The French Bulldog Puppy Guide for New Frenchie Parents: Part 2 – Bringing Your Puppy Home 

You’ve picked out your Frenchie puppy and are set on bringing him/her home. In this guide, we cover everything you should know about bringing your new puppy home.

Part 2 – Bringing Your Puppy Home 

If you have not yet read PART 1, CLICK HERE

A Private Place…

The day is finally here, and you’re bringing your French Bulldog puppy home. Give your French Bulldog puppy time to get used to you, his new family, and his new environment. This will take a few days.

Since your puppy will gain many new impressions, along with growing and developing, your puppy will often be tired. A puppy still sleeps a lot. Make sure he cannot be disturbed too much.

Your puppy needs a cozy and safe place where he can retire if he needs a rest. It is best to select a place where your puppy can see the entire living space so that he feels involved with the family. His ‘place’ must be a place where he likes to lie down. So it is never wise to send your puppy to his place because he is punished. Also, prohibit the children from disturbing the puppy in his sleep.

Determine immediately where your puppy can and cannot go and be consistent. Imposing restrictions once your puppy knows his territory is very difficult.

Cleanliness

When you are bringing your French Bulldog puppy home, it is up to you to keep your Frenchie’s place clean and tidy.

A new environment can cause your French Bulldog puppy to be confused and still pee wherever you don’t want it … Especially the nights can be tricky, as puppies cannot hold their needs for more than a few hours.

Read part 1 to find out how to deal with this.

When you get home, immediately let the puppy out in the yard or at the place you choose to pee and poop. A litter box can be a good solution for apartment residents.

Your French bulldog puppy will be quickly trained if you always leave the puppy outside at the following times:

  • after eating,
  • after a nap,
  • after playing,
  • in the morning, when you get up,
  • in the evening, before sleeping,
  • during the day, at least every hour

Praise your puppy if it does its needs in the right place.

You can possibly lay newspapers on the floor during the night. Then you have less to clean up in the morning. Place the newspapers by the door so that your puppy will associate them with going outside. Leave the door open on nice days and, if necessary, leave a newspaper outside. Always remind your puppy where he should do his needs and reward him if he does well. Use the same command each time, such as pee or poop, so that he can start associating this.

Your puppy can pee droplets when he is excited. That is very normal, and as he becomes more socialized and accustomed to various situations, it will automatically stop. If he does this when he is an adult, take him to the vet. Never punish a dog for an accident at home; this does not help!

Staying Alone…

Your puppy may cry the first night. To prevent this, you can put it in a crate with its own blanket and let it sleep next to your bed for the first night. as soon as he gets ready to cry, talk to him softly. Then he knows that he is not alone and will fall asleep quickly. 

During the day, you put the crate with the door open in the room where he must stay during the day. After a few nights, when the entire house is in an area that is familiar to the puppy, you can move his sleeping place to the place you have in mind.

If your French Bulldog still wakes up at night or is restless during the night, he may have to pee. Let him do his needs, reward him and bring him back to his place to sleep. Just know that a fixed routine is very important.

It is necessary that a dog can remain quiet and alone for a while without destroying stuff or barking hard. You can practice this with your puppy.

Play with your puppy until you know that he is tired and goes to sleep. Put him in his basket or crate and give him a small reward. After this, you go to another room where he can hear you but cannot see you. Come back after 5 minutes and reward him for his good behavior.

If this succeeds, do the same again, but now make sure he doesn’t hear you.

You can build this up until the puppy can maintain this for about fifteen minutes. After that, you can practice the same, but now you go outside. If your dog barks after you have left, make sure you only come back when he is quiet for a while. Otherwise, he will learn that barking is a way to get you back …

That’s it for PART 2. In PART 3, we are going to talk about taking care of your cute French bulldog puppy.

CLICK HERE for PART 3