New and a few questions to ask

Good afternoon.

I've just recently come across this site and have been having a really good look around. What a really useful site this is!

We are the proud owners of a new male shih tzu called Dexter. He's 11 weeks old tomorrow and seems to have slotted in to our family nicely. However, where we got him just after Christmas and we were all at home for 2 weeks, he is now having issues when we leave him at any point during the day. He is never left for longer than 3 hours, but some days it's literally only for 30 mins twice a day when I'm on the school run. I'm wondering if anyone can offer any advice on this?

A few things about Dexter/Us

When we got him we had planned to crate train him in the kitchen. However, a friend of mine leant me the "dummies" book which said that in the beginning we should have the crate in with us at night to help him settle. This has worked perfectly for us and most nights he sleeps through, only waking ocassionally to go for a wee.

During the day, we move his crate back to the kitchen, and I put him in it when he has a sleep and also when we need to go out. When he sleeps in it, he seems to regularly check to see if someone is around and then settles back. When we go out he starts barking/yelping pretty much straight away. On my return I always wait outside before I open the door and I can always hear him still barking. Now obviously I'm not sure if he's been doing it all the time, but I know on one occasion he was (the first time) as my neighbour next door was home and let me know.

Now, what I'm wondering is, should I just bite the bullet and move his crate downstairs permanently (and deal with the nighttime crying for a while) and if so do I do this in one fail swoop or gradually move it day by day? Or should we put him in his crate in our room when we go out?

Sorry to have gone on, but any advise would be greatly received.

thank you
Emma

Ihad a similar problem with Josh because I was ill for two weeks when I first got him so he had me 24/7. He used to sleep in his crate in the bedroom at night but was not happy being left in the one in the kitchen. I took some time to practice leaving him in the crate in the bedroom - he was happy to be in that one as he associated it with sleeping and I practised going out of the room and coming back after a few minutes... going downastairs and coming back and then going out the front door and coming back. It didn't take him long to realise I was going to come back and would settle down in there. Then I moved to the crate in the kitchen and did the same thing. I always left some toys in with him and water/biscuit - he particularly liked soft toys which he snuggled up to.

He accepted both crates failing that there is nothing wrong with leavinghim in the crate in the bedroom apart from you have further to go to get him out for a wee when you get back

Good luck Emma and welcome to the forum If you have any more questions please ask xx

Thanks for getting back to me.

Well I decided to try the crate in our room when I went to pick the kids up, and he was absolutely fine when I got home. Usually I can hear him from outside, but nothing. Even when we came in I made the kids take their shoes and coats of before I went to get him, and still no noise! Went up there and he was nice and chilled, but still happy to see me.

I have to pop out again in a mo to take eldest to Beavers, so will see if it was just a fluke or if the little man really is happy.

Thank you again Simbalove

You are welcome Emma... they are funny little babies with some odd foibles but so very loveable Josh for instance escaped from a pen I first used in the kitchen when I left him and because I hadn't closed the kitchen door he got up to almost the top of the stairs and was sitting there scared when I got back home a couple of hours later. this has led to him being too scared to go up or down any house stairs with carpet even though he has no problem going up/down steep stone stairs where I work or the even steeper steps at the beach where we walk He also did agility a few years ago and he was fine and absolutely loved doing any of the obstacles where he had to climb up high!!!

I think he probably will be fine in your room - he already feels safe there as it is like the den he would have if wild... they sleep in the den and their dam leaves them there while she goes hunt for food... meanwhile your kitchen or downstairs is somewhere he associates with lots of fun activities and family and then when he is left alone he is unsettled because he is NOT in the safe DEN So I guess he will be quite happy for you to go hunt for food every now and then as I expect he already sees you as his mammy

Looking forward to piccies of the young man

Love Lesley and the two terrors Josh and Isabello xxx

Welcome Emma, I would say can you take him with you? We are home all the time so it is easy for us. Mali my eldest loves the car but Tasha tolerates it , she's fine most of the time when you get her in, but given half a chance would prefer to stay home. It is different if you have to go to work. I think as Simbalove says, try going out for a few minutes and back in see how that works. If we are going out and they don't go with us we leave a radio on so they have some company a bit of Classic Fm.

We've only had our shih tzu for a few months so can't really give as good advice as the others who've had them for years. When we first got Daisy we bought a pen and a crate and from day one we fed her in her crate which we kept in the living room in the daytime, then at night we would move it to the kitchen, which is were our labrador also sleeps. She was fine in her crate in the kitchen, but in the end we moved it purely because it was in front of the kitchen door and was awkward to keep moving. We now keep it under our open plan stairs and Daisy is always fine in it there too, I think she likes that it's sort of tucked out of the way. Hope it all works out well with your little one

Lyn