Regan Thompson
- Apr 30, 2021
- 5 min read

2 Months with Our New Puppy Winston

Updated: May 14, 2021

Everyone meet our new puppy, Winston! I can't believe it's been almost two months since we picked him up. He has been the perfect edition to our home and we are so obsessed with him. Winston is an Aussie-doodle, so if you are familiar with doodles, you know how extremely cuddly they can be alongside their big personalities...which is why we love him so much. Winston is around 14 weeks old and weighs about 13 pounds. He weighed 4 pounds when we picked him up, so he has been slowly gaining weight over the past few weeks. Winston's mom is an Aussie-doodle and his dad is a Poodle, both weighing around 40 pounds. All of his siblings look very similar and have similar personalities and traits. Anyways, I thought I would write a document, to share with you guys, that discusses everything about having a new puppy; potty-training, crate-training, our favorite puppy items and everything in between.

Tyler and I have always grown-up having pets. My mom and dad recently got a phantom golden doodle, who is now 2 years old and we fell in love with him. Winston is Tyler and I's first pet together so we are constantly learning with him!

Crate Training

Our family gave us a small crate to start with and we have been using it since we brought him home! We started by keeping his kennel in the living room with the door open and we would bring it up to our room before bed. Keeping his kennel comfortable and cozy makes it feel like a safe place for him. We have a thin kennel bed that lines the bottom of his crate, along with his "cry blanket" that his breeders gifted us with, his puppy blanket, and his snuggle puppy. If you are not familiar with a cry blanket, it is a small piece of the blanket from Winston's mom and siblings with their scent. Tyler and I were also gifted with a snuggle puppy, which is a small stuffed puppy that has a heartbeat and a heating pad. Winston loves to cuddle up next to his puppy and listen to the heart beat.

When we brought Winston home, he immediately felt comfortable in his kennel, so we have been extremely fortunate with crate training. The first night we brought him home he woke up 6 different times whining and each time we would take him outside, he would go potty. He has done a great job of letting us know when he needs to go outside. When we bring him back inside to go back to bed, he is always happy to go back into his kennel. He rarely cries when we put him back into his kennel, but if he does Tyler will hold his hand next to the kennel and that seems to provide enough comfort for him to go back to sleep. Now, he only gets up 1 -2 times each night to go potty. We usually go to bed with him any time between 8:30 - 10:00 pm, but he will lay in bed with us around 4:30 am when Tyler wakes up. He will cuddle with me until I have to leave and he's the sweetest and most cuddly in the mornings!

I would say the biggest benefits that we have noticed from crate training include helping Winston become more independent and less attached to us at all times. Another benefit would be helping with separation anxiety, which the doodle in him makes his separation anxiety pretty bad when we leave him alone. It also helps with potty training and teaching the puppy how to hold its bladder for longer periods of time and it gives them a safe place and somewhere they can feel comfortable at all times going to sleep, laying down, etc. Lastly, it sets them up for success at the vet / hospital since they keep the pets in kennels while they’re there. Crate training can prevent them from becoming anxious if they’re in an unfamiliar place!

The biggest things that helped us with crate training Winston:

Leaving the crate open in the living room at all times for him to explore and get familiar with
Make it cozy and fill the crate with blankets and comfort items (one of your t-shirts, cry-blanket, Snuggle puppy)
Allow the crate to give them some space to turn around and move freely
Never punish them by putting them into the crate
We keep Winston's crate right next to our bed with a soft blanket covering all of the sides except the one where he can see us
Take away their food and water 2 hours before having to go into their crate to prevent any accidents
We will leave the TV on for a set amount of time so there is background sound while he is trying to fall asleep

Potty Training

We were not extremely worried about potty training Winston because doodles and Aussies typically learn quickly, which he has. Although potty bells are controversial, we found immediate success using the bells with him. I would say he picked up on this concept within 4-5 days. We do make a huge emphasis on taking him outside every time he wakes up from a nap, before we go to bed, and when we wake up in the morning. Their bladders are so small when they are young, so we take him outside constantly. He has had a few accidents in the house but he is still learning!

Shop What We Bought for Winston Here