YNP #104: The Puppy Blues are Real!
Your New Puppy: Dog Training and Dog Behavior Lessons to Help You Turn Your New Puppy into a Well-Behaved Dog
Debbie Cilento: Dog Trainer | Dog Behavior Consultant | Owner of Playtime Paws | Belly Rub Specialist
4.8 • 917 Ratings
🗓️ 30 September 2025
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Bringing a puppy home is a joyful time… except sometimes reality hits a bit harder.
Welcome to the Puppy Blues.
It’s common to underestimate the effect this big life change will have on our emotional well-being.
I’m doing this wrong?Why is this so hard?I feel like a failure.There’s something wrong with this dog.It’s not supposed to be this way.
These are all normal things to think and feel when you bring your puppy home.
Feelings of anxiety, frustration, exhaustion, or even guilt are something that nearly every new puppy parent experiences.
Yet we don’t seem to talk about it.
In this episode, let’s discuss what the puppy blues are, why they happen, and most importantly, how to navigate them without feeling like you’re failing your puppy or yourself.
You’ll learn why these feelings are normal, temporary, and something you can plan for, along with practical tips for finding your new rhythm with your puppy.
Whether you’re preparing for a puppy or already in the thick of it, this episode will give you reassurance, strategies, and a roadmap to survive (and enjoy!) these early weeks.
In this episode, I talk about:
- What the puppy blues are.
- Why just about every new puppy parent experiences them.
- Practical ways to minimize the overwhelm.
- How to find your new rhythm with your puppy.
- Where to find extra guidance.
Enjoying this podcast? Please rate and review it wherever you listen. This helps other puppy parents find it.
Other resources mentioned and related to this episode:
Science Daily: A dog’s puppyhood can cause ‘puppy blues’ reminiscent of baby blues
Your New Puppy’s Podcast: YNP #005: Crate Training: How and Why to Make Their Crate Your Dog’s Best Friend
Your New Puppy’s Podcast: YNP #028: 5 Reasons to Use the Crate When You’re Home
Your New Puppy’s Podcast: YNP #061: A Typical Puppy Schedule
YOUR New Puppy: My signature new puppy course that has helped hundreds of new puppy parents raise their puppies into well-mannered, happy dogs. Includes live support from me so you don’t have to do this alone!
What’s Next?
Feeling a little unsure about what to do with your new puppy? You’re not alone!
You’re just a human trying to raise a dog.
That’s exactly why I created YOUR Perfect Puppy — my digital program that gives you a clear plan to follow and direct support from me every step of the way. From potty training and basic cues to building trust and confidence, we’ll cover everything you need to raise your well-mannered dog with less stress and more joy.
And because puppyhood doesn’t stop after four weeks, you’ll also get ongoing access to Playtime Paws Academy — my membership community with weekly live calls, a private forum, and an entire library of enrichment activities to help you navigate real-life challenges as they come up.
Click here to check out YOUR Perfect Puppy. I’d love to support you through this journey.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You are listening to your new puppies podcast, starting you and your dog off on the right paw. |
| 0:16.3 | Here's your host, Debbie Salento. |
| 0:33.4 | Hello and welcome to episode 104 of your new puppies podcast. |
| 0:40.2 | I'm Debbie, and today I want to talk about something that I've talked about multiple times and |
| 0:50.3 | but I still feel like the whole like new puppy world from breeders to rescues to trainers to new puppy parents don't talk about enough and that's the fact that the puppy blues are real, |
| 0:56.5 | and you are not alone. Now, what are the puppy blues? What am I talking about? So this whole episode |
| 1:02.5 | is inspired by a few things, but also there is a article on science deal he that a study has proven what most trainers who specialize in puppies |
| 1:15.4 | already knew. And the beginning of the article, I think it explains what the puppy blues are |
| 1:21.4 | very well. So I'm just going to read it. And I'm going to link to the entire article in the show notes. |
| 1:26.4 | So this is what it says. It says bringing a puppy home is usually a happy event. But sometimes the life change that |
| 1:32.8 | comes with it can provoke significant negative emotions. Researchers found that almost half of |
| 1:38.8 | dog owners experience anxiety, weariness, or frustration during their dog's puppyhood stage. |
| 1:46.2 | Now, I would argue that just about every new puppy owner experiences these negative |
| 1:53.1 | emotions in some way. How intense they are, that definitely varies. I also think it nailed it |
| 1:59.3 | when it talked about the life change, because I think |
| 2:02.4 | that's what gets underestimated, which leads to these feelings of frustration or feelings of failure, |
| 2:09.4 | or just overall anxiety and stress. Because there's no doubt about it, bringing a puppy home is a |
| 2:16.2 | life change. You're going to have a pre-pupy life |
| 2:18.6 | and a post-pupy life. And there's no one going back to that pre-pupy life. But anytime we make |
| 2:25.7 | some kind of big change like this, whether we were ready for it or not, whether we were like, |
| 2:29.6 | yeah, we're okay with things not being the same, there's always going to be some kind of morning period |
| 2:37.6 | for that old life. You know, we're going to miss the full night's sleep that we used to get. |
... |
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