# 12 week old, Very excited, Biting pant legs



## RileyD (Apr 4, 2018)

Hello,
We brought Riley home at 10 weeks and she is really the sweetest thing. Most of the time.  She's 12 weeks now and she has been learning her commands - at least when she's not distracted: sit, come, and leave it. I'm actually pretty impressed with her progress! However, I'm hoping I can get some advice on one problem area we seem to have:

We only crate Riley at night (she does great) and when we leave the house for an errand. Nighttime is not an issue as the crate is right next to our bed and she seems to know that when the lights are out, it's time to sleep. When we crate her to run an errand or do other things (like shower); however, she cries and squeals like she's being tortured for about 10 minutes! She will, eventually calm down. We've tried kongs, etc...but they don't help. I think her histrionics eventually wear her out. 

What I've been finding is that when I'm working in my home office and she gets in her excitable mood (happens about 3 time/day) she will start biting my feet and pulling/tugging on my pant legs. It's incessant. If I'm on a call it is the worst because I'm not able to do more than repeatedly attempt a redirect - and that doesn't work. Of course it always seems to happen when I can't leave the call so I end up trapped in my office with a biting, tugging crazy pup .

I've tried walking her in the morning, at lunch, and again at the end of the day but none of that makes a difference. I have tried to put her in her crate in the other room when I'm on a call, but I can hear her crying and squealing the whole time. I even tried putting her in the crate in my office but the crying and squealing did not stop - and it didn't go over too well with my team on the other end of the call! 

I'm looking for suggestions on things I can do when she starts to bite and tug when I'm not able to physically leave the area. Should I continue with the crate and hope that the crying/squealing will get less and less over time?

Thanks for any help you can give!


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## beckymnd (Oct 17, 2017)

Hey!! I feel your pain!!!

I worked from home with Dexter for the first month or two and oh jeez was it a pain in the butt! Safe to say my productivity wasn't as good as it usually is!!

I can recommend Kongs, healthy edible chews such as dried beef skin or bully sticks (make sure they're okay for a 12 week old), a Snufflemat is fab at keeping them busy for 10-15mins or so. Also puzzle toys, there's many you can find on Amazon.

Unfortunately it's just a case of juggling your time well with working. I would let Dexter out every hour on the hour, then play with him for 10 minutes. He'd then usually sleep for the rest of the hour, & repeat. I'd try and plan this well between conf calls etc & I think I got away with only 1 instance where he decided to poop on the rug while I was on a conf call!

Please make sure you're not OVER walking her, it could well be that this is also causing her to not regulate her energy very well. The general rule of thumb is 5 minutes per month, up to twice a day, so at 12 weeks, you should only be walking her for up to 15 mins, up to twice a day.

I wouldn't recommend crating her during the day if you're around, as she's so young she'll want to be with you & crate should only be used for managing her environment while you're out or at night times  If you need to leave her elsewhere while your'e in a meeting or something, or shower, I would highly recommend investing in baby gates and fully puppy proofing a room she can be in, rather than the confinement of her crate  I generally had Dexter have free roam of whichever room I was in at the time, but kept him confined to that room, during the early days. 

I hope this helps!


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## RileyD (Apr 4, 2018)

Thank you Beckymnd! I'm going to see about puppy puzzles and maybe the snufflemat - she would likely LOVE those! 

My walks with Riley are only about 15 minutes so I don't think she's over-exercised...but our weather has been crazy so her walks haven't been very consistent. 

Today was a lot of re-directing and, fortunately not many calls - so I was able to really work on the re-direct and work on the "off" and "no bite" commands with treat rewards. 

She's a smart girl, so I think this is more of a phase than anything...but I want to make sure - and I don't want her stressed about it.


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## beckymnd (Oct 17, 2017)

Oh yeah she'll grow out of it  

Dexter gradually began learning how to entertain himself more & more. He would just sit and play with toys, rather than pester me for attention, so I started bringing him into the office. 

He now entertains himself in the office perfectly while I work & we go play at lunchtime outside. 

She will figure out the routine & learn to adapt in no time!


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