Letting My Puppy Out Of His Room

[bjmort]

Hi,

I have a 8 week old Toy Poodle who has been with me for a week now. We are using our laundry as his "bedroom" which has the floor covered in newspaper where he sleeps and is alone when we are busy. Over the last few days wne i have been sitting with him in the room next to the laundry he has been going into the laundry on his own to make his business. So i thought i'd try letting him have that room to himself (with no news paper) as well as the laudnry. So far he has had no toilet mistakes in the room and is putting himself in his bed when he is tired and hasn't destroyed anything.

Do you think this is a good thing to do as long as he is going to the toilet on the newspaper?

[Genabee]

Hi bjmort,

There are many schools of thought on this. And I guess what makes them wrong or right is how they work for you. But believe me when I say it is very early days for you!

In theory, if he is not destroying anything and not making a mess, then, why not!? But.... as I said, early days. He is bound to get himself into to trouble, because that is what little doggies do!

I personally wouldn't leave him in the other room unsupervised. He is slowly learning that the laundry is 'his room'. Let him get his head around that first.

As he is a little dog, a 'big' room (that is, a room larger than a crate!) is easy enough to section off into 'sleeping' quarters and 'toilet' quarters. And although it hasn't happened yet, it may well do (I would go as far as to say, it is very likely to). If you set the boundaries now when he is little, get him trained and behaving how you want him to... When he is house trained and playing by the rules, then you can relax them a bit. He is a dog first and foremost. You give him too much space to soon, he will think he is King of the Castle!! If you do it too soon, he may become too big for his boots so to speak, and toilet training may become a nightmare for you.

Good luck though! And where are the piccies?

[Danois]

I would not be having an 8 week old puppy (presuming you got puppy at aged 7 weeks?) in the laundry.

Places like laundries and bathrooms are heat sinks and you'll find that it is a very cold area for them- especially in the middle of winter.

Is he not able to access outside to go to the toilet? At 8 weeks you should be working hard on toilet training - supervising each trip and using a command word.

[tlc]

Im not quite sure I understand, why can't he go outside to toilet.

If they are allowed to toilet inside it is hard to train them to toilet outside it can be very confusing. I know it is not always possible with work and other commitments. I made the most of my puppies first couple of weeks at home to teach them first and foremost outside is for toileting, they do catch on pretty quickly.

[bjmort]

We have a much larger dog who is out side and i don't trust that dog with her with him yet. Also there are so many places outside that he can get out though holes in the fence. He is going to be an inside dog.

[Danois]

I would be taking him outside on a lead for toilet time - is a good introduction to being on the lead.

Even if they are to be an inside dog they need to be taught about going outside on grass etc otherwise you might run into problems with toileting on walks etc

[ellz]

Agree with Danois.

Too many puppy owners think that toilet training a puppy means that they just open the door and push the puppy outside to go potty by itself. Then they wonder why the puppy spends 15 minutes outside and then comes inside and squats (or worse) straight away.

The puppy is a child with a short attention span. It goes outside, loses track of what it is there for and spends the 15 minutes playing, digging, sniffing and doing everything BUT toileting.

YOU need to go with it. Take it to wherever you want it to empty and stand with it until it does what you want. Make a HUGE fuss of the correction action and then take the puppy back inside. It'll soon learn that you are happy with it when it toilets outside and that it can go back inside when it is done.

If the bigger dog is a problem, then take the puppy to an area that the bigger dog cannot access, or isolate the bigger dog somehow until the toileting is automatic for the puppy. By the time this happens, the puppy will probably be getting large enough to also spend time playing with the bigger dog SUPERVISED and AFTER toileting has been completed.

[aussielover]

Perhaps the OP wants the dog to toilet inside all the time? Like a doggy toilet or something? People in apartments, often use the pads or newspaper forever.

Maybe the OP could clarify where they eventually want the dog to toilet

But to answer the question: is there anything vaulable or you don't want destroyed in the room? If not, then yes, let him have time there by himself. If there is, I personally would not trust a puppy not to destroy stuff! But you know your dog best, so its up to you.

You could try giving him 10 minnutes or so when he is awake and active, while you ar estill in the house but in another room, and see if he does anything you don;t want him to.

[poodlefan]

I'd be finding a way to separate the dogs when they are outside unsupervised and giving the pup access outside.

Newspaper is slippery, has ink that gives off fumes and confinement to the laundry will not assist the pup's physical development. A pup shouldn't be forced to sleep where it eliminates - you're setting yourself up for toilet training issues down the track.

How will an "inside only" dog get access to the 1 hour of unfiltered sunlight it needs for optimum Vitamin D absorbtion.

Sorry, but an active young pup needs more space than is currently being provided and IMO the best place for that space is outside.

Maybe its time to fix the fencing and build a run for the other dog?

[Cookiez]

I think this purely depends on your situation and how your house is set up.

Codi is kept in a penned area with access to a sleeping area and a toilet area. When we are home he is given free run in the house- but he knows to go to the toilet area when he needs to eliminate. We bought a puppy toilet for him to do this. We live in a house where the bedrooms are downstairs and therefore there's no easy access to the backyard. We thought about leaving him in the backyard but it is landscaped with pebbles and we found out quite early on that he would try and put this in his mouth. It worked out to be safer to have him inside.