2 Puppy Questions

Jolly is 6 months old and still growing. He is a skinny little thing right now and a finicky eater. He gets neutered tomorrow.

He is currently going to doggy day care while I am at work. The 3 adult dogs are home with my parents. I like this arrangement while the puppy is young, because there is too much trouble a puppy can get into and I didn't want my parents to worry or be responsible for the little pup.

My parents are going south for the winter, after Christmas and the dogs will be home alone. I do not crate the adult dogs while I am at work. They can go outside on their own with a DOGGY DOOR and a fenced yard. Jolly goes outside to the bathroom on his own too. He is really good that way. The adult dogs will be home alone from 6:30 AM - 5:30 PM Monday through Friday.

Doggy day care is expensive and the prices go up Jan 15th when Jolly will be 7 months old.

1) How can you tell when it is time to switch the puppy from puppy food to regular food?

2) How old should Jolly be, before I can leave him home with the other dogs while I am at work?

I think he will be old enough at 7 months if they all get along anyway.

But I'd be very concerned about unsupervised dogs having free access to a garden over such a long stretch -- so many cavaliers are now being regularly stolen from back yards in the US, and this same sad story comes up regularly on the email lists with people crossposting for stolen dogs. They are a prime target because they are expensive dogs. Same problem in Ireland and the UK. Cavaliers are small, friendly and very easy to steal - and it is very hard to tell whether females are spayed so they can end up stolen for and sold on for breeding.

Can you keep all four in and have someone walk them at lunchtime?

There are a ton of links in this forum about switching from puppy food to adult food. Lots agree to skip the puppy food in general, but that is a personal choice. I recomend reading up on some of the archives for everyone else's experience.

I would try leaving Jolly home with the other dogs for short periods of time and seeing how he does (maybe on the weekends?) I wouldn't give him complete free range of the house yet because he is still a puppy and you would lose a lot of progress in potty training if he was left completely unattended. My boys are corralled in the kitchen with a baby gate. If you could find a place to put an xpen for him, maybe that would help.

I would just be concerned that this is a major change in routine for him and could throw him off. Even if he is relaible now, doesn't mean so when you are not around icon_whistling. Start slow!

I would leave them all inside the house and pay someone to let them outside for a little while in the middle of the day.

As far as puppy food, I'd gradually change him to a 50-50 mixture and feed that for a month, then change him over to adult food.

:xfngr: :xfngr: All our fingers and paws are crossed in hopes that all goes well for Jolly! Sending hugs your way! :hug:

Jolly came through fine. He is really sore now though and can't get comfortable, so he isn't sleeping a lot. But I am sure in another day or so he'll be back to normal.