Puppy advice

[Bex19999]

Hi

I have been researching getting a puppy for a long time .. I work from home 5 days a week due to Covid however I did work from home a few days a week before Covid .. my job is flexible and my company have said even when things are more ‘normal’ they plan on adopting this way of
Working for the foreseeable.

I live alone so all the responsibility will be on me however have a neighbour/friend who could Pop in if needs be.

Even though I work from home I do however have a social life and I am worried that working from home all week the puppy would get separation a anxiety it I was to go out for a few hours.

I am aware new puppies shouldn’t be left alone for more than 2 hours etc and wouldn’t plan on leaving it alone whilst it is very young.. I am more concerned for when it’s a bit older . I am indoors basically all week for work but I do go for dinner/ drinks with friends on the odd evening / weekend ( before lock down). Is this okay ?

Also regarding crate training I’ve read conflicting advice .. is it better to gate off a safe area in my home for the pup and put a bed puppy pads etc or is it best to crate train?

I’ve never owned a dog before

Thanks

Oh and another question.. is it best to use puppy pads or to take the pup outside every hour ? And forget the pads all together ?

To effectively toilet train you want to avoid encouraging the pup to toilet inside where you can.

Crate train your pup initially (also good for toilet training at night as they will try to avoid toileting where they sleep). Crate training is handy for so much, travelling, vet stays if needed, visiting people where your dog can't just run around the house etc.

Start as you intend to go. Teach your dog to be able to be alone from the start, even if you need to buy extra treats/bones etc to keep it occupied outside for a period of time, increase the length of time as it becomes more comfortable. Bringing your pup up as an inside dog expecting you to be with it all the time is a recipe for disaster if you intend to leave it by itself as an adult.

@StoppinBy when you say Crate train to start with how does this work ? Do you just have the crate for them to sleep in etc ? But still take the pup out to toilet ? Would you separate the crate and have one side with pads in or avoid that ?

And yes agree with recipe for disaster for adult dog. So leave it in the crate and go out for short amount of times to start with ?

I'm not an expert myself but I would have thought you would be alright to leave dog occasionally for a few hours once out of puppyhood, MN can be a bit fierce about ever, ever leaving your dog (because of the flood of posters who say things like 'I work full time 9-5 with an hours commute, plus I have hobbies in the evening and I take my DC to their activities all day Saturday and Sunday, but it's OK I'll get a dog walker and sometimes once a year take it on long walks, oh and I want a puppy but I can't take any time off work, is this OK?) but in reality most people I know do leave their (well adjusted, adult dogs) alone for 2 -3 hours or so occasionally and it's fine.

Personally I have only had one dog which had a real problem with that (would howl, piss everywhere and chew things up ) and he was a cocker which is a breed particularly known for separation anxiety plus because he was such an anxious dog, he'd never been trained to be left alone from a young age (we got him as an older dog) so he never really had been taught to not find it a distressing experience, so it became a vicious circle IFYSWIM? So if you are careful in your choice of breed to avoid those known for separation anxiety, choose a good breeder and quiz her about the personality of mum and dad (an anxious mum in particular may produce anxious pups) and take care to carefully get your dog being used to being left from puppyhood (I do NOT mean leaving a young puppy for hours on end but gradual acclimatisation - we started by literally leaving the room for a second then coming straight back and making a big fuss of puppy, very gradually building it up and never adding time if he showed the slightest signs of anxiety. A trainer or behaviourist can help you with this process.

Or, and I am 100% not of the rescue-only school of thought, but as the ability to go out / leave dog occasionally is important to you, an older rescue dog will have its personality much better known than a puppy so you could ask to be matched with a confident/chilled out dog that is OK to be left. Or, with our anxious boy, we found there were work-arounds to the separation problem, our dog walker offered an occasional 'baby sitting' service where she would sit with them for an evening if we wanted to go out (this was too expensive for everyday but worked on the odd occasion), or we made friends (through the dog!) with a neighbour who also had an anxious dog and we did occasional 'swaps' where we'd have her dog for a few hours in exchange for the same in return - so we did still manage to have a life despite pooches 'special needs'! It meant more planning and no more spontaneous 'shall we pop out for dinner' as we either had to find somewhere we could take the dog or make arrangements in advance but that is the way of things when you have a dog unfortunately!

My preference on your other questions is for crate training and outdoor only toilet training. Crate training when done properly and for the benefit of the dog (so the dog has a safe and secure 'base' in their crate that they find comforting, not so the owner has somewhere they can shut them away) is really useful, particularly if you do want to leave your dog occasionally. I am really not a fan of puppy pads, IMO they just confuse the dog and teach them that sometimes it's OK to toilet inside (I wouldn't rely on anything that requires a leap of logic, my dogs have never possessed that brain power ), whereas although annoying to have to spend ages outside waiting for your dog to pee, particularly in the middle of the night in the early days, at least it's a simple message for them, outside good inside bad, which as I've always had very thick dogs is the only way forward! I particularly think you should never ever encourage the dog to pee in or near it's bed so crate training with puppy pads a big no no for me... But I think either approach can work and if your breeder has started toilet training them one way at home (as mine had as I got ours a little later than average) you might want to stick with that to avoid confusion!

Do not use puppy pads - they can encourage the puppy to wee indoors and also encourage them to wee on surfaces you never want them to wee on eg carpets.

Crate training is a personal thing. What ever you decide it is vital the dog has a safe den area that they love to be in. There is lots of training advice on this.

Re leaving puppies. Ideally if puppies are not left at all for at least 2 weeks maybe more (depends on the puppy) they build up positive experiences and rarely suffer from separation anxiety. Again there are ways to prevent this and easy training methods to do. Dogs need to be left and they can easily be trained to be left for periods. However obviously there is a limit to how long they can be left for.

Books to help you are easy peasy puppy squeazy and also you will be recommeded the dog training advice onfacebook. Loads to read.

If you do go ahead book a visit with a trainer before you get your dog - they can come and give a 121 visit and help you set up the house and exercises that will fit in with your way of life and get you and the dog off to a good start.

While it is a baby puppy I would recommend using some sort of plastic basket with a blanket (no fluff filled doonas unless you want to wake up to a snow storm lol) and putting a puppy pad on the base of the crate, after all they are babies and toileting inside is going to happen.

Yes, our pups always sleep in a crate until they can be trusted loose in the house overnight. I personally use a mix of inside and outside time during the day and only use the crate either when I go out for a short time and don't want to leave pup out (for instance when they are very little and I am not ready to leave them yet with our other dogs etc) or overnight.

With a new pup I put them in the yard while I am home for a period of time and crate when I go out. As they get used to being in our house/yard then I start to leave them out for periods of time when I am out. There are other approaches that work too though :-)

Even though you WFH, are you still expected to work certain hours or can you flex your hours around a dog? I find it easiest with mine to work around his naps. Eg I get up with him around 06:30 and we do toilet, breakfast, play and some training for an hour or so before he goes back into his crate for a nap and I start work. I take my breaks and lunch when he is awake and work when he sleeps, which is a lot! DH does the same on days he WFH. Appreciate not everyone is able to work like this but it makes it much easier and has the added bonus of getting you up and about for breaks rather than being chained to the desk for 8 hours.

It's best to build up the time a puppy will be on it's own starting with a short 10 seconds on the other side of the door and increasing it gradually. Dont move onto 30 seconds until he is fully relaxed about 10 seconds. It might be a while before you can go for evenings out though, unless you get a sitter. Do this even if you don't need to be out of the room if you can.

Crate training is a good idea IMO. Mine loves his crate, it's dark and cosy and he will often go in of his own accord to chill. It's also safer, and he will go to sleep a lot quicker in there than when hes on the sofa or somewhere where he can easily be distracted! He also doesn't go to the toilet in there, so it's made toilet training much easier. I get up in the night to take him to the toilet. I wouldn't bother with puppy pads.

Good luck! What breed are you thinking of?

I prefer a wire crate as they are very open, I suggest that you use a crate that wont have heaps of 'spare' space in it as pup will just move away from their bed to toilet and very importantly (and I am sure that people may disagree with this but I stand by it very firmly), teach your dog that you are also allowed in it's crate, feed it from your hand while it is in there, move it's bedding around, pat it while it is in the crate etc regularly.

A dog that crate/bowl guards can be avoided and it is very important to start that work in a gentle, kind way as soon as you bring it home.

If you’re on FB look at the group dog training advice and support. They have great files. You won’t be able to leave a young pup for anything like two hours. They need to go out after eating or drinking or playing or sleeping and every half an hour too!
Also consider daycare or puppy Walker for days you need to work. Someone popping in may well not be enough.

Thanks for all your helpful messages .. I am still researching breeds but wound like a small dog .

As for my job it is totally flexible and I will 100 percent be able to work from home around the pup.. I basically manage myself I have little supervision from my manager and it’s not the type of job where you can’t move from your desk for 9-5.. I don’t have set lunch breaks etc as long as I get the work done my hours are very flexible.

If you have the crate just for sleeping not a big enough for them to have accidents in.. would you encourage puppy pads for outside the crate incase of accidents ? Or would you literally just watch and take the pup outside every hour ?

As for in the night time I’ve read some ppl set their alarm every hour and take them out ? Is this what I’d need to do ??

I’ve never had a dog before and my family haven’t either growing up so I’m not sure tbh

We dont use puppy pads at all - just take him straight out into the garden when he comes out of the crate and give loads of praise when he goes. Keeping the crate by the back door is a good idea. Also take him out after meals, play time, training sessions, him being excited etc. I'd say every 20 mins to half an hour while he is up and watch out for sniffing and circling as they are signs he needs to go.

We do every 3-4 hours overnight with ours and it works fine

Re accidents/toilet training and the crate, we didn't use puppy pads at all. We got him when he was a bit older than some people get their pups, I think he was nearly 12 weeks, the guidance is they can hold it one hour for every month of their age, so at 8 weeks old they would need to go every 2 hours, at 12 weeks every 3. Thankfully as there were 2 of us we could divide it up, so I would stay up until pup's last toilet at 1am ish, then only one overnight toilet needed at 4am, then DH got up with him for the day at 7am. This wasn't much fun but it was only for a few weeks, it meant we only had a few accidents in the crate and he quite quickly dropped the overnight toilet and then we just got up earlier to let him out at 6am. He soon learnt to cry for us to get up and let him out if he needed to go earlier to avoid weeing in his bed which dogs naturally prefer not to do (although he did also learn that once he was out he could whizz around the garden having zoomy funtimes which wasn't great )...

For teaching him to be left alone, as I said we left him initially for barely 10 seconds, not in his crate, when he was loose in the living room and happy, relaxed, playing with his toys. We literally got up, left the room, closed the door and then came straight back in and made a big fuss of him. After doing this once or twice a day for a bit, we progressed to leaving the room, counting to 10, then 20, then 30 (all the while listening at the door for any sounds of distress and coming straight back in if there were any) - pretty soon we were able to go for a wee or leave him for 10 mins to cook or whatever but still 'within range' to come back if he was upset. Then started leaving the house altogether but only for very very short periods, 5 mins or less, again building up gradually to 2-3 hours which is probably the most he's ever left now. It's crucial that they find being left alone a positive experience and never ever are left to the point where they are frightened and upset as then they will always associate being left with those emotions and get worked up quicker and quicker, so we found some 'brain game' toys that he really liked that he only got when left (he doesn't get on with kongs but he likes licky feed mats and frozen rawhide chews and bones, it's a bit of trial and error)...

Look up that group.
No puppy pads.
Will be more than out every hour.
Sleep near pup so you can get pup out when it needs to go. Don’t set alarm.
Best to decide on a breed first. Consider exercise and grooming needs. Then contact the breed club for advice re health tests and breeders.

I honestly think you'll struggle to raise a small puppy on your own while simultaneously working from home. They need a lot of input and attention in the first few months, as well as taking outside every 15-20 minutes while you're toilet training.

While your set-up sounds ideal in the long run, if you do get a dog, I would look into taking a good 2-3 weeks off work for toilet training and settling the dog down. You'll have a fair few sleepless nights at the beginning, plus you'll need to be really on the ball at first to get them out to the toilet in time. I wouldn't use puppy pads at all, as they just encourage the dog to toilet indoors.

Overnight, we had the puppy in with us and he woke up 1-2 times each night for the toilet. He never once had an accident overnight but I think that's because we took him out as soon as he stirred. I would also have a good thing about the time of year - summer is better as it makes toilet training much more enjoyable (no standing out at 3am in the pissing wind and rain, for example!).

Decide on breed and find a breeder. This is critical as all too often people underestimate the time required with certain breeds.
Personally we have a rare breed and I actively promote them as no money in breeding so less farming etc, they are often excellent dogs but small litters so little if any profit.
www.thekennelclub.org.uk/getting-a-dog/are-you-ready/vulnerable-native-breeds/
Crate is a must, dog is safe and feels safe, initially divide the crate in to a sleeping and toilet area as it shouldn't toilet in its bed.
Then train to toilet outside, no nappys
Ask the breeder about food and use what they use, no human food, only feed from Bowl.
Our Breeder has her back for Holidays if required, its good to have a back up plan, we have in-laws and lady across the road who loves dogs but doesn't want one full time
Dandies are fab companions
www.donthibernate.co.uk/dummys-guide-to-dandie-dinmont-terriers/

Thanks everyone.. I have read that some people say no to dividing crate between puppy pads and bed ? If I do this then how will the pup know the different between going on the pad and going outside would that not be confusing ?
Is it a big no to take outside often and also have the pads In the house ? I would assume it’s one or the other?

Most posters on here saying no to pads

This might be an obvious question but do you have a garden? This is an absolute must IMO.

My SiL has got a puppy in lock down, she (by she I always mean MiL because SiL doesn't look after her own dog) started crate training it but hasn't kept it up.

I'd suggest spending a week or 2 pretending you have a dog and see how you get on with morning walks, letting it out, set meal times etc.

A dog Walker or doggy day care is also a good idea for days when you can't work from home.

@Twizbe I don’t have my own garden no. I live in a ground floor flat . I have a large balcony but I wouldn’t want the puppy toileing out there

I have a communal garden right outside my flat door which is where I’d be taking it outside to toilet train

[quote Bex19999]@Twizbe I don’t have my own garden no. I live in a ground floor flat . I have a large balcony but I wouldn’t want the puppy toileing out there

I have a communal garden right outside my flat door which is where I’d be taking it outside to toilet train[/quote]
How do your neighbours feel about their communal garden becoming a toilet? Do they have dogs as well?

I'll be honest, if you want a dog, I'd move to somewhere with a private enclosed garden. It will make your life so much easier and be nicer for the dog.

Is it a big no to take outside often and also have the pads In the house ? I would assume it’s one or the other?

You're going to struggle to teach a puppy to toilet outside if you also encourage it to toilet inside.

Is the communal area used by other dogs? A new puppy won’t be fully covered by vaccines and can’t go out where other unvaccinated dogs etc are.

Moving isn’t an option , I would have to sell my flat etc...

Yes I have seen other dogs out there but most ppl take their dogs to the communal park at the front of the block which is bigger and has a playground etc ... as I am ground floor we have a small enclosed garden at the back of the flats that not many ppl use.

@Wolfiefan I wouldn’t take it out there till it was fully vaccinated. So guess I’d need an alternative till then.

I have read a lot of threads in the dogs house section and a lot of ppl seem against ppl who live in flats owning dogs ?

I get it if you live in a high rise building with no green space etc but I do have a garden it’s just not solely mine

If you can’t take a pup out and it spends weeks peeing and pooing in the house then it won’t be toilet trained.
Don’t get a puppy.

@Bex19999

Moving isn’t an option , I would have to sell my flat etc...

Yes I have seen other dogs out there but most ppl take their dogs to the communal park at the front of the block which is bigger and has a playground etc ... as I am ground floor we have a small enclosed garden at the back of the flats that not many ppl use.

@Wolfiefan I wouldn’t take it out there till it was fully vaccinated. So guess I’d need an alternative till then.

I have read a lot of threads in the dogs house section and a lot of ppl seem against ppl who live in flats owning dogs ?

I get it if you live in a high rise building with no green space etc but I do have a garden it’s just not solely mine

My SiL doesn't have a garden. She moved in with my in laws while the puppy was potty trained and soon realised how impractical it is to live in a flat without its own garden.

My biggest advice to you would be move. Get a flat with its own garden. There is no rush and puppy can wait until your flat is sold etc.

We’re on our first ever puppy, he came home in June. We also live in a flat, he stayed inside entirely until his vaccines were complete, it wasn’t an issue, we just encouraged him to go on pads. Hes now fully house trained and is also now going through the night without accidents.

You will need to take time off work during the very early stages, working and giving the puppy the attention he/she needs won’t work.