Should I be ignoring her?

[Disneydatknee88]

We have just got a puppy. The most adorable 8 week old cocker spaniel. I wfh and am trying to balance giving her enough attention around work time. It's been less than a week so I know I have a lot to learn.

She displays a lot of attention seeking behaviour around me that she does not display around the rest of the family. I'm feeling that proper "mum" guilt like I should be mentally stimulating her all of her waking time. When I'm sat on the sofa on my lunch break she's jumping at me and whining. The fool that I am, puts down my lunch and starts playing because that's the cue right? She whines at me a lot if I'm not giving her attention.

Should I be ignoring her until she stops displaying this behaviour? I feel awful because she's just left her mum and siblings but in the long run we can't go on like this. Google gives such conflicting advice. I have the best sleepy cuddles with her. She's such an affectionate pup but sometimes she's sooo demanding and like lunges at me for playtimes.

Crikey no! My husband WFH with our pup, fully flexibly and often had to catch up when I got home and took quite a bit of holiday in the first few months. For the first few weeks she was on his lap when he worked, then progressed in her own time to the floor by his feet, then further away. We both gave her attention when she asked and played when she wanted and she has become a really independent dog who asks nicely to play with a toy and if we can't she will go off and play herself.

In no way did it make it needy. Puppies and dogs NEED attention. This is golden time for building bonds and trust and everything but it is very hard work.

Yes - I know what you are saying but it really is common sense not to take a young puppy on a 60 minute walk. Well to me it is.
All I was saying is don't always listen to people when they say follow the 5 minute rule as working dogs will need more than that even as pups PLUS mental stimulation.

You say it’s common sense but I met a woman with a 4 month old lab running laps of our local arboretum with the pup.
OP you need the dog training advice ans support group. Time spent now isn’t teaching bad habits. It’s investing for the future of the pup.

Routine is vital. When she wakes up you take her out for a toilet break and entertain her. Teaching through play.
When it's time for her to rest she goes in the crate and she learns to settle.
Repeat.
Puppies need lots of sleep so I used to do an hour out, and 2 hours in.

I'm typing this from underneath a Cocker Spaniel. They are velcro dogs and need company. The new puppy days were hard work, I found that classical music soothed her.

At almost three years old she will sit quietly through a Zoom meeting either on my lap or by my side. Took a few months for her to settle but she did.
Congratulations on your new pup

Having read this thread and then done some googling I hadn't realised the 5 minutes exercise per month of age was twice a day. I thought it was once a day and so 4 month pup has only been walked once a day on average (although does lots of playing in the garden). Good to read I can increase it to twice a day

If my puppy was crying and i knew she would settle on me I’d have picked her up and let her sit on my lap for the duration of the call. You aren’t going to build self confidence and resilience by ignoring her. She’s only 8 weeks old and won’t always be this needy so if she wants cuddles she would get cuddles from me. She didn’t learn anything from crying all that time, you both just got distressed

like others said get yourself on dog training advice and support group on Facebook - it’s run by qualified behaviourists and they really will help you and your puppy get off to the best start.

Some dogs are good at self settling and some need to be taught. My boy just couldn't settle at all and he was on the go all of the time and totally over stimulated. At first I made the mistake if doing more and more with him to try and tire him out, in reality I was making the problem worse. Once I started teaching him to settle, it was like I had a different dog, it was like he needed that extra bit of help to switch off and just chill. Puppies are like babies and you can follow a eat, play, sleep routine and make sure pup gets plenty of naps during the day. Have a look in Google for how to teach a place command as this is good for helping them settle when they are struggling to do it on their own. You can start teaching this from super young and it will work her mind too as an added bonus. This should help pup not be so full on all of the time as they get older

Do you have a link for this group as the ones I've found have comments. I need some advice for my dog, not a puppy, but some behaviours have changed and I want to know the best way to deal with them.

Anyway @Disneydatknee88 I also have a cocker spaniel, show type, which I have had since she was 8 weeks old. I did make sure she went in her crate to rest as they just keep going and get over tired and then more bitey.
Before she had all her jabs I would carry her to my dds school so she could get used to the sounds and smells around her new home. Then she would sit on my dds lap (she used a wheelchair) for the journey home.

It’s this one

https://www.facebook.com/share/h9NzmayGAcv3ADg7/?mibextid=K35XfP

read the guides and try things in there if it doesn’t help or you need to ask something you can post