Working from home with a new puppy - help!

sarabe

Your puppy won't need to go out once an hour over night, he'll wake up maybe once or twice in the night needing a pee.

If you have him in a crate beside your bed then you can get him out as soon as he wakes needing a pee and then he'll settle down quickly again.

If you leave your pup with loads of toys to play with then he will quickly get bored with them. Give him a couple of suitable chew toys and save the tuggers, balls etc for playtime with you. Play sessions should be short but frequent, and should take place outdoors from about 12 weeks of age, especially if you have ambitions to do agility with him.

I teach agility and the first box that we have to tick before the dog even sees the equipment is dog being attentive to owner and motivated to stay with her off lead in the company of other dogs. You can do the foundation stuff now by teaching your pup to have fun with you rather than on his own.

mumhug

I am no puppy expert but where the crate is concerned persevere my 16 week old pup loves hers now and when the kids irritate her she will go into her crate to escape. The first week we got her was hell and she cried practically all night every night but honestly with time and patience it is soo worth it .

clairibel

We have a crate for our 17 month old and we started using from day 1 in front room with us with the door open and left her to it and she would crawl in, then we eventually moved it to its permanent home under the stairs and she loves it, nice quiet escape from our 7 year old, we have stuff on top so its like a proper den and now she never cries when in it....i sometimes even forget she's in there

The hard bits do pass quickly, honest

bulchy

clairibel wrote: »

We have a crate for our 17 month old and we started using from day 1 in front room with us with the door open and left her to it and she would crawl in, then we eventually moved it to its permanent home under the stairs and she loves it, nice quiet escape from our 7 year old, we have stuff on top so its like a proper den and now she never cries when in it....i sometimes even forget she's in there

The hard bits do pass quickly, honest

Not quick enough :rotfl:we've just got a pup and I had forgotten how much hard work they can be :rolleyes: OH was off work last week, I've got this week off and I wish I could go back to work now for a rest :rotfl:
We managed the crate training no problem, Dexter loves his little den, we've put his crate inside a puppy-pen, as we have another dog who doesnt like puppies (I dont either now ) so felt the pen was necessery for a few weeks till they get used to each other. When pup gets a bit too boisterous for either us or our other dog, we put him in his pen, 9 times out of 10 it'll turn out hes tired and thats why hes being a pain, and will settle down for a nap.
So far at night hes been good, we've had to take him out once or twice at night, but most nights he sleeps from about 12 until about 6, this doesnt seem right for an 8 week old, but his beds dry in the morning whether this will last or not I dont know, but I'm enjoying the full nights sleep while it lasts.
Sue

Londonwriter

I think today's gone better. He peed himself with excitement when our cleaner was there (nothing I could have done really - he'd just been outside and she was watching him while cleaning), peed himself because I couldn't stop him rushing back in when I took him out in the dark (he hates the dark) and had an accident when he was in the living room and I popped upstairs (my fault).

The current strategy is to take him out every hour, give him a treat for coming out on command, say 'doggy business' until he poos/wees outside, and then give him a treat for going. He's not on a lead or anything - he will come out on his own when I call him.

If I can't supervise him, I'm putting him in his playpen. However, I worked downstairs for about four hours to let him run about the living room (which is quite big). Afterwards, he slept happily in his crate, waking up to go out for a poo/wee and eat.

Conventional crate training just didn't seem to be working for him - he just has too much energy to be happy in the crate. He was just leaping about in the crate screaming for half an hour at a time (even if there was no sign I was going to come back and let him out) and wasn't sleeping or calming down. The crate was shaking. After I let him out the crate, he was so hyper he kept leaping into his water bowl, etc.

He seems to need about four hours running constantly from one end of the house to the other to tire him out. His favourite activity during the four hours was grabbing a toy in his playpen near the back door, barrelling through the kitchen and living room to the front door, pouncing on the toy, barrelling back through the living room and kitchen, tossing the toy onto the back doormat... rinse and repeat.

He's not interested in his chew toys either. He only likes chewing things that appear to move so he can pounce on them. I've found he also enjoys looking for treats hidden under bookcases, in slits in cabinets, old mobile phone boxes, tissue boxes, etc. He spent ages rushing about the room sniffing out treats I'd hidden (when he wasn't racing back and forth).

I'm hoping this approach to toilet training works... I just suspect the crating approach probably works better for calmer breeds that like chewing.

leekat21

I'm glad that you are finding your own routine, it doesn't take too long and just some consistency for him will mean you'll soon have him sorted re toileting.

What breed is he? My springer liked seeking out treats as well, I guess that's tiring his brain as well as physically tiring him.

I'm sure in a few weeks, this will all be a distant memory and you'll have a well trained, well behaved fully toilet trained puppy.

Fire_Fox

Could you perhaps just put him on the lead to go outside when it's dark? He might feel more secure as he wouldn't ever be more than a couple of feet from you, and he wouldn't be able to run back in without going to the toilet.