PatrickJamie
Boxer Pal
Alright, I know this is a well-covered topic here, but I have a few questions that I don't think have been answered quite the way I'm looking for.
First, my wife and I will be going to pick up our new boy Bowser in a week. He'll be 9 weeks old when we get him. We intend to crate train him and all this good stuff. I've got a few questions about the details.
First and foremost, I'm lucky enough to work from home. This is great, as I'll be able to keep a decent watch over Bowser all day and take him out to the back yard to do his business throughout the day. However, I recently found out that I'll most likely have to spend at least one day a week out of town for work for the next few months. Now all of a sudden, he'll have a solid 10-11 hours in between when my wife leaves for work and when she gets back home on those days where he'll be home on his own. What do I do for these days? Do I establish a toilet area inside his caged-in area inside the house for him to relieve himself on? I eventually want zero waste in the house, toilet area or not, so I'll need to break him from the indoor toilet, which seems like it may prove difficult. My concern is that this will either a) confuse him about where exactly he's supposed to relieve himself, b) leave me with a dog who will always want somewhere indoors to do his business, or c) get him used to being able to just go to the bathroom on the spot whenever it strikes him that he has to go. Also, it seems like I'll have a difficult time training him to use this toilet area when I really want to spend all my time training him to only go out in the back yard. I recognize that I may not have any choice but to do this, but can someone comment on my concerns here? I'm not a big fan of ever introducing him to any scenario under which it's okay for him to go to the bathroom inside the house.
Second, while he's still quite young, he has to be let out to go to the bathroom about once an hour, then every other hour, whatever. Am I going to have to get up every hour on the hour at night to let him out to relieve himself? If I cut off his water at 8pm (or whatever time), will it be something like every 2 or 3 hours instead of every hour? Recognizing that every dog is different, what should my expectation here be?
Finally, feeding. I see a lot of posts here talking about young puppies having 'meals', but according to the book I'm reading, Ian Dunbar's Before & After Getting Your Puppy, Bowser's going to be getting all his food from my hand and his kongs throughout the day. We don't even intend to have a food dish for him for some time. Does anyone care to comment on this?
Thanks,
Patrick (and Jamie)
First, my wife and I will be going to pick up our new boy Bowser in a week. He'll be 9 weeks old when we get him. We intend to crate train him and all this good stuff. I've got a few questions about the details.
First and foremost, I'm lucky enough to work from home. This is great, as I'll be able to keep a decent watch over Bowser all day and take him out to the back yard to do his business throughout the day. However, I recently found out that I'll most likely have to spend at least one day a week out of town for work for the next few months. Now all of a sudden, he'll have a solid 10-11 hours in between when my wife leaves for work and when she gets back home on those days where he'll be home on his own. What do I do for these days? Do I establish a toilet area inside his caged-in area inside the house for him to relieve himself on? I eventually want zero waste in the house, toilet area or not, so I'll need to break him from the indoor toilet, which seems like it may prove difficult. My concern is that this will either a) confuse him about where exactly he's supposed to relieve himself, b) leave me with a dog who will always want somewhere indoors to do his business, or c) get him used to being able to just go to the bathroom on the spot whenever it strikes him that he has to go. Also, it seems like I'll have a difficult time training him to use this toilet area when I really want to spend all my time training him to only go out in the back yard. I recognize that I may not have any choice but to do this, but can someone comment on my concerns here? I'm not a big fan of ever introducing him to any scenario under which it's okay for him to go to the bathroom inside the house.
Second, while he's still quite young, he has to be let out to go to the bathroom about once an hour, then every other hour, whatever. Am I going to have to get up every hour on the hour at night to let him out to relieve himself? If I cut off his water at 8pm (or whatever time), will it be something like every 2 or 3 hours instead of every hour? Recognizing that every dog is different, what should my expectation here be?
Finally, feeding. I see a lot of posts here talking about young puppies having 'meals', but according to the book I'm reading, Ian Dunbar's Before & After Getting Your Puppy, Bowser's going to be getting all his food from my hand and his kongs throughout the day. We don't even intend to have a food dish for him for some time. Does anyone care to comment on this?
Thanks,
Patrick (and Jamie)
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