How do you amuse your Doodle all day?

[Sandy]

Toby is 13 1/2 weeks, and I am a stay at home, piano teacher Mom. So....that leaves just me and him for most of the day. And I should mention that the two kids living at home work full time, and go to college, so they don't get home at 3:30 like an elementary school kid would. How do you guys keep your Doodles amused all day? I take him on a couple of walks. I sit on the floor and play with toys. I usually crate him once during the day to either do housework or groceries or something like that. He won't played in our fenced yard alone. He doesn't amuse himself well yet, unless I give him an ice cube to chase around! :) What else can I do to help both of our days go by faster?

[ClarkP]

Hi Sandy,
I work at home so see lots of our dogs too. :-) I love that.

In my not-so-unbiased opinion, you should crate Toby a LOT more. Give him a den to hole up in. He will thank you for it and you will get much more done - worry free. Dogs really love their crates if you introduce it well. Thule was our worst to crate train. She was a rescue and had some anxiety. But now she will go in her crate to nap most any time. Just this week, we moved her crate so we could use our new monstrously big Bissel carpet cleaner. We put her crate on a pile of other boxes/stuff. Adina mentioned that we should move it to a more stable place because Thule might go in it. I, of course, promptly didn't move it. Sure enough, later that evening I found Thule happily in her crate perched precariously on other boxes. She loves her crate. She knows it's hers and hers alone.

What I'm trying to say is: Don't view crating your dog with "jailing" him or anything like that. You are simply making him feel more secure with his own place. And the wonderful side effects are that you have time to do your thing and Toby doesn't develop any bad habits because you weren't watching close enough.

Good luck!
-Clark

[Sandy]

Thanks Clark! Without this board I might be in the funny farm by now. Toby, I'm sure, is not worse than other pups his age, but not having had a pup for at least 15 years, it was quite a shocker. Imagine, something I love trying to bite me! Imagine, something I love peeing on the floor instead of politely going to the door. Ah yes....this too shall pass. I will try to get over my thinking that the crate is a cage, and use it more often. He doesn't always appreciate going in - in fact, resists it - but hopefully "we" will get used to that!

[Nicole Wayne]

Hi Sandy. I know what you mean. Our Mazie is now 18 months old, but when we first got her, it was the first time I'd had an honest to goodness puppy in forever. She was a super fast learner, though, and very quickly was housebroken and eating and sleeping on schedule. My 2 cents on the crate: I used to hate it too, since my childhood dogs never had them and I thought of them as "cages" too. Not anymore. Mazie has always loved her crate! She'll go in and just nap from time to time. She goes right in when we leave the house with or without a treat, and is usually just waking up when we come in the door. I always race in and open her crate door, but she takes her time stretching and the like before she comes out. She obviously is not desperate to get out of it. I bet Toby will come around to the whole crate idea. Use treats to lure him in and then make sure he has water, some safe toys (ones he can play with without supervision) and a "comfort" item like a favorite blanket or towel or toy. Good luck!

[Sandy]

A second thought - I just let Toby out of his crate after teaching a piano lesson, and let him out to "go potty". He came in and went right back in the crate for more nap time! Funny dog.

[Sharon, Boo & Cricket]

Ian Dunbar, a dog trainer/expert, has a great tip about keeping dogs occupied. He recommends feeding all of their meals in a Kong (or other food dispensing type of toy) instead of feeding them from a doggie bowl.
Its great- a meal that used to last 30 seconds now lasts 15-30 mins (longer if you freeze it in the Kong), and it keeps the dog occupied and mentally stimulated. Plus the dog doesn't gain weight because you aren't giving treats, you've giving them their regular meals.

We do this for some of Boo's meals and it works great. THere are lots of treat-holding/dispensing toys: Kongs, Buster Cube, Busy Buddy collection (squirrel dude, waggle, etc.), Molecuball, etc.
Sometimes when the weather is warm, we sprinkle his dry kibble on the patio so he has to walk around and sniff it out. He loves that! We do that indoors too.
Good luck!

[Lucy's Mom~ Liz]

Sharon- I like the idea of less bowl feeding. My daughters and I like to "train feed" Lucy some evenings. It's like mental playtime for her in the kitchen. ( Sit, down, twirl, figure 8, stay, leave it) We're also feeding her ( just this week) after the family eats- it seems she wants to play (again!) after she eats so this way we can have a calm meal ourselves.
Do you think a XL Kong would be enough 2x per day? We're still trying to figure out the right amount for our 8 month old 55 pounder. She poos 2x a day and we're feeding her what is supposed to be a good food and the amount rec. by vet. Any thoughts?

[Sharon, Boo & Cricket]

Hi Liz!
I'm not sure how much the XL holds, we only have the Medium size (3 1/2" long) ones. If you're just feeding dry kibble then the XL would probably work, but if you use anything moist then you'd probably want to go with the medium size, because she'll be able to lick out the stuff at the bottom. Boo has trouble licking the moist food from the very bottom of his Kongs, so we can't go any bigger! Hahaha!

The medium Kong seems to hold about 1/3 cup of round, dry kibble. Instead of giving Lucy one big one, could you divide her meal into a few medium Kongs? Ian Dunbar does that in a video I saw once (I'll see if I can find it), and put them all in a basket for the dog to take out. Great way to keep the dog busy for a few hours! You could also put part of a meal in a Kong, then part in a Buster Cube, and part sprinkled around the room, etc. Variety is always fun! ;)

Pooping twice a day sounds normal, Boo poops once in the morning and once in the afternoon/evening. We've found that the "rib test" is the best way to figure out if we're feeding him enough/too much. (If you aren't familiar with that, e-mail me and I'll give ya the details.) We feed Boo four small meals a day- some in a Kong, some for walks, some for grooming, etc.

Your "train feeding" Lucy sounds great! Wish I could see that twirl and figure 8! Sounds adorable!! :)