Weeks 8–10
Arrive, decompress, name the toilet door, start an open crate, run short absences in the same room. Sleep is a training variable. An overtired mouth looks “naughty.”
First sixteen weeks
Puppy
The job of the first months is not to produce a finished dog. It is to keep the puppy safe, empty, rested, and learning that people are relevant.
The first sixteen weeks after birth — roughly the last weeks in the breeder or rescue and the first weeks in your home — are a working window, not a personality test. You are building a toilet pattern, a rest pattern, and a mouth that can be around human skin.
This lab is a map, not a catalogue. Use the spokes below if you have a new pup tonight: crate as daytime management, nights as a separate protocol, toileting in a US yard or a UK flat, and nipping as a skill, not a dominance story.
Public veterinary bodies treat early, careful social exposure as compatible with vaccination when hygiene is managed — see the AVSAB position on puppy socialization. That is not a licence to flood a puppy at a garden centre. It is a warning against waiting at home until the last injection.
Weeks 10–12
Lengthen crate naps, keep night trips boring, add new floors and quiet people. Pair every new thing with food at a distance the puppy can still eat.
Weeks 12–16
Raise criteria: longer downs in the crate, a real toilet interval, a mouth that ends the game when teeth meet skin. Continue socialisation as short, clean exposures — not a festival of dogs.
If something medical is on the table — diarrhoea, a puncture, collapse, toxin — leave this lab and use a veterinarian. Training pages here are not veterinary advice.
In this section
Expert advice
Crate training Sizing, open-door introduction, and the line between protest and panic.
Expert advice
Crate training at night Nights 1–7 beside the bed. Ignoring every sound is not the protocol. Expert advice
Potty training US outdoor toilets and UK pad setups on one page, same learning rules.
Expert advice
Biting and nipping An inhibition ladder, and a fence between play mouths and true aggression.