WFH with 19 week old puppy

[PoochMama]

I have my own business and have lots of flexibility. Currently, I work in the office 1 day a week and the rest of the time from home. However, I'm finding it pretty tough going as pup won't self-settle and can only entertain herself v v intermittently. She is so-so about chews - and I've tried lots of them. If I let her out into the garden, she's barking or digging holes. I'm primarily getting work done during her crate naps right now.

She'll soon be starting doggy daycare for a morning a week to begin with.

She can't do long walks right now (20 mins or so, twice a day) - so I'm reliant on playing and mental games to tire her out!

Any advice, please?

You definitely can take her out for longer walks than that. As long as you let her lead the walks (pace and speed), take her somewhere with varied terrain. You don't have to limit it to 5 minutes per month old which is what I am guessing you are doing. I'm on my third dog and I haven't followed that advice for any on them and they have all been fine. With my current pup we regularly went for a forrest walk of 4-5 kilometres when they were around that age, but at their speed. Physical activity is essential for them to build strength, strengtheing joints and bone density. Just avoid repetitive walking on hard surfaces and high jumps.

She can definitely do longer walks - the 5 minute rule has pretty much been debunked. As long as you’re not frogmarching her about on roads and pavements, 30-40 minutes should be fine.

But otherwise what you describe is pretty standard for such a young puppy. It’s why people advise caution around assuming you can work from home as normal until they’re fully grown and settled/trained.

What breed is she?

I always say this: but training, training, training over 'games' or 'mental puzzles' any-day. Ten minutes training 3x a day is almost always going to be more effective than anything else at tiring her out.

I WFH will all my dogs when they're puppies (except the odd day). I'd start the day with a walk, followed by breakfast, followed by a nap (whilst I did some work) and then at 9 it would be 10/15 minutes of training. Same again at lunch, walk, food, nap (during which I worked) then ten minutes training. Works a treat!

She's a labradoodle, so high energy and very intelligent. They are prone to hip issues etc, so need to take care with that. I've heard a lot about 5 mins per month of age, so I'm a bit wary about doing more. We do a mix of long lead more sniffy walks and short lead walks. At the weekend, if she's entirely off-lead, we can do longer.

We do training already throughout the day, plus all the things like snuffle mat, scatter feeding, licki mat etc. She loves find it, tug, chasing toys on string, etc. I don't have a set schedule as such, but perhaps I need to consider that.

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5 mins per month is totally outdated and harmful in a dog of her breed as they're then getting bored and frustrated

Yes, off lead walks are really the best for building muscle and she will need lots of that protect her hips if she has inherited that gene. Did her parents get tested?

Puppies that age usually only sleep for short periods. Mine is 7 months now and will sleep for 30 minutes here and there throughout the day. He loves to look out the window though, so if you have a spot where she can sit and look out towards the street she might like that. My dog is also a high energy one and I never feed him in a normal way. It's always some kind of mental game to get the food. Either I throw his food out into the show (we live in Sweden) and he has to find it, or I soak it mush it into a licky pad and then freeze it, or it goes into his snuffle mat. His meals usually take 10-15 minutes to finish. You can do stuff like that to fight off boredom.

I think you are giving her to much attention throughout the day... chewing treats, training, going out for walks. (I am not talking toilet breaks!) There needs to be a happy medium for puppy to settle quietly in their home without collapsing on their bed.

I find the constant need to entertain the dog mind bobbling as many people suggest - snuffle mats, extra long lasting treats, ... Call me old fashioned but Puppies and Dogs should learn to settle quietly in the home, car or designated mat / area without these aids.
Yes, be around but do not provide constant attention and stimulation for your dog. Go bed, settle, chill ect are all good commands to teach your dog to calmly stay in an designated area.

Some dogs require more mental training than others so that they then can happily settle. A bored dog is destructive and a danger to themselves.

Edited to add that it isn't fashion, is about raising a healthy dog. You surely understand that a border collie has different needs to a shih tzu.

That's why you need to teach them to settle...
I have very intelligent & destructive dogs, but they all learn very quickly and from the word go that certain things im my home or behaviour mean to settle quietly on their settee bed.
Dogs get conditioned into certain behaviours, including when to settle.

Teaching a dog how to settle IS mental training though - and it’s so so important. Just giving them loads of food and interaction isn’t going to teach them to zonk out.

Well I'm not saying they shouldn't settle, that is obviously important too. Nobody has said that OP needs to entertain the dog 24/7 but when the dog is in a playful mood and OP doesn't have time to engage with her there are things that she can provide for the dog to entertain herself. It's unrealistic in my view to expect that a young and active puppy would lay in a crate for the duration of a normal working day with only a 20 minute walk in between.

Yes, her parents got tested.

She's awake for 1-1.5 hrs, then has a crated nap of about the same. But, can be over 2 hours if she's had a lot of mental/physical work. We’re still at a stage where she’s in a puppy-proofed kitchen where I work - but maybe she's a bit bored by that??! I can't trust her to roam around downstairs though as we're pretty open plan after the kitchen door - and the rest of the downstairs is not puppy-proofed. She’s learning ‘place’ but it’s not really a skill that’s yet transferred from training to just relaxing on her bed.

I probably am giving her too much attention. But, up until 2 weeks ago, it was hard enough to simply stop her from frantic biting!!

And although the frantic biting has (mainly) stopped, she has started to bark for attention.

Our sprocker came to work with me (own business) from 12 weeks and it was a bloody nightmare initially - she chewed through phone cables, chair legs.. but she did get used to it fairly quickly as our other dog just sleeps in his bed under my desk. Keep the routine predictable, we did a bathroom break every 30 minutes on a timer, and she did settle. She never took to toys at all but loves Yak milk chews, that occupies her for ages.

Sadly, we don't have any chews that she LOVES. I've tried yak chews, buffalo tails, pizzle sticks, fish skin things... all the horrible things!

She might be into one for a bit, but then decides she's not interested. Might be related to teething?

OP, she sounds completely normal for a puppy that age. She has quite long stretches of sleep as it is, that might change in the next couple of months and she will sleep a bit less. Working and having a puppy isn't super easy but it does get progressively easier. The barking is definitely attention seeking, so don't react to that or try and distract her but instead praise her when she is doing things that you approve of. They want to learn, they want to do the right thing, they just don't always have the impulse control.

Our puppy (a shih tzu) is 5 months old. I cannot imagine what she'd be like without the chance for off lead walks daily.

Kongs and puzzles?

yep agree. I worked from home with my puppy (and live alone) and she just had to learn that when I am at my desk, it's tough.

Manage the environment - I made sure that there was nothing about that she could get into mischief with and she learned to chill the f*ck out.

I completely understand that by reading the internet you'd be forgiven for thinking you need to entertain a dog every second of every day and devise elaborate mental stimulation and games ....but it's just a ruse to get you to ✨ buy stuff ✨

I'll try more off-lead walks (well, with long line) and see if this helps.

It means going in the car though - which is stressful as she doesn't like it. Any tips for that???

I have to say, we didn't have any of these elaborate things going on with our last dog... but she was older when we got her, so can't really compare.

Yes. Do it more often. She'll get used to it.

Seriously she is just a puppy and she just needs time to get used to the world.

She is 19 weeks. It is okay that doesn't really like the car at the moment.

ETA - the biggest mistake I made with my puppy was not meeting her where she was developmentally. I was always trying to manage and mould her as quickly as possible into the behaviours of a mature adult dog. I wound myself up so much with what I thiught she "should" be doing (i.e. what I wanted right now not in five years) I sucked so much enjoyment out of that first year and I will never get those puppy days back.

Agree with PPs, other than 3x training a day or walks, mine get no engagement from me if I WFH. All these ’games’ do is create a dog who can’t ever settle.

See it all the time in rescue Goldies - poor sods have no idea how to relax and are wired to the max.

Honestly, OP, you’re building a rod for your own back here. She doesn’t need chews or kongs or puzzle games or snuggle mats, she needs to learn to settle and good quality engagement from her owners.

And on never walking off leash - please do let her off leash. It’s not fair to have a young retiree and not let it off.

Also please check her parents heart tests are well - both poodles and goldens suffer from some incredibly serious heart issues.

Absolutely nobody has said that you need to entertain your puppy every second of every day but a puppy needs more engagement and supervision than an adult dog. It's part of how they bond with you too. It's a few minutes here and there between naps and other activities.

Generally speaking, these enrichment things are during meal times or when we need her to be quiet - like the online parents evening or during work calls!!

Like, at this moment, she has wet food/kibble frozen to a licki mat for lunch. While she's been getting into that, I have been doing things elsewhere in the house as she's a bit of a velcro pup right now.

I haven't let her properly off-lead yet apart from in private dog fields, as she would jump all over other dogs and people!! I'm not sure we should let her do that. We're working on recall, but once she's super excited (seeing a jogger in the distance, for example!), she brings out the selective hearing.