Puppy Diary 1: Help I'm getting a puppy this weekend

Reporter Catherine Musgrove prepares for picking a puppy up this weekend - and discusses toys, treats and crate training.

Transcript

00:00In May, our absolutely amazing, beautiful, wonderful cat Rupert died very suddenly, very

00:16unexpectedly. And since then, there's been a big hole in our family home and in our lives.

00:23So after much, much consideration, we have decided that we're going to get a puppy. We

00:31decided after doing some research that we were going to go for a Cavapoo. So that's

00:37a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel crossed with, in this case, a miniature poodle. And you

00:43can see him there chewing my son's laces. We went to see him, he's from a breeder in

00:48St. Helens, and we pick him up this coming Saturday. So me being me, I can't resist.

00:57I've bought tons of stuff. So I've seen all these puppy chews that I bought for rewards.

01:05This is a whole basket full of toys and toiletries and pee posts and towels. This, I'm a bad

01:13one for things on social media. So I saw these nail clip or nail files recommended.

01:21And yeah, let's talk about the crate. Yeah, crate training. This is the one we've gone

01:27for from, you can see Laws and Labradors. Honestly, it was much more expensive than

01:36I was anticipating. And yes, we've gone for a fancy one with a cover and bumpers and really

01:45comfy looking mattress there. And then the toys that you can see to the side. But look,

01:53it's reasonably big. It's in a sitting area where we're going to see it. I really wanted

02:00it to blend in and not look so much like a cage. The whole concept of crate training

02:10was completely alien to me. A lot of people I know don't obviously have a crate for their

02:17dog. If they do, it's not on show, it might be in a bedroom. Or they've never done it.

02:25Now a lot of the people I know who've got dogs, got them pre-children, pre-marriage

02:33and they're quite elderly dogs now. And I don't know whether it was such a thing maybe

02:3912, 13, 14, 15 years ago to have a crate. I could be wrong, but I don't think it was

02:44as prevalent. So the idea that you would train your dog to come in and out of something like

02:51this for it to be its den, its safe space, somewhere you put it at nighttime, shut the

03:00door, leave it. Same when you go out for a few hours or maybe less, you shouldn't leave

03:07it that long maybe. Completely new to me. Anyway, that's the one we've gone for. I have

03:15looked at so many things on social media, so many different recommendations on how you

03:20should crate train, how you've got to positively reinforce, how you're going to do the potty

03:26training using it. And to be honest with you, I'm freaking out a little bit. I have bought

03:31a pack of 50 of these puppy pads. And also yesterday at B&M, washable puppy training

03:41pads. Yeah, I really need to get my head around how I'm going to be doing this. I'm freaking

03:47out a little bit. People have said some horrible, scary things that it's going to be like having

03:55a newborn baby again. Well, I don't know. Is it? I can't say that it is. And you know,

04:02I'm coming to it having had a baby in the mind frame of, I'm already on somebody else's

04:09time frame. I'm already waking up early at weekends rather than having big lie-ins like

04:14you did in your twenties. I've already got responsibility. Actually, I've already got

04:19another cat, Oliver, who I'll discuss in a minute. I'm already used to pet ownership.

04:25I've never had a dog before, but yeah, I know that there's going to be crying and I can't

04:30just go straight to the dog when it starts crying because like a baby, it'll learn that

04:34that's how you get attention. But yeah, if anyone wants to give me some comments or some

04:37tips in the comment section, then go for it. And yeah, this is Oliver, our other cat. He's

04:44nine years old and he's quite a nervous cat. So that's another concern. I've ended up buying

04:52some Feliway plugins, some treats that are allegedly make him happy, some new toys, and

04:59we're going to do our very, very best to help them all settle in together.