Have you ever posted a puppy question in my Facebook group? Puppy Training with
Michele Lennon? If you’re not in this awesome group, I strongly recommend it!
The link is in the description below this video.
Someone in that group, Katie, is about to get a puppy and she works full time.
She asked about coming home for lunch, and leaving a Kong in the crate when she goes back to work.
This is a great question but before I answer,
there are some things we need to go over about working full time with a new puppy.
MIchele here w/ HTTADD
You guessed it, working full time is our topic for the day.
We are going to dive into Katie’s question and
talk about how to own a puppy and work full time outside the home.
By the way, if you’re working AT HOME and getting a new puppy… Well
there’s a different video that you might like. Check that one out here.
Working away from home and getting a new puppy CAN work - millions of people do it.
But I’m here to tell you how to make it work WELL - for you AND your puppy.
First let's talk about what a puppy needs on a daily basis.
You might have seen this sample schedule in the New Puppy Starter
Kit. It outlines what your day could look like when the puppy first comes home.
Does it seem like a lot? It is! Puppies have a lot of needs!
Puppies can hold their bladder about an hour per month of age,
so that’s really the first thing you’ll have to manage:
making sure the puppy can get necessary potty breaks.
Preventing accidents in the house or in the crate is your #1 goal in potty training.
If you’re thinking of getting one of those set ups with a pee pad in the pen… well I say
NOPE NOPE AND NOPETY NOPE.
The first downside to pee pads is that they actually teach your puppy to go potty inside.
This is a habit that becomes VERY hard to break.
Your kitchen rugs will never be safe!
And you definitely won’t be a welcome guest at a friend’s house.
When your puppy is young she’s learning so many things and NOW is the time to teach her
that potty breaks happen OUTSIDE.
Yes, even in the dead of winter,
even with snow, even in the middle of the night and
even when you’re at work.
Doggy doors are another option people ask about. That’s also going to be a no from me. Sorry!
I may sound like a party pooper but I’m just giving you my professional trainer advice.
With doggy doors you lose control of when the puppy goes outside for a potty break,
and you miss an opportunity to reward her.
Those are 2 of the 4 fundamentals of potty training!
In addition, puppies are curious and often get into things they should not.
I’m taking rocks, tree bark, toxic plants, pools, escaping through fence gaps and more.
When I worked at the vets office I saw far too many cases of dogs
needing emergency treatment because they were unsupervised.
I also want you to think about your puppy like a human toddler. If you left a toddler home
all day alone, do you think she would put herself down for a nap?
Probably not.
She’d wander around the house and do all the things she wanted to.
Your puppy is the same. With all that room to roam,
she’s going to be active and doing everything BUT napping.
The bottom line here is that your puppy belongs in the CRATE when you are at work.
The crate keeps her safe, it keeps your house safe
and it helps her rest and relax until you get home.
You might say “But if she’s in the crate I have to
let her out every few hours for a potty break. “ Yep! You do!
I’ll go over that in a minute.
Before we talk about the schedule, I want to share more details about your
puppy’s development at this early stage of life.
By understanding her development, you’ll understand why it’s important to meet
ALL of these needs, not just her bladder.
Something else to consider is the imprint period.
The period from birth to about 12 or 14
weeks of age is extremely important in the development of your puppy.
During this time she’s learning so much about the world around her,
and she’s learning how to react to it.
Therefore it’s critical that she have proper and POSITIVE exposure to new things.
This is what we call exposure training and it’s so
important for the lifelong impact it has on your dog.
Guys, this is BIG stuff. I’ve seen dogs who did not get this exposure training
have a massive struggle with
new people coming over,
other dogs at the park, new sounds in the home or
the neighborhood and even changes in the weather.
Living with that kind of fear and uncertainty is
miserable for the dog and it doesn’t create a lot of harmony in the human world either.
This is why we strongly recommend you start the socialization and exposure
training before your pup has all of her shots.
If you wait until after the final round of vaccinations
you have missed out on a critical socialization window.
I have a video that goes into much more detail on this
important topic so I hope you’ll watch it next.
If your vet tells you that your puppy is not allowed to go outside until they
are fully vaccinated, I highly recommend looking for a new vet.
Safe and POSITIVE socialization and exposure has lasting impacts on the rest of your dog’s life.
The consequences of under socializing your puppy
far outweigh the risks of exposing your dog to new things before she is fully vaccinated.
I encourage you to find a vet who understands that balance.
Ok now that you know about this critical exposure window,
it means you’ll need someone to come in during the time you are at work.
This puppy helper will be able to offer your pup some of these new opportunities,
take her out for a potty break,
give her a meal, do some basic training,
have some playtime, and definitely do some cuddling too.
It is simply not fair to the dog to be left home alone all day with no engagement and
no opportunity to run and jump and play and do things that she loves.
Now let’s talk about the schedule. How do you
make your puppy’s nap time fit best with your work schedule?
Your schedule might not look exactly like the one in my New Puppy Starter Kit.
Your pup might be able to take longer naps, or need shorter ones.
You have to evaluate what your dog’s natural schedule is and build off of that
to make one that fits with your work schedule.
I work at home now, which is great for my three dogs, especially Pickles.
If you haven’t joined me on a live broadcast on Mondays
at 11 a.m., you should definitely tune in to my FB group at that time.
Pickles is usually curled up behind me, like the good dog that he is.
But when I worked away from home and couldn’t take my dogs to work,
our morning schedule looked something like this
First thing after waking we would: potty, then play, then have a meal
Next we would do some training while the meal settles.
Did you know that you should not allow your dog to exercise
or have excessive physical activity right after a meal?
After that meal has settled we’d do some exercise, followed by a
Cool down and then back to the Crate for nap
Once I was able to get through those items, then I left for work.
If you think that sounds like a lot, it can be!
So if you need to get up earlier to fit it all in, that’s what you have to do!
You never run out of time to brush your teeth or brush your hair,
so don’t run out of time to meet your dog’s needs before you go to work.
With an active morning like that one, your pup will be ready for a nice long snooze in the crate.
Just make sure you’ve done your crate training work ahead of time
so she knows the crate is the place for sleeping!
I’ve got a lot more on crate training in this other video here.
After napping for an hour or two or more,
depending on your dog’s age, it’ll be time for an outing.
She’ll definitely need a potty break, maybe some water, some play,
more training, some enriching activity like shredding or chasing or sniffing and
then another cool down activity before going back into the crate.
That cool down activity is actually really important.
You might be tempted to skip it and go directly from exercise back into the crate,
but have you ever taken a nap right after running a marathon?
Sure, maybe later in the day you took a good snooze,
but I guarantee that you did not head from the finish line to your bed.
It’s the same for your dog, so be sure to offer that transition activity
in between a low and high energy activity.
If you need ideas for what you can do, check out this video.
After this mid morning break,
it might be time for another snooze in the crate until lunch time. Perfect!
Once lunch time comes, you can repeat many of those same activities,
or vary it up a little bit to make it interesting.
You’ll probably have to do this again one more time in the middle of the afternoon,
and then hopefully you’ll be home from work and can resume your normal schedule in the evening.
As your puppy gets older and is napping longer, you can start to cut out a few of these outings.
Just be sure to provide enough enrichment during the day that
your puppy can settle well while you’re gone.
She can’t do this for herself, it’s your job to do it for her!
So going back to Katie’s question.. You see there’s a lot more to it than simply
“yes, your puppy can have a kong in his crate or NO he cannot.”
Yes, for many puppies a Kong in the crate to enjoy and lick
as part of settling back down would be fine.
But for a young puppy it is not a good idea to feed his lunch in the crate.
Puppies often have to go potty a few minutes after eating
when they are young, so you’ll need to be available to let him out when it’s time.
And as you heard me say, this boxer is going to need a lot
more than just a Kong in the crate during the lunch break.
He’ll need the humans in his life to fill up his puppy bucket. Oh in human terms his emotional cup.
So by now you might be thinking “Michele you make it sound like
no one can work full time and have a young puppy”.
And I know it might sound like that but I promise that’s not what I’m trying to say.
Like I mentioned before, you’ll have to make arrangements for your
puppy’s needs to be met while you are at work.
Let me give you some tips on that.
When arranging for this puppy sitter, think about how often this person should come over.
Here’s a great question on this by one of my group members,
Alexandra asks We are getting a puppy in a few weeks and I am trying to plan ahead.
He will be 8 weeks when we get him, luckily we have some time off work scheduled to be with him.
My question is how many times is someone going to need to come throughout the day.
Great question, Alexandra. That will depend on the age of your puppy and her schedule.
It’s important to build up to the schedule gradually.
You can’t go from no schedule to then the puppy being in the crate all day with no training.
You have to SLOWLY work up to the schedule you want to achieve.
Think about your work schedule and when it is the best time for the puppy to nap.
If the puppy schedule doesn’t fit your work schedule yet,
Adjust play and awake time by 15 minute increments until you’re at the schedule you like.
Next you’ll want to talk to this sitter or caretaker about what to
do with your puppy when he or she visits. The answer? All the things!
Well, maybe not all.
But this is a great time to have some focussed attention on training, exposure to new things,
enriching activities like shredding or foraging and definitely that adorable puppy play.
Take some time for the caretaker to get to know your puppy and her body language and her signals.
Make sure the puppy is familiar with the caretaker too.
Believe me, you being gone all day will be a bit of a shock to your puppy.
So you want the caretaker to be a safe and familiar person.
Consider a professional dog walking or caretaking service if friends or family are unavailable.
NOT having someone come in is NOT an option.
Oh and for the times when your puppy is alone, hopefully resting in the crate?
Get a pet camera so you can keep an eye on what’s happening and you’ll
see when the nap schedule might start to shift and
you can adjust your sitter schedule accordingly.
I’ve put a link to the camera we like in the description below.
Now that you’ve worked up to a good schedule AND ensured that your puppy’s needs are met
during the day, it’s time to think about your return home from work.
Despite a mid day pet sitter, that pup is
likely to be excited and full of energy - which is probably opposite of you.
It is important to recognize that your dog has rested most of the day,
and this is her time for activity and playtime with her favorite person.
Do yourself a favor and have your other tasks, like your dinner,
planned in advance so you can focus on the dog.
Even if YOU want to sit down and take a quick nap or make a gourmet meal,
energetic play with your puppy will probably need to come first.
She’ll find a way to do it with or without you!
After the play you might do some training,
some mental exercise and then a cool down so you can focus on your human chores.
Some people say “How do I exercise her at night? I can’t take her for a walk when it’s dark”.
Sorry Charlie, fear of the dark is a human construct.
If it’s dark, take a walk anyway!
Put on that coal miner’s headlamp, get a reflective vest for the dog and head out.
You might choose this time to go to a well lit parking lot.
Dogs don’t care if it’s a parking lot - it still has lots of interesting smells.
Some people might ask “Michele, are there any other options?”
A few of my students have dog-friendly workplaces
and have successfully taken their dogs to work with them.
This can also be a good idea… or it can go poorly. It all depends on how well you prepare.
Even if the puppy goes with you to work, it’s still important
to crate train and stick to a schedule of meals, engagement, potty breaks and naps.
All too often puppies go to work but aren’t able to get the proper rest
because of all the activity throughout the day.
This makes for an overtired puppy which is not fun for anyone.
So if you're going to take your dog to work, just be sure to
take the crate and a cover,
establish a schedule that works for both of you and
make sure those regular naps happen for proper recovery from the exciting day.
You know what I DON’T want you to do? Doggie daycare.
I won’t go into all the details why, but you can assume that if I don’t like something,
it’s because it’s not good for the dog.
This video will tell you all my reasons why.
So, to sum it up
Young puppies require more than just potty breaks. Positive exposure, training and
human engagement is necessary. Establish a schedule of meals,
play, exercise and naps. Hire the proper caretakers and train them well.
Dogs going to work still have needs that must be met.
Find a better option than doggie daycare. Plan for some dog-centered activities when
you get home from work. Repeat!
I hope you learned some good tips for balancing work and a new puppy.
In the comments below, tell me how you’re going to care for your puppy when you aren’t at home!