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  1. #1
    Puppy Landru's Avatar
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    Crate and Playpen question

    Our lab, Yoda is 12 weeks old. We have his crate in our bedroom for sleeping at night. We go to bed at 10pm, he wakes me up every night at 1am to go outside. My wife gets up at 2:00 to get ready for work and lets him outside while she is doing her thing. She puts him back in the kennel when she leaves at 3:00. I get up at 6 to get ready for work. I let him out to eat and drink and go outside.

    We have a 36"x84" playpen in the living room that we leave him in when I go to work at 7. There is a bed in there and a pee pad. We leave toys in there for him. He is in the play pen until she gets home between noon and 2pm. He has used the pads every day that we have left him in the playpen. He did pee all over his bed yesterday. When we first got him he peed all over his kennel the first couple nights and has not done that since.

    I did not want to leave him in his kennel when I left for work. That is why I bought the playpen. Did I make a mistake? We do not have the option of coming home to let him outside every couple of hours.

    Should I leave a full dish of water in the play pen? We have been keeping a close watch on his water intake.

    Ugh, we have so many questions. We are both so unsure if we are making the right choices. It has been so long since we have had a puppy in the house.

  2. #2
    Senior Dog smartrock's Avatar
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    Landru, I was sure my husband would know who Landru the character on Star Trek was. Alas, no.

    Anyway, a 12 week old puppy can, in general, only be able to to hold their urine for the number of months of age they are plus one. So at 12 weeks, or about 3 months, (3+1) 4 hours is about the max during the day. I did keep my older boy in a crate while I was at work when we first got him. Someone would come home at about 4-5 hours to let him out. He did have an accident or 2, but they grow fast and soon he was OK, no accidents. My younger girl also stayed in a crate while I was at work and at 4 months of age she was still dry after 8 hours in the crate. I did attach a small water bowl to the side of their crate. Some of the others on here did put their pups in a play pen or exercise pen rather than keep them crated and it has worked out OK. Hopefully Snowshoe or sparky or some of those who have used a pen can give you their thoughts.

    My only comparable experience was our very first 2 dogs before I knew anything about crates. We left them in a small, contained room with newspaper for them to urinate on if needed. Every. single. day. we came home to pee'd on papers that were torn up and thrown around all over the place. They never pee'd in the house on weekends when we were at home, they didn't need to go out in the middle of the night pretty quickly, but every. single. work. day. I don't know how old they were before they no longer pee'd in the house. Six months? Older? probably. By the time we figured out that there was such a thing as a crate they were really old enough to go 8 hours without peeing.

    Fortunately, he's getting older and bigger every day. It won't last forever no matter what.

  3. #3
    Best Friend Retriever silverfz's Avatar
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    You are doing great and remember it's an animal and it's a baby. Yoda will grow a bit and he will get better .

    Do start training . We started I think at 16 weeks and constantly work with her.

    At some point you need to ditch the pee pads. You cannot teach them peeing in the house is okay .you are teaching that the whole house is Ur kennel.

    Also try to get into a schedule.i started leash walking I remember at 8-9 weeks around the house .... She is 10 months and still a work in progress . But all the leash walking has helped .


    Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

  4. #4
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    I've kenneled all three of the puppies I've raised over the past 4 years. My current puppy, Brooks who is 7 months old could stay in the crate for up to 5 hours without peeing from the time he was 8 weeks old. He's only had one accident in the crate.

    My experience has been once the puppies accept that the crate is "their" place, they feel safe and secure in there. It also gives me peace of mind that it's highly unlikely than can get into any trouble while I'm gone.

    Is there reason you are hesitating to crate during the day while you are gone???

  5. The Following User Says Thank You to barry581 For This Useful Post:

    Annette47 (12-02-2016)

  6. #5
    Puppy Jenny B's Avatar
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    We got a playpen and put it in the laundry when the puppy was very young. She had bed, toys, blankets, water and puppy pads and fake grass. We actually had two fake grass pieces so they could be changed and cleaned every few days. Puppy pads got taken away when she started to chew them instead of using them and it didnt take too long when she could actually hold on til we got home. Eventually her space got expanded to the full laundry with a baby gate across the door and now gets plain cardboard boxes to destroy in addition to the rest.

    I use to give her a small puppy sized food ball when I left though its now changed to a kong with treats & peanut butter frozen overnight. That can take 30 minutes to an hour to get through by which time she tends to have a rest and sleep. They eventually get into a routine - both dogs often sit there and start staring at me when its time to go to work kinda of like 'are you going yet its time for our day to start with treats'.

  7. #6
    Senior Dog CraftHer's Avatar
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    I agree with the playpen and bedtime kennel. He's going to start really chewing soon so I would caution you about the toys and bedding you leave with him. If he starts chewing on the bedding or pieces are coming off toys, get rid of it. We have specific toys we leave in Latte's pen. At first, we could leave her wubby bear or flamingo, but then she started really chewing them so now she gets the Kong or Goughnut. We don't leave water in the pen because she just played in it. We also watch her water intake times. She's a bit harder to potty train than Mocha was.

    When we got Mocha, we got a bedtime kennel and decided to barricade him in the kitchen during the day. A dear friend who was in high school and passed our house on the way home would come let him out in the early afternoon. Mocha couldn't hold it that long at first, but grew up and soon stopped having accidents. We got pee pads for Mocha and he loved them. Thought they were quite tasty and fun to shred. So we stopped that. They are handy to clean up accidents. Then he ate the bread drawer (not the bread) and we decided it was in all our best interest to put him in a kennel. We put NOTHING in the kennel because he would eat EVEYTHING. We did hang a hampster type bottle on side and he would drink from that. At night, we'd bring him in the bedroom kennel. He was over a year when I started wrapping a beach towel around the tray. At 2, he was allowed to roam free. At 3, we got Latte.

    With Latte, we got an X-Pen. Sparky shored it up with pvc pipes and it holds her pretty well. She escaped once when the door wasn't closed completely. We also had to "anchor" it when she learned she could scoot it across the kitchen and meet Daddy at the door. She's 6 months old and it's rare for her to pee in her pen during the day. She piddles when she's excited, but that's a whole different post. She also loved the pee pads. She's a better shredder than Mocha. We left a water bowl for Latte and she just played in the water. She figured out how to push the hampster bottle off the side. Now she gets no water in the pen but we give her water around meals. We have a pet sitter that lets them out around lunchtime and give them food and water.

    You're doing the right thing. If you haven't already read the thread on Puppy Biting, please read it.

 



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