new rott mix owner

[pupmama]

Good morning everyone!

I am new to the board and have an 8 week old Rott/shepherd/golden mix puppy named Kona. We have had her three weeks. I have a couple of questions:

First: I weighed her on Monday (at just over 7 weeks) and she wieght 10 pounds. I have seen both of her parents and they are only about 55-60 pounds, but looking at the growth charts for these breeds and comparing her weight now, I am thinking that she may be bigger than her parents. What do you all think?

Second: She was doing great during the night when we first brought her home, waking us once to go out and relieve herself, but for the past two nights now she is waking up and whining every 1-1/2 - 2 hours and when we take her out she seems to just want to lay in the grass or look around. She will finally get down to business, after several promptings from us to "hurry-up" but it is obvious that that was not her first priority for getting up. I do not want to encourage this kind of thing. Any suggestions?

Thanks

[AngelBunny]

What was the reason you got Kona at five weeks old? That's young for a puppy to leave her dam and sibs.

Describe her feeding and watering schedule; that may have an impact on her waking up at night.

The rule of thumb is that youjg puppies have control for one hour/4 weeks of age + 1. So, Kona, at 8 weeks old should be taken out about every 3 hours.

[pupmama]

Thnaks for your reply angelbunny. I had not planned on getting Kona at such a young age and I am now aware of why she should not have left her mother and littermates so young. There were major personal and financial problems for the owners that led to letting this litter go when they did. My husband and I have been working with Kona on her bite inhibition and she is making great progress.

Re her sleeping. I realized after reading your post that we should take her water up earlier and so last night we did. We took her out to relieve herself and then on a short walk and put her to bed in her crate in our room (the first time in our room). She settled right down and slept until 4:30 this morning (and did not pee in her crate). She then went back to sleep until 6:30 when we got her up for the day and took her out again and fed her breakfast. During the week, we are up early and she used to eating breakfast at 6:00 a.m. She eats lunch at noon and dinner at between 5-6 pm.

Thanks again for your reply.

[pupmama]

Just thought I would update my post and say that Kona is still doing really well with her night-time sleeping. She is sleeping 7 hours at night (most nights) without waking us to go out. She will be nine weeks old on Friday. She has had her first round of puppy shots now and after her second round, will be starting her puppy classes.