When To Stop Locking A Pup Up At Night

[Leela and PJ]

At the moment I lock PJ up in the bathroom at night time and during the day he is locked up on the verandah when I'm not home. At what age did everyone stop locking away their pups?

[persephone]

How old is he?

does he have free time in the backyard ?

[julesluvscavs]

Hi Leela and Pj :) Personally we have never locked up our puppy.

In the actual beginning, we did have her in a large pen with her bed set up just outside of our room, so she could see us still (in the laundry room which is open planned) We would let her out several times a night so she could do a wee'/poo. We also got up very early to let her do her morning wee, have a bit of play in the loungeroom with her toys, then put her back in her pen for another hour or 2

Eventually as we allow it she was allowed on our bed.

We do have baby gates set up to seperate her from some rooms, especially the kitchen if im preparing meals. Which I still use, even now shes 5 months old.

She goes outside when our other cavs go outside but comes back in when they do. I dont work so its easy to supervise them all day :)

I have put her in a crate a few times when needed but only for very short periods.

Edited May 4, 2013 by Jules❤3Cavs

[Leela and PJ]

How old is he?

does he have free time in the backyard ?

He is 10 weeks. Yes he has free time in the backyard with Leela when we are home then when he is tired he likes to come inside.

[Christina]

I have never locked a puppy up either.

My toy breeds go in a large pen so they don't jump up on the lounge & hurt themselves by falling off or go in a puppy proofed room like the kitchen or spare bedroom.

When I had larger breeds I just made the room they were left in safe. Like wires/plugs up high, nothing to chew or choke on in the room etc.

I also always leave pups separate from the other adult dogs if I am not there to supervise.

[Leela and PJ]

Oh. Am I doing the wrong thing by putting him in the bathroom over night and verandah during the day when I'm not home?

[Salukifan]

I slept my last two pups in a crate at night and stopped that when they were toilet trained.

I never locked them up during the day.

[dancinbcs]

Oh. Am I doing the wrong thing by putting him in the bathroom over night and verandah during the day when I'm not home?

My puppies are always confined overnight until they are fully house trained and have proven they can be trusted not to chew things they shouldn't. This can vary from 12 weeks to 2 years depending on the dog but averages about 6 months. I also keep them locked away if I not home until they are no longer cute babies to reduce the chance of they being stolen. They get the run of the yard when I am home and the house when I can watch them.

[BC Crazy]

Mine are crated at night till toilet trained & for their own safety. They have the run of our safe backyard in the day time. Grates have pad locks.I too worry about them being stolen.

They are groomed & brought inside every afternoon around 4ish, they are under supervision till bed time. In bad weather they are indoors with me, again supervised in case they chew something or

hurt themselves & while toilet training. I have never had to section off no go zones when they are inside as they just seem happy to follow me around & be with me.

[Tilly]

My youngest was crated at night. He then went to an outside pen in the warmer weather and was about 18 weeks when I stopped locking him in at night but it was only after He was big enough to spend unsupervised time with our older dog.

[Pretty Miss Emma]

Mine were crated in my room at night til they were at least 4 months old. I have a dog door so they can take themselves out to the toilet when needed, so once I know they can reliably use this or communicate with me that they need to go outside they don't have to stay in the crate.

I had my 2 in a puppy pen til around 12 weeks. During this time I'd watch the baby with the older dog yo see what was going on, and the 2 would have short periods left together. Once I was satisfied that the older dog would be nice to the baby and that the baby wouldn't totally irritate the older dog then they started to be left together, and generally this was somewhere between 12-16 weeks old.

[Jumabaar]

MIne were crated of a night till toilet trained. Some were let out earlier because they could tell me when they needed to go (nosing me/ scratching the door), others didnt tell me when they were out of the crate (they would have a bit of a whimper in there) so they remained in there until they could hold on over night or worked out how to let me know they needed to go. It was a bit of a trial and error thing.

Because I have crazy Kelpies, puppies are always kept separate from the rest of the dogs until they stop annoying the older dogs when out and when they are physically capable of running around with them. This usually means they are separated until 9 mths, but once again it depended on the dog. And quite often I could leave them with one of the more sedate older dogs one on one from 6mths when I go out. Mine are all in the house when I am out anyway because of nosy neighbours who cant keep their sticky beaks to themselves.

How are you toilet training your pup? Are you using wee pads, and what is the eventual aim with sleeping arrangements and toileting?

[ChewieTAG]

Hi all, just wondering what will you do if during the day when you are out and about? Say sometimes more than 2 hours..

Would you crate / pen the youngest indoor just in case and have the adult out indoor? I assume we will put pee pads in the crate / pen...

[ziggyboy]

During the daytime I leave my puppy in the backyard but he's got a covered dog house, lots of water and an automatic feeder so he gets fed while I'm at work. They should be eating 3-4 times a day.

I have semi-crate trained him. He sleeps inside the locked crate at night but free to roam the house while I am at home. First couple of weeks I have been putting his crate inside my room but recently been leaving it just outside my bedroom (front lounge area). He has stop whining now so I think he's kinda crate trained already.

I say "semi" crate trained because I don't always leave him in there like other people would. And I didn't follow strict schedules on when to take them out of the crate. It took longer but he's comfortable being left in the crate for some periods of time.

Oh and also I religiously took him out to pee every 2-3 hours at night when I first got him at 9 weeks. It was very hard work but it has paid off. He can now hold his pee for about 6 hours so I would take him before going to bed between 11pm and midnight, and if he makes some noise maybe around 4am, but at times he lasts until 7am.

Edited May 6, 2013 by ziggyboy

[YvonneM]

Our puppy is almost 10 weeks and we have had him for almost 2 weeks. He sleeps in a soft sided crate which zips open at the front in our bedroom. He is zipped in at night and will continue to be zipped in until he can manage the doggy door to be able to let himself out at night. For the first few days he would wake us every 2-3 hours to go out, but now he is sleeping about 7 hours before waking. There are no pee pads in his crate - I was using the theory that he won't toilet in his bed so didn't put one in there. During the day he has the full run of our kitchen/family room area which is timber floors and he is using pee pads (intermittently!) He is letting himself in and out of the doggy door but hasn't connected the idea of going out on his own for toileting yet :laugh:

[megan_]

Bathrooms are very cold at night and lonely places. Mine never got locked up but with a new pup I would crate overnight in my bedroom - nice & warm, and pup is part of the pack.

During the day mine had free range from day 1, with a dog door and certain doors closed (so they couldn't access every room. Sure, it made toilet training a bit harder but I'm not keen on a pup seeing the same boring view for 12+ hours a day. I believe they need to sniff, explore, have a snooze, more exploring etc. If I had a pup with a mature dog I'd separate them, but rotate where the stayed and I'd try to ensure each had a bit of indoor/outdoor access.

chewak - pee pads are never for a crate. A dog is only meant to be in a crate for a short period. If they need to toilet in the crate then they are being forced to defaecate where they sleep - not good for the dog at all.

[Steph M]

I think our grand plan was to make the laundry a 'bedroom' for the first while. It's lovely and has a duct for the heating. Ample space and has a back door out to the yard for the day when we can't supervise or have to duck down to the shops.

We're lucky in that other half works from home and has ridiculous bed times and sleeps in, whereas I work go to bed early and am up at the crack of dawn so we seem to have almost all pee times covered.

[WeimMe]

Mine is "locked up" in his crate in our bedroom to sleep ....and he is nearly 18 months old!

He would probably be OK to let out, only he sneaks up onto our bed during the night. We started using the crate at night right from the beginning and he just sees it as being his bed now.

[Steph M]

Well he's a growing pooch, probably figures he's about ready for the big kid bed now. Haha!

[cnsunshine]

I still put my puppy in either the pen or the crate to sleep at night and she's 7 months old now. The other day I left her for 2 minutes... 2 MINUTES and she managed to havea tissue party. So I doubt she'll be ready for a while, but isn't it good for the puppy to sleep in a crate anyways?