Are we ready and will our setup be suitable?

[Pedro]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on here. I've spent several weeks reading posts the site and have found it a really insightful forum and a great advert for miniature schnauzer ownership! Thanks for being there and dedicating so much time to the breed!

I've wanted a miniature schnauzer for several years after spending time with a friend's adorable salt and pepper miniature, Winston. My kids loved playing with Winston and I've been waiting for my family life to feel appropriately settled and developed for us to be ready to welcome a miniature of our own into the family.

I think we're ready now but want to check this with you experts to see if you concur:

My wife and I have a 10 yr old son (very caring for animals and loves doing jobs so taking part in looking after a dog will be great for him and his anxiety), 7 yr old daughter (a bit excitable loves dogs, a tad scared of them, incredibly playoff and loves all sorts of game) we also have grandma living with us. We have no other pets.

I hybrid work, 2 or 3 days on sit, at least 2 days working/week from home. My wife works from home 3 days/week, so 1-2 days per week there's times in the day when no ones home. It's going to be my dog, my wife is happy to welcome him to the home but wants me to be responsible for the dog and to do the training and the exercising.

We live in a 3 storey townhouse. Our ground floor about 65sq foot is where we have our kitchen, utility room, a sitting room with tv and a play area for the kids. It's all open plan (except utility) but has a support wall through part of it meaning one half is kitchen diner, other is sitting room/kids play area. It is single aspect with sliding glass doors looking out onto a London sized garden (40 by 30 foot).

My plan is that our miniature will live exclusively on the ground floor. There's normally somone down there in the kitchen or sitting area, it's where we spend the most time in our house. I plan to put his crate down in the quiet quarter (relocating the kids play area) away from a window and to have some kind of freestanding pet gate which we can use if we need to screen off the kitchen at certain times and perhaps to also give the puppy, then dog a bit more of his own separate space.

When I work at home I work in our study upstairs, whilst my wife sometimes works at the dining table on the ground floor. In a working day I will have the time to stop for lunch and breaks to come down and play with the dog and take him out into the garden. I am also assuming he's coming out for walks at the start and end of the day with me. If my wife is working downstairs I'm assuming we'd pen the dog into up to half the ground floor (would get a big sliding door window to look out of) as she won't want him running round her whilst she works.

I could go on for hours here and no doubt will make several future posts. When the puppy comes (hopefully around Easter) I plan to take the first week off work to dedicate myself to settling him in and will sleep on the ground floor with him as needs be.

I have learnt from this site and elsewhere that miniature schnauzers have quite ranging personalities. But realise that their big hearts and need for company is central to the miniature schnauzer's character so desparately want to have a happy dog in our family. This is why I'm keen to know if if in your experiences you think where we plan for our puppy to live and how he will be involved in weekday life in our family can work. Note weekends we do lots of walks, gardening, allotment and so I expect the dog to be at the centre of lots of our weekend activities, it's the week day setup I'm focusing on.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you have.

[Dawnspell]

Hi and Welcome

For me one big thing with schnauzers and working from home is separation related behaviours. We both work full time from home and both our schnauzers have had separation issues because of it. Our first dog Barney we had my M.I.L living with us and someone who came in the house to work in the office so there was never any time that the house was empty. It just creeps up on you and schnauzers do want to be with their humans if its their choice and of course who can resist a cute puppy wanting to follow you and be with you. I've never known them to want their own separate space through choice, but it is a good idea to have an area where you can put them to have alone time. Jasper he was ok until around 8 mths old then my husband had quadruple bypass op with complications and I became his full time carer for 10 mths and 2 mths in we had lockdown. He had developed separation and anxiety issues at the end of it.

I'm still working on Jaspers separation issues he's a very sensitive little fellow. I've noticed that it creeps back in with him. For example after xmas and new year he'd been give a lot more freedom due to us not working as much and hadnt been going in his crate. First day back at work he found it really difficult to settle in his crate in the lounge, our office is just a door through from the lounge so he could still hear us but it was still too much for him. I had to move him to a crate in the office and work up to distance and duration over the next couple of weeks. Next holidays he will be spending some time everyday in a crate somewhere in the house

One of the reasons we got Barney was my son then 10 wanted to like dogs but was actually a bit scared of them. Although Barney loved his own little human he only tolerated other children.

I only do one walk a day in the morning. He then goes in his crate, he tends to go outside for a bit and get a long lasting chew when we stop for lunch, before tea we may go in the garden to play games or we'll do some games based training inside to use his brain if the weather is bad, then wee break before bed. In the afternoon hes allowed more freedom in the house but he generally chooses to go to sleep on his raised bed or in his crate in the office where we are. He knows when we are working and hes not going to get attention and just settles. He also knows that when I start putting pens etc in the draw that I'm going to be stopping and he suddenly wakes up

Easter is a good time to get a puppy the weather is improving and the days are getting longer. Makes it a lot easier for toilet training. Heres a link to a puppy resource pack you may want to look at.
https://game.absolute-dogs.com/absolute ... rce-bundle

[Pedro]

Thank you so much for the quick reply Dawnspell. It’s really great to understand other peoples successful home lives with their miniature schnauzers. The link you have shared to the puppy resource pack is fantastic too.

I can see how setting the routine early and being consistent with it and training is going to be key to having a successful family life with a miniature schnauzer. It very much feels like planning the arrival of a first baby!

[Dawnspell]

It very much feels like planning the arrival of a first baby!

It does Some people get very anxious just before collection wondering if they've got everything and are they doing the right thing. Its also common a week or two after collection to get puppy blues where they think everything is going wrong, they cant cope, and its the worst decision ever. Depends on the puppy for that one some are more challenging than others It all passes and then you cant imagine a life without a dog