[jobar57]

I just got a female shih tzu 10 days ago, she will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. I work all day so I keep her in a crate while I'm away with a towel underneath and a wee wee pad in half the crate and some toys. I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to make the time I'm away easier for her (and for me!) I do have a neighbor come in once during the day to check on her, feed her, and let her run around a little (and change her pad if necessary). She cries so much when I leave. I hope she doesn't do that all day! Sometimes I come home and find her wee wee pad all wadded up to one side, she obviously must get restless in there. I don't make a big production when I leave I just figure that will make it worse. But I hear her cry down the hall when I leave in the morning, and she is sometimes crying when I get to the door at night. I leave a radio on so she can hear human voices, but don't know what else I can do. I used to watch my friend's shih tzu in the summers, I could leave him alone all day, free run of the house, and he was fine (of course he was over a year old when I first started watching him, not as young as mine). She is so energetic and rambunctious it must be hard for her in that crate all day and she goes wild with play at night when I let her out! Also although she has some accidents most of the time she will not to go to the bathroom anywhere else but her crate even though I leave pads out when I'm home, she will run to the crate anyway and do her stuff (sometimes she misses the pad too, has a tendency to pee on the edges and on the towel). I've also read some horrible posts here about people's puppies dying of diseases and I wouldn't even know how to tell she is sick! She already got two parvo/distemper shots at the breeders before I took her home and I will be getting her another one this weekend. This is all kind of long but I wonder if it will always be this tough for her (and for me) to leave her alone. Will she always cry and fuss and bark like this? Do they calm down once they get older? It's been a long time since I had a dog!

[JudyKayTee]

I just got a female shih tzu 10 days ago, she will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. I work all day so I keep her in a crate while I'm away with a towel underneath and a wee wee pad in half the crate and some toys. I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to make the time I'm away easier for her (and for me!) I do have a neighbor come in once during the day to check on her, feed her, and let her run around a little (and change her pad if necessary). She cries so much when I leave. I hope she doesn't do that all day! Sometimes I come home and find her wee wee pad all wadded up to one side, she obviously must get restless in there. I don't make a big production when I leave I just figure that will make it worse. But I hear her cry down the hall when I leave in the morning, and she is sometimes crying when I get to the door at night. I leave a radio on so she can hear human voices, but don't know what else I can do. I used to watch my friend's shih tzu in the summers, I could leave him alone all day, free run of the house, and he was fine (of course he was over a year old when I first started watching him, not as young as mine). She is so energetic and rambunctious it must be hard for her in that crate all day and she goes wild with play at night when I let her out! Also although she has some accidents most of the time she will not to go to the bathroom anywhere else but her crate even though I leave pads out when I'm home, she will run to the crate anyway and do her stuff (sometimes she misses the pad too, has a tendency to pee on the edges and on the towel). I've also read some horrible posts here about people's puppies dying of diseases and I wouldn't even know how to tell she is sick! She already got two parvo/distemper shots at the breeders before I took her home and I will be getting her another one this weekend. This is all kind of long but I wonder if it will always be this tough for her (and for me) to leave her alone. Will she always cry and fuss and bark like this? Do they calm down once they get older? It's been a long time since I had a dog!

I don't know if this will help you but I have big dogs and they got very restless in a kennel after a few hours so I bought one of those doggy playpen things, set that up in the family room and then put the kennel off that with the kennel fence fastened to it. Gave her room to run and play (to some extent). If she had to "bathroom" she used one corner of the pen. Your puppy is just that - a puppy. One of my dogs never had a brain in her head until she turned 3 and to this day is like a windup machine when I first get home.

If the barking and fussing gets no reaction she'll see it's pointless and give it up.

I stopped using the playpen when I came home and discovered she found a way to lean against the fence and push and move the whole thing - kennel and all - across the room. That was the end of the kennel and the pen.

[SweetDee]

Honestly, I know that you love your dog... but to leave a baby home alone for so many hours..

Can you not consider sending her to a doggy daycare?

[JudyKayTee]

[QUOTE=Comments on this post
sajjw disagrees: So you think that it is OK to leave a little puppy alone all day? Dogs rae social creatures. This animal is suffering..[/QUOTE]


1 - This is an obvious revenge reddie, easy to tell from the date it was given, on a thread reopened for just that purpose. Please read the rules of the site. Ask Me Help Desk - FAQ: Terms of Service, FAQ and How To Use This Site.

2 - Yes, I said that I think it's OK to leave a "little puppy" alone all day in a pen with a crate inside the pen. Like a lot of other people I actually leave the house and work for a living so staying home is not an option for me. I worked in rescue for a long time and they had no problem with this plan, by the way.

3 - If I posted that this is how I confined my "little puppy" all day I meant it and that's why I posted it. If I didn't mean it, I wouldn't have posted it.

4 - In view of your "I don't want another child if it's going to end up to be a boy" post you are the LAST person to be lecturing me or anyone else on anything faintly resembling compassion and understanding. https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/pregna...ml#post1541843