Bored Pup In Apartment?

[Guest LittleMissOdie]

Hi all, new here :)

Was wondering if anyone could lend some advice. My partner and I have recently gotten a French bulldog pup who is currently 11 wks. She is due for her next vacc in a week.

We live in a smallish 1 bedroom apartment with a small private yard and though we can play games of fetch to tire her out, she still seems full of energy and sometimes gets a bit crazy (especially before bedtime!) as she's growing so fast we're finding it harder to tire her out/keep her from being bored and barking. I'm home all day during the week so I do play with her frequently but she seems to be frustrated with the lack of running space.

I was wondering how risky it would be to take her for quick strolls around our apartment complex to drain her energy. I'm aware of the risks of parvo & distemper etc, we live in a good area but there are other dogs that frequent the apartment grounds (as it is a pet-friendly building) however the apartment block has strict rules abut cleaning up after the pets and the dogs we have come across seem well taken care of.

What are your thoughts? Anyone in a similar living situation who could lend some advice?? Thanks in advance!

[WeimMe]

I have a pup that also gets the evening zoomies...not sure that you really want to hear this, but it doesn't seem to matter how much exercise he gets beforehand, he still goes nuts in the early evening. The only thing that ever seemed to exhaust him was puppy school!

I tried playing with him in the early evenings - fetch, tug, going through training "homework", but nothing seems to have any real impact if he's allowed to have free run of the house at night. We have been settling him in his crate with something to chew and he eventually quiets down and falls asleep that way.

I personally would not think that it was worth the risk of potentially exposing your puppy to parvo for something that may or may not settle her down. Just a few more weeks and you can walk her without having to worry. Why not wait? Our pup is old enough to go for short walks now, and this doesn't seem to have any real effect on his energy levels. He still gets the zoomies :)

[Jumabaar]

I take my pups for walks with them sitting in a backpack on my chest. They get to experience lots of sights, sounds and smells but the risk is negligible. Doing a few of these should tire your pup mentally which will probably result in more quiet time then her actually doing zoomies :D

You could also start doing some trick training with your pup to tire her brain out. A 5minute session morning and night managed to tire my kelpie pup out quite a bit

[persephone]

:) Your pup needs to see the world outside of the apartment. This is crucial to her social development!

carry/walk her to your car, and take her for drives ... carry her around streets/shopping centres etc .. so that she will accept the sights/sounds/smells of the big wide world , and not be too fearful later on.,

have a read of THIS and also THIS- the info may help you .

There is discussion HERE, about new puppies :)

[Red Fox]

:) Your pup needs to see the world outside of the apartment. This is crucial to her social development!

carry/walk her to your car, and take her for drives ... carry her around streets/shopping centres etc .. so that she will accept the sights/sounds/smells of the big wide world , and not be too fearful later on.,

^This.

I took my pup out from the day she arrived. School, shopping centres (including inside some shops), car parks, playgrounds. Areas that aren't frequented by many other dogs. Cemented areas are good, you can let the pup run around on a long line to burn up some extra energy.

As far as tiring the pup out, does she have toys, Kongs, bones? Are you doing any training with her? Teaching basic tricks can tire them quickly, small amounts of focus work, searching for treats around the house or extracting them from a treat ball, Kong or plastic bottle.

she still seems full of energy and sometimes gets a bit crazy (especially before bedtime!)

Yeah that's normal. Pups tend to have big bursts of energy, go feral then crash.

[Guest LittleMissOdie]

I personally would not think that it was worth the risk of potentially exposing your puppy to parvo for something that may or may not settle her down. Just a few more weeks and you can walk her without having to worry. Why not wait? Our pup is old enough to go for short walks now, and this doesn't seem to have any real effect on his energy levels. He still gets the zoomies :)

Thanks for the input! "zoomies" - best word to describe it :laugh: Out of curiosity, how short are the walks that you take your little pup on and how many times per day

[Guest LittleMissOdie]

I take my pups for walks with them sitting in a backpack on my chest. They get to experience lots of sights, sounds and smells but the risk is negligible. Doing a few of these should tire your pup mentally which will probably result in more quiet time then her actually doing zoomies :D

You could also start doing some trick training with your pup to tire her brain out. A 5minute session morning and night managed to tire my kelpie pup out quite a bit

The backpack is a great idea! Tried it this morning, she squirmed a bit but settled down and was enjoying the sights and smells of our neighbourhood. I started training her as soon as we got her (at 8 weeks), we do a couple of sessions a day and she's gotten the hang of sit, stay, rollover and leave it, it's just that her attention span is so short that she tires of our training easily and resorts to running around and chewing things :laugh:

[Guest LittleMissOdie]

:) Your pup needs to see the world outside of the apartment. This is crucial to her social development!

carry/walk her to your car, and take her for drives ... carry her around streets/shopping centres etc .. so that she will accept the sights/sounds/smells of the big wide world , and not be too fearful later on.,

^This.

I took my pup out from the day she arrived. School, shopping centres (including inside some shops), car parks, playgrounds. Areas that aren't frequented by many other dogs. Cemented areas are good, you can let the pup run around on a long line to burn up some extra energy.

As far as tiring the pup out, does she have toys, Kongs, bones? Are you doing any training with her? Teaching basic tricks can tire them quickly, small amounts of focus work, searching for treats around the house or extracting them from a treat ball, Kong or plastic bottle.

she still seems full of energy and sometimes gets a bit crazy (especially before bedtime!)

Yeah that's normal. Pups tend to have big bursts of energy, go feral then crash.

Thanks for the input! Yes we bought her plenty of toys, she has a few Kongs, I do several sessions of training and she's picked up on it quite fast (she can sit, stay, rollover, handshake and leave it). I might try letting her search for treats around the house though, this might tire her out some more :)

[WeimMe]

I personally would not think that it was worth the risk of potentially exposing your puppy to parvo for something that may or may not settle her down. Just a few more weeks and you can walk her without having to worry. Why not wait? Our pup is old enough to go for short walks now, and this doesn't seem to have any real effect on his energy levels. He still gets the zoomies :)

Thanks for the input! "zoomies" - best word to describe it :laugh: Out of curiosity, how short are the walks that you take your little pup on and how many times per day

I only take him for 5 minute walks atm, as he's only quite young (about 16 weeks) - my dog trainer told me that long walks aren't good for pups. We go twice a day.

Prior to his vaccinations taking full effect I did used to take him for drives and sometimes with me to collect my daughter from school (he was carried the whole time). He enjoyed the interaction and the new experiences, but it didn't seem to wear him out.

[SammieS]

Welcome LittleMissOdie! and congrats your Frenchie! I spend my life trying to work out how to make my Frenchies tired... lucky mine don't have as much energy as others!

It will get easier once her vacc's are finished and she can go anywhere and everywhere! Until then, give her milk bottles (with the ring around the top of the bottle removed) - or any plastic bottle for that matter to play with or toilet rolls to chase around (our 7 month old thinks toilet roll cores are the best thing ever and follows you to the toilet in case you've finish the roll - our 3 yearold Frenchie just rolls her eyes at how excited he gets :laugh:), nylabones are also good for them to chew on, it tires them out and is good for their teeth!

We also leave treasure hunts for our guys (Angu is in a pen when we're at work so they can't play too rough whilst unsupervised and end up hurt) so we spread treats around in kongs and treat balls and behind things and under pillows and towels so they spend the first 15 minutes after we leave searching for treats and not worrying about us leaving.

Also - come and visit us in the Frenchie thread (if you haven't already) we'd love to see some photos!

[Nushie]

I found that training usually wore Jager out. We used to do training in the add breaks during tv shows. That way i knew they would only last for short periods at a time.

As for getting them out of the aparment, i took him a lot of places with me, we used to go for car trips every afternoon when i picked my boyfriend up from work. I would take him out of the car and hold him. That way he got to see things, smell things, hear things. People would talk to him. There is still the risk but i just figured it would be a reduced risk and the rewards would be greater. We also spent a lot of time at my mums house and a friends house. They both had dogs that i knew were always fully vacced, both had gentle older dogs that would let Jager run amock and crawl all over them. So that helped in getting him out and about and also tuckering him out on the weekends.

But during the week it was only training and car trips in the afternoon.

Good luck with your little one. I love frenchies!!