To think it's going to be impossible to work with a young puppy?

[uhohhereweego]

I am a single mum to an 8 year old DD. We brought home a 10 week Labrador puppy around 10 days ago. I wfh however took 2 weeks annual leave to help settle her in so I had plenty of time. It's been great, we've spent lots of time with her. Lots of playing, training, cuddling, bonding, and lots of headway on potty training.

I'm due back at work on Monday however, and I just don't see how it's going to work. She hates her crate, even though I have followed all the advice. She cries and whimpers if I'm out of sight just to go to the bathroom, or if I'm on the sofa and she is on the floor. Never mind sitting up at the kitchen island with her running around.

Is this just something dogs get used to and I need to just accept for a little while?

What do others do? I mean it would be great if I could take 6 months off but obviously that's not possible and I don't believe any other dog owners do that either. So practically what do you do when you have to go to work but have a puppy that needs your attention also?

I can attend to her needs as in, can feed her (obviously), take her out every hour for the toilet. I could play maybe 5/10 mins morning and afternoon and then lots more at nighttime once work is done. But what about her whimpering whilst I am in meetings?

It'll be tough OP for a couple of weeks, but it does pass.

Do what you can with her between meetings and encourage her to sleep afterwards. As a PP said, they should sleep for most of the day at that age.

Set up in the kitchen or somewhere where she can have a safe space. When you have to do meetings have a lickimat or Kong ready for her. Save all your cardboard recycling for hiding kibble in! Use all of her kibble for 'enrichment'. We used to scatter it on the lawn which would keep DPup busy for 5 minutes!

Physical exercise only does so much, pup needs brain work. It tires them out so much faster.

Training, old Amazon boxes and brown paper are great. Scrumple the paper up with some treats, Chuck it in the box and let pup go for it. It'll be cardboard carnage but they love it and they get really tired with it.

We had a 14 week old pup when I went back to work. DH is the WFH and they have a lovely little routine now pup is nearly 1. Some walks but he sleeps most of the day!

You may want a fenced off area anyway as soon your puppy will be biting a lot- and it’s hard for kids to deal with their jump-up bites.

Your puppy will need 18-20 hours sleep a day so maybe just plan in play sessions on your breaks and lunch? Then crate/bed in gated area, and leave to nap. Add in a kong to encourage chill time.

If you’re wfh and can attend to her needs I’m not sure why you’re crating her in the daytime as that’s an utterly bizarre concept when you are in the house?
she will settle to your wfh routine a lot better if you include her in it. I have two retrievers and it would be inappropriate to crate them whilst I’m home.

DH took 2 weeks off, then I took 2 weeks off, then I was able to WFH for 2 weeks... we realised we'd underestimated to attention a new puppy needs and 6 weeks wasn't enough! Muddled through though and now he's 2 years and perfect 🥰

I'm not crating her for a prolonged length of time but I think it's important to get her used to her crate, if I need to pop out to the shop etc. I have two cats and she is always chasing them, if I weren't there I don't know whether they would fight. Or if she would chew through cables etc. I've puppy proofed as much as possible but I wouldn't feel comfortable just giving her full run of the house whilst I'm out even for 30 minutes.

So I am trying to crate train her whilst I am there so I don't just decide one day that I need to leave the house and just put her in there. That would be totally inappropriate. I also have an open plan house. No place for puppy gates.

It's literally 5-10 minutes where she can see me

I have a new puppy french bulldog and we started as we meant to go on
so we would leave him on his own for 5 -10 mins each hour to get him used to being on his own straight away

in the day if we go out he is in his crate and at night he is in his crate and we cover it at the top with a blanket
he’ sleeps right the way through from around 9pm - 8am and has done from the beginning pretty much

Even if he goes in his crate in the daytime he just chills out and sleeps 😂 he’s not left long though 30 mins - 1hr mins max and my other half is always around .
we take him out in the car every day as well so he is used to car journeys

You can crate her and put toys in and water and a kong but leave the crate door open so she can go in / out if you are at home
maybe put a stairgate as well so she can’t roam around the whole house but can still see you
you can buy a cheap blink camera so you can check on her if your out

honest dogs sleep and puppy’s sleep loads
lots of toys as well it’s a lab they need lots of mental stimulation otherwise they will get bored and chew everything
my living room looks like I have a new baby’s with all the bloody toys
mine is 3 months now and honestly he is the best behaved puppy I have ever come across

I did this and actually managed ok. I had to work from the dining table rather than my office, but my pup got lots of playtime just before I started working and he would sleep for the first couple of hours. He eventually started to play with his toys on his own for a bit and then we would have more play time and walks when allowed at lunchtime. I would try and tire him out if I had a meeting coming up. After a couple of weeks he would sit on my feet whenever I had a teams call and started to associate the noise when you leave a call with playtime 🤣 you can get them into a fairly structured routine quite easily at that age, with some strategic breaks to run around with them and play. I think he learned that when I was on the laptop it was nap time or independent play time, he just wanted to be close to me for the most part.

Make the crate an exciting place. Put treats in it throughout the day for her to find when she goes in there so she associates it with being a good place.
When she cries in the crate don't give attention until there's a break in the cry. The moment she is quiet, give fuss and a treat. Our dog now loves his crate. Takes himself off to it for a lie down and chill! Just need them to associate it with being a good place. Never use it as a place of punishment.

I took two weeks’ leave when I got my puppy and then resumed WFH, although I do have a lot of flexibility in my working day which made things a little easier.

I actually found that things started to get much easier once I was back at work. I think during those first two weeks, pup was overstimulated as a result of me being too available and giving him too much attention. Once I started working at my desk again he seemed to get that it was quiet time and he would often just curl up next to me and sleep. Obviously there were still plenty of distracting moments but in general it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I had feared. Hopefully your puppy will be similar!

Crates are fine while you’re there, to teach them to feel safe in them and to encourage enough sleep.
Reduce attention.
Teach ‘settle down’ as early as you can (lots of advice on this online).

Can you make it into a den like this? Blanket over the top so it is cosey and hide high value treats inside (pieces of chicken or ham) so it makes it fun being in there and they feel safe. It's trial and error at first but if used correctly crates work really well. This was my puppy a few years ago - she loved her crate in the end! X

Oh and I also put one of my old dressing gowns in there so she could smell me and fed her in there too so she associated it with good things x

I think you are getting some pretty harsh responses - I could understand if you'd said you are back to work in an office after 2 weeks so pup left on their own. But you're at home, and not full time - this should be fine.
When I got our current dog, I took two weeks off - I also work from home. This was fine. No, obviously you don't train a puppy in two weeks but got him settled into a routine that we could continue around work. My last dog I had about 3-4 weeks off because I was between jobs. That was great but unrealistic to expect this to be the case every time!
I think these have already been mentioned but my main tips would be:

• build in a good game/training session before you start in the morning and again at lunch time - pup should be encouraged to have a nap after
• make use of kongs, lick mats and snuffle mats
• if you can work Sat in the kitchen, then give pup a kong or similar to chew while you sit at the island - that should hopefully discourage him from whining and if he's had a good play before, he should have a nap.

-leave the room for short periods and gradually build up. you want to leave the room and return without any kind of fuss but if this is proving impossible you can also give a treat before you leave (before he starts whining) so that he forms a positive association

• naps are really important or they get overstimulated and (more)bitey. also important for pup to have a rest after eating to avoid getting a twisted gut which can be fatal

It does settle down, although the adolescent months can be tricky too (wouldn't say they are a full time job though).
Good luck!

If you are WFH it will be tough but it's doable. You will just have to take a lot of breaks to play and interact with your puppy. I have a lab too and the first 8 months were hard, he was full on, but you make it work. The pup doesn't need stimulating 24/7. Give her toys, plenty of exercise and be prepared to leave your desk every 30 mins for a pee/poop trip to the garden. I agree with a PP, labs are full on but once they get a bit older they fit in with you well. My boy is now 2 and can sleep next to me if I'm working, if I've given him a long walk and a full tum before. Good luck!!!

Crikey people have been really harsh here, you're working from HOME three days a week, eg the puppy is never left alone and you can dedicate far more time to it than anyone who works outside the home, or full time, do people really expect only the unemployed to get dogs? My husband and I both work from home we got a puppy in Sept, he's 9 months. First few months were tricky one of us always worked in the same room as him so we could let him in/out the house we gave him lots of attention, training, played in garden etc inbetween calls. There were a few embarrassing moments in meetings but that's the nature of working from home. I'd say once he was house trained (around 4 months) things got much easier as we weren't nipping out of calls to let him out every half an hour. To be honest giving him plenty of attention/training was easy the hard part was teaching him to be left alone, as we're rarely all out of the house at the same time. We had to all just wander down the road (for 5, then 10 then 15 mins etc) so he'd get used to it and learn that we always come back.

In some ways, you working from home might actually be hindering your puppy's progression to confident independence. How often is the puppy left alone for and how long? The more you pop out for short amounts of time, the easier it will be for puppy to learn that not only do you always come back, so no need to worry, but also how to self soothe and entertain themselves.

Potty training? It is not a child , so why anthropomorphise? did you not research this stuff before you bought the dog?

No, but she is crating puppy for most of the day whilst she is at home! Awful behaviour and poor puppy. I despair. Why oh why do people get dogs when they only want a part time 5-9pm companion. Just get a goldfish!

It does get better & after he was about 1 our puppy really settled down. I think you need to try getting them used to being alone a bit though or it can cause issues & become very tying. Even just half an hour here & there will help & make them a bit less needy. Mine never liked his crate so we gave up on that. I also wfh 3 days a week & try to time walks / playtime around meetings so he’ll sleep when I need him to but it doesn’t always work. Do you have a garden? On a nice day I would leave the door open & try to work somewhere I could keep an eye on him, he will occupy himself for a while sniffing around outside. Just try to get through the next 6 months or so then it should be easier.

We have a 16 week old Labrador puppy and we spent the best part of 2 years debating whether having a puppy would be practical.

I work long shifts (30+ hours in 3 days) and DH works 50 hours. We also have 3 primary age kids and another dog.

We finally managed to work out a consistent pattern for being able to be with the puppy long term. It involved changing my DH to wfh when I'm not home, realising we can't holiday this year as we don't want to leave puppy in kennels/boarding etc.

Getting this puppy was more thought out than having another human baby!

From day 1 we have been strict on training, including crate training. It's the only way. My husband has grown up with gun dogs and he has said you have to see them as 'dogs in training' rather than puppies. I thought this sounded cruel to begin with but 7 weeks in we are already so glad we have been like this with him. The dog is a joy to have around presently (although ask me that again when his hormones kick in ). DH is currently at work in his office, pup has been for his walk before the school run this morning.

Basically it's about being massively organised, like you would be if you had another baby.

And some of these comments are completely ridiculous. Two full weeks of leave and then returning to work, from home, for only three days a week, with an 8-year-old on hand to give the puppy fuss and attention after school too… that sounds like an IDEAL scenario for a puppy and I honestly don’t know what people want from you. Are you only supposed to get a puppy if you take a full year off work?!

Puppies need to sleep 18-20 hours a day and half the battle is teaching them to settle and snooze rather than being ‘on’ all time time. Having you around but working quietly instead of giving them unlimited playtime and attention is a really good way to teach them that. As long as you’re prepared to be up and down out of your seat a lot for toilet breaks and you’ve taken the time to adequately puppy proof your desk setup then it will be fine.

i agree with making the crate a good place. Nice bed, covered with towel so it’s a nice den and treats placed in there when she’s not looking so she can find them

In honesty, the only thing you've really done 'wrong' is not establish a routine right from the off. So the puppy has had two weeks of getting used to you being on demand and now must get used to something else. But it's not a shocker.

Think about your day, your working requirements and the puppy's needs. Come up with a schedule then stick to it unless it is very clear it isn't working.

e.g. start the day off right with a brief walk (once jabbed), breakfast and toilet; this matches your puppy's natural waking cycle and then sets them up for a little quiet time when you first start working.

Break the day up into hourly segments. Every hour the dog gets time to go out in the garden to toilet. That's going to be needed to get on top of toilet training.

Then add in some activity, albeit brief. e.g. 5 mins of fuss or play or getting used to grooming etc. At lunchtime a short walk (once jabbed) and some lunch. Those walks can obviously grow as your puppy grows.

Set it all out, puppy proof the best room you want to work from - which may may getting some cheap trunking to keep wires safe, or removing some electronic objects where you can etc. Put a bed in their for the dog then largely ignore between allocated times and get on with your work.

Use the time now to establish exactly how you want a working day to go and this will set you and your dog up for the future.

Keep calm, perservere unless you are sure it isn't working and needs tweaking, and have faith all will come right in the end.