Xena is 11 weeks. As a first-time dog owner (life-time cat owner, it's so different!) I'm wondering if I'm getting the balance between play/meals/exercise right. Am I giving Xena too much attention when she's awake? Should I be leaving her alone to entertain herself during her "awake" times? I have no idea. She's on 4 meals per day until the weekend, so it feels like all I'm doing is feeding her, playing with her, having her nap, then rinse and repeat all day, every day. I expect this will get easier once she switches to her 3 meals, but I'd love to hear your routines. I expect I'll feed at 7am, 1230ish, and 5ish. What are/were your routines when your pups were younger? How has that changed as they've aged?
My new pup gets meals and toilet trips spaced out through the day, and then just whatever time I have available. I try to spend time with her in the morning and afternoons, and make sure she gets her fair share of cuddles in the evening and also at least an hour 121 time without my older dog (he gets the same, plus his walks). I do not feel I have to entertain her all day, and expect her to settle for the same duration as my older dog with the differences that she gets toilet breaks and she is in a crate - I have crates in every room so she isn't isolated when I can't supervise her.
When my puppy arrived last year aged 9 weeks I spaced her meal times out and toilet trips through out the day. I'd also play with her and do little training sessions along with lots of cuddles. She used to cry terribly if I so much as even went upstairs. This was when I realised she was perhaps spending too much time with me so I introduced some time alone into our routine and within a couple of days the crying stopped. She is now 19 months, we have two routines one normal one restricted exercise. The normal routine is a little meal about 7.45 a morning and afternoon walk lasting about an hour each. Training sessions twice a day at about 12.30 and 6.30. She has her evening meal at 5.00 in frozen kongs. She will also have a snack at lunch either her Kong wobbler with kibble in it or a carrot. She will entertain herself or just chill in her bed sometimes even taking herself into another room and happily be on her own. She's a very loving cuddly girl but she does occasionally like her own space She does love to sleep and is very rarely awake by 7.30 in the evening, getting up to go outside to the toilet by 9.00 and then that's it until 7.30 next morning.
Molly is nearly 3, but your routine sounds very familiar! If you've got the time I can't see anything wrong with making your pup the centre of attention - they're small for such a short time. And I don't think you're making a rod for your own back - now Molly's an adult she has 2 walks of about an hour each, plus some playtime with me and weekly training classes, but in between she sleeps or mooches in the garden, and I can leave her happily for a couple of hours when necessary. Now is the time to build a relationship with your puppy so enjoy it!
@Xena Dog Princess When we got Duncan at a little over 8 weeks old until he was 12-13 weeks old I was off work before starting a new job & I would spend all day long with him taking him to the bathroom, feeding him, playing outside, etc. I am a first time puppy owner and I wasn't working, so I had a lot of time to spend with him and knew he would only be that little for a short amount of time. However, I did realize I needed to build in short amounts of time and work up the time I could leave him so he would realize I always come back and we could work on his separation anxiety/crying barking when I left the room or house for short periods of time. At about 10 weeks old I started leaving just the room for a few minutes not returning until he was quiet and had calmed himself and then came back into the room to show him I always come back... I built up the time from there and always made sure not to come let him out of his crate/go to him and make a fuss when he was crying or barking - always waited until he was quiet. By the time I started my new job and was working from home he was fine with 2-3 hour periods by himself - the longest ever by himself (he is now about 6 months old) was recently when we had a wedding to go to and he was alone for about 3-4 hours and then a dog walker came for 45 minutes to feed him and take him for a walk/playtime. So his routine has definitely changed since I am working now and I will feed him at about 630-7am and take him for a walk/playtime - put him in crate with a Kong while I work from about 8am till 11am... then lunch and more outside time/potty break/walk ... then back in crate from about 12 or 1pm until 330pm and then outside for potty & then he usually plays with his toys or sits at my feet while I finish working and then dinner around 5-530pm. You will have to work up to being able to leave him alone for longer periods of time, but enjoy this time with your pup when she is little, they grow so fast!!
Yep! he pretty much always just goes to sleep after settling down in his crate! they spend a lot more time sleeping than I realized before getting him! He will eat his kong and then sometimes scratch to get his bed "comfortable" haha which is a habit of his and then pretty much lay down and go right to sleep until I come to take him out - sometimes I can hear him getting re situated/getting comfortable and moving around in there, but usually he goes right back to sleep after moving around a bit
I got Millie at 12 weeks, she was a leftover at a breeder due to an overbite so no one wanted her. But from the moment I met her I knew she was the one. The two first nights she wanted out at 3 am and 4 am to do her buisiness, then I started to give her breakfast at 7am lunch at 12 and dinner at 5pm and a evening snack around 7.30 after our evening stroll around the block. After that she started to poop on regular times and had occasionally pee accidents if we didn't see her sit at the door waiting or if she got too excited playing. I also had a schedule which I still follow, up and out with her for morning buisiness around 6,45 then breakfast 7. Then snuggle a bit until my daughter wakes up. 9am we go for a 25min walk and when we get home I usually give her a piece banana or apple in her crate and then she naps about an hour. Around 11 I let her out to pee again and some fetch exercise for about 10minutes (depends on how hot it is) then we head in and she lays on my feet in the kitchen when I try cook lunch for myself and my daughter. After we are done eating I give Millie her lunch around 12 and then she go and lay in the crate and naps about 2 hours. Around 2 she go pee again and we do some obedience training for about 15/20minutes .she knows sit/lay/stay/leave it/drop it and paw very good now at the age of 5months. Then I usually throw around her precious squeak pig in the house or outside depending on the heat. At around 3,30 she usually just wants to lay in the sofa and snooze a bit and I can go play in the other room with my daughter. 5pm dinner time and then she's back on my feet while I'm cooking dinner, around 6,30 pm we head out for a evening stroll and I also practice stay (and such) with the lead on next to some horses (I got a long retractable one I drag out and use the "brake"). I use a lot distraction objects to my training so that she's used to distraction when it counts. We can stay out in the evening about 25/45minutes walking around (letting her sniff around at new places which takes time) or just doing some training. At 8.30 she go and do her last buisiness then in the crate with a piece Apple and then she's snoring until next day. I do not have her in our room, she's always been in the living room from day one and we got no problems with her whimpering for attention. I didn't mean to write so much, I'm sorry. I also only been a cat person before Millie but it's great with a dog for once.
No, this is really helpful! I'm a cat person too, so a dog is a huge adjustment. I want to be quite consistent with the meal times (when she's small at least) and I'm still undecided about what times to choose. Xena currently has her last meal at 7pm then she's out for the night between 730-745pm. I don't want to ruin this early bedtime by bringing the last meal forward! But most people seem to feed the final meal between 5-6pm, so I'll have to decide on something.
We played around with meal times when Quinn was small, as she would wake up hungry around 6am and cry for dinner between 5 and 6pm. We started out with breakfast at 7am, but in the last couple of months breakfast has moved to 7:30-8AM (lazy teenager will barely get out of bed now!), lunch between 12-1 (smallest meal) and dinner at 6PM. I found the earlier dinner meant last poop was before bed and not in the middle of the night/very early morning when she was small. We have kept feeding lunch as someone is always home and if for some reason dinner ends up later some evening (for example on weekends) she is not starving.
We played around with mealtimes at first too & at first I was adamant about waiting until at least 7am so that maybe we could sleep in on the weekends, but my husband gets up everyday at 6am which gets Duncan up and he takes him out for a short 10-15 minute outside time & potty and then he is up and bothering me so I usually feed him between 630am-7am, then 11-1130am, then 5-6pm - this works well for us because he has had his last poop before bed usually a couple hours after he eats dinner and then he goes to sleep for the night! so usually I try and make it on the 5pm side because a lot of times he is exhausted by 730-8pm and if I feed him at 5pm or right around that time he goes out and does his last business and then passes out for the night - we wake him before we go into our bedroom at around 9-10pm and have him go outside to go pee one last time and then he is in his crate and sleeping soundly throughout the night We had him in our bedroom in a crate for a very long time but he pretty much always slept from 730-8pm till 6-615am no problem when my husband gets up and was not getting up in middle of the night to go potty ever, but he does move around a lot and I am a light sleeper so it was always waking me up - so recently we moved him a couple rooms away into the kitchen/living/dining area (open concept floor plan so we gated off kitchen/dining/living room area and that is where he has spent majority of his time since we got him and I think he sleeps better in there too! we never hear a peep from him!
Hi, We got our puppy Matilda at 9 weeks, luckily I had the first week off work..needed it! Now... shes 15 weeks. 4 out of 5 days in the week she goes to work with hubby, in a crate, shes loved it since she first got in it..she sleeps most of the day, wakes to toilet, she tells him when she needs to go.. I wake up at 5:30 pop downstairs to the kitchen where tilda sleeps, usually clean up any pee that's missed the newspaper - TOUCH WOOD last night she was completely clean...so fingers crossed and all! Then I let her out in the garden, she pees poops and I give her breakfast. I leave the back door open whilst I go and get ready for work. I take her for a walk before I leave. then back in the kitchen. Hubby wakes about 7:30 and takes her to work... comes home about 6pm, dinner, nice long walk then she is in the front room with us, I usually let her out in the garden twice a night after her walk, then again just before bed.
Did 3 meals for the first time yesterday, last meal at 530 pm instead of 7 pm, and guess who just woke up for a poo at 2 am? First time she's woken in the night since 8 weeks. She's been pooping at 530 am without fail for the past 4 weeks. Lol, I hope her poop clock resets itself.
Kara (8 weeks) 7:00 train 7:30 feed Play Snooze Train 11:30 feed Play Snooze Carry and Lead train in safe no dog areas 3:30 feed Play Snooze Train 7:30 feed Play Snooze Play 9:00 snooze 10pm last wee and bed Training sessions are only ten minutes at the moment. I always do them before meals as that's when she's keenest to learn - ie very motivated when hungry! When she's a little older I will be encouraging her to snooze straight after meals as it's not good to overdo exercise after meals. Her play sessions are a mixture of play with me, play with Tatze and play on her own. The best times to get her playing on her own are just before a snooze when she's getting tired, she takes herself off to bed after that.
