New Family Member


amerrell13

New Member
Hello all!

My boyfriend and I just welcomed a handsome mini dachshund into our family. His name is Nitro, and he's the cutest little thing I have ever seen! We've had him a little over 2 weeks now, and he's about to turn 11 weeks old, and he's already doing really well with adjusting to his new life. However, as any new puppy mom would, I tend to worry a lot/have general concerns and questions. Now, if I were to list every single concern I have, you'd be reading this post for awhile (lol!), so I'll try to be brief and only list my main concerns.

If I had to pinpoint a time where I feel overly concerned and anxious, it's around dinner time. We have gates in our kitchen so Nitro can free roam while we're cooking and eating dinner, but I was getting too overwhelmed with wondering where he was, what he was doing, if he needed to go to the bathroom etc. As a result, we put him, along with his food, in a play pin in the living room (just around the corner). He eats a couple bites of food, and it's not before long until he starts yelping. There are some days when he quiets down after 5 minutes, but then there are other days when he's yelping the entire time we are eating dinner. As a precaution, before he goes into his pin, I take him out to go potty, he has plenty of toys and a bed etc., so I'm sure he's making so much noise because he wants to be with us...but I also want to eat my dinner without having to worry about him the entire time. In a perfect world, I'd love to say to him 'go lay down' and he lay in his bed while we're eating...but I know that goal is probably further on down the road. Is him being in pin just something that he'll be able to get used after awhile/he'll get the hang of? Do you guys have any other advice/tips on how we can make him settle down while we are having dinner?

Also, what are your thoughts on puppy training classes vs. in-home training sessions? I keep on going back on forth between what would be better, but I just don't know. I think I'm leaning more towards puppy training classes so that he could socialize with other dogs as well, but I'm very open to any opinions/advice/tips on the matter.

Thanks so much!
-Aubrey
 
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