Containing Puppies When Not At Home?

[MelB]

Hi everyone,

just some puppy advice needed, what do pet owners do with their furry babies when you are going to be out most of the day ie at work or events? I have been given mixed advice, some say no to crates as they are generally to contain pups over night but not good for day time, others say it's ok and others again have suggested to put him in the laundry room or bathroom.

We have fixed the yard so he can't get out but feel bad leaving him outside all day as he's an inside dog but also don't want to leave him inside all day either as he'll have the run of the house and goodness knows what he'll get up to in 8 hours on his own!

At the moment we leave him at home for short periods of time like an hour or 2 at the most and he's fine, he goes in and out as we leave the back door open just enough for him to get in and out of to do his business and he hasn't torn up the house doing that yet.

Any advice would be very much appreciated, thank you!

[persephone]

doggy door sounds perfect :) can you then use baby gates or barriers to confine him to whichever room the dog door opens into ? That way he can please himself, and have somewhere indoors and sheltered , as well as his toys, treat balls etc outside to entertain himself . Well Done ! :)

[MelB]

Hi Persephone, thanks so much for your reply. We do have a doggy door here it's attached to the security screen off the laungry door, bit of an odd spot and it's not in use until he gets bigger and can have the run of the yard but you have given me an idea, I will see if hubby can change the fenced off area he made and just contain him to an area with the doggy door, the yard is it a bit weird and some areas has concrete under the grass where you can't hammer down the metal pailings to attach the fencing too, ughh anyway we'll have another look!

[YvonneM]

Hi MelB - I had the exact same problem as you a couple of months ago when we bought our baby home. There is lots of fabulous advice here on how to contain pup and I found a lot of it very helpful. What I did was confine pup to my kitchen/family room area by blocking off doorways as best I could so that he only had access to those areas with hard floors. I also have a doggy door in our family room fixed glass so he had access outside at his leisure whether we were home or not - I have a doggy pen that I put around the outside section of the doggy door so that he did not have access to the entire yard while we weren't home though. Hubby and I work full time so he was home for roughly 7-8 hours each day on his own - never had any problems except once having to rescue him from where he crawled between the space between the cabinets and the fridge (Maltese, so fitted into tiny spaces!!)

[Pretty Miss Emma]

When Hamish was a baby I was in an open plan house so couldn't shut off any areas for him. What I did instead was set up a crate as a bed for him and attached to that a large C-crate as his play area (which also had his toilet area and a water bowl). He used this for a good 3-4 weeks while I was at work and then moved to being given run of the yard (with kennels, etc available in the undercover area) - but it was a small-ish yard as we were in a unit. If you can utilise a dog door and a small section of yard I think that sounds ideal!

[JackC]

Hi MelB, lots of advise we can give on this, there are allot of us who just went through this process.

What breed is your dog?

for my boy, Aussie Shepherd, he was an outdoor dog from 8 weeks old, We had a covered alfresco which I put his kennel, warm blankets and another outside bed under the table as well, I also fenced off part of the yard (bunnings compost fences with zip ties) so he only had access to a section while he was young. will upload a pic when I get home for you

About 12 weeks old we removed the partition in the yard and gave him complete access while blocking off any sidings to ensure he stuck to the grass/alfresco area.

When we are home we have one of these in our sliding door:http://modernpetdoors.com.au/ - I cannot say enough about how much this product has made my life easier, its a simple procedure to slip it in and out of the sliding door so its not a permanent thing and he takes himself outside when ever he wants to do his business or just play out there.

My boy only sleeps at night in his crate (big enough for full size) and we use it only for long travel or staying over at friends.

Edited August 7, 2013 by JackC

[dancinbcs]

Puppy pens are perfect to contain dogs inside the house or to fence of a section of the house that is too big for baby gates. For a small breeds the cheap pens from places like the Reject Shop are fine. for larger and stronger breeds you need something like these.

Puppy Pens

[amw]

Hi

I agree with dancinbcs.

We bought home an english springer at 12 weeks of age. For the first month, we tried to ensure he was never at home alone for more than 5 hours or so, but with my and my partners' work commitments, that was not a tenable long term solution.

We also lived in in a townhouse at the time and the outside area was too confined and unsuitable. Large glass doors also meant a dog door was not possible, We crated our puppy overnight from the outset but preferred not to use that during the day despite so much advice about this om the forum.

We used a dog pen brought from veto pets and set up an indoor toilet, bed and feeding area. We had this arrangement for about 4 months and, combined with diligent toilet training, found this worked well for us. He never really took to the indoor toilet and started learning to hold on very quickly. Towards the end, he was becoming too big and active to be confined in the pen and we gradually accustomed him to being free to move around a larger living area (ie our lounge, kitchen and dining area) for increasingly longer periods of time. During this time, we did not allow him upstairs unsupervised into the carpeted bedrooms etc.

He proved himself very trustworthy in the larger space and it was at this time we to packed up the pen and reclaimed our lounge.

He is now over a year old but we still have the crate though, I would like to remove that from our lounge also, but he clearly loves it and it means he sleeps in on weekend mornings (meaning i also get to sleep in on Saturdays and Sundays when I can delay him getting up and demanding attention, play and food to at least 8am in the dark winter months).

We found these arrangements worked extremely well for us and will follow the same approach in future with any new dog.

Good luck

A.

[MelB]

Hi everyone, just wanted to thank you all for your replies and your advice, sorry I have taken awhile to come back, a family with 2 kids and now a puppy it gets a bit hectic around here lol

I ummed and ahhed with hubby over what to do, we can't rearrange the fencing to include the doggy door just the way the yard is it's too difficult, so I called the local vet we take him to for puppy pre school and his future check ups and the nurse there suggested puppy pens for alone time during the day. She didn't recommend a crate because the space is too small for that long, so she's lending us one from the vet clinic, we just have to pop a deposit down until we return it and can buy our own!

Thanks so much for the link to the pens dancinbcs that's so helpful! It's been hard knowing what to do, you just don't think of these things beforehand (I know we probably should have though)

Thanks everyone again for all your advice I have read all of them and will take it on board, I appreciate it!

Oh, we have a 12 week old male miniature Schnauzer, his name is Beau

Edited August 7, 2013 by MelB

[bbjai]

Hi awm

that's exactly how I am doing it! Except my little frenchie is still in his pen because he can't be trusted to pee on the indoor loo with any consistency yet (was going well until he went backwards last week). I am looking to get that sliding door insert mentioned above so he can have access to outside and pee which he seems to prefer anyway.

How long before you know your dog is ready to be out of the pen permanently?

[aliwake]

Sounds like a great plan. Just make sure his crate is inside the playpen too - our pup hated his playpen, but he at least calmed down enough to sleep properly in there after we got him a crate - before that he would bark and cry for hours

[bbjai]

yeh the play pen is directly attached to the crate so two exits one to the play pen and one to the outside!

all I need now is a doggy door attached to the balcony door and he will have access to most things