Hi everyone, First off, the puppy handbook, labradorsite and this forum have been great information sources in the past weeks, thanks so much for that! Sunny is a 12 week old 1/2 lab, 1/2 great dane/mastiff. He's been with us for 2 weeks now. Things are going pretty well, he likes his crate and has been sleeping in it in the kitchen without a problem from the first night. Most of his potty breaks happen outside and the biting is getting a lot better (providing that we aren't wearing pajama pants, those are just irresistible). I have a question though about what the best set-up for him might be. He has a play pen in the kitchen and his crate is in it. There's also a baby-gate from the kitchen to the living room (there is no door). When we come back from his potty break I hang out in the kitchen for a bit while doing dishes etcetera and give him the run of the kitchen too. However, all he seems to want to do is sit behind/besides me or sit on my feet. When I leave the kitchen (sometimes leaving him the whole kitchen, sometimes just his play pen with crate) and sit at the dining table in the living room to work where he can see me he sits in front of the gate for a while looking at me and sometimes jumps up or whines. After a minute or two he usually just retreats to this crate (looking sad) and goes to sleep, he won't really play by himself (unless there's a kong with a treat). This is how I've been handling it: When I am in the kitchen and he sits besides me (quite politely, no jumping or biting usually), I give him a little pet on the head now and then or suggest a toy, but he usually comes back within 5 seconds. As for the wining or jumping up the gate while I'm at the dining table, I've been ignoring this behavior every time but I think the whining is getting a little worse. My questions: Is this normal puppy behavior or does it seem like he is too clingy? Is there something wrong with this setup? Should I continue to ignore him in hopes that he'll settle down more quickly or does it seem like I'm making it worse? Or am I not giving him enough access to me? Another option could be to give him more space so that he can just hang out by the dining table as well while I sit there. As for play, I try to give him structured play 5 minutes 3 times a day. Once or twice a day I'll just cuddle him for a while either on the kitchen floor or in my lap at the dining table, he seems to love that. We also take him out on outings outside (carrying him everywhere) at least every other day. I know this was a little long winded, sorry! Any insights or advice you might have would be very much appreciated!
Most pups and dogs do not play much by themselves. They may chew on Kongs, bones etc. We have a fabric dummy on a long elastic (bunge inside of tubular webing) that hangs from our upper deck into the yard. Cooper will play with it for a few minutes at a time. More likely to do it when there is an audience. Your setup is similar to what we did with both of our pups, except that the crate was in bedroom. The pen was in the kitchen and we also still have a pet gate for the times we need to keep them in the kitchen. We put a big cardboard box on its side in the pen, so they would have sort of a den area. When we had a puppy in the pen, we tried to spend as much time as possible in the kitchen with them. We would work or read at the kitchen table some of the time, and let them out of the pen anytime we could watch them. We got both of our pups at 7 weeks, and by 12 to 16 weeks they were pretty reliable and often had the run of the house. Cooper is much more clingy than Tilly ever was. She likes to be close to us, but is not upset when we leave her for hours. Both of them will normally be in the same room we are in, unless we go into our offices and shut them out. We have dog door into the back yard, and before they were a year old they had the run of the house all the time. Our first Lab was a 4yr. old rescue, and she had the run of the house almost from the time we brought her home.
I don't think you have much to worry about. We are discovering that behavior is not set in stone. As these guys mature they can change slowly. Murphy was not much of a "people" dog when he was a pup. Oh sure, if we were doing something then he was all in. But if things quieted down he would wander off to a favorite spot and ignore us. Now he is just over 3 years old. Sometimes he wants to park about as close as he can get, other times he will wander off to the bedroom to take a nap or go over to his bed and snooze. When people are over he likes to lay down where he can watch everyone. I guess you could say that they are like us, we all change over time. Usually for the better!
I think it would be a good idea to increase your time spent interacting with him- 5 minutes for three times a day doesn’t sound very long to me. I understand that you need to work, but I think if you played for 20 minutes your puppy would be more inclined to sleep while you worked for an hour or so ( then another play.)
