4 hrs too long to leave a puppy?

We adopted a 6-7wk old puppy this last Saturday. I am a SAHM, so this is working great! Our little girl is only in her kennel when napping and when I take the kids to/from school (10 minutes).

My husband came home last night to say his boss invited us all to a company "thing" on the 28th. I am concerned about leaving her alone. We would need to be gone for 3-4 hrs.

We have a kennel and also a puppy fence that sits around the kennel in the kitchen. I know we would have a "mess" to clean up, but am wondering if its too soon to leave her alone that long???

HELP??

Not at all .... she will probably be sleeping half the time anyways I would definately leave her in her crate with the door open so she can access her toys, water and stuff.... place a scented pee-pee pad and you should be fine.

Great! I feel much better. My husband reminded me that when we got our now 8 y/o Springer, we were both working and came home for lunch. She is now a wonderfully gentle, loving member of our family.

Ok, I feel much better. Geez nothing like "motherly guilt" huh?

Your baby will be fine. Just make sure she has plenty to do...

The general rule is a puppy can hold it one hour longer than it's age...so if she's seven weeks (let's say eight since it's an even number), that would make her two months old, so she should be able to hold it for about three hours.

I don't think that time frame is too bad, but I guess I have a little different opinion about what to leave your dog with. I would crate her, and I would not leave the door unlatched so that she can get to her toys. I would not put toys in with her either. She's so young, I would be worried she might choke herself, or otherwise get herself into trouble.

Just a suggestion.
What we have done with puppies/old small dogs in the past was put an X-pen down ...take the door completely off the crate. Put the crate in the X-pen with piddle pads and puppy proof toys. This way your pup has his own den with bedding that smells like you...and if he has to piddle he can go on the special piddle pads. It teaches a pup not to go in his crate.