So we just got our puppy Ella on Friday and I have a couple questions. First, she seems to only eat about 1 cup of food per day. She is on Wellness puppy food. I'm worried she is not eating enough but I have read not to worry the first week they come home due to them adjusting...so should I not worry? She's supposed to be eating 3 times a day but she has been free feeding because I just want her to eat and every time I try to feed her at specific times she won't eat. I have to bring her to her bowl several times throughout the day and tell her to eat and then sometimes she will eat a little but end up getting distracted and stop. She is 8 wks and weighs 10 lbs.

The second question I have is about house training. We live in TX and a cold front just came in tonight and it's around 30 degrees outside and now Ella will not go potty outside. Every time I let her out, she ends up running to the door or just sitting in the grass for awhile. She sleeps with me and when I was sleeping she got off my bed and had 3 accidents in the house. So that's why I'm up in the middle of the night, I'm starting to get frustrated. Hopefully by the time I wake up, I will have some advice from y'all. Lol. I thought she wouldn't mind the cold as much because she has a coat. My Italian Greyhound is better at going outside to go potty in the cold and he has very short hair and is extremely cold natured.
Hopefully, you all will help me out. I'm very jealous of the pups on here that were house trained in a week. Lucky

Have you considered crate training her? Crating her at night will help with the accidents. Also, how often are you taking her out? Puppies generally need to go potty first thing in the morning, after eating, after playing, and very frequently in between. It's been a while since I've had a young puppy but I can tell you Tucker is around 5 months old and still needs to go out every one a a half, two hours. We go out specifically to poop about an hour or so after eating, twice a day. He has been sleeping through the night from 11-6 so I know he can hold it longer, but until he is older, we take him out on schedule every time. I would imagine a young puppy would need to go closer to every hour. Make sure you bring treats and PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE every time they go outside. I know it is cold for you but I bet you the puppy is fine. It was 12 degrees this morning with a -5 degree wind chill and Tucker played fetch for about 15 minutes with no problems. It's tough at first but you just have to get her on a strict schedule and stick to it. Also, any time the puppy is out, she needs to be watched vigilantly. Take her outside anytime she starts to circle and sniff. You'll get it down eventually!

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Diana - mom to Tucker and Sadie the Golden mixes, and Franklin and Maggie the Yorkies

As far as eating, I find it particularly helpful to feed on a schedule. That way you know exactly when to anticipate potty time. I know you're worried about her not eating, but once she gets hungry enough, she'll eat. Since she's younger, I would suggest feeding maybe 3 times a day at first, versus two. Give her 5 minutes with the food and then take it away until next feeding time. She'll figure it out.

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Diana - mom to Tucker and Sadie the Golden mixes, and Franklin and Maggie the Yorkies

I have fostered a number of young puppies, and eating a cup of food a day is quite approriate at that age. My puppies are usually fed 1/3 cup of food 3x/day when they first come home. It also, usually takes them a little while to adjust, 7-10 days, before they really start "coming to life"The best thing to do, is to put her food down for 10 min and let her eat what she wants, then pick it up and no more, including treats, until her next scheduled meal. It won't take her long to figure out that she better eat when you put the food down or else it disappears. A normal healthy puppy will not starve itself, as long as she is drinking and peeing and pooping normally she is fine. Free feeding, makes it harder to house train, as there is no set schedule to when she poops, can lead to an overweight dog and a fussy eater.

When you put your puppy outside to go potty, do you go out with her? If you are outside with her, she is more likely to want to be out there because you are out there, and you can make sure she has gone potty before you let her back inside. I live in Canada, and have had puppies as young as 6 weeks old outside in the middle of the night in -30 degree weather to go potty and they do fine.

As mentioned above, would you consider crate training? It is a great tool, to ensure your puppy is safe, but makes house training a lot easier, and I feed my puppies in it for the first few weeks. It protects their food from the older dog(s) and it prevents distractions while they are eating.

Congratulations and good luck with your new puppy.

Definitely want to echo again the suggestions above--set food schedule, crate train, frequent potty breaks & you need to be out there with her. My soon to be 7 yr old golden still runs victory laps around the yard in celebration of #2's.

Thanks for making me laugh.

Thanks for the advice! Yes, we have a crate so I'm going to start putting her in it tonight. She's in it right now so I can take a shower and she is not happy at all! Lol.
I will also start feeding her strictly at specified times and then taking up the food. On the Wellness puppy guidelines, it says to feed her 1 and 3/4 cups a day that's why I was a little worried. I take her out about every 2 hours and I'm always out there with her. After she goes, I praise her and give her a treat.

You can try covering the crate with a thick blanket or sleeping bag. It helps muffle the sounds and the puppy is not distracted with what is going on outside the crate.

The guideline on the dog food bags are notorious for overestimating how much to feed. If I fed my dogs the "recommended" amount, they would be piglets not puppies.

Sounds like you're on the right track! It just takes a lot of patience and sticking to a schedule. As far as the crate goes - I would recommend slowly introducing her to the crate before just trapping her in there. We like to feed in the crate, and then praise and treat anytime Tucker goes into it or lays down in it. We also spend time playing with toys, training, and just hanging out and cuddling by the crate so he associates it with positive things. Luckily, his foster mom was already working with him on the crate training so he's already very comfortable with it. Just make sure that whatever you do - DON'T let her out when she cries/whines! Just one time and she will learn that all she has to do is make a ruckus for you to let her out. Start off confining her for short periods of time while you are still there. Give her high value treats any time she is calm and quiet in the crate, and wait until she's quiet for a good couple of minutes before you let her out.

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Diana - mom to Tucker and Sadie the Golden mixes, and Franklin and Maggie the Yorkies

1 cup sounds about right... Bertie was eating 3/4 a cup 3x a day right off, but then again he was 9 weeks old. That first week with a younger puppy, you are generally getting 1/2 cup in 3x a day.

Do not free feed if you ever want to feed your dog at specific times. Freefeeding teaches them to graze.

Aim for at least 1/2 cup 3x a day. Exact set times. You can moisten the food a little with warm water (just enough to moisten, finger test the warmth).

If she doesn't eat her food, pick it up and put it away until the next feeding.

This is the time for you to be leash training as well and training her to go potty ON COMMAND and on leash. <- Trust me, it's an invaluable thing to teach your dogs. More important than training sit and paw. After she's going potty on command, you can back off to letting her out the door off leash (I'm assuming you have a fenced yard and will be standing on the doorstep watching her).

The reason why she doesn't want to go outside alone isn't because of the cold, it's because she's still in the "imprint" stage where she's instinctively staying close to her pack for protection. As she gets older that instinct fades away and you may be dealing with a puppy who wants nothing to do with staying with you.

As far as the cold - it's been cold nonstop since my Bertie came home. About the only thing I've noticed is that since the temps dropped even further and we got a bunch of snow, is that Bertie goes out there and just wants to run around and eat snow. The cold feels good after the hot house, I think. <- Not advocating any outdoor dogs here, but just quick potty trips and quick 5-10 minute play outings throughout the day, don't worry about the cold.

OMG. You must be a sound sleeper. My last three boys especially slept from day 1 in my bedroom. Danny wanted nothing to do with sleeping in my bed and would constantly get off to go sleep with his brother under the bed. He was 6 weeks old at the time and you can imagine how frequently he had to go. To make matters worse, he was one of those who would walk and pee. He didn't actually stop and squat. So we would have a trail of "swirlies" that we had to clean up.

My Jacks was easily convinced to sleep in bed with me and he would stay up there all night. o_O But even there, he would make me a nervous wreck. Every time he MOVED, my eyes were popping open and I was checking where he was. That dog had absolutely no accidents in the house, but that didn't mean we took him out less or didn't worry about it.

It's the same thing with Bertie who definitely is my little snuggle bug. He only had one bad couple hours where he was peeing nonstop - probably a reaction to something? Who knows. But he has an dedicated crew of potty runners. If I'm not there keeping him on leash in the house and/or watching him like a hawk, then my mom/sister/brother are doing exactly that. Or confining him to my room.

^ I have a $20 rug in my room that I'm not emotionally attached to. If there are any accidents, we will clean up and move along. I'm planning to ditch it as soon as we get to 7 months and get something nicer.

If Bertie were accident prone though, I would be tossing that carpet and just going with the tile floor.

If you are emotionally attached to the carpet and are sleeping through the pup's movements, then you might want to put a crate in the room next to your bed and at least deal with having a crate in the room for the next 2-5 weeks, or however long it takes before your pup is starting to sleep through the night.

No such thing. A dog is not housetrained until he's gone 2 months without an accident. With those wonderpups who are "housetrained" by the definition that they want to go outside and are alerting their owners when they have to go out, if the owner slacks off a bit, accidents may happen.

With those pups who go 2 months without accidents - a lot of them have cast iron bladders by then and have a very deeply instilled idea of going outside only.

Good luck<:

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Always loved, never forgotten, all our previous boys -