I need puppy advice - BIG TIME! We got our lab pup this past Sunday (4 days ago). My husband and I both work. He leaves at 5:30, so I get up with the pup then. We play from 5:30-8:00 when I have to leave for work. I'm not high maintenance, so it doesn't take much of that time for me to get ready. The first day, we locked her in the kitchen with a blanket, her water bowl, and a chew toy. When my husband got home at 2:30 (she had been alone for 6.5 hours) he said she had peed and pooped, but that was to be expected! The next three days we crated her. I realized today when I went home on my break that she had soaked her blanky in her cage! I feel like a horrible parent already as I am starting to read that you shouldn't leave a puppy in a cage longer than 2 hours I can already see anxiety starting! I immediately bought a play pen and pee pads online which I am going to use from now on! Any advice from this point on? PLEASE HELP!! I need it!!!!
Hi Melissa, the main thing you need to consider at this stage is hiring a puppy walker, finding a daycare type setting for young puppies or getting friends/neighbours/family to help out with your pup during the day, as that is too long for such a young puppy to be alone. Are you able to take any time off work with your puppy? You need to spend some time building up the amount of time your puppy will be OK home alone. It's very common where I live to have a puppy walker visit several times a day if you are unable to be home to help with toilet training and give them some company - but it is quite costly. Hopefully you are able to work something out, as you don't want to have a puppy with separation anxiety or destructive behaviours from boredom as she gets older. A puppy pen is preferable to a crate at this stage, while you are toilet training. We always used the pen if there was any chance our puppy wouldn't be able to hold it, so not forced to pee in her crate. She's much too young to have any bladder control. At this age, I believe we were going outside every 20 mins with her and as soon as she woke up from any naps.
6.5 hours is a long time for a puppy to be alone! How old is she? Young pups can need to wee every 20 minutes. You need to organise someone to come in and let her out and play with her!
Quinn is spot on. I wish that I had got a playpen. I kept Buddy in a bathroom and did some damage to the wall/window sill. Even though they were easy fixes, it was a pain to fix. Once, they are old enough to crate full time things get a lot better. I think the rule is hour/month old on how long they should be able to hold it.
Could you look into a dog walker? If your pup is already showing signs of anxiety now, it's only going to get worse. 6.5 hours is a long time, especially for such a young pup. Whether they are in a crate or a pen, you do need to find someone to pop in on a regular basis to take out for a wee and give him some company. They can become destructive if bored!
Do you or your husband have a flexible work schedule by any chance or do you live close enough to work to come home for lunch? We have a 14 week old and we both work full time. It's been hard, but my wife and I have been making due until she's vaccinated enough for daycare by keeping her confined in the kitchen area and coming home for lunch every day for bathroom and a short play session. This has worked for us because my schedule is flexible enough for me to leave for an hour, and my wife works 5 minutes away. Interactive/food toys like Kongs seem to help keep her occupied as well. Also I would recommend trying to take some time off if possible to help with the Bonding, it helped us a lot and our pup went from a nervous wreck in the first week to trusting that we come back for her (our big improvement of the past week )
If funds are tight, you might consider looking on "borrowmydoggy" https://www.borrowmydoggy.com/ Good luck though, we all make mistakes, and a lot of have been taken unawares by how much work they need. Luckily you have realised early and are looking into some sort of plan going forward. Have a look into the puppy articles on the labrador site here: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies/ An essential guide to puppies : the "Happy Puppy Handbook" https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Happy-...5/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_1_QCZK?tag=thelabsit-21 Do let us know how you get on....
You could also try pawshake.co.uk where you enter the sort of care you're looking for and the area you live and it will come up with people in your area who provide, for payment, walks, daycare, dropping into the house etc. It's in the U.K. though, I don't know if that's where you are. I also got quite a few contacts from asking other dog owners at the park.
