House training when I work full time

Question
I'm bringing home 10 week old puppy tomorrow night and am taking all the time off I can which is 4 days to start house training him. I'm planning on coming home at lunch for the first couple months so he will be alone about 4-5 hours rather than 9-10. Is it best to just use crate training and outdoor potty time or should I also have potty pads for when I am at home with him. Also if I crate train him is it necessary to have him in there at night also or can he sleep with me?

Answer

Hi Jo,

Congratulation on your impending puppy!

You need to be realistic about the house training of your puppy. Don't expect miracles during the four days you can take off from work, it's not unusual that a puppy takes several months to a year before it's house trained. A puppy needs plenty of consistency, persistence and LOTS of patience.

Puppies under 4 months of age have very little bladder or bowel control. Puppies under 3 months have even less. The typical formula for how long puppies can "hold it" is one hour for each month in age, plus one. So for a two month old puppy, he can go A MAXIMUM of 3 hours before he needs a potty break. A ten week old puppy shouldn't be expected to control his bowel or bladder for more than an hour.

Because having accidents in the crate is counterproductive to crate training, you may want to use the crate for containing your puppy during times when you're home, at least at first. This will get him acquainted with the crate right from the start, but will prevent accidents from occurring while crated. In the beginning, it may be helpful to use a couple of child-gates or an indoor pet pen to contain your puppy. Lay newspaper down over the entire containment area, as accidents will happen, and your puppy doesn't know to use pads! Newspaper is much cheaper than house-training pads, and you'll be going through a lot of it.

When you are at home, you shouldn't wait for your puppy to "ask" to go outside, because he won't. Puppies usually need to go to the bathroom about 15 minutes after eating or drinking, after active play, when they wake from a nap, and when they're let out of their crate. Preventing accidents by having frequent trips outside is one of the big rules of house-training. When you just want to relax, cook, read, talk on the phone, etc. and can't be watching your puppy, then it's time for the crate. But before putting him in his crate it's time for one more potty trip outside!

These sites have lots of good info on house-training:

http://www.hilltopanimalhospital.com/housebreak2.htm

http://www.aspcabehavior.org/articles/4/House-Training-Your-Puppy.aspx

Until your puppy is reliably house trained, he shouldn't sleep with you. Move the crate to your bedroom at night, but expect crying. Don't let your puppy out of the crate while he's crying, or the lesson learned is that crying works! (And dogs learn that lesson a lot faster than they learn house training!) In all seriousness, ear plugs may be necessary, and it may take anywhere from a few nights, to a few weeks for the crying to stop, depending on how stubborn your puppy is. If your puppy settles down, but starts crying in the middle of the night, take him out for a potty break, but then it's back into the crate.

Good luck with your new puppy!
Patti