Hi there, first time dog owners here. We have a lovely 10 week old beagle. We took some time off when we got him and he’s coming along nicely I think. We’ve taught him sit, stay, shake, and he is getting there with lie down. We’re crate training him and he’s happy to play and sleep in there for longer and longer periods and lets us know when he needs to go out. Hes got plenty of toys and puzzles which he likes. He’s now sleeping well through the night, wakes once and lets us know he needs to pee then straight back to sleep. When we’re in with him we take him out every few hours and, apart from a couple of accidents when we were getting to know his signals, he’s been pretty good so far. He can now last up to 3 or 4 hours when he’s dozing.
Eventually he’ll need to be alone at home for 1 half day, and 1 whole day each week (with my partner coming home at lunch to feed/walk him). He can’t go for walks for another week due to vaccinations. At the moment we’re staying home most the time to help with his training, but giving him time alone to get used to it (eg going to the shop for an hour or two) and it’s been fine. However we tried for the first time last week to leave him for 1 afternoon as we both had to be in work, and it didn’t go very well. We had his crate inside a pen with some pads down. Poor thing somehow closed his crate door behind him, which had all his toys in. So he got bored, ate half his puppy pad, pooped on the floor and then, because he was obviously stressed, dragged the pen over the poop smearing it everywhere! His ability to move the pen means we’ve moved approach from crate-in-pen to crate-in-puppy-proofed-kitchen. He can’t be trusted with puppy pads so we have a not-very-chewable-crate mattress that he peed on early on (and now likes to pee on if we use it!) we were thinking of using instead of puppy pads whilst he can’t quite hold it for the 3-4 hours and just washing daily. I’ve got kong and other puzzle food toys for him to play with. Is there anything else anyone would recommend for our next trial afternoon?
Eventually he’ll need to be alone at home for 1 half day, and 1 whole day each week (with my partner coming home at lunch to feed/walk him). He can’t go for walks for another week due to vaccinations. At the moment we’re staying home most the time to help with his training, but giving him time alone to get used to it (eg going to the shop for an hour or two) and it’s been fine. However we tried for the first time last week to leave him for 1 afternoon as we both had to be in work, and it didn’t go very well. We had his crate inside a pen with some pads down. Poor thing somehow closed his crate door behind him, which had all his toys in. So he got bored, ate half his puppy pad, pooped on the floor and then, because he was obviously stressed, dragged the pen over the poop smearing it everywhere! His ability to move the pen means we’ve moved approach from crate-in-pen to crate-in-puppy-proofed-kitchen. He can’t be trusted with puppy pads so we have a not-very-chewable-crate mattress that he peed on early on (and now likes to pee on if we use it!) we were thinking of using instead of puppy pads whilst he can’t quite hold it for the 3-4 hours and just washing daily. I’ve got kong and other puzzle food toys for him to play with. Is there anything else anyone would recommend for our next trial afternoon?
