Working from home with a new puppy - help!

Londonwriter

Our gorgeous new puppy arrived on Saturday and today was my first working day with him. I work from home and felt I got nothing done today. Furthermore, I'm worried I've traumatised poor puppy for life. Help! Advice needed.

We have cordoned off the back of our kitchen with a playpen/barrier and there's a crate in that.

Yesterday, we played with him in the playpen and wouldn't let him anywhere else in the house. We had puppy pads in the playpen. He didn't like it when we left the playpen - he whined and flung himself against the playpen gate, even if he could see us in the kitchen.

Today, we decided to crate train him. My understanding was this involves locking the puppy in a crate with toys and getting him out every hour to eat/drink/pee/poo/exercise. I did this until lunchtime but, by then, he was displaying major stress behaviours (chasing his tail, leaping about randomly, ignoring his toys, scratching, etc.) and, eventually, refused to go back in the crate. When in the crate, he would scream for 1/2 an hour out of every hour. The remaining half an hour, he cowered on his stomach in the crate. Needless to say, spending 15 minutes of every hour taking a puppy into the yard, playing and coaxing him into the crate, and 30 minutes sitting upstairs listening to him screaming = no work done. He was peeing every hour, which was weird because he's eight weeks old.

I gave up around lunchtime and decided to let him roam free instead. He calmed down and was happy to play/sleep while I tried to work downstairs. However, I was watching him constantly in the living room. I took him out every 1/2 an hour, and if he started circling. We spent a lot of time outside. However, he only peed/pood once in four hours or so.

By early evening, he was refusing to go outside anymore. If I coaxed him out, he ran back in and peed on the floor. Help! What have I done...

sarabe

Firstly bin the puppy pads.

Teach your puppy to go to the toilet in the garden. Take him to the garden when he wakes up, after he has eaten, after he takes a drink, before you go out, when you come in, before bed, during the adverts, and every 20 minutes or so unless he is asleep. Stay out there with him until he goes.

You should use the crate for him to nap in so that when he wakes up he doesn't just walk away from his bed or where he was sleeping and pee if you are not there.

Providing that you introduce the crate in a positive way you will be able to use it to shut him in when you need to leave him for a short period of time.

By shutting your pup in there and letting him get distressed about it you are setting yourself up to have a problem.

I have used a crate for all of my dogs when they were pups and as adults they continue to use them when camping, travelling, convalescing and some of them sleep in a crate at night - their choice. However I make absolutely certain that it is a positive experience for them so as a baby puppy they will be put in there only when they are tired and I will stay with them until they drop off. I will then use food treats and toys to make it a nice place to be but usually only after they have been happily sleeping in there for a few days.

So no, crate training is not about locking your puppy in a crate and letting him out once an hour. Use the crate sparingly only when you can't be watching pup.

foreign_correspondent

firstly - you wont get much work done at first, (other than looking after the pup, which really is a full tie job at first!) and you need to be prepared for that - could you take some leave?

secondly - crate training relies on the crate being a happy place for pup to take a rest, not somewhere to put him all day.

I would let him follow you round the house, and then you can keep an eye on him, and whenever he looks like he is going to pee - sniffing, crouching etc, take him outside.

Everything you want him to do needs to be a positive experience, so you have to make going outside a calm and happy experiene, where you both go out, you armed with treats, and wait quietly till he pees or poos - when he does, treat immediately, praise and fuss - let him know he is a really 'good boy!'

Stop trying to 'exert dominanace' - you are by nature dominant, as you are all he has, and he is reliant on you. As the old saying goes; one volunteer is worth ten pressed men, and that is true of dogs too!

suki1964

Of course pups pee every hour - their wee bladders are tiny, he wont be able to hold it for more then an hour till hes at least 10 weeks, and then its slow increments on the time

I guess you have been dropped in the deep end today - its hard isnt it?

I remember back and from my own experience I would never advise anyone whos getting a pup to intend on working for at least two weeks. It really is like bringing home a baby - a round of feeding, watering, playing , peeing and pooing.

Sara once again is giving great advice. Crates are to be used only when you cant be there to keep an eye on pup and they should only be used when pup is calm

Toilet training is always one step forward and 2 back those first few days. Dont stress about a bit of wee on the floor - it happens. Mop it up and hope to catch the next pee in time.

Personally i used to carry mine out at that age and stay with them till business was done - really going over board with the praise when done - they soon learn

Get yourself a copy of THE PERFECT PUP by Gwen Bailey - its a wealth of information and guidance

Lobell

You need to create positive associatins with the crate. Feed puppy in there, give him toys to play with in it and treats but DO NOT shut the door. If he falls asleep on the floor, gently pick him up and pop him in the crate (again, door open at all times). Soon, he will get the idea that it's his safe, comfortable place and will choose to go there to rest/sleep.]

Agree wholheartedly about ditching the pads. You are effectively teaching puppy that it's ok to pee indoors which means you have to start from scratch again to teach him to go outside as it's confusing for him if both are encouraged, if you see what I mean. Go outside with him and wait until he 'goes' praise wildly and lavish treats upon him. It won't take him long to get the idea that outside is the place to go every time. Accidents will happen at this age but, unless you can catch him in time to scoop him up and put him outside to finish; just ignore and clean up without fuss. A solution of biological washing powder and water is excellent for clean up accidents as it dissolves the enzymes and removes all traces of the smell which discourages puppy from returning to that spot to toilet again.

Also, you need to teach puppy to be alone. He is getting distressed when you're out of sight because he doesn't know that you're going to come back. He has just left his Mum and littermates so it's understandable that he'll be feeling a little unsure of his surrounding and insecure. You need to start with leaving him for just a few seconds...give him a treat or a toy that will occupy him for a minute or two, thereby giving you a little bit of time to go out of sight and come back. Very gradually increase the time that you leave the room for, literally by a few seconds at a time to begin with and then come back in. Don't talk to him or fuss over him, just let him see that you are there. Try to only come back to him when he's quiet (although this can be hard initially...you may have only a few seconds of silence if he's a bit stressed so try to time it well) otherwise he'll associate making a racket with your return.

As you work from home, when you get him comfortable with being alone for a time, you should start to practice a 'going out' routine. Put your coat on, lift your keys and whatever else you do before leaving the house. Go out and close the front door. Turn round and come back in immediately. Repeat frequently, gradually increasing the time you stay out of the house.

And I second Suki's recommendation for Gwen Bailey's book 'the Perfect Puppy'...my copy has saved the sanity of several new puppy owners now :-)

God, I'd forgotten how stressful those first few weeks can be! Hang in there, it does get easier.

suki1964

Lobell wrote: »

And I second Suki's recommendation for Gwen Bailey's book 'the Perfect Puppy'...my copy has saved the sanity of several new puppy owners now :-)

God, I'd forgotten how stressful those first few weeks can be! Hang in there, it does get easier.

Even after many pups I still go back to Gwen Bailey and I like you loan it to new puppy owners.

Certainly does get better - eventually. Every time I go through it I say thats it, never again, till the next one :rotfl::rotfl:

I have many memories of sitting on the floor in tears thinking its never going to end, but suddenly the days where it all comes together come more frequent and you have a lovely house trained well behaved pup on your hands...........



Then come the TEENS:eek::eek::eek:

Londonwriter

I've got The Perfect Puppy book and it said you should put him in the crate every time you didn't have time to play with him. I didn't want him to get into a habit of thinking I would play quality tug games 24/7. So I think I misread it... I think the book meant 'supervise him'. I can supervise him all day except when I need to go to the shops.

He was fine with snoozing in the crate late yesterday evening and last night with the door open. Unfortunately, he escaped from his playpen during the night and pood all over our living room. When I came downstairs in the dark, I stood in it.

We are only using puppy pads at night for about three/four hours. They're next to the back door. My husband stays up until 12/1 usually (he was awake until 2am last night) and I tend to get up early (about 5/6) so we're doing shifts. I can't realistically get up every hour during the night for the next few months - I'm already exhausted and feeling unwell. I can't be a good carer for Tokey if I'm ill.

I may be happier working today. Since Tokey managed to run around the living room all night without killing himself, it's probably reasonably well puppy-proofed and I don't have the spend the whole day staring at him.

Raksha

Which edition of The Perfect Puppy do you have?

Gwen has recently re written it, and ditched all the stuff about crate training, precisely because people were doing what you've done. Your play pen should be enough for confining the pup, you don't need a crate as well. Another useful book is After Getting Your Puppy by Ian Dunbar. It's available as a FREE download http://www.dogstardaily.com/files/AFTER%20You%20Get%20Your%20Puppy.pdf

'Crate training' is based on the idea that a dog won't soil it's bed area. Unfortunatly small pups don't have the control or bladder capacity to be effectively crate trained. If they are allowed to soil their crate, they learn that they can 'go' in a crate and it becomes a VERY hard habit to break

Before settling your pup down, make sure it's tired, fed, watered and has had a toilet opportunity. The most effective way of tiring a pup is to get it to use it's brain, so try a little training.

Londonwriter

I was trying to teach him 'sit' yesterday. Unfortunately, however close I hold the treat to his head, he still sees it as an opportunity to stand on hind legs or jump up. When he eventually sits, I don't have time to give him the treat before he's off again.

He's obviously a bright little dog (I didn't expect a dog to be that clever - he's my first puppy) and he gets bored with his toys easily. He wasn't fooled by the microwaveable puppy pal I put in his bed on the first night either. He licked it for a while but, when it failed to play, became increasingly angry with it and swung it against the sides of the crate.

He only likes things that move so he can pounce on them and I'm not sure I want to encourage him to hunt. I'm getting him some Nina Ottosson educational toys so we can play together without the game being 'chase the broom', 'chase Londonwriter' or 'leap on Tony Blair'. Eventually, I want to do agility with him.

leekat21

Do you have a blanket or cover over your crate? I found that helped with my pup. I think it makes it cosier and more den like for them.

I never closed the door on my crate, not even at night. However my pup was only allowed in the kitchen, doors to all other rooms were closed. I was lucky that as I got him in June and worked from home, so I just worked from the kitchen for a few weeks and had the back door open allowing him free access to the garden for wees and poos.

As others have said, the first few days (and weeks) can be hard work. I think I was in tears by day 4 because I couldn't get my ironing done and struggled that my OCD routine of housework was being disrupted.

I had very few toys for mine, he had a kong, a rope tug thing and a ball. I also gave him an old sweatshirt of mine and he used that as a comfort blanket. I used to let him doze off on my knee on the sweatshirt and then pop him in the crate. When little, he slept for long periods and had little mad energetic spells in between.

My boyf and I were both strict with him and he's still under no illusion who the bosses are. It's so hard when they are little to be strict because their little faces and whining can really pull at the heartstrings.

I didn't have The Perfect Puppy book, but learned from my English Springer Spaniel book and from friends experience with puppies.

With regard to getting up in the night, we didn't. I made the decision that I didn't mind mopping up wee in the morning, so that's what I did. I got the usual 7-ish hours sleep and had a wee to mop when I went down to him. He never pooed inside at all.

He's 18 months now and really is such fun and good company, he still doesn't get in any rooms other than the kitchen though!

foreign_correspondent

Londonwriter wrote: »

We are only using puppy pads at night for about three/four hours. They're next to the back door. My husband stays up until 12/1 usually (he was awake until 2am last night) and I tend to get up early (about 5/6) so we're doing shifts. I can't realistically get up every hour during the night for the next few months - I'm already exhausted and feeling unwell. I can't be a good carer for Tokey if I'm ill.

The thing is, the dog will not understand that you are only using the puppy pads by the back door for some of the time - how can he understand that it is ok to pee inside one time but not another?

Settling in a new home and learning what is expected of him is a massive task anyway, but can become almost impossible if the goalposts keep moving!

You wont need to get up every hour for the next few months, but taking him out about 3 am (ie. halfway between when he last goes out at midnight with your husband, and when you take him out at 6) would be a good idea for the first few weeks.

I think putting in enough time and energy now could make housetraining faster, which may be well be less wearing in the long run than having a dog that becomes confused and takes a lot longer to train.

What sort of a pup is he?