Long work days and training?

[Deekarn]

Hi. My name is Deanna and my pup's name is Betty White, a white boxer. She is my new love. My husband and I are adamant about training her to very obedient, as we love dogs who are well behaved that can be trusted even off leashes and with free run of the house (eventually). So we would like to do this training right.

Our biggest challenge will be our long work days. There will be about 2 days a week where the puppy may need to be home alone (crated for now) for up to 10 hours. We have some volunteers to take the dog out once during the day. Or we could probably afford doggie day care once a week. And once she is better behaved my husband can take her to work with him. But for the next few weeks as we go through this puppy stage how will the long day in the crate make my boxer behave?

I love her so much and it feels so wrong to keep her locked up for so long. I am looking for a new job so I can be closer to home too.

Please help! Looking for any advice.

 

[Jan]

House training will be a bit more of a challenge, because you will be gone for so long. I was in the same situation with Moto. Rather than shutting him in an crate where he will be forced to soil his sleeping space, I would consider getting an Exercise Pen. He will have more room to move and around and you can put down a puppy pad for him to go on and a bed to sleep on.

Good luck!

 

[pghboxers]

I'd send her to daycare as often as you can afford. On the days she can't go to daycare, I'd hire a dog sitter/walker to come over for at least 30 minutes every 4-6 hours (4 hours at first, once she is a little older you ca go to 6 hours). Plan lots of exercise and training for before work and after work. Enroll in a training class at least once a week (and go! and not just for a 6 week class...keep going to class as much as you can for the first year!). Introduce your dog to anything and everything you can. Take her to the pet store when you pick up dog food, take her to those doggy self bath places, take her to any location which will allow her to go. If you don't live in a busy city, take her to a busy city to go for a walk once a week. Take her to on leash dog parks to meet other pups on leash.

Don't take her to an off leash park until she has a solid recall, and shes a little more "adult" in size and mentality - dog parks can set you up for disaster - a couple bad experiences as a puppy and it's an uphill socialization battle after that. That's why day care is SO important! They supervise and are generally well run...dogs get a great amount of socialization, in a safe environment! Sometimes we can only afford half days - so on those days, half is better than nothing!

Buy a clicker, a couple of good training books (I like Control Unleashed by McDevitt), a trick book (101 dog tricks is great), and start training your perfect pup! Also, in the mean time, before she's well trained, get a crate and crate train. Boxers mature so late (we have one that will be 4 this year and she acts as crazy as her 1 year old brother) - that you will want a place to put them that is safe at times (when you're not home). It will come in handy their whole life...say you have guests coming over who are allergic or afraid, repair men, or folks with little kids...you can have a safe "retreat" for the dog to go to that puts them out of the way.