Back to work for us

First Week we all go to Work and Murphy stays at home

Monday rolled around quite quickly and it was time for us to see how Murphy would be left at home for the day alone. Mark gets up way too early these days so I got up at 6am to make Murphy’s breakfast and to wake him up. It was about 6.30 when I was ready to go out and wake the beast.

He was quiet until I start moving the sheets off his crate. I waited until he had calmed down before opening his crate and then walked straight over to the grass to encourage him to relieve himself. A check of his crate and it was dry which is great.

I took his toys away, put his breakfast into the crate and closed the door behind him. I left him so I could go have my breakfast. When I head back into the house he gets a little fussy and whines a bit but after a couple of minutes goes back to eating. This was the first morning he had eaten pretty much all of his breakfast. I have reduced the portion size and it seems to suit him better.

After my breakfast and his, back out I went to have some playtime with him. Took away his bowl and walked around on the grass again to see if he needed to go to the bathroom again.

We played some tug of war and then it was time for me to leave. I left him with a kong with some of his breakfast in it to keep him entertained during the day. I gave myself 10mins to get back into the house as I want him to learn that he can’t come in with me every time. I ask him to go into his “bed” and “stay”. I walk towards the door slowly repeating the word “stay” every step. If he gets up and comes to follow me I simple ignore him walk back to his crate and say “bed” pointing to it. Sometimes he puts up a little bit of a fight but he goes in eventually on his own accord. Eventually I get him to stay in his crate while I open the door and most of the time I get inside the house before he moves. Recently he has let me open the door and then he starts to walk towards it. It’s better than his previously dashing to the door J

I am working in the city so I can get home pretty quickly this week, nonetheless when time came to get off the bus I did almost break into a run. I got in and there was silence. Dropped off my bags and went to the back door. He was there chewing on his toy but came dashing up when he saw me. Opening the door slowly wasn’t really an option. He started peeing from excitement, so I didn’t pet him I walked over to the grass and gave him the command to go to the toilet and he peed on the grass so then I gave him a lot of praise. I had a look around the garden to look for damage didn’t get up to too much mischief.

Side note: To encourage him more into his bed I have put his toys into the crate. As before he used to just run over to them and start playing and ignore me, which was not ideal. The end goal is to not need the toys at all… I have managed this once but it took a long time. That’s alright though it’s all progress.