Owning a puppy is a very exciting time in the life of a new dog owner. It can also be challenging, if you are not able to control things from the get-go – which is why it is important to set a schedule as soon as your puppy is welcomed into your home!
A new puppy will come with many demands, so a high sense of responsibility on your part is very important. Having said this, it pays to develop a daily routine that includes all the important things required during this early part of your puppy’s life – things that will matter a whole lot when your puppy develops into an adult dog.
Take a look at what elements should be part of your daily puppy schedule and how you can best approach each element to see it through to completion.
Feeding Schedule
Adult dogs often eat twice a day, but a puppy will need one more meal on top of that. Schedule-wise, it is a lot easier to implement a puppy feeding schedule because it perfectly matches a regular human eating schedule of breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
You can also space out a couple of smaller meals all throughout the day. This comes with a lot of benefits, including:
- Making digestion easier for your puppy. Smaller meals are kinder to his stomach, so his tiny digestive system is able to fully digest the appropriately-portioned meal.
- Better blood sugar stabilization. When a puppy eats smaller meals more frequently, his energy levels are in a better position to stay constant throughout the day. Big meals spaced far apart will make your puppy prone to having energy levels peak and fall.
- Avoiding the habit of overeating. Serving your puppy meals that are carefully portioned to meet his nutritional needs will significantly affect his consumption practices for the better. In this way, your puppy will not become susceptible to overeating because he will get satiated with just the adequate amount of food.
Wondering how to go about portion-sizing? The best way to know what your dog needs and in what quantities is to discuss it with your veterinarian.
Dogs’ nutritional needs will vary depending on breed and age, plus other health conditions such as body time, metabolism, etc. Your veterinarian will be in the best position to prescribe a meal plan that will be tailor-fit to your dog’s needs.
Bathroom Schedule
If there’s one thing that many dog owners want to puppies to master in the soonest possible time, it’s potty training! Getting this down pat will save you (and your furniture and house) from a lot of poop- and pee-related headaches.
Therefore, setting a bathroom schedule will be necessary! A potty break should be scheduled as the primary agenda every morning right after your puppy finishes his breakfast, and then again at night just before he goes off to sleep.
In between that time, you are bound to take your puppy out for a couple of walks. Because puppies have yet to master bladder control, the best thing to do is to take a potty break every 2-4 hours during this time.
Training Schedule
Getting your puppy to obey you is grounded on how well you have trained it to follow your commands. The sooner you start, the more obedient your puppy will be – and the more developed his good habits will be as well.
Basic command training should therefore be part of your everyday routine as well. When it comes to this, all it takes is a few minutes each day. Because puppies have short attention spans, a quick training session every day should be enough to introduce and later on reinforce each type of command you want it to learn.
Play and Socialization Schedule
With so much energy stored in its tiny body, puppies are always grateful to have the chance to play so they can release it in a very positive way. Your puppy training schedule should always include daily opportunities to play.
These play activities should include variety to make things interesting for your pooch. You can play a tug-of-war game (be sure to take the gentle approach to keep your puppy from being aggressive) or play fetch inside a contained room.
Playtime should always be accompanied with socialization, so have set schedules for indoor play time and outdoor play time as well.
Because a puppy’s prime socialization period is usually between the ages of 6-14 weeks, this is the time in your puppy’s young life wherein you have to expose him to all the possible sights and sounds in its environment.
Having a lot of experiences will mean he will quickly adjust to these things, treat them as normal, and avoid and excitable behavior later on.
This video is going to show you a puppy training schedule by age, so you can plan your training sessions with your new puppy!
Napping and Sleeping Schedule
Having a new puppy around the house may seem like having a big ball of energy running around all day – only for it to completely run out of steam just like that. Because puppies expend a huge amount of youthful energy, it also means they become extremely tired when spent.
Puppies usually require around 16-18 hours of sleep per day, so you can factor in this information when creating his sleeping and napping schedule. The goal is to get your puppy to sleep throughout the night (more rest for him and less getting up in the night to check up on him for you), but this isn’t always assured.
What you need to do is to carve out time for a couple of naps throughout the day so he is more able to expend and recharge his energy in the right quantities while still being able to tuck in a good amount of zzz’s throughout the night.
Creating a puppy training schedule becomes a whole lot easier when you know what should go into it – like these five essential elements!
Summary
A puppy needs a schedule in order to reach optimum development across all areas. Factoring in feeding, potty-training, command training, play and sleeping is important, including knowing what it is about each aspect that you should consider during this earlier part of your pooch’s life.
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