AdzNSarah

We have been closing the door every now & then when she goes in there & saying 'Good girl Maddie' and she is normally quiet & is happy to be in there. Maybe putting her in the crate at night is the way to go. Yes she does toilet on the newspaper so she's really good in that aspect...except for the little mishaps here & there when we're home. We do put her outside every 2 hours or so so she can toilet out there, but she seems to like to chew tanbark & sniff around, rather than do her business! :D

We too have a new puppy, Maddie...we've had her for 9 days now & for the most part she's doing very well & is learning fast. She's such a beautiful little thing with lots of love & funny antics. The main issue we have at the moment is her sleeping thru the night. We have her in the kitchen which is baracaded off with her crate, bed, water, toys & newspaper on the floor. We are being woken up every 3 hours or so with her whining & clawing at the wire of the play pen we put across the kitchen entrance. This morning we found that she had gotten out somehow & had free reign of the house. We think she may have climbed the wire & jumped over (clever puppy, LOL). She has gotten out before but we managed to fix it, (so we thought), but she seems to be happy & quiet when she does get out. I know that we're meant to ignore her when she whines etc but it echoes through the house & there is no way we can sleep with her carrying on like a pork chop! I am thinking of making up another fence out of a wooden play pen we have but the bars of the pen seem to be just a little too wide so we're scared she might get her head stuck. We're just not sure what else we can do as both the bathroom & laundry are quite small so having her XL crate in there would not give her much room for anything else (newspaper etc). Is there anything else you guys would suggest we try as all this broken sleep is really taking its toll on our relationship, work etc as our patience is wafer thin. Cheers, Adz.

Well, we got Maddie on Monday this week and she's such a beautiful, fun little thing...so full of energy & such a wonderful personality. We've been teaching her to sit which she does most of the time, but she is definitely getting better. She also will quite happily go to the toilet outside however, because we work during the day, we've had to baracade off the kitchen with her crate, water, a soft bed and her toys....and with newspaper on the floor so she has somewhere to eliminate. I feel horrible every time I leave for work because I know she will feel lonely & she cries & howls quite a bit My mum comes & collects her around 10.30am each morning & takes Maddie back to her place but I fear that she will get used to this & when it comes time to leave her for the full day, she will fret quite badly. It makes me sick to think that she's home by herself & it just makes me want to drive home & rescue her!!...pathetic I know. Also, at night we put her in the kitchen when we go to bed with a clock & a hot water bottle and she seems quite happy until she wakes up & then the crying etc starts...usually around 11pm, 2am & 5.30am...so we have a lot of broken sleep, which is expected. Is there anything that you guys can suggest we do for Maddie because we dont want her to become terrified of being on her own, nor do we want a destructive puppy. Any suggestions would be really great.

Yeah she's from a registered breeder & you're correct, she does have brindle markings...apparently she was the pick of the litter but the breeder could never show her due to the brindle. Out of curiosity, whats OT? EDIT: Nevermind...'Off Topic'?

Thanks everyone for all your great advice. We have been spending up big for Maddie & we now have a crate with a soft bed type cushion in it from the pet store, a playpen, some toys, food & a lovely warm, cosy doggie bed for her to lay in when she doesnt want to be in her crate. Unfortunately, because we live in Canberra, the weather is still quite cold during the day for her to be outside. We're still a little unsure as to what we should do about her needing to go to the toilet etc as she will be in her play pen from about 8am - 3pm (with a visit from my mum in between). Here she is at 7 weeks & 1 day...thought you might like to see how big she's getting. We collect her from the airport next Monday (25th). :D :D

Thanks to you both for the information. Our yard is well fenced & safe for Maddie. I was thinking of making her a play pen with a roof, as we have a wooden deck down the side of our new house (moving in on Monday) that we can put her on, however because we live in Canberra, the days can be sunny but quite cold. I would hate Maddie to get sick. :rolleyes: We can put her in the laundry but its not very big so she wouldnt have much room to move around. Having said that, most of the house is hard wood flooring so having the play pen in the corner somewhere with her crate, food, toys etc would probably be the best solution. Maddie is a black, female lab and we get her in about 3 weeks. See pics below.

Hi guys, My finance & I both work fulltime. I am 30 mins away from home & my finance is 15 mins away. What would you recommend we do in regards to leaving our puppy during the day? We plan on crate training her as soon as we get her (approx. 3 weeks). I’ve read many conflicting opinions about whether we should have a puppy at all because of our work hours. Could you please give us some information about what we can do? Thanks heaps. Adz.