The responses to my first question were so helpful that I'm just going to keep the questions coming... I'm adjusting to life with a puppy, and really enjoying most of it. My little spaniel is gorgeous (photos to follow - the file size was too big when I tried), very bright, and very affectionate and sweet most of the time. But she's taking up so much of my time! I'm curious how others are managing their time with small pups, and if anyone has successfully managed to implement a solid routine at an early age. Jess is 13 weeks old and I've had her for 3 weeks (but as my parents bred the litter, I also spent a good bit of time with her while she was younger). I have quite a flexible job and often work from home but tend to go into the office in the mornings. I leave Jess in the kitchen with a couple of kongs and when I get home she seems to have slept the whole time. The morning shift, from 9am-12pm or so is good and I'm able to get something done (though it's fair to say that by 9am I've usually already spent 2-3 hours feeding/walking/entertaining her so it's not surprising that she's tired!). But the afternoons are hopeless. I feed her lunch, then I take her for a walk. Usually she doesn't poop, which means I rush her out every time she whines, which means I'm essentially reinforcing her whining, which means we spend several hours in a cycle of waiting for her to poop. And then it's time for her evening feed and then it starts all over again! I feel like I'm on a constant round of Jess-wrangling: feeding, playing, tiny bits of training (today she learnt to 'touch' my hand - and she was so fast! She got it almost immediately), numerous games, cuddling her, walking her, trying to get her to settle, trying not to wake her up, hoping that she'll poop or piddle or sleep. I think she's wonderful but I'd also like to keep my job. How are others managing? For those of you who work from home, how do you get anything done? I know she's just a baby and it's not fair to expect too much - but what would be fair to expect? Would it be reasonable to leave her penned in the kitchen from 9-12.30 or so, feed and play with her and walk her until about 2pm and then crate her in my study for a few hours while i work? She's grasped that our morning routine involves her settling quietly. Now I need her to do the same with the afternoons.... If anyone has figured out a good routine, do let me know!
HaHa! You sound so like me with my first puppy! I'm on my second puppy now, and I'm so 'this is what happens now guys' you wouldn't believe. It's made a bit worse because I have an older dog that is used to all the attention going. Pupette (new pup) and Pup (older dog) just have to get used to me working - I tell them I need to work, otherwise we'll run out of money for seabiscuits, and that would be a disaster. I won't bore you with the ins and outs of my routine, but yes, basically I try to make sure Pupette is 'empty' then she is in her pen while I work. I never, ever, go to her when she makes a noise. I would rather she had a pee or a poo in her pen than I reinforce noise (by the way, apart from the first day, she never has had a wee or poo in her pen all the noise was just noise). I work out the time I can spend with her, with Pup, making sure they get as much 121 time, and as much time generally, as I can spare and then that's that. Pup is snoozing under my desk, and Pupette is in her pen. No messing.
I got almost zero work done when Willow first came home! When she was sleeping, I was showering, doing the laundry, washing up etc etc. There just didn't seem like enough time to fit work in as well! Luckily, my business partners were understanding and we were in a quiet period anyway, so it wasn't too horrendous that my productivity went through the floor. I also caught up with work by working into the wee hours, when she was dead to the world. I was lucky that regular bouts of insomnia had prepared me for the sleep depravation that puppy parenthood brings I very quickly realised that she had to learn that, when I had my computer on my lap, it meant I was boring. So, no eye contact, let alone talking to her, giving her attention for noise etc etc. I was pretty lucky, because she was an angel puppy compared to some that people have talked about on here! To start with, it obviously wasn't feasible for her to go any length of time without attention, so we just had to build it up over time, and eventually, we've ended up in a good routine where they snooze the time away when I'm working. Angelic as she was, however, at 6pm every evening, she turned into Devil Dog and there was nothing I could do to get her to settle down. I quickly started taking her out for a walk around the village at that time (being carried because she was too young to go on the ground), pre-empting the horns appearing from her little head. After that, she'd settle down for a snooze in her crate.
"Angelic as she was, however, at 6pm every evening, she turned into Devil Dog and there was nothing I could do to get her to settle down." Oh my goodness, this is EXACTLY what Jess does. She's currently being Demon Dog incarnate and I don't know what else I can do. She's already had plenty of exercise today - too much, probably - but she was getting destructive in the kitchen so I took her outside. That was no fun at all. She was lead-pulling & thrashing around, ignoring my desperate bribes of cooked ham, and generally being an impossible dog. I resorted to carrying her home (the park is literally outside my garden gate, which is handy - but it's a small park and it's very popular with dog walkers so there are a lot of distractions and a lot of off-lead dogs that I am wary of). I hate relying on carrying her - and it won't be feasible as she gets bigger anyway - but it seems to be the only way to get her to calm down when she's being demonic. We start puppy classes tomorrow evening so let's see how that goes. I fear she will be the wildest pup in the class!
(But I should also note that I took Julie's advice of "no messing" to heart today and Jess was fantastic all afternoon. I spent an hour with her from 12.30-1.30 and then put her back in her pen in the kitchen and didn't give in to any whining. I only let her out for a couple of brief toilet breaks until about 5pm. So maybe she's earned a stint of being demonic!)
HeeHee. "I'm not messing around, guys" has become my best trained settle cue over the last week or so.....
