Am I screwing up my boxer's potty training? (long)

[Remypal]

Hey, everybody:

My better half and I brought home a great little pup named Remy. He is now 8 weeks old. We have a question about potty training that I couldn't find an answer to on the forums.

Remy seems to be picking up on the whole "bathroom outside" concept. We take him on the same route and use the same keywords when he does his biz. We're trying to crate train him, but we're running into a problem with our schedules.

For three days a week we both have to be out of the house for work (8+ hours). We've set up a secure area in the kitchen for him and placed a pee pad near the door where we take him out. He can get water from a bottle we've strapped to the cage.

He is hitting the pad for the most part. When we come home we immediately take him out to do his biz. We pretty much take him outside every hour or so when we're home.

My vet and a few other dog owners have indicated we should just leave him in there for the whole day. Everything we've read has indicated that he is too young to be kept in the crate for that length of time.

We're really confused as to how to proceed. I'm not wild about leaving Remy in his crate for 8 hours, knowing he can't hold it that long. At the same time I don't won't to confuse him, which is what I'm worried that the concurrent paper training is doing. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[LuvMyLennox]

Potty Training

Hi,

Well our baby is 4 months old and your problems rings a bell. We bought a crate but decided that keeping Lennox in it for 8+ hours is not cool, so we let him have the kitchen to run and play in when he's alone. I think that it does confuse him a bit though. He knows to go potty outside and lets us know when he has to if we're home but when he's alone he simply does his busines where he wanst to (inside the blocked off area). We have been having doubts lately b/c there is no one to let him out and no one to tell him no-bad dog. So he's not holdong it in when he's alone. Although we know he is capable b/c overnight he holds it in for up to 9hrs.! Sorry I can't be of much help- but it's comforting to see that we aren't the only ones with this problem.

 

[jlynnholt]

Is there anyone that you know that could come over and let him out during the middle of the day? I come home for lunch so I let Pimp out around lunch everyday for an hour. Then he goes back in when i leave. I know 8 hrs is along time but I think your best bet is probably leaving him in the crate unless you can have someone come over and let him out.. It will keep your house cleaner and it will crate train him as well.

 

[courtney323]

LuvMyLennox -

You need to post your Introduction, per the RULES

 

[Remypal]

Getting help

jlynnholt:

Do I know people who can come over? Yes. Would they help us? Probably not. We found out who are friends were when we moved last year. I can't imagine anyone would help us with a dog. We unfortunately are too far away to get home for lunch.

We may just have to put him in the crate and bite the bullet. I hate torturing him like that, but we don't want to turn the house into Remy's personal toilet.

Lori grew up with dogs most of her life, and they always paper trained the dogs with great results. I could be wrong, but to me it sounds like crate training is a more recent trend (I've dealt with cats most of my life.)

I'm also worried that if Remy soils the crate everyday he'll grow to hate it. Right now he's actually going in with minimal coaxing.

Maybe hiring a dog walker would be the way to go.

Thanks to eveyone so far for the help. If anyone else has any ideas we'd love to hear them!

 

[Jan]

Remypal I think you are doing the right thing. It will probably take Remy a little longer to be housetrained, but you really can't crate a puppy for 8 hours and expect him to hold that long. He would just end up sitting in his mess all day and that's not a good thing.

Good luck with your pup!

 

[jlynnholt]

Remypal - Sorry i couldn't be more help. The other thing you migth want to try is if you have a back yard is getting an outdoor kennel since the nice weather is coming. Where is South Jersey are you located? I am right over the commadore barry in PA

 

[Remypal]

Thanks for the offer

jlynnholt:

We appreciate the offer. We're up in Camden County, so it would probably be at least an hour drive (I'm guessing you're in Chester County).

We are going to try the paper/pad for a few weeks. I'll be home part of the week, so I can reinforce the crate training on those days. Remy seems to be picking up on the outside bathroom deal, so it may not be that bad. It's only been a week and a half. I'm just worried about the little guy.

Hadn't thought of the kennel option. My only worry is that he'll figure out an escape route or that someone might grab him. He certainly likes people.

Thanks again!

 

[kelseymoore]

Same Issue with Cameron

Our pup is going to be 11 weeks this Sunday and she is doing great on the whole potty outside thing when we are at home, but like you, we can't be home with her all day and we let her have the run of the kitchen with her crate in the corner, and she goes to the bathroom on the floor. My husband is able to come home at lunch to let her out, but she has already gone at this point. She too can hold it all night in her crate, and loves her crate, but I don't want her in that crate for most of her day. So we too are perplexed as to what to do to get her to learn a bit quicker other than taking a few weeks off of work to be with her constantly! So if you figure this one out, share it with everyone! We hope that they get it soon, her potties are getting bigger and bigger!

 

[TramendousJ]

I am in the same boat. Our puppy Ella is almost 8 weeks old and I cannot come home during the day to let her out. I do have a larger kennel that would be suitable for an adult boxer but I hesitate to put her in it at this point because I know she would soil one corner. Does anyone think that putting a puppy pad on half of the larger kennel and her bed on the other half would be a bad idea? That way she would be confined but still have more room than her smaller kennel. Let me know what you think.