New Puppy, need some advice here

[Savvv]

Hey peeps, so this isn't quite the shop dog I had posted about prior. In fact, this is more of an us/her dog (her being my g/f that lives with me). Here she is (not my g/f ):



Her name is Beau (which we soon realized we eff'd up, since it rhymes with the word "NO!"). She is a jack russell/min pin mix. Weighing in at 2lbs as of 2 weeks ago. She was born on January 1 of this year so just coming up on 12 weeks and we've had her since 8 weeks old.

Currently, my g/f had just moved to this area and isn't working yet, so she's spending all day at home with the pup. We're good about feeding her and taking her outside to do the duty, but then when it comes time to go to bed, ugh. We have a larger-than-necessary cage for her to sleep in overnight. We don't trust her yet to hold her pee/poop until the next morning if she can freely roam around the house, and since she won't go where she sleeps, we'll just take her out in the morning. Thing is she is ADDICTED to attention/g/f. If we put her in the cage, she whines for a good 20min before going to sleep. The next morning, she's up earlier than I'm ready to be up and whining again, which I've started taking her outside to go to the bathroom but then when I'd leave for work, I'd put her back in the cage til the g/f is ready to get up. She whines and whines again.

Any advice? It's frustrating dealing with this. The g/f has had puppies before and even she is getting bent lol. This is my first and I'm bout ready to put her in the garage (no, i won't really). Only thing I can think of that would legitimately keep her from bothering us at all hours of the day/night/morning is another similarly sized pup to play with, sleep with, keep her busy. Not that we don't WANT to have her sitting around with us but she's just a lost soul if we try to be by ourselves for a bit.

Thanks!

[rgGolf4]

Its probably separation anxiety. I've noticed many dogs have varying levels of this.

Since she is so young, it is not uncommon for dogs that age to not be able to hold it. We have a 6 month old and he has been able to hold it overnight for the last month or so. Before that, he was in his cage at night and we periodically brought him out to go. This is normal. A loose rule is that a dog can hold its bladder for about 1 hour for each month it is old.

Give the dog a treat when it goes into its cage. We have done that with ours and he will freely go in when its time to go to work. Don't use the cage as punishment, the dog should feel safe inside...perhaps but a blanket over it. And don't succumb to the whining. If you break and let her out when she whines, its all over. Dogs thrive on routine. Since your gf is home all the time, the dog is not getting a routine of people leaving for periods of time. You should start having your gf leave the house, with the dog in its crate for short periods of time at first. Slowly build up to a couple of hours at a time. Keep plenty of water and toys available so she doesn't get bored.

Remember that dogs are pack animals. They want to be with their pack and you and your gf are her pack. My dog still stays close to us, but is getting better at being independent. A 12 week dog is very young and its part of the deal with having a dog.

[STOICH]

As noted above, as much as you (or your girl friend) would like to be around the pup 24/7, it doesn't help build independence. And that is key if you want a responsible dog being left alone/free-roam once house broken. I would recommend your girl friend leaving randomly throughout the day; random times and for a random duration. You really need to stay on top of this, otherwise it can become an unhealthy problem for both owner and dog. Even more so if you ever need to board or leave the dog with someone else for a period of time.

With that small of a pup, I'm surprised you have been trying to keep it created the whole night. If there is whining in the middle of the night or early morning, you should get up and take it outside. Whining right after putting the pup in the crate at night or before you leave the house should be ignored as long as it was taken outside prior. This helps the pup understand that going outside means to potty and it's the last chance they will get for a period of time.

Typically rule of thumb: The monthly age of the pup represents how many hours can pass before they should be taken outside. So at 3 months, that's every 3 hours. Obviously this schedule can be altered depending on the size of the dog and their house breaking progress.

One thing I love about my CC is his independence. Partly natural, but a lot was instilled during his early months to help mold that confidence and independence.

Cute pup