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My 5-week-old puppy taken too early, won't eat, needs potty training.

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed | Male | unneutered | 25 days old | 10 lbs

How do I get my pup to start using his doggy pads? I’m trying to have him house broken. ALSO My pup was giving to me on Friday and he is only 5 weeks old this week. We bought wet food (he won’t eat only Iicks it) now today I went and got dry pup food mixed it with water and the same thing. I’m afraid he’s been taking away from his mom too early, what can I do?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By C. Rathjens, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on January 14th, 2019

And in terms of the food -- he should be willing to eat wet food, if not dry food, at this age. So if he's not, I would highly recommend a check up with your vet to make sure everything looks ok. He may just need more time to adjust, but with such a young guy, he can get low blood sugar and dehydration very quickly, so it's important to act sooner rather than later.

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    Answered By C. Rathjens, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    5 weeks is a bit early to leave his mom, so he may experience some behavioral issues. You can mitigate that by gentle exposing him to many new experiences during his first 2-3 months of life. Check out this link for more information about what to expose him to: https://www.longmonthumane.org/sites/default/files/media/attachments/Puppy_handoutfinal.pdf For the house training, many dogs need some help to figure out where to use the bathroom and using the crate helps enormously with this. Here are detailed instructions: https://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/a_foolproof_potty-training_plan/

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