Thanks Marianne, that will be really helpful. :) I do have a list of breeders to work through and some are catching my attention already, but I clearly have a lot of work ahead of me choosing the right ones for my shortlist and I’d definitely appreciate help.

My old Lab Summer was super quiet and would usually only bark when she heard other dogs barking or if asked to “speak”. I actually don’t mind a bit of barking though as long as it’s not like the shih tzus my aunt used to have - she had six (bred her bitch once then decided to keep all the pups, and none of them had any training beyond very basic and not 100% successful potty training) and the slightest noise would set them all off and they wouldn’t shut up for about 15 minutes!

I doubt I’d even hear a little papillon barking at mealtimes over the noise of the cat, who thinks he needs to convince me that he is actually starving to death every single time!

Apologies for resurrecting such an old thread, but I thought this was the best place to announce that I met my Papillon puppy today! He’s six weeks old and he’s absolutely lovely.

How lovely ,hope u have a long and happy time together

That's great news! !

Brilliant news.  I can just imagine how excited you are.  Bet you can't wait!  I hope you have many years of fun and happiness with your new boy.

Thanks everyone! We’re calling him River - he’s a black and white boy and he’s absolutely adorable.

Right now the breeder thinks he’s good enough to show, so maybe I’ll have a go at showing to see if we enjoy it.

I am ridiculously excited and I’m not sure how I’m going to wait for him to be old enough to come home...

I’ve had everything ready for him for months (except collar/harness because obviously I’ll need measurements closer to the time) so not much else to do to keep myself distracted other than reread all my training books again!

Just quickly adding that I’m picking River up on Saturday! He’s looking really good and I’m definitely thinking we might see how we do in a couple of shows (assuming I can find a ringcraft class as I have no idea what I’m doing!)

But more importantly I’m really looking forward to having a dog again, I’ve missed it so much. And he’s a sweetheart and we’re going to have so much fun together!

Fabulous!

Bet you don't sleep much before Saturday.  I remember being overwhelmed with excitement before collecting each of our precious puppies - and oh the joy of bringing them home - bliss!

Have a great day on Saturday and many years of happiness and fun together.   XX

There are two local ringcraft classes that I know of, Monday nights at Hasland Village Hall and Wednesday nights at Unstone Village Hall. I bet you are so excited! Enjoy him!

You’re right Blay, I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep for weeks! I don’t expect I’ll have one for a while after he comes home either, if what I’ve read about toy puppy bladders is accurate... ;)

Thanks Rozzie! We’re booked in for puppy Life Skills classes in Unstone already and I think I’m looking forward to training more than anything else. I guess if we don’t enjoy showing we’ll have fun learning ringcraft anyway and might make some friends too. :)

Thats great news, how exciting for you. We are really enjoying our new dog.

Exciting!!!

Fantastic ,enjoy your puppy I am sure u will

Weirdly I’m starting to feel quite nervous now it’s so close. It feels so important to get everything right with a youngster and although I know I’ve done plenty of preparation (seriously I’ve been planning for years!) it’s hard not to be a bit worried.

I’m just being silly and everything will be amazing, it’s just because I’ve been looking forward to this so much I think... Once he’s home I’ll be fine!

Hope all goes well tomorrow! Exciting times!

I’ll keep you informed!

I have no idea how I’m supposed to sleep tonight, to be honest.

He’s home and he’s lovely. Sleeping now after a busy day including having to go to PAH to get another collar and harness since the ones I bought are far too big right now! Even the smallest puppy collar they had was too big.

He seems ridiculously small to me after a Labrador but he’s gorgeous and has been very good so far. LOVES food and I’ve already started teaching “sit to say please” and played a puppy recall game, and he’s picking things up quickly. He’s napping in his crate now - we had a bit of a whine but he settled quite quickly really, to say the whole thing must be really stressful for him.

He has a beautiful head and you can already tell that his ear fringes are going to be good, so it would be a shame not to show him at least a little, right? ;)

And we’ve already had someone mistake him for a chihuahua...
“What is he?”
“He’s a Papillon.”
“A what?”

He does have an Instagram account if you want to see pictures (@river.the.papillon).

Sounds like you’ve had a good day!! I’m sure he’ll soon settle in, enjoy every minute!!

Hooray!  So glad he's home with you.

At least nobody has called him a Papillion - yet!

Enjoy it all - I am sure you will.

Lovely pictures and what big ears u have to grow  into

So far no one’s recognised his breed at all, which doesn’t surprise me!

I can see myself spending the rest of my life explaining to everyone I meet that he’s basically a tiny spaniel and not a chi and that yes he’s meant to be tiny and that yes he does have a sweet face and no you can’t steal him...

We all survived the first night!

> We all survived the first night!

That made me smile because with our very first hound, all those years ago now, we didn't hear a sound from him the first night - in fact (we'd left him in the kitchen) I was so concerned not to have heard from him, that by around 6 am I went down to make sure he was ok.   BIG MISTAKE.  The second night all bell broke out!!  I think he was so tired after his first day with us, exploring etc. that he just crashed.   Not so much the second day

Mamabas, that’s so funny! I was expecting you to come down to a kitchen that he’s entirely destroyed (silently), with a hound sleeping peacefully amongst the carnage. ;)

River’s in a crate right next to my bed at night as he still needs the security of knowing he’s not been completely abandoned. He usually settles quickly but with him being so tiny I’m waking up to take him outside three times in the night. (I’m exhausted!)

Three wee accidents and two poos in the house so far which I think is not bad, especially as one of the messes was really runny and I don’t think either of us had any kind of warning it was going to happen!

He’s doing well with the cat and rabbits, and he’s really clever. I think we’ll be okay. :)

So it turns out that if you have insomnia for two solid weeks before you get a puppy, two and a half days later you feel like death. ;)

Seriously I have no idea how new parents manage with all the sleep interruptions. I’m absolutely shattered, and he’s actually a really good puppy.

Any tips? Two naps today while he was sleeping didn’t really help much!

Given my experiences with babies and puppies the thing to hold on to is that puppies go through the night much faster than babies lol .
Puppies weeks. babies ? Open ended in my experience.  Then they become teens and u worry when they are put late and cant sleep
At least your pup wont be out clubbing !!!

Clean bill of health from the vet this morning, wormed and put on scrambled egg and rice for a couple of days to see if the diarrhoea clears up.

It’s lovely to see him gain confidence and his personality start shining though as he settles in. Can’t wait for Friday when we can start meeting dogs and doing little gentle walks. :)

I don’t know about clubbing, he might be out trying to take over the world before too long!

You sound like you’re having a wonderful time with him already, despite sleep deprivation!! New puppies are lovely!!

He is lovely, you’ll have to meet him and see for yourself. :)

His favourite things: children at the vet surgery, cheese spread from a tube, running, Kong toys full of scrambled egg and rice, footballs, a chew bone that the neighbour gave him, sleeping curled up in your lap, chasing leaves, and his fuzzy elephant.

Things he doesn’t like: being left alone for more than a second, chewable worming tablets, neighbour’s cat, next door’s dog (very sweet Goldendoodle but she barked when she first saw him and it scared him), his pop-up playpen, being bathed at 2am because he was covered in diarrhoea, and peanut butter.

I’d love to, give me a shout when he’s settled!

Will do Rozzie. :)

River definitely likes children, which is really good. He sat happily on my knee in the park earlier by the play equipment and wagged his tail every time a child came near. Pugs snorting loudly as they walk past? NOPE. Ducks? NOPE. Calm Labrador outside the shop? Fine.

Oh he’s a smart little boy. I knew Paps were clever, but wow he’s fast.

Puppy recall is pretty good. Starting to learn the verbal cue for sit (he already mostly sits on hand signal), started work on down today. Look at me will be easy as he gives me eye contact all the time already. Started drop it with a toy. Starting to recognise his name. He isn’t bad on the lead for a youngster either and likes to follow you.

He’s 11 weeks old and has been here 5 1/2 days, and I haven’t been able to use treats much because of his diarrhoea problems so I think he’s doing incredibly well!