Hi, I'm a bit new to this forum thing so bare with me! I'm looking for a bit of advice. We picked up our 10 week old choc lab last week and i am lucky enough to be able to bring her to work with me. Just wondering if anyone does this and how best to go about having her in the office without to much choas! its only our second day in the office together and I have a crate set up next to my desk and she goes in there for short periods of time for naps but is this ok? would i be better getting a pen for her instead so she can wonder around a bit more. I take her out often and play in the garden for as long as i can. Just cant find much on the internet about it all! Any help or advise would be most welcome, thanks!
Hi Gemma and welcome to the forum! Ah, it's lovely you can take her to work with you. My situation is slightly different, in that I work from home. When Willow came home at 8 weeks, it was a bit chaotic and I didn't get a whole amount of work done, so be prepared to not be as productive as normal to start off with. Hopefully you'll have it a bit easier being a couple of weeks further down the line, but it varies a lot from puppy to puppy. Without seeing the layout of your office, it's hard to say what the best setup would be, but if possible, I would be inclined to set up a pen around your work area, with a crate inside it. That way, she has a bit of freedom and interaction but can't get into mischief away from you. It gives her somewhere cosy to go to sleep - or for you to pop her away safe if you need to be away from your desk. She'll still need taking out regularly for toilet breaks at that age, and it will be difficult for her to learn how to tell you she needs to go, so toilet training might not be as fast as if she had access to a door to sit by. Puppies do sleep a lot of the day, but they also make plenty of mischief when they're awake, as I'm sure you're finding out. I'm sure everyone else in the office loves having her there PS, we're not one of those kind of forums....
Thanks, i have never done forums but this one seems so helpful i thought i'd give it ago!! Thanks for the advice...the office is very open planned and only 3-4 of us in here (plus three other dogs, all of which are terrifed of Toki the 10 week old pup!) I have a lot of space under my desk with no wires or anything she can destroy which i think would be ideal to set up a pen for her. I have a kong which i fill for her but would you have any other toys/ chews ideas that would keep her occupied for a while?
Hi, I also work from home and if you can would recommend a pen with the crate within it. Although I didn't have a pen as such, we have a central hallway which her crate was in during the day, and that she had free run off. My study is off the hallway so we put a puppy gate at the doorway so I could keep an eye on her in between play times. I must admit though I really didn't get much work done in the first few weeks, and it took us a while to establish a routine. There was more than one conference call where I was heard muttering "be quick" to Jura as I'd whipped her outside for a pee halfway through!
Kongs are great - really great. Get more If you don't mind a bit of clatter, you can use a Kong wobbler, too, which is a treat dispenser. It does make quite a lot of noise, though, but it keeps them well occupied. They also love to destroy cardboard, so any boxes or tubes you have, great. I had some super-thick cardboard tubes for mine when they were teething, which they loved. I still have some (bits) left now and they're just over a year old - they're very solid!! When she's teething, you might try teatowels that have been soaked in water and frozen - I never tried them with mine, but lots of people have had great success with them.
For those of you that work at home, is your home office on the same level of the house as your puppies? My home office is upstairs but Dexter is not allowed upstairs while he is so young plus it is carpeted and he will probably cause havoc, so for the time being I am working in the living room - not an ideal set up as I have a lot of paper work. I was actually on a teleconference the other day and Dexter began squeaking his chew toy very loudly!! But I don't want to put him in his crate and leave him to go upstairs for hours at a time...maybe a pen is a good idea and I can pop down every now and then for toilet and play?
My home office is on the ground floor, so on the same floor as the pup. I do use a pet gate at the office door though as it is a difficult room to puppy proof, too many electrical cables, and paperwork, but I have got full view of her from the office. Yes, squeaky toys are a bit of a nightmare when you are working from home, it's quite amazing how much noise one small puppy can make with one! I now only let Jura have her squeaky toys during her set play times (usually in the garden) and in the evenings. She has her other toys and on my work days (I only work part-time) then she has all her meals in kongs to keep her busy. It has become a lot easier over time (she's now 5 months) now we have established a good routine.
I don't have a home office - I work sat on the sofa So, I just closed off the living room (we're fairly open plan) and sat in there with the pups. They never bothered the cables at all, luckily I don't have any paperwork to worry about and they generally don't squeak squeaky toys, so all in all I've had it easy Of course, they do always like to start playing loudly with one another when I'm on a call, but I generally just put the call on mute while I shove the dogs outside!
I'm the same as Jacqui Gemma,just wanted to say hi as you've had plenty of advice already ...and wow! your office sounds amazing...3 dogs and a puppy?how does ANYBODY get anything done x
Thanks for all the advice and Hi to all! I am finding all the posts on here extremely helpful! First week at work last week and think we managed ok! fingers crossed this week goes ok to! Shes a bit whiny on the way to work in the car still but i'm assuming that she will soon get used to this!? I'm very lucky to have her at work with me and she has got loads admirers already! She is happily sleeping under my desk at the moment after having her kong so a bit of peace! I'm sure i'll have loads more questions for you all soon enough though!!
What a lucky pup Just in case you are not already aware though, dogs at work can be something of an insurance minefield for 3rd party liability. At least as far how things are done in the UK : Public liability insurance for the workplace won't include dog related incidents (unless it's a specialist policy from an dog-business insurer) And the policies for the individual dogs themselves usually exclude "Any compensation, costs and expenses resulting from an incident that happens where you work" (quote from Petplan T&Cs) The end result can leave both the employer and the employees gravely exposed should any kind of incident or altercation ever occur - even if it's indirect such as someone tripping over a dog. Of course we hope/don't ever expect these things to happen but that's largely the theme with any type of insurance it's there just in case.
