I am based at home for work and I'm wondering if I am stimulating my puppy enough during the day, our routine is: 6.30am wake up 45 mins to eat play and wee 0715 I go to the gym 0830 Dexter comes out of his crate for a quick cuddle but I'm generally getting dressed/washing up- so I'm around but he doesn't get my undivided attention 0900 I start work, through the day I alternate from working upstairs in office (Dexter in crate) or downstairs in kitchen (Dexter has the run of the downstairs there's a bed in kitchen with me and crate in living room) 1230 is lunch time/play time/ 10 mins of training and sometimes and on lead walk if I know we can go in the evening 1330-1730 I'm back to work alternating between office and kitchen again From 1730 onwards we go for a log walk and he then has our attention until bed time Once a week he goes to puppy day care and once a week is puppy class so lots of socialising available I thought this was okay but Iv noticed Dexter becoming restless recently he goes in his crate sits down gets up sits on the rug gets up comes to the kitchen sits on his bed gets up, goes to the front door mat, gets up and repeat Maybe I'm not showing him enough attention in the day he is getting bored? He he a lot of toys and sometimes plays with them I guess I just need assurance I'm not neglecting him or if I am I will need to figure a new plan of action, I don't want him to be bored with us!
Hi there, If he was really bored I think he'd be being a bit more destructive and noisy...sounds like you say,just restless ....with you being at home you can see him....and he knows you are at home too so it could be he is just working some things out...like you are around but there are times when you aren't 'available' to him? I know you say he's got plenty of toys ...so it might be an idea to put some away and rotate them ,then he's not getting complacent having ALL of them on tap ,keeps them interesting .I know we all bring up the frozen kong suggestion but they really settle my Dexter ....even now when he's 3 .I can give him one if we've got a busy house he will chew it and be settled when he's finished..... Just a few ideas that helped me out when with 'prowling' x
Ah thankyou I think we have spoilt him with so many toys so I'm going to try the rotation and see if that helps! Prowling is the exact word I would use for it! We have 2 kongs on rotation one normal one frozen but I generally only give them to him when he's in his crate. As long as he isn't restless because we aren't showing him enough attention
I don't t think he's lacking in attention and whist he's not being disruptive of destructive ,I'd really just observe him,you are giving him the space then to learn to self settle......good luck x
How old is Dexter? From your OP I tried to figure how much time per day he spends in the crate but could not figure it out. You could examine that. I didn't crate, not really. Had a crate but it was sitting in a pen or my gated kitchen with the crate door open so puppy had considerable room to move around in. But, here's something that made a remarkable difference at my house. At 5.5 months of age and after a month of no longer needing outside at night to bathroom I decided to let Oban have the run of the house at night. He took himself up to our bedroom, lay down on a mat on the floor beside my side of the bed and didn't move or make a peep all night. He was so good. The most remarkable thing was how this seemed to change his daytime behaviour. No more charging from room to room as if to see what had changed while he was in the kitchen all night. He was SO much more calm during the day. Both these good behaviours, night time and day time, persisted. That freedom at night, which he did not abuse, made terrific change for the better during the day. I have no idea if this would work for you but your situation sounds close enough that maybe it's worth a try? Good luck.
