How often do you play with your dog?

[Keepsmiling1]

We have an 11 week old pup who has been home with us for almost 3 weeks. At the moment we are concentrating on house training which is still very hit and miss! But I wondered how much you play/train with your dog/puppy each day?

I am aware of the importance of letting him settle on his own sometimes and learning not to be with someone all the time so I am putting him in a puppy pen (with his crate inside) in the same room as me while I get on with jobs so he's not constantly on me. He does whine but is beginning to settle a bit more. But equally I don't want him to be 'bored' and want to make sure I am doing enough with him each day.

So how much/what do you do each day?

Not just every day, but many times a day. And my dogs are not puppies anymore.

When she asks me

She's 3 and wants to be chased a bit when she gets the zoomies or she will turn up with a toy to be thrown or tug of warred with.

We do tug of war, or hide the biscuit, or chase, or drop the toy or just play fight.

A lot - all training is a game.

They have jobs to do so a lot of training.

Also we use games as a time to chill and wind down so daily every day - many times a day

Many times a day. She keeps bringing toys if she thinks I look at a loose end! Also loves ball games in the garden. However, she also responds to the command 'enough now' and will go and amuse herself when I don't want to play. She is nearly three.

It depends - if he asks and I'm free I'll play with him but he's often quite happy to amuse himself.

He gets a good walk each morning and after that he generally snoozes and potters around most of the day. Most evenings we play tug or do some training together though, and he has to sit/wait etc. for his treats and to go outside so that works as impulse control too.

He's not a huge player though - he will for 10/15 minutes but then gets bored and would rather chew the ball or tuggy.

Ours is 11 weeks too, almost 12 weeks, crazy little springer. And it's on and off all day, unless she's eating or sleeping . She's OBSESSED with tug and fetch! mainly tug and she can keep it up for hours!

When mine asks, several times a day and he's old now.

'Energetic' play always in the morning, and then as and when throughout the day. We play 'sprinkles' at least once a day - that's a great mixture of training/play.

We train a few times a day for no more than 10-15 minutes at a time. I've got a Labsky, an extremely energetic, intelligent 11 month old! Walks and 'play' DO NOT tire him out, but training/scent work do.

Also, the 'weeble' style Kong toys/raw bones create a serene, peaceful pooch.

@MouseInATelescope - very cute! She has a mischievous look about her!

I'd say probably at least a couple of minutes per hour? But I'm probably in the unusual situation of having him in work with me in the office so he's next to me a lot.

When ours was that age they had a couple of walks, was out around the house with us, play or trainingat least once an hour, tug, Kong toys, chase, cuddles etc.

I think you're being a bit unfair expecting a young puppy to keep out your hair so you can get on to be honest. Things slipped a bit in the early days when we got our dog but that's needed.

Even now at almost a year, they're out wandering and are only crated for bedtime and they still get multiple play times and walks and training a day.

When he wants to play, and that’s many times a day. He’s 7 years old but acts like a puppy.

When they want to, even if it's only a moment's break whilst cooking or something, and sometimes I instigate it if I think one of them needs a little more action (looking at you Harvey!).

As a puppy at 11 weeks we played with her a lot. Life was basically sleep, eat, play repeat. She's 2 now and we take her out for 2 X 1.5 hour walks a day which involve not just walking but chasing for ball and swimming in the sea. At home the rest of the day she naps, we do 15 mins of training everyday and play when she wants to.

Mouse. Just had my almost 12 year old Springer pts.

I remember those puppy days so well.

Our puppy is 12 weeks old but we're very fortunate in that we have a 3 year old dog who has very firmly taken on the role of mum. She plays with the puppy whenever he wants - they roll around together, play tug of war with toys, chase each other etc. The older dog will go and get a ball and drop it in front of the puppy when she wants him to play. Fabulous to see.

They'll probably play for half an hour, then have a sleep and repeat throughout the day. So at a rough guess I'd say the puppy is looking for about half an hour of play 10 times a day? But if we didn't have the older dog and I had to do it myself, I would just play whenever he wanted - as much as I was able.

*UrsulaPandress
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So sorry

I play with her several times as day. Either she'll bring me a ball or toy or I'll instigate play - she also has several other things she does to indicate that she wants to play.

She spends quite a bit of the day sleeping or staring at what's going on outside, which can keep her pretty busy, and obviously we also play when we're on a walk; the type of play depends where we are.

She was crate trained as a puppy but I never shut her in it just to keep her out of my hair. Dogs are not animals that should be kept caged and they can learn to settle themselves perfectly well without being confined.

Also, caging a dog stops it being able to freely instigate interaction with the people it shares its home with, one of the biggest joys of having a dog in the home.

When she had a crate it was used at night and only during the day when I had to go out - retired so never left her for long - and when she took herself in it for a nap at which time the door would be open so she could come out when she woke.

Once I knew for sure she wasn't going to chew anything or harm herself while she was alone I stopped shutting it altogether and she stopped using it completely when she around six months old.

My 10 month old is lazy. He’s currently chilling in the garden. He’ll ask for the odd game throughout the day but is happiest having a walk and a sniff. When at home he’ll have a filled kong but mostly he likes chilling out.

Our pup sleeps in a crate at night (he happily goes in) and then during the day he is in the kitchen/back room with us. I do put him in the puppy pen with his crate when I have to leave the room or make something in the kitchen mainly because I can't fully supervise him. Everything I have read about house training is that if you can't watch them completely then they should be confined? Once he is toilet trained he will be able to go everywhere but until he is reliable I don't want to reinforce weeing inside.

We are starting puppy training class tonight so I thought we would probably do a few training sessions each day reinforcing what we have learnt, 2 or 3 walks a day and then playing as and when. I just don't want him to get used to constantly being entertained so thought I would see what other people did with their dogs.

Everything I have read about house training is that if you can't watch them completely then they should be confined?

Have never read that. We've never really been crate users. We acquired our current 12 week old puppy 10 days ago (owner didn't want him) and he came with a crate. But we've only used it once or twice in an emergency for 5-10 minutes and it's probably going into the attic soon. Yes we've had accidents but they're getting less and less frequent. As the weather is nice we have the patio and back doors open during the day. We've been reinforcing how clever he is when he does things outside and just quietly cleaning up when he does something indoors. He only does one or two wees a day indoors now, the rest is outside.

Can't wait to take him out for a walk, but will have to wait another 2 weeks until he's had his 2nd jabs.

Everything I have read about house training is that if you can't watch them completely then they should be confined?
I've never seen that.

Common sense says you wouldn't leave them for hours to go upstairs or out, but if you're just around downstairs then the puppy will tend to sleep or be quite close to you

I let my dog know when they want to play, which isn't often. I think I walk and socialise her enough that when they get home all they want to do is nap! But when she does I pet or do tug of war.

What do everyone's puppies like to play with? As I said earlier, I'm very lucky in that my 3 year old dog is a great nanny and organises games. Puppy came to us with a box of soft toys - none of which he's especially interested in.

What he loves are:

Old shoes (probably a bad move as I now have a very new and slightly chewed Birkenstock sandal 🙄)

Reindeer antlers (fairly sure they're not meant for puppies but oh he loves chewing on them and I take them off him if they start to break down)

Newspaper - a sheet or rolled up ball of newspaper is great fun

Sticks and leaves

Empty (obvs!) milk bottle cartons (need to be confiscated as soon as any sharp edges appear).

Phone chargers - trying to train dcs not to leave them plugged in and trailing on the floor.

Anything that facilitates tug of war - could be a dog toy, or a sock, towel, belt, rope etc

We also got some dog treat balls from Amazon which are good. They have rubber teeth that hold small biscuits so the dog has to work to get at them.

Anyone got other suggestions?