Puppy Toys and Playing in the Safe Zone

[Laisas_Friend]

Our puppy is 9 weeks old. Her name is Laisa, and she is a Jack Russell Terrier / Spitz? blend. She has been with us for three days and things are going pretty well. We have a safe zone lined with pee pads in the family room of our home. Her crate is also in the safe zone with the door open. She is getting pretty comfortable going into her crate, and she sleeps in it at night, also with the door open. I sleep on a mattress beside her safe zone to reassure her during the night.

During the day time we often take her out in the back to play. She is really good about peeing and pooping outside during the day, and we reward her with lots of praise and/or a treat. At night she pees once or twice on a pee pad in her safe zone, which is OK.

I work from home, and I recently moved my desk close to Laisa's safe zone, so she can see me while I'm working. My husband doesn't have a job, but he does a lot of volunteer work at our church. If my husband isn't available when Laisa is awake and wants to play, what kind of toys / games can I give her in her safe zone, so that I can continue to work. This week I've only been managing to get in 6 hours per day rather than 8, due to needing to take Laisa out to play. I' can make up the time on the weekend, but I rather be able to work my regular eight hours.

[JudyN]

I work from home and to be honest, if you're managing 6 hours work per day with a 9 week old pup you're doing really well! I'd struggle with that now!

Good toys to occupy dogs can be anything they enjoy chewing - try kongs with frozen fillings, stagbars and Nylabones. Also, something she can destroy - a cardboard box full of smaller boxes and scrunched paper. You can put the odd small treat (or just a bit of kibble if she's kibble fed) in the smaller boxes or wrapped up in twists of paper to encourage her to persevere.

Also, do try to make her realise that there are times where you are not available - so no caving in and playing with her when she's been whining for half an hour. For this to work, though, you must of course make sure she's had an opportunity to burn off her energy - and of course, if she shows signs of needing a poo/pee then take her out regardless! Some people recommend ignoring the dog totally when you're 'unavailable' but I like to let my dog know that I have at least registered his communication so prefer to say something like 'Not now - settle down.' Some people use a visual sign, such as hanging up some wind chimes when they are not available. I've never tried that, so can't say if it helps or not.

Pee pads - these can cause problems with housetraining as the texture can resemble carpet and dogs can form more of an association with texture than indoors/outdoors. So ideally, either you would take her out a couple of times in the night, or she wakes you up to let you know she needs to go out. It depends on the dog - I (or rather my dog ) used newspaper at night and we didn't hit any problems, but other dogs can be very unreliable. It's blinking hard work though if you're up in the night, trying to get in a full day's work, and keep up with a 9-week-old puppy!

You may need to adjust your expectations a little, or you may end up getting frustrated and not giving pup the attention she needs. It will most definitely be worth it in the end though!

[Dawnflight1984]

Pee pads - these can cause problems with housetraining as the texture can resemble carpet and dogs can form more of an association with texture than indoors/outdoors. So ideally, either you would take her out a couple of times in the night, or she wakes you up to let you know she needs to go out. It depends on the dog - I (or rather my dog ) used newspaper at night and we didn't hit any problems, but other dogs can be very unreliable. It's blinking hard work though if you're up in the night, trying to get in a full day's work, and keep up with a 9-week-old puppy!

I agree absolutely with the pee pad part. My dog was hospitalized in February this year for 3 days and while she was warded, the hospital used pee pads for all the animals' toileting needs. My girl learnt to pee on one absolutely quickly,and now when we are out and she needs to go and there's no grass patch around, I just need to line out some pee pads and she will go correctly. but, I also realised she starts to pee on sofas and beds if given the chance to get up and she has not been given adequate opportunities to go elsewhere. Newspaper works better.