Too much of a good thing? Kindof long. . . .

[ferky1]

Like many on this board, my dog leads a truly blessed life, a life that few humans could match and one that I am truly jealous of. Interestingly, I am not sure if I'm doing more harm than good. . .

Miles is now 7 months old. For the past 3 months he has had a pretty interesting weekday schedule: he wakes up with my wife and I, plays and eats. Then my wife drives him to our dogwalker's house (I know this is odd, but our dogwalker fell in love with Miles and, for just $5 over what she charges for a standard 30 minute walk, she takes Miles for the entire day - about 8 hours- and my wife picks him up after work. This dogwalker is also a behaviorist and trainer and for certain clients, she will even take a dog in for up to a week if the owners go away and don't want to board). While Miles is there, he plays with her dog and cat and whatever other animals she has that day. When she goes to make her walks, she either crates Miles, sometimes with another dog (in the BIGGEST, most comfortable crate ever), or sometimes she will even take Miles with her on the walks. Recently, a client with a young pug asked the walker if she had another smallish dog to play with the pug and help with socialization and tiring him out. With our permission, Miles now spends about 4 hours, 2 days a week, at the pug's house playing and romping under the pug's owner's supervision. Here comes my questions . . .

We are really happy and lucky that we found this lady otherwise Miles would be spending up to 8 hours alone during the weekdays with only a 30 minute visit from a walker. Additionally, Miles is so well socialized and we also feel that he is learning a lot about appropriate dog/puppy behavior from the older dogs he hangs out with. We have 3 problems though:

1) This past weekend was a good example of the fact that Miles may be getting too used to having a playmate and getting attention ALL THE TIME. There were times on Sat and Sun when Miles looked and acted bored. He doesn't find so much joy playing alone with his toys like he used to and 2 times we even found him sitting by the door that we use to get into the garage and take him to the dogwalker's. Sometimes he just sat and stared at us as if to say "entertain me or take me to go play." Keep in mind that we did play with him, walk him and give him tons of attention, just probably not as much as he gets from his animal friends. Miles is an only-dog and if my wife stays firm, he will remain an only-dog. He will be spending large amounts of time alone, especially as he gets older and the daily cost of sending him to the walker's gets too big. Could it be a bad thing that he gets so much attention and playtime? Could he actually learn to dislike alone time? Could he get some form of doggy depression when we decide to cut back or remove him from this super-socialized schedule?

2) Is it possible for Miles to like the wife and I less than the walker? He is still happy and playful with us, but it looks to me that he rushes through breakfast (sometimes doesn't want it at all) so he can run down the stairs, jump into the car and get going. While I have never dropped him off, my wife says that he gets progressively more excited as they get closer and is beside himself with joy when she opens the door to let him out. Sometimes I wonder if he looks at our house as a place to eat and sleep instead of it being his home.

3) Finally, is there such thing as a dog getting too tired? Yesterday Miles played with the Pug for a few hours and from what I hear, they played and played and played and never rested except for a quick drink. He was so exhausted when he got picked up. For the first time ever, Miles did not get off our couch to greet me when I got hime from work. I was devistated :cry: He lifted his head, saw me, wagged his tail once, then went back to sleep. We woke him for dinner, he ate a tiny bit then found a comfy spot and went back to sleep. I woke him for a quick pee before bed and then he slept until morning. Basically, he slept from 5PM to 6:30AM. He woke up happy, rested and hungry. Not only was I unhappy that my 7 month old puppy didn't have the energy to play with me or EVEN SAY HELLO :evil: (can you tell that I am mad about that?), but I worry that it isn't good for him to do that much activity and get that tired. Is that something to worry about or should I be thankful that he gets to work out all of his puppy energy and is so happy about it?

Basically, he seems to love his life and is the happiest, most well socialized dog I have ever met. But we are scared that he is getting it too good now so it will be a shock when the reality of his life hits home (probably when he turns 1). Do we wean him off this lifestyle now, or just let him enjoy himself as much as possible until we have to put an end to it? Are we going to need to retrain him to be able to happily be alone for many hours at a time? Shih Tzus are supposed to be low-maintenance apartment dogs that need very little excercise and adjust well to alone time. I worry that we are teaching him the wrong lessons, but he loves it so . . . . help.

Thanks for reading. Sorry it's so long.

[Black GSD]

I would start "weaning" him off of the "babysitters" house now. It does sound to me like he likes it better there than at home with you. Dogs "tend" to bond with those that they spend the most time with . He may be at your house for more hours during the day, but he gets a lot more "quality" time with the babysitter and the dogs there. Sounds to me also like he may be getting "doggy" meaning he is spending more time playing and interacting with the other dogs rather than with people.

[Peng1zrule]

Oh, my goodness. I don't know where to start. First, I'm not clear on why he will need to stop going to visit the dog walker...he'll need walks his entire life...Second, I beleive he has bonded with the dog walker and the pug (and pug's owners) instead of you, because of the amount of attention he gets over there. I am also unclear on as to why the dog walker is the one spending all this time bonding with your dog, instead of you. Yes, you have to leave him eight hours a day...yes, that is a long time to leave him...but why are you two not walking and training him, instead of just playing with a few toys with him? It sounds like he would enjoy a "sibling" (in the form of another dog.) If you want to keep him from becoming so in love with the trainer, start cutting back the time she sees him now. do it gradually...when he turns a year old, your apparent cut off date, and you stop letting him go over there cold turkey, he is likely to get depressed. Ditto for the dog-friend. I also think he probably does love both of you, but you two are not fun/entertaining enough for him. However, this dog walker has him run errands with her, curries him to his much-beloved play date, probably trains him and gives him snacks, and spends much of her day talking to him. Of course he has formed a bond with her. Try taking him out when you come home from work, or on the weekends, take him out. And train him--for some reason, training forms a strong bond between dog and owner...the dogs that I have trained extensively are much closer to my heart than the ones I have just trained to an acceptable level.

[courtnek]

dogs are pack animals by nature - when spending a lot of time with each other they form close bonds. People are their pack if there are no other dogs, so maybe your pup is bnnding with the dogsitter because she
provides both other dogs to pkay with, and attention, like a pack member
would get.

The ideal solution would be to get another dog to keep your pup company while you're not home. And also go with the training solution, that forms bonds between dogs and humans. I say this because my dog had a companion dog for about 2 years. He passed away, and the change in her was amazing. She would sit oout in the yard and just LOOK for him, searching behind the shed and in the corners...of course he wasnt there,
but she could still smell him around and couldnt figure out what had happened to him...She actually started to get what I would call depressed,
and didnt want to come in. This was a dog raised with only people until she was 4 years old.

I now have another dog, and they have become the best of friends, and once again she is lively, running, having fun...I work all day. The best solution for me was to get Freebee another companion dog.

She has always had a companion cat, but it's just not the same.....