Ok so I had forgotten, how much work having a new little puppy around the house can be. This is Day 2 of Bentley's Board and Train stay at The DogSmith, Palm Beach training center.

He is definitely coming out of his shell and showing some confidence and along with that came his voice! oh and what a voice it is, sharp high pitched yelp, and a low hoowwwl its quite a comical sound but not at 3am!!Lol, he likes to make himself heard when I go out of sight! we are working on some separation anxiety the little man is experiencing, but that is all normal for a little puppy his age, he is so dependent on us for everything, he doesn't want to loose sight of me for one second.

Crate training is going really well he goes in and out of the crate on cue "In your crate" ok "Out" by putting this on a cue/command and rewarding him EVERY single time he goes into the crate, he will soon become conditioned to associating the crate with good happy thoughts.

He has had NO accidents in the house and this is because I keep a keen eye on his every move he is never out of my sight unless he is contained. So there is no chance of a mistake inside. I take Mr B out after he wakes up from a nap, when he is finished playing, or after a period of time goes by that he has not been to bathroom for a while.

Last night was a long night, he went to his crate on command and made not one sound, he was sleeping like a baby, until that is 2.45am. No one can mistake that sound a frantic yapping squealing howling ....... it's Mr B. He had had an accident and wanted outta the mess! I got to him and we quickly went outside on the grass and waited and waited and waited what seemed like forever! until finally I was able to reward him for a pee pee outside, this was well worth the wait. He got a reward for making pee pee outside so soon he will want to HOLD all bodily functions, so he can get "rewarded" for it he will learn pretty quickly that this "reward thing" only happens when he is OUTSIDE doing his business.... today we will be spending more time alone in the crate, make it short periods at first, even put your puppy in the crate when you are not leaving the house this way you are not always having him associate him going into the crate when you leave! if he is resting make him rest in the crate... Rachel Williams, Owner of The DogSmith, Palm beach County. www.dogsmith.com

Today at the DogSmith Palm Beach, Dog training center, we met Bentley, he is a 13 week old GoldenDoodle that we are going to be seeing a lot of over the next few months as he is coming to board and train at The DogSmith, Palm beach for all his puppy training and obedience training. He is here this week for housebreaking and potty training along with crate training. Most importantly he is going to get as much socialization as I can possibly fit in. Today I took him with me to an appointment I had at the groomers, just "to go" nothing to be done, just to get him used to the different noises, smells and a new strange environment. Bentley will be going to the groomers quite a bit throughout his life so even though he is only 13 weeks old this is a good time to go just "for fun", I will be visiting a vet also just "for fun" nothing needed, we will go just for fun! Bentley got to meet some new friends today, a 6 month old Wheaten terrier called Lexi, a 6 year old German Shepard called Fina, a 3 month old Shiatsu, and a 2 year old Maltese and my 3 year old yellow lab called Chloe, its important to get puppies socialized with different breads as well as different age dogs. They have to learn not all dogs like to play like puppy s do! believe it or not the German Shepard wanted to play with the little Golden doodle! very sweet. It was a busy first day for Bentley he got to experience so much of what is in store for him in his life in just the first day at The DogSmith. Take your puppy out and about as much as possible these first few months are a critical time for getting your dog used to all kinds of things, car rides, different surfaces to walk on, wet ones dry ones, sand, hard, soft ones, steps, stairs, meet as many different people as possible, Bentley met a tall guy, blond lady with shopping bags, a group of teenagers, an older man and his dog, and lots of sounds while we were walking in the neighborhood. We worked on introducing the crate and Mr B did really well he actually spent his first night in the crate from 11.30pm until 5.45am. he cried for 6 minutes at first and then he slept through the night. We worked on name recognition a new puppy is hardly ever called by his actual name, we tend to use "baby names" like sweetie, honey bunny, cutie etc etc. name recognition is important for training a dog to come when called..