[lucycouture]

Hi guys,

So I've had my 14 week old Yorkie for 6 weeks now, and after an initial period of me being off work to settle her in, myself and my fiance both went back to work. She was played with in the morning then confined for 3 hours whilst we worked, then one of us would let her out, feed, toilet and play at lunch time for an hour, then she would be confined for another 2-3 hours until I got home from work. Then play, training, feed, play, training, sleep. She was great during this time - didn't cry much for attention, wasn't destructive and just slept when left alone.

Now I'm off work until September (am a teacher) and I thought hey, this will be great, I can really focus on training her and getting her crate and housetrained, getting her chewing and biting under control etc. BUT I'm finding that she seems to have gone backwards! We have plenty of play and training sessions each day, and I try to make sure I go out to run errands for an hour or two daily so she doesn't get too used to me being in all the time and to make sure she naps... but she's suddenly started to shred her puppy pads and the binbag when I'm out, her play biting is worse and she is whining and barking for attention all the time when I'm doing something like cooking or chores etc.

Can you guys share a puppy schedule that has worked for you? I thought me being home more would be better for her but it seems to have made things worse, is that possible? I don't know what the balance is between too much attention and not enough attention... I've just got no idea how to appease her since she's fed, played with, trained and rested but still whines at me arrrgh!

 

[Bigargylesock]

@lucycouture I'm not sure if others have a good routine for this, but my dog did this too when we changed his routine. I took a week off of work to help train him, and it seemed like his crazy puppy behavior intensified in that time. I'm guessing it was because we changed his routine briefly. When I went back to work and back to his normal schedule, he calmed down.

Of course, how much of it is just a puppy being a puppy? Who knows...I feel like my dog went through stages of adjustment every 4 weeks or so, and he would slightly regress, then come back to normal. Not sure if that was just the dog getting older, or slight routine changes, etc.

I think a good routine is any routine that works well with your schedule, that can be consistent, and that takes care of the puppy, even if they have trouble adjusting at first. You can always gradually move the puppy back to his old routine before you start work again. Get him used to being at home for longer periods of time alone, etc.

How's his potty training coming? Is there any way you can remove the pee pads from his crate?