For context: She’s 5 months old, a shetland sheepdog, crate trained and on the 1 hour awake 2 hour sleep schedule
I’m a stay at home wife so 90% of the time i’m at home (and if i’m not i’m with my husband) so all of my pups time awake is spent with me. Our schedule during the hour she’s awake looks like this: wake up, potty, go back inside play tug or whatever she’s in the mood for, training, play a little more, grooming if she needs it, and if there’s anything specific she needs to work on we do that as well, then the last 10-15 minutes she is in her play pen alone with a chew or her favorite toy, then back to sleep. Once a day we go on a walk and then during the afternoon we run around in the front yard or if the weather is too hot or too cold she gets puzzle games to do inside
Sometimes this deviates if I have stuff to do during the day and it does feel sort of exhausting to spend every hour constantly doing something with her. She has no separation anxiety and I can leave her and she will just play by herself but I feel guilty whenever i do that because i feel like she isn’t getting enough physical or mental exercise. How realistic is this and how much time should I really be interacting with her?
I know puppies should be left to be bored or play on their own but she’s just already good at that. If i need some time away she’s just fine to play in her playpen by herself or if i need to leave the room it’s no problem. I guess i’m just unsure of just how much time i should be spending directly with her playing or training or what not.
submitted by /u/crolatte
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