope you can share a bit of your wisdom with me.

Sincerely,

Stressed Out Soon-To-Be Dog Mumma

 

[maggielee]

@haneul2 The advice you'll see online tends to assume that a pup is at least 8 weeks in age. As such to answer these questions you'll want to ask a breeder directly or your vet.

A puppy who is five weeks old is not even an infant in terms of development. The entire process is different and potentially more involved than it would be for an older (even if it is just a few weeks older) puppy.

You'll need to keep in mind how young your pup is.

One thing that is really important for a puppy that young is to find other puppies of a similar age to interact with so they can learn things like bite inhibition. That's part of why litters shouldn't be split up so early - a puppy needs to learn to be a puppy before it learns to be a dog.

Can a puppy who is five weeks old grow up and be a great dog? Yes, for sure. It's been done and done fairly often however, as I noted, the advice for a 5 week old puppy is significantly different than advice for an 8 week (or even 7 week old) puppy. What you read online and even in this subreddit will, for the most part, not be valid.

For starting places for information you'll want to look for breeder resources (timelines for puppy development for example) and talk to your vet about it.

Good luck.

 

[bresa73]

@haneul2 Good for you for planning ahead! This is an unfortunate situation but with the right prep, your dog should be fine.

To answer a few of your questions, I would highly recommend investing in an xpen and keeping your puppy in there. It will prevent him from peeing all over the house (you can put puppy pads in half of the pen) and keep him from getting into trouble. He can also sleep in the pen if you don't want to start with a crate immediately. Or an alternative is attaching the pen to the crate (i.e. on either side of the crate's door) so the puppy gets used to it with the door open before transitioning to sleeping with the door closed. If your puppy is that young, you should have him sleep within sight of you and can slowly transition to moving the crate further and further away. We kept our puppy in my room from 8-10 weeks-ish and then started moving him into the hallway.

As for playing with other dogs, yes he needs to learn bite inhibition but your puppy is going to be TINY and fragile. We fostered ours starting at 4 weeks and he was still unsteady on his feet until 6 weeks. If possible, I would contact a rescue and see if you can find puppies his age to socialize with instead of adult dogs. Also as your puppy will have no bite inhibition at first, adult dogs will probably be very annoyed and less likely to play.

For toys, the main thing is avoiding toys which break apart/ can be choking hazards. We got a kong circle ring thing to chew on as well as some rope toys and a few tennis balls. You could also get a snuggle puppy (which I guess is kinda a toy?) that has a fake heartbeat so it simulates another puppy.

For feeding, pups normally transition to gruel (I.e. mushed up dog kibble with warm water) at around 4-5 weeks. If your dog hasn't had this yet, you'll have to help him get used to it (so put it on your finger and let him taste it, etc.). Most dogs don't finish weaning until 6-7 weeks so yours will probably have to get used to this change. Our dog fed 4-ish times a day but it depends on the size of your dog and other factors. I would consult a vet about the type of food and frequency for your specific dog.

Finally for walks, yes your backyard should be fine as long as you haven't had any unvaccinated dogs in it recently. Honestly, I wouldn't even try walking with a leash until 8 weeks (and even then that's young). Most training only starts working at 8-10 weeks so in the beginning, just let your pup get used to smells/ sights/ sounds in the backyard before trying to build his impulse control on a leash.

Good luck!