Hi Guys, I am currently working from home due to the lockdown, as I'm sure a lot of you are, but it seems to be affecting Mia. Our other lab, Bramble doesn't seem to be worried at all. We rehomed Mia at 4 months old from her breeder who had her living outside in kennels, she took months to house train and we thought we had cracked it but since I have been working from home it seems to have started overnight again. She is good as gold during the day but overnight she will just do a poo on the kitchen floor. I stay up until about 11pm to put her out and am often standing out in the garden for up to half an hour waiting for her to go through her process before she can do both a wee and a poo. My mum, boyfriend and brother all work shifts and are still working as normal so there is usually someone getting up for a shift or returning home from a shift anywhere between 6 and 7 in the morning and whoever is in the kitchen first will put the dogs out to go to the toilet. They are then given breakfast at about 7:30 and will go out again. While I have been home I have been trying to keep changes in Mia's routine as minimal as possible. Usually she would have her breakfast, spend some time chilling in the kitchen while I eat my own breakfast, have a quick walk round the village, then while I get ready to leave she will settle in her crate, I then chuck some toys in with her and shut the door, put the radio on, make my coffee to go and leave. While I am home, I have been giving her breakfast and chilling with her to eat my own breakfast then I have been putting the radio on and putting her toys in her crate but leaving the door open and shutting the baby gate to the kitchen and head off to the office for a couple of hours. Mia will sit at the baby gate crying until I go back out there to get some dinner or to take her out for a walk. During all of this Bramble is just mooching around playing with her ball as normal. They are both used to people being home during the day as with family members working shifts there is usually someone around so they are only on their own for a couple of hours to a time and my dad is home at weekends. Which I think is why it seems to just be affecting Mia as she is very attached to me so me being home at all times is like a dream come true for her. Should I be letting Mia in the office with me or am I doing it right by keeping her in the kitchen where her crate is? And also how do I even go about addressing the new overnight toilet issues?
How old is she ? If she will settle at your feet while you work, why not let her ? Meg is my shadow just now, everywhere I go she’s at my feet, quietly. Could you pop her back in her crate at night ? My dogs were pretty old before I let them out at night ?
She's about 15 months at the moment. My thinking was that if I could keep her routine as similar as possible then it would cause as little disruption to her as possible, I also didn't want to promote further separation anxiety when I do go back to work which will be as soon as this is all over. We never actually crated her overnight as she always settled either on the sofa or in front of the fire in the kitchen with Bramble, we just kept the baby gate closed so that they were in the kitchen which is still the same now.
I'm afraid I don't have answers for you, but I can empathise, because my dog Max is definitely in the same boat. He's used to me being home most of the time because I work from home, but having my husband and daughter at home too has puzzled him greatly. Especially since usually when they're here, it means they're also available to play, and that's not always the case now. Two weeks in, and he's starting to show signs that he's adapting and settling into our new routine. But he is absolutely aware of the difference between "I'm in my room because everyone else has left the house" and "I'm in my room but everyone else is just in another room". He's fine with the former, he REALLY REALLY disapproves of the latter.
It’s so confusing for them isn’t it, I just don’t know what to do for the best. Mia agrees with Max, she does not approve of being in the kitchen if I am home!
Toby is definitely more on edge with his routine disrupted. I walk him for an hour in the morning and used to go again about 3. With the restrictions on that he has to wait until my husband has finished working from home or my daughter(who is back from London to wfh) He paces from 3-6 despite ball games in our small garden. I am a gardener and very lucky to be able to carry on working. I’m in and out 3-4 times a day. Toby used to hear my car and wait quietly for the door to open. Now he feels he has to alert the other two to my presence! Not easy when you are on a conference call Most co-workers are amused by it but not all!
Oh no, poor Toby trying to join the conference call!! We are lucky to have a big enough garden for two labs to charge around but even with extra play time outside Mia is still quite unsettled, she just doesn't understand the situation. I am surprised that Bramble has taken things so well as she is usually so timid and sensitive but it is only Mia who is unsettled at the moment. I really never expected it to have such an impact on her so it's shocked me a bit to be honest
We're about 3 weeks in to the new routine now and Mia is absolutely driving me up the wall! Her toilet issues overnight are getting worse, she is now pooping on the kitchen floor most nights. She absolutely knows she shouldn't be doing it, she doesn't even look to do it during the day when we are around and I know she can hold herself with no trouble as she has been for the past couple of months so I really don't know why she has started it again or how to combat it this time. I'm not sure if it is just coincidence that she started it again when I started working from home or if that can be the cause? She has gotten used to me being in a different room to work now and generally will just settle at the baby gate with a chew toy waiting for me but if I leave the back door open for her, which again we have always done so it's nothing different, she will go out and pick up stones and start chewing. Again, she knows she shouldn't be doing this because as soon I poke my head out the door to see what the noise is she just drops the stone and runs away from it, I have not reprimanded her for it so it's as if she is trying to provoke me into going out there with her. I really don't know. As much as I adore her, I'm sure she was sent to challenge me!
