Puppy (couple questions)

[MzMonday]

I have had my puppy now for 3 months, he's a pekingese/pomme mix and he is 17 weeks old. He was given to me younger than puppies normally are when they leave their mother, namely because his mother was hit by a car when he was just 5 weeks old . I did my best to bottle feed him and take care of him, socialized him with other puppies, cats, children, etc. He has the sweetest temperment I could ask for. With the help of the vet and a lot of sleepless nights (for me, not for him), we made it through the first 3 weeks before I began weening him off of the bottle.

For the first 2 months that we had him I worked purely from home, which meant I went from working full time to only 15 hours a week. My boss seemed cool with it, as long as the situation was temporary. I just wanted to make sure that my pup would have as much attention as I could give him. During the second month I began leaving the appartment, first time was for 2 minutes, the next day was 5, 10, then 30...no issues. I increased it to 2 hours by the end of the month; at long last I could grocery shop, shower, and run my errands without worrying about the little guy too much. However, he tends to have seporation anxiety and he cries when I am gone for too long (too long being 4-5 hours); but I have to go to work as my working part time simply isn't cutting it - bills need to be payed. Is there anything I can do to make him feel less unhappy about being seporated? I have cut all of my breaks out of my work day (except for a 10 minute break for lunch) so that I can come home early and I am working from home as much as I am able to (the full 15 hours). Unfortunately, I can't work from home full-time as a lot of what I do is face-to-face (customer service/quality control).

Also I have come home or gotten up in the mornings to find that even though I have taken him for a walk in the morning or evening and he has done his business before I go to work or sleep, he does his business while I am sleeping or at work and sometimes he (this is so gross) EATS and PLAYS WITH his poop! I do my best to sleep in shifts of 3 hours to make sure I take him out regularly, but he still does his business in the house - which is just made worse by what he does with his poop. Any tips?

 

[callysplace]

Hi just wondering if there is anyone that you trust that could come in once/twice a day to check on the little chap? it should eliviate his seperation anxiety or is there maybe an older person that wants to earn a little extra cash (boost the pension!) and will babysit him for you? just some suggestions although I think with the hand rearing you might have a bit of a stuggle on your hands with leaving him for a long time, the only other thing i can think of is getting him a companion another dog that would help the boredom.
As for the pooing, dogs especially puppies like to poo half an hour to an hour after having something to eat/drink, because he is so young you can time your feedings so you can catch him pooping, but the weeing might take a bit longer!

 

[rainbow]

Hey - you'll have to post a photo on of the little chap. Their are lots of reasons why he might eat his own poo, including being bored, being anxious, that to him it smell/tastes good, if a dogs punished for pooing in the house they might eat it to try and hide the evidence. Our lab puppy did it occasionally when he was a bit younger (he's 8 months now) and apparently putting a small amount of pineapple in the food will stop them eating it, I also read somewhere that they eat it as they havent got all of the goodness out of it, but pineapple works in two ways, it helps the food be absorbed properly and it tastes yacky in poo! (Dunno if thats true, but we tried it out!) Also have you got a cage for him, we decided against the caged route but a lot of people swear by it, in theory it helps the dog feel safe and secure and after a couple of days he wont pine for you as much, also a dog wont poo where they sleep. xxx

 

[MzMonday]

Thank you for your responces!

Well, a second dog is out of the question – at least for now. My husband would freak out. He was not too keen on getting a dog in the first place, so I am the primary caregiver of the little guy. My husband plays with him sometimes and during the weekend he joins my little pup and I at the park, but he’s not really helping with training or anything like that.
My boss and I sat down and had a chat and I am cutting my hours back, not too much mind you, just 5 hours less a week. That way I can get home at my regular time and have a one hour lunch break, which gives me time to pop home briefly (20 minutes or so) and give him a short trip to the pathetic excuse for a back yard that we have, fresh food, and refill his treat ball with treats and hard food.

I have also decided against the caged route as I feel like he is happier when he is not in his little cage. I do place him in his cage at night and tell him “sleep”, but I leave the little door open so if he wants out – he can get out. Usually he will get up in the night when he needs to go out (and I take him out) and I hear him playing around some nights after I have brought him back in, but in the morning he has climbed back in his cage and started sleeping again. He does not poop in his cage, he makes an effort and only goes in one corner. I keep him in the kitchen, just because that’s the safest as far as the floor is concerned. When I am home and able to supervise he has access to the kitchen and our computer room and he warns me by scratching on the wall that he needs to go out.

The eating of his poop is what is driving me crazy, he will go to the bathroom outside and then…he just goes to eat it. I praise him like crazy for going, he loves the word “yay” when said with lots of enthusiasm, and then I’ll lay down a couple of treats to occupy him and hope that I’m fast enough in cleaning it up before he is done with the treats! As for inside, my husband does say “NO” if he sees the poop and I tried to explain that the pup will only respond if you catch him in the act, but he doesn’t subscribe to it. That could be why he eats it, to cover it up. Poor thing. I hadn’t thought to try pineapple, but I will pick some up the next time I am in the store.

This is him, pouting before I go to work.

 

[rainbow]

Aw he's realy cute, whats his name? Also when he does go outside to do his business praise him with a word that you dont use for anything else, so for example if you use 'yay' for when he wee's or poos outside, dont use 'yay' for when he responds to a command such as 'sit' hope that makes sense. x

 

[Cowgirl]

Hi ya

I have 2 staffordshire bullterriers.

Stella is 2 and Buddy is 10 months.

Buddy wont go near his poo, but Stella has always eaten it if I do not get there fast enough. 1 theory is that they are clearing up after themselves as in the wild dogs would try and clear all scent of themselves. Another is that the food they are having is not as rich in all the vitamins etc that they need. But after a while I believe this is just a habbit. She did stop for a while but when I got the new puppy she seemed to start again, she is getting out of it again now, mainly because shes growing up I think. I just think some dogs do and some dogs don't. I had a dog that wouldn't eat her own before, but would eat or other dogs. Very strange! lol

 

[MzMonday]

Rainbow, thank you for the compliment to Khan, he would love to receive it in person, I’m sure. He loves attention/compliments. I hadn’t thought of that, about the word association with YAY. I try to use “good potty” when he is actually going outside, very gently, then the big “YAY”/party time reaction when he is finished – he loves it. I use “good boy” when he is called and comes right away, and treats of course. So far he has “come”, “in”/“out” which are used for getting in and out of his bag, “down” for when there are little kids wanting to pet him, I don’t want him jumping up on them so I just have him lay down, “side” used on walks when we are leaving the park, the sidewalk is simply too small to let him have much running room there. Sit is not yet one of the things he has gotten the hang of.

Cowgirl, it could be an age thing, or it could be the cleaning up thing, I am just hoping it goes away . For the last few days he hasn’t been eating his poop. I told hubby again not to scold him unless he caught him, and he hasn’t. There was only one accident and it was untouched by the pup. Hopefully this trend of not eating it will continue.