Help!  I am looking after my daughter's 12 week JR puppy for a couple of weeks.  He is absolutely gorgeous. I have him in a puppy pen in my kitchen and he frequently comes out to tear around with my dogs before collapsing again for a coma like snooze! 

He is on a good quality dried puppy food and my daughter has been leaving the bowl in the pen so that he "grazes".  It is a while since my sheltie was a pup but  I seem to remember she started off with 4 feeds, then 3 and eventually 2 feeds a day.  So would it be better for him to have a set amount 3 times a day,  picking the food up in between?  I am trying to keep up his housetraining(!) by taking him into the garden frequently and think it would be easier to get him to poo regularly if he is fed at regular intervals.  Also does anyone know how much food a day a pup of this age should eat?  Daughter  is not easy to get hold of her at the moment - she is  somewhere in Dubai.

Advice needed please as I am a bit rusty when it comes to puppies.  (I have to say she will be very lucky to get him back  because he is adorable and has the heart of a lion,  up for anything including tearing around our large garden like a very small lunatic!).

Thanks all
Snowflake

I would prefer that he is fed a set amount three times a day. Check the bag of the food he is on and it should say how much to give him either by his weight or by the weight he will be as an adult although I can imagine this may be a bit less easy with a JRT as you don't quite know exactly how big he will be. I take it that the food it one for puppies? Just divide the total amount by the three meals. Put the food down and allow a reasonable time for him to eat it, my five month old pup doesn't always eat her breakfast in one go and comes back to it about ten or fifteen minutes later for instance. If he leaves some, after encouraging him to eat, take it away and give slightly less next time. If that's all polished off then slightly more next time. You are right that a regular meal time will mean a more regular toilet habit and therefore easier to toilet train. When I first got our latest pup, I made notes of when she was fed and when and what she toileted, a bit pedantic maybe, but it gave me a clear understanding of her toileting patterns and when to take her out and expect something to happen fairly quickly. I'm sure this speeded up the toilet training as she realised quickly why she was being taken outside and what was expected of her. Trouble is now when I let her out she expects me to come with her. She seems to like having an audience when she 'goes'. Not so great now it's raining all the time!

Thank you very much Jodi, that is very helpful.  Yes getting one's feet wet in the garden whilst waiting for the "happening" is not so pleasant given the present weather.  Would have been sooo much easier last summer!!!

I have always fed meals rather than grazing.  Helped with my springie pup going out for sure.  She was very regular and quite prompt after meals.

She too likes an audience Jodi and even at 2 she will go into the garden for a sniff, have a look to see if I am watching through the window, if she spots me she will squat and then come running in to tell me about it!