Abby asks:
“I have an 11 week old English bulldog. I am not sure how to go about training. I have her sleep in a crate at night, which she doesn’t mind-But when I am at work, I put her in my kitchen which is hard wood floor, and easier to clean up messes. Is it ok to leave her out of her crate in the kitchen when I’ll be at work for 8 hours and then crate her when I sleep? Or will it affect her potty training??”
Hopefully, you will have read through the tips in my free report and Squidoo lenses.
There would be no problem allowing her to be left in the kitchen (though I would leave the crate in there too so she has a den to go to), but at such a young age, you will be setting her up to fail if you expect her to hold in her pee for 8 hours. Until she is at least six months old, you should expect to be letting her out once every two or three hours through the day. If you or another family member are not able to get home to let her out, I would consider arranging for a dog walker to come in and do it for you or have her in doggy day care until her bladder has developed sufficiently for her to hold it a little longer.
Michael wrote:
I’m getting a 2 month old Chihuahua mix in a week and we plan to put his bed in a large laundry room separate from our house. I was wondering, at night should I leave the door open so he can “go” outside or should I leave it closed, like my mom suggested, so she can learn to control herself.
House training is going to be the most important piece of training your dog will need if she is to be an indoor dog, so it is really important to get this right more…
Kathy has just gor two new puppies and is experiencing difficulties:
“We just got two 7 week old puppies – on is a Shih-Tzu and the other a Yorkie. I am having a hard time crate training them. We are putting them each in a “kennel taxi” at night with a towel, a toy and a wind up clock. The Yorkie doesnt make much noise but the Shih-Tzu will whimper off and on during the night. I check each of them atleast twice each night and they both poop in their crates. I know they are puppies, but what can i do to help them understand they cant sleep in their poop? We will be having to leave them alone during the day and dont want them to be sitting in their poop all day. We also put their crates out in the day time for them to get use to them, but they would just go inside and poop. Are we using the right kind of crate? HELP!!!!” more…
CJ posted this question on my Squidoo puppy potty training lens:
“I recently got a knew mini dachshund puppy (9 wks. old) although i have never had many problems before potty training dogs, this one is throwing me. have tried newspaper, proper sized crate, and outside every hr. or so. do u have any tips on what i can do or may be doing wrong?”
Here is our reply… more…
