Will My Puppy Still Remember And Respond To Me If I Have My Parents Train It During The Work Week?
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
My husband and I have a 3.5 month old Westie puppy who is almost fully crate trained and housebroken. We have a busy few months at work coming up, and are concerned that we can’t spend enough time with her to work on training during this developmental time. Is it a good idea to have my parents look after and train her during the work week until she is fully trained? They both are home most of the day and have more time. Will our puppy still remember and respond to us?
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Your puppy will never forget you. I was worried about the same thing with my dog. When my husband and I lived in Hawaii he got orders to a new duty station so we had to fly my dog with us. To make it easier on my dog we flew him to our home state to my parents while we went and found a house for us in Tennessee. They had him for a little over 2 months and they helped train him during that time. As soon as he saw us he was all over us. My parents now are kinda like the grandparents now. My dog is always happy to see them but still loves us just as much. Dont worry about them forgeting you. My husband was deployed for 15 month and when my husband walked through that door I have never seen my dog more happy to see him he was shaking his booty like crazy. They have good memories
I have two Westies, one is 3 and the other is 8 months. When we have gone out of town, or had busy weeks, we have taken them to my parents house as well. It helped make sure they were getting enough attention, and it helped the puppy with potty training. The only difficulty we encountered is that, since my parents are home as well, their schedules were thrown off a bit. They were used to going out at different times than we normally took them out, they ate at different times. And they certainly remember us when we pick them up!
I say go for it, but I recommend seeing if you can work out a routine with your parents that can easly transfer to your life at home when you pick them up again!
good luck!
Yeah your puppy will remember you. They have very good memories.
A dogs memory is usually better than humans. No worry.
Well people do send their dogs away to be ‘trained’. However, I think all you can expect is for your parents (good on em!!) to keep the pot ticking over while you get through this busy time. She has to bond with you, and vice versa at the end of the day and the last thing you want is for her to get too attached to them. You are right, this is a significant period for her and she may well end up being a bit confused. I think. She will remember you, no doubt. And I suppose the other side of this is she’s young, and may not get too set in her ways. Just get your parents to carry on what you have been doing with her, using the same commands and as much of the same routine as she’s been used to.
After all, what’s the alternative – you can’t leave her alone on her own at this point can you!