Crate Training

[Shaquille]

I guess I am going to have to start crate training my little Shaq. He is becoming a very curious little man at the young age of 3mo. I am a bit nervous because I cannot come home in the middle of my day to let him out. He will have to be in there for as little 8 hours and sometimes as long as 9 hours. I have two questions. My first question is, do you leave water for them while you are away? My second question, is it mean to leave them this long...without a potty break and/or water? Anyone in the same situation? I would love to know how this works or does not work for you. Thanks!

 

[RANDEEN WOOD]

training your baby to go into a kennel

I have a 1 year old male brindle "kaycee" who we trained from day 1 to go in a vari kennel when we leave the house. It was difficult at first (esp.potty training) but he is now used to the fact that when mom and dad go to work, he has to go into his house. we have never associated his house with something bad, for example, putting him in his house when he mis-behaves. we treat his house as a positive place to be. we leave his food and water in with him, especially water. I am also fortunate that during the summer, I have more time off and can be home over lunch to let him out and my husband can do the same over winter.
I believe you have to decide what is appropriate for your baby. Just make sure that as soon as you get home, you take him out to run, play fetch or whatever, cause baby boxers have energy to burn! Good luck and I'm sure you will find a system that works for you!

 

[Wendy Swalls]

Long Hours in the Crate

We have to leave Mickey in his crate for 9 hours, at least, each day and we don't like it but it's the way it has to be. We don't leave him any water or food, other than his Kong, and we put a board up to divide his space for playing from his space for doing his business. It's not the ideal method, but it is working for us. For 2 days this week he was able to hold his bowels, though he did pee, for the whole time. And he knows that when we're home and he's out of his crate that he has to go outside to do all that. We tried to put an ex-pen around his crate to give him space to go to the bathroom, but the little guy climbed right out of the ex-pen and had "fun" in the house for the day. :eek:

You might want to try the ex-pen around the crate and see if that works, lots of others have suggested it to me when we were asking the question you're asking. Thankfully, our method is working for us.

 

[Shaquille]

Thanks for the reply. I am glad to see that it does work for someone. We already tried the pen. At 8 weeks he was climbing right out too. I feel so bad leaving him all day in such a small area...but it is something that we have to do. AGGGGH! THANKS

 

[HesMyOtis]

Otis is 13 weeks old and we crate him. I am fortunate that for most days I can come home and let him out but when I don't he seems to do fine. He doesn't like his crate very much, cries when I put him in there at first then quiets down. I don't crate him at night though, he sleeps with us and makes it all night without an accident. He is crated whenever we leave the house though...oh the mess he could make unsupervised. :confused: