I recently realized that while I shared Lila’s arrival on my Instagram, I never talked about her on here! ICYMI, we adopted an 8 week old, 10 lb Coonhound mix the week before Christmas and Dillon chose to name her Lila! It’s been a wild month since we got her. Dillon and her immediately fell in love with each other and wear each other out. I will say, she has been a handful for Mike and I. Weeks 1 and 2 felt like we had a newborn between the no sleep, chasing her around the house, and cleaning up poop! Ha! In the recent week or two it’s gotten so much better, accidents have all but stopped, and she’s sleeping through the night in her crate! She’ll be close to 40-50 lbs [though we think it’ll be more like 35-40 based on the 18 lbs she is now] and we’re excited to have her as an addition to our family. I wanted to share a few products we got that made the beginning so much easier. In fact, I wish we would’ve gotten a few sooner!
PRODUCTS WE LOVE
Crate – We got her a crate that would fit her at full size which caused some accidents in the beginning [since she could make a mess in one corner and curl up to sleep on the other end since she’s small right now]. However, we knew we didn’t want to buy 2 crates so we got this mat and puppy pads for the inside. Be prepared for accidents the first few weeks, especially if you get a puppy as young as ours, but just have extra towels on hand and be ready to do lots of laundry!
Nyla bones – She loves these and chews on them for hours! I recently ordered Bully Sticks per a recommendation and hopefully those will entertain her, as well.
Leash – Once again, this is a bit big for her but she will grow into it. Per her vet, we actually can’t take her for walks until she turns 16 weeks [due to vaccinations], but we keep it on her around the house or backyard to get her used to it.
Bark collar – Oh how I wish we had ordered this sooner! The first 2 nights she was home she barked for, no joke, 5 hours straight. Once we got this bad boy, her barking stopped almost entirely! It’s just a vibration so it’s not cruel and it trained her real quick.
Folex/Resolve Pet Spray – This is my dream team for cleaning up accidents. The Folex removes the stain while the Resolve works on the odors.
Puppy shampoo – Especially in the beginning when accidents were a plenty, we were bathing her daily and I found this shampoo works well.
OUR SCHEDULE
Our schedule has fallen into line lately so I thought I’d share that, too!
530/6am – Get her out of her crate and take her outside for the bathroom.
645/7am – Take her downstairs for breakfast and water.
715am – 9am – She hangs out on the couch while I work out and get ready for the day.
9am – 1pm – She will snooze below my desk. I’ll get up every so often to let her out to go potty [she’s gotten good at pawing at my office door if she needs to go]. I’ll take breaks if she wakes up and play with her a bit.
1pm – 3pm [ish; this changes based on the day and Mike and I’s schedule] – she gets a few hours in her crate so we can have focused work time.
3pm – 5pm – back up to go potty and then to snooze under my desk or on the couch.
5pm – 6pm – she gets her dinner [one major thing that worked for us is feeding her twice a day. when we were feeding her 3x a day, she was having a ton of accidents. once we decreased that to twice, the accidents stopped!] and then will zoom around the kitchen/play with Dillon while Mike and/or I cook dinner.
7pm-10pm – She’ll hang on the couch with us while we watch TV.
10pm – We take her out for one last potty and then she goes into her crate for the night!
As I mentioned, she’s still not even 13 weeks so we’re not allowed to walk her yet, but once we can, I imagine I’ll take her for one longer walk before the afternoon crate time and then maybe once again when Dillon is home. Now that she can tell us when she has to go to the bathroom and has gotten comfortable chilling in her bed under my desk, life has gotten a lot easier! We basically took the potty training approach of taking her out every hour and that got her in a rhythm. Giving her crate time during the day and then having the bark collar basically crate trained her on its own within a week or so.
I’ll update again in a few months once she’s closer to full grown but thank you for all the love on her already. Dogs really do become a part of your family so quick and I’m excited that 2020 brought us her!
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