Amount of time spent with puppy?

[DawnU]

Hello everyone. Two weeks ago we purchased an 8 week old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. It has been over 20 years since I had a puppy and I was hoping I could run my schedule by some of you to see if you believe I'm spending enough time with the dog. I've been driving myself crazy, and not enjoying my time with the dog as much as I'd hoped, because I'm constantly worrying about ensuring I've got the right balance between spending time with my 22 month old daughter and also with the puppy. (The puppy has had a bacterial infection, the vet recommended I keep my daughter away from the pup for a couple of weeks.) Anyway here's the basic schedule:

6:30 - Out to toilet, breakfast, playtime
7:20 - Out to toilet, back in playpen
8:45 - Out to toilet, back in playpen
10:45 - Out to toilet, quick play (10-15 min), back in playpen
12:00 - Out to toilet, free time in kitchen
13:00 - Lunch, out to toilet, playtime
14:15 - Out to toilet, back in playpen
15:30 - Out to toilet, back in playpen
17:00 - Out to toilet, back in playpen
18:45 - Out to toilet, dinner, playtime
21:30 - Out to toilet, bedtime

So throughout the day she essentially has one play of at least 45 minutes, and two long plays of over an hour each, plus another short play. Her playpen is 4ft x 3ft and has her bed, toys and water bowl.

Many thanks for reading my post!
Dawn

[lankeela]

My lot want to know if they can come and live with you lol.

This sounds an ideal timetable, and hopefully you will avoid most of the problems that people come on here and ask about. House training should be a doddle provided you are staying out in the garden with her).

Oh the joys of a new puppy.

[wolf63]

Do puppys actually go to the 'bathroom' that many times per day?

I thought that I was bad!

[leelapops]

Dawn, that sounds perfect :) I bet your pup is extremely happy with all that contact and meaningful play. If you dedicated all of your time to her, you wouldn't get a moments' peace, and she wouldn't grow up to understand that she can't always be centre of attention! Her playpen sounds safe, and comfortable too. I am jealous that you have a new pup; mine was never at the cute, fluffy stage: he arrived as a gangly teen and not much has changed in 3 years!

wolf, yep! Jack wasn't as 'needy', but he still took an age to housetrain as he was quite old by the time we got him, and hadn't been toilet trained in his initial home.

Dawn, give your pup a cuddle from me, and a wag from Jack! x

[woofgang]

at that age the pup will need loads of sleep rather than actual wakeful interraction and provided that you are "around" IMO your littlie will be quite happy. If she is puddling in the pen then you might want to offer her wees more often but apart from that she should be fine

[woofgang]

wolf when I got my boys mid december, if they weren't asleep, in the garden in their cage or I had just seen them wee, I offered them an opportunity every half hour thoughout the day and mostly they wee'd!!
basically, if you want dry floors and fast housetraining then they need to go out on waking, after food, before going in cage or car, in the middle of exciting play, before visitors and about every 30 mins by default!!!
At first they went out 4 or 5 times during the night too, this is now down to once or none at 3 months old.
I really had to work at this one as I have a strange house with no "back" door. All our doors to the garden come in onto carpet...living room, dining room, study, so clean dry puppies are essential!!

[DawnU]

Thank you all for reading and replying. I feel better knowing there are other dog owners that think I'm somewhere on the right track! :) It's been a challenging couple of weeks, but people keep reminding me it's all worth it in the end. Boy do I miss the weekend lie-ins though! :)

[wiggal]

Hey Dawn,
We got our new pup 2 weeks ago on Sunday, and she is a Cavalier x american cocker spaniel.
My fella works from home most of the time, so she runs riot and terrorises him all day everyday! Although I do worry about him getting to attached to him!

I think your schedule sounds great, and good luck to you and your pup! :)

[sheila17456]

enjoy every minute, my dog carla died today aged 15 years and 3 months, thank god we still have phoebe aged 14 years and 3 months

[Fairie]

I too have just got an 8 wk old cavalier king charles puppy as a play mate for my 4 year old cav. he is soo energetic, while playing he's a bit rough, he bites you all the time, but hes settled in really well, only using the crate for bedtime so i can have 6-7 hours sleep without worrying about him. most pother times he is free to roam the living-room and kitchen. hes using his training pad occasionally but not always! lucky we have wooden floors and not a carpet!

my advice to you, is enjoy! enjoy her as much as possible, like kids they grow soo fast.

any advice for me? lol

[mirela]

my puppy 4 months now, always we spent lots time with her, but i found she getting bad habbits and temper gradually now. i started doing a puppy training dairy now, write all the training, feeding details during the day.
your puppy must be very happy living with you, you spent huge amount time with her, good one.