Parents gone all day

[Laila Star]

Hello all-
Great forum you have here and I've learned alot. We are proud parents of a 7 week old puppy, her name is Laila. We just brought her home yesterday. My question is house training. We are crate training her but our issue is when we are gone all day we normally leave around 6:00 and get home at 4:00 with drive times figured in. We live in a very rural area with not many neighbors and we work 35 minutes away so we are unable to come home on our lunch. Any suggestions to make this a successfull house training? Thanks in advance.

 

[courtney323]

Hi Laila Star,

Welcome to Boxerworld. Please post your Introduction. This is something required of all new members, and should have actually been your first post, before participating in other Forums.

Thanks

www.boxerworld.com/rules

A baby puppy cannot hold it for that long and, frankly its dangerous and unhealthy to encourage that. If you can't come home to let her out every couple of hours, you should look into hiring a dog walker or neighborhood kid who would be willing to do the job. Good luck

 

[Laila Star]

A baby puppy cannot hold it for that long and, frankly its dangerous and unhealthy to encourage that. If you can't come home to let her out every couple of hours, you should look into hiring a dog walker or neighborhood kid who would be willing to do the job. Good luck

The few neighbors that I do have in the area work all day. I understand that she can't hold it all day but do you maybe suggest one of those "piddle pads" until she can hold it for extended periods of time. Thanks.

 

[sgbtab]

your best bet with a puppy that young would be to let her stay in a closed part of the house. like a bathroom or kitchen. this way if she goes to the bathroom she will still be able to get away from it. and lay down or play

 

[Laila Star]

your best bet with a puppy that young would be to let her stay in a closed part of the house. like a bathroom or kitchen. this way if she goes to the bathroom she will still be able to get away from it. and lay down or play

Thanks for the response. So do you think try to crate train her at night and then in a closed part of the house during the day. And then when she gets older then work on the day training in the crate?

Also the crate that we have is too big for her at night. I've read that we should put a divider in but I haven't seen the dividers for the plastic hard crates? What do you suggest. Thanks alot!

 

[sgbtab]

yes that would be better. what you could do is maybe put the crate in the bathroom or kitchen where ever you put her and leave the door open on the crate and put toys or treats in it. this way she will know that the crate is a happy place to be.
as far as the dividers I would think you could get it at a pet store that sells crates. also as she gets bigger you might want to invest in a bigger crate like the metal ones.

 

[CondoPup]

Crate training is much more pleasant for the dog if they can see around them in an open wire crate vs. the plastic travel crates. Also they are better for ventilation, if you don't have air conditioning during the summer I wouldn't use the plastic travel crate (can get very stuffy and uncomfortable in there).

Leaving the puppy for 10-11 hours will be difficult for her - are you sure you can't have someone come in at lunch time? For a potty break and also for some social contact. She's going to be very lonely being left alone that many hours at a time. Does your town have a dog-walking service? If so, it won't cost you anything to make a call and find out what they might charge for a daily lunchtime walk. You might be surprised at how affordable it can be.

 

[shaunross]

I agree with Molly

I do agree with Molly. I'd go ahead and get the BIG metal crate that is able to fold up when you travel. This crate does have a divider that you can make the space bigger as Laila progressively grows.

For now, use a box and scoot it to the back of the crate to take up space. It's cheep and just as effective. Leave just enough area to where Laila can comfortably sleep in. Do this only if you have someone coming to let her out. If not, she will be forced to lay in her "potty." Condo-pup is right about the time frame. It's just not fair for Laila.

good luck,

Shaun-out

 

[Laila Star]

Well the first couple of nights went fairly well. She had an accident her first night in the crate but not the second night. Alot of whining and wimpering but that's to be expected. For the times that we are gone we have her set up in a huge pen in the dining room where she has plenty of room to play, sleep and we have papers down for her accidents. We also left a radio on to try to ease her comfort. I hope she does well. Thanks for all the input!

 

[CondoPup]

Just another piece of input, at 7 weeks she's too young to make it through the entire night without having to go potty. When we brought Guinness home we took him out about every two hours the first few nights. That stretches in to longer times really quickly - it only takes a few weeks before they are holding it most of the night - but since you aren't there during the day to exercise the house training, be extra diligent at night about taking her out and minimizing the accidents.