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Originally Posted by HunterB  Thank you for all of your advice.
I have him in an xpen with his potty area, bed, and food bowls. Also, he has two toys with him and a blanket from the breeder I got him from that is supposed to smell like his parents and litter mates.
He is doing well over night - actually he has slept 8 straight hours 2 of the 3 nights he has been home so far, so no complaints there. I do keep a ticking clock wraped in the towel and in a cloth bag in his bed at night which seems to soothe them (he curls up and sleeps next to it).
Right now I dont have him on much of a schedule for being in the xpen, which is where I plan to have him over night and while I am at work (with two visits daily, but this won't start until three weeks from now) and when I cannot be directly observing him. Should I put him on a schedule for being in the crate with me not in the room while I am home? Would this help with him being alone? I am trying to encourage self-play when he is out of the xpen. It has only been three days since he has been home with me but he seems to have formed a close attachment to me and will follow up about wherever I go! I did visit him every 2 weeks from the time he was 3 weeks old untill he came home with me. I love this but I want him, for his sake, to be happy when he cannot be with me.
Thanks for any advice!! |
Awwww, that's so sweet he sleeps next to the clock.
It will just take some time, he's still really young and going from his mom and litter mates to just a human is probably still a bit scarey. It takes a little while for them to build up some confidence and some independence (a little bit anyway
). I think it would be a good idea to start a little schedual, just leave him for very short periods of time (by going into another room) then he'll see that you always come back. You can gradually increase the time away as he gets better. There's kind of a fine line because you want him to have the comfort and security of being near you at this young age and during the transition to living with you, yet at the same time you don't want him to have a hard time in 3 weeks when you go back to work. I would start by when he's in the expen, just walk kind of around the corner out of sight. If he cries, let him go and wait for a moment that he stops to go back to him because you also don't want to reinforce that him crying makes you come. He should get used to a schedual pretty quickly, dogs tend to be masters of scheduals (once they're on one they don't let you change it
) and they figure it out pretty quickly if it's consistant.
Good luck, can't wait to see pictures