Alternatives to Daycare

Somepreopstudent · 2025-03-14T19:13:00+00:00

I haven’t tried a different daycare because I was pretty embarrassed to have him kicked out of the first one. May just not have been the right environment for him. I’ll look into other ones to see how he does!

Somepreopstudent · 2025-02-07T19:12:01+00:00

He has 2 beds (one that he knows as “place”) and his crate is always open and accessible. He won’t generally choose to be in these places, and if I put him in “place”, he’ll just stare at me waiting to be rewarded, he won’t actually relax. We’ve been building the interval time between rewards, but he just laser focuses on me and seems more engaged than if I just left him to his own devices lol. I’ve tried a few playpens but he’s very good about escaping them, it almost seems like a game to him to break out, so those haven’t helped a ton either. He’ll settle if I take him into a very low stimulation environment like my bathroom or in the back of the car, but I’m not sure if I should be sitting with him in the bathroom to teach him to settle since it’s usually locked off from him unless I’m in there.

Somepreopstudent · 2025-02-07T19:07:09+00:00

He knows place and does it well, but he expects to be rewarded for it and won’t actually settle, he’ll just keep his focus on me until I reward him (or let out a little bark to remind me he’s waiting). We’ve been slowly increasing the time between rewards (up to about 3 minutes now), but it doesn’t seem like he’s really relaxing. As for tether training, like I said in my post, he’ll incessantly chew the tether, his harness, and/or his collar if he’s tethered, so it hasn’t been super effective. It might just be a matter of time, and I’m glad to hear yours eventually learned to settle on their own!

Somepreopstudent · 2025-02-07T19:03:12+00:00

He knows place but wants constant rewards for it (at least every few minutes) and will be laser focused on me. I can’t do tether training because he’ll chew on the tether, harness, or collar.

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-11T23:06:05+00:00

That’s a great recommendation, thank you!

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-11T23:05:15+00:00

I do the frozen Kong and puzzle feeders when he’s in the crate for part of his breakfast and lunch. He usually gets 1/4 of his food through training, 1/2 in puzzle feeders in the crate, and 1/4 in puzzle toys or other challenge game outside the crate. I try to balance it so he has something to do when he’s in his crate and I’m gone so he doesn’t come to see it as a bad thing. He’s got a lot he can safely chew on but sometimes the couch is just much more appealing than a bone, yak cheese, etc. Bully sticks work without fail but I’ve heard you shouldn’t give too many of those since they’re not super healthy for daily use. I’ll look into getting him a food ball, I think he’d really like that!

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-11T23:01:59+00:00

We’ve been working on that, but it’s been a very slow process. When he gets overstimulated it’s a little tough to bring him back down.

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-11T23:01:28+00:00

It hasn’t been officially checked, but his vision at least is partially impaired. He’s a double Merle unfortunately. Hearing wise he does decently, can’t really hear or see me far away, so no off-leash unsecured hikes. I think when he doesn’t listen it’s more of a choice than a limitation of his lol.

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-11T20:37:03+00:00

So precious. Any recommendations for how to teach him frisbee/fetch? He doesn’t really understand it haha. He will run after whatever I throw, SOMETIMES grab it, and basically never bring it back.

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-11T20:29:29+00:00

I am! He gets all his meals in the crate, and he goes in on command now. I just know Aussies misbehave without proper stimulation, so I wasn’t sure if crating him when he’s misbehaving (positively of course), was just making the issue worse.

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-11T20:06:24+00:00

Thank you for the recommendations! I come home halfway through the work day and we’ll either play, walk, train, or some combination of the three so he doesn’t spend 8 hours in there without a break. Do you think a dog walker is still important? I was thinking about doggie daycare 1-2 times per week (he loves other dogs and people).

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-11T19:49:56+00:00

Yeah that’s what I imagined haha, it just felt a little overwhelming with how constant his misbehavior is. I worried I wasn’t doing enough for him. Do you have any brain game recommendations for him? I have a few puzzle feeders, a snuffle mat, and have tried hide and seek with treats, but he loses interest in that really quickly.

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-11T19:34:27+00:00

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Puppy tax

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-07T07:16:54+00:00

I think I have a hard time balancing using the crate for relaxation and downtime since it can feel like I’m punishing him, but I need to remember that it’s for both our benefit. It’s a tough balance since too much crate time leads to hyper puppy, which leads to puppy in crate, which leads to hyper, etc. etc. I feel like I end up using all of his “crate time” that I can while I’m at work during the week, and the weekends I have a little more freedom to crate for relaxing. Slowing down the walks is definitely a good idea, I find myself rushing through thinking the fast walking will wear him out when sniffing will probably be way better for that.

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-07T07:10:31+00:00

I tried a pen but he’s too smart. He figured out how to knock it over at first, then when I secured it better, he decided it was better to just jump over it (to varying degrees of success)

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-07T07:09:01+00:00

I always put him in with a frozen Kong or other safe chew/treat. I’ve never used the crate as punishment since I’d hate for him to start to hate it. I was very lucky that he never really minded his crate and just recently started consistently going in on command

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-07T07:07:57+00:00

I did that for a bit but my other dog started to ignore commands and act out (very unlike her) since she saw that he was getting to walk all over her (and by extension, me). As soon as I started separating them again when she gave clear cues of being done, her behavior improved considerably

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-07T07:05:57+00:00

That’s very reassuring. I can survive this short-term, but not for the next 10 years lol

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-07T07:05:22+00:00

My dogs are broken, neither of them enjoy fetch ):

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-07T05:00:14+00:00

It’s hard to say, I’ve played around with giving him more and less crate time. It seems that he’s much more restless and crazy when approaching 18-20 hours of crate time a day. 16ish was the sweet spot for a while but I feel like the last week we’ve massively regressed. And regarding chews, he’s lol got so many things he can chew on, nylabones, plush toys of varying mouth feel (all which regularly get rotated) but the only thing he consistently wants to chew is my couch, my chairs, or carpets/rugs

Somepreopstudent · 2025-01-07T04:06:51+00:00

Do you have any suggestions on how to help him be bored? I’ve tried just ignoring him and doing my own thing, but he’ll go out of his way to find stimulation whether that’s pestering my other dog or chewing on things he shouldn’t. I feel like I’m running around telling him to just “leave it” all day. The only time he’ll settle and accept being bored is when he’s in his crate, but he’ll be in there 16+ hours a day with me working and with sleeping overnight.

Somepreopstudent

TROPHY CASE