potty training a 9 week puppy

Question
Hi. Both my husband and I work full time. We have a 9 week old retriever/lab mix and she seems to pee every half hour out of boredom. We haven't been having a set feeding schedule with the holidays giving us some days off and not others. She also had diarrhea so we didn't think putting her in a crate when she can't really control herself for over a few hours was too fair. Everyone tells us that she is too young to be taken out because she has not had her complete set of shots so we started the wee wee pad but she still leaves us surprises here and there. We've tried putting her in the crate during the day when we step out or are even there with her but she cries so long and loud my neighbors threaten to call the police. At night, we put her in and she does fine. I'm at a loss as to how to correct her behavior. She sometimes goes into her crate to pee and this is just not good. Please help.

Answer
Hello, Michelle. It is okay to take her out in your yard as long as other dogs do not have access to it. The main thing is that she could contract parvo if she were to come into contact with the feces of another dog that might be carrying the disease. Of course, you can also bring the disease into your home on your shoes, but as long as your yard is secure, that shouldn't be an issue.

It sounds like you need to really crack down and put her on a schedule. I believe that is part of the problem. At her age, she should be able to go for at least a couple of hours between potty breaks. Is she over the bout of diarrhea now? If not, you might want to talk to your vet about that.

Please take a look at my page on house training, which is located at http://housetraining.angelfire.com and if you have any questions about anything I've said on that page, or something specifically that I have not addressed on that page, let me know.