Looking after a colleague’s dog for a week. What should I look out for, or any advice you can give?

[CarnageAtTheGardenCentre]

My colleague is giving me a little suitcase (awwwww 🐕😁) with the dogs stuff with food and other things at the end of this week.

She is a very anxious person and I don’t want to plague her with too many questions in case she gets worried that I won’t be able to look after her properly.

The dog is still a puppy, six month old, and very small.
I’m afraid of losing her 😁.
It’ll be good practice for us, as we are thinking of getting ourselves a dog in the near future.

So please, any advice would be appreciated.

Do not open the front door without the dog being secured either on lead or in another room. Even the friendliest puppy can bolt.

Other than that, for a puppy it important the toilet training is continued so make sure you take them out at regular intervals. He may get a bit confused and try to toilet inside.

Ask for the usual routine, when is she usually walked, fed, let out for toilet, and bed time.

It is ok to ask her how often she walks. At 6 months they shouldn't be over exercised.

Also how often does she go out to toilet, what are her cues for going out. It would be worth getting some pet cleaner incase of any accidents while at yours.

If you aren't used to dogs don't feed her anything you are not provided with/told is ok, there are some foods that are very toxic to dogs such as chocolate, raisins/grapes, sweeteners, onions etc.

I would ask for
A rundown of her day's routine
What commands she knows
Anything she's scared of
Any quirky/disobedient behaviour and how to handle it

An extra pillow for your bed!!

Thanks both, some good suggestions and advice.
Yes, a trip to buy some pet cleaner is on the cards.
I’m looking forward to it, but nervous in equal measure.

That extra pillow for the bed, yes 😁

Pet cleaner: which one do any of you recommend?

You could consider having an extra identity disc engraved and put on the pup's collar in addition to her existing disc saying "On holiday at (your address), telephone ..........".

The puppy may still be teething, so put away anything she could chew. Frozen carrots are very good as dog chews.

@sueelleker

The puppy may still be teething, so put away anything she could chew. Frozen carrots are very good as dog chews.

Frozen carrots, good idea @sueelleker 💡 I’ll look into the disc engraving @StandardPoodle