How to care for a TOY POODLE PUPPY | What you need to know before getting one

About 600 grams when we first got him and then he graduated. Apartment, how do you potty train them and they want to be next to you all the time. Hey guys, welcome back to another video. My name's Jessie if it's your first time here. So this is Zuko and Zuko has his own little playlist on my channel. After posting I guess a lot of people have actually asked what it's like to look after a toy poodle, what are their characteristics, how's their personality, is it easy, is it hard? So I thought I'd put together a little video about how we actually look after Zuko and I guess just a bit of information in general about toy poodles. So if you are looking to get a toy poodle puppy, I hope this video helps. Before I get into the nitty-gritty details of Zuko and toy poodles, remember to hit that like and subscribe button to see more videos from me and let's get started. We actually got Zuko in November 2019. He was the tiniest one in his litter and the thing is a lot of people ask what breeder he's from. Zuko was actually purchased from a local pet store just because we weren't sort of planning to get a puppy. The cost of a toy poodle in Australia when we purchased him he was three thousand Australian dollars including his first vaccination. So he had to get his first vaccination at eight weeks and then another one at 12 weeks. I think some puppies also get vaccinations at 16 weeks but the vet put them together the 12 week and 16 week one as a top up so he only ended up getting two needles. When we first took Zuko home he was sleeping so much and nowhere near as active as he is now. So he pretty much slept throughout the whole day and I guess that's what puppies need to be able to grow and develop. So we live in an apartment and a lot of people ask is it hard to look after a dog in an apartment? How do you potty train them? It was actually quite simple because toy poodles or poodles in general are really really intelligent. So I actually googled this information and they are the second smartest dog out of all dogs. So they are really intelligent and it's not hard to train them at all. When Zuko was only 10 weeks old only two weeks after getting him we took him to puppy school and puppy school went on for about a month and then he graduated. So they pretty much give the puppy exposure to other puppies and teach them how to socialize with other dogs as well as providing some general tips on how to teach them and kind of integrate them into the world. In our puppy school class Zuko was pretty lucky to have all sorts of breeds in there. Sometimes when you go to puppy school it ends up being the same breed and they don't really get to meet a variety but the one we went to he was lucky to have his whole class of different types of dogs. So house training them to go to the bathroom in the apartment was actually not that hard. We bought pee mats and put them in a specific location around the house and whenever Zuko looked like he was sniffing around and he needed to go to the bathroom we'd pick him up put him on the mat and use trigger words like wee-wee and after a few times they get it and they know where to go to the toilet. So because toy pooters are so smart teaching them tricks isn't hard either. They get it so fast as long as you have tricks with you you can teach them to do pretty much anything. They like to be stimulated both physically and mentally. So when Zuko was a puppy he used to wake up at 6am and we had to make sure that we were awake to make sure that he pees and he poops in the correct places. After that he'll play for a little bit eat his breakfast and then he'll go back to sleep and he slept pretty much most of the day he would eat three times per day and after about 20 30 maybe up to an hour of eating he'll go and do his poop and peep on the mat. With puppy kibble we purchased ones that was recommended by the pet store and also the vet and it's really important that at that time they're eating the puppy kibbles because it helps them grow and develop and provides all the nutrients that they need as a puppy. So now instead of eating three times a day Zuko only eats about one times a day sometimes two pretty much after Zuko became fully vaccinated. We took him outside for walks two times per day and he would pee and he'd poop outside but we still have pee mats inside just in case because puppies don't really know how to hold their bladder like older dogs and he would still use the pee mats at home but we're trying to get him used to pulling and peeping outside. So currently his bedding arrangement he sleeps in his little bed next to our bed and if he is clean sometimes we would let him sleep on the bed as well. We usually wash him once every fortnight unless he gets really really dirty otherwise sometimes i use puppy wipes to wipe him down a little bit. We wipe his eyes every morning he has these tear stains and all this gunk there when he wakes up wipe his paws once in a while and we brush his fur daily because he's got this beautiful long fur and it gets tangled really really easily if you don't brush it so we brush it every single day make sure that he's well groomed. Currently Zuko's hair is so long at the moment but we do have a grooming session coming up. He's a little fluffball right now. Baby teeth so when Zuko was teething he used to bite pretty much everything and i remember when he had a bit of pain we actually soaked his food as well so that his kibble isn't really hard and doesn't cause too much tension in his teeth and it became soft and he'll be able to eat that properly. Once his baby teeth start falling out you'll find random bits of teeth here and there. Sometimes you won't even see it at all because he'll end up eating it and you just don't even know but sometimes you will see like a random tooth that's fallen out and yes so now i think most of his teeth is pretty much done. He's got adult teeth now so now that he has adult teeth it's really really important that you need to be brushing his teeth every single day. It's a lot better with kibble when it's dry food but if you start with feeding him wet food or bits and pieces of human food plaque builds up really really easily in the teeth and when they grow up you don't want them to actually have rotten teeth and have all their teeth falling out so from when they're young it's really important to be looking after their teeth just like humans and brushing them every single day. With teeth brushing we currently use special toothpaste. It tastes like pork. I think it's pork flavor and we either use the toothbrush or use the finger brushes. I personally find the finger brushes a lot easier because when I put my finger in he hates teeth brushing but when I put my finger in it's just easier to control where it is whereas the toothbrush is quite long and I don't want to be poking him and accidentally you know poking too deep or anything so I always use the finger brush. He hates it but you just you have to get them used to it and you just have to do it. So in terms of size Zuko was about 600 grams when we first got him. He was tiny. He was like the size of a steak. Now he's tripled. He's about 1.8 kilos now. I don't think he will get any larger than that maybe a few kilos more if not but yeah he's still a tiny little dog. With washing them just make sure that water doesn't get into their ears and you're constantly drying and cleaning out their ears because they do have chronic ear illnesses I think so it's really important to look after their ears especially when you're washing them. Around six to seven months Zuko got de-sexed and he came back with like a little cone on his head which he absolutely hated but he had to wear it for about 10 days to stop him from scratching the stitches. I know some people don't believe in de-sexing their dogs but if you de-sex them early they don't learn the behaviors of older dogs such as peeing everywhere, being excessively violent and territorial and aggressive and it also reduces the risk of testicular cancer and prostate problems so those two are pretty common in older dogs that are not de-sexed and we obviously want him to be as healthy as possible. Zuko really rarely barks. He gets a little bit yappy when he's excited but when he's sort of really playful really excited he'll bark at his toys and you play fetch with him he'll start barking or if he hears noises at the door that he's unfamiliar with he'll start barking. Other than those two things oh he'll sometimes bark at the tv when there's dogs on but other than that he just he doesn't make any noise at all. He does whine a lot though so with poodles they are really really clingy and they want to be next to you all the time and they want to hang out right next to you so even if you're a little bit out of sight for even a few seconds he'll start whining and he'll start crying and you know I thought it was just whining but they actually have little tears running down their face and it's so sad so don't get a poodle unless you absolutely have the time to be able to devote to them another great thing about poodles is that they don't shed like they don't shed at all I don't see his fur anywhere I probably shed a lot more than him. Toy poodles are really clingy they are so lovable they're so playful they're full of positive energy and they're really smart and intelligent they're really loyal as well so they make great companions that is all from us today thank you so much for watching I hope you have learned something about toy poodles as I mentioned Zuko has his own little series make sure you watch that for more adventures of Zuko and I'll leave that up for you guys to see other than that if you have any more questions feel free to leave it in the comment section down below please like and subscribe we really appreciate it and we will see you guys in our next video