Crate or not to crate during the day

[spseminara]

Good morning,

I just recently acquired a 9 week old puppy. The popular name is a Teddy Bear Dog, it's half shih-tzu and half bichon. Since I work during the day I have a dog walker come twice a day to walk him for 45 minutes outside. Whenever we bring him outside he does take advantage of running around and more importantly taking care of his 'duties'

The question I have is this. During the day while I'm at work, should I leave him in his crate or section off an area of the house (w/ no carpeting) with the crate. I hate to leave him for 3 hours at a time (dog walker comes every 3 hours) in his crate. The first week we left him in his crate, this week we left him sectioned off in the house with the crate. What we noticed when we sectioned him off is that he did pee on the floor 2 of the 5 days.

Not sure if I have the right forum, but looking for peoples opinion/feedback.
Thanks in advance

 

[Southpaw]

I'd crate. When Sawyer was that age he came to work with me and I let him out every 2-3 hours if I wasn't busy (this is with 11 hour work days), but he was in a kennel. If you didn't have a dog walker then absolutely I'd give him more room, but I think 45 mins twice a day is great.

 

[GoingNowhere]

I think the biggest question that I would be asking myself is "can he reasonably physically hold it for the period of time in between dog walker visits?" If the answer is yes, I would go with the crate. If the answer is no, I would go with the larger sectioned off area. I've been told that it is reasonable to expect a puppy to be able to hold it for the number of hours that equals the months in their age, up to four hours. So a two month old dog could be expected to hold it for two hours. For a small breed dog, this may be lessened.

My view on crates is that they are wonderful tools to help housebreak the puppy (and keep them out of trouble). If he can physically hold his bladder between dog walker visits, then a crate will simplify your housebreaking process because the puppy will be less likely to have accidents inside. If he can't physically hold his bladder because he is so young and small, a crate will force him to urinate/deficate in a small space which is both messy for you and defeats the purpose of crate training. In fact, it might actually have the opposite effect, in which you "train" the puppy that it's okay to pee in the same spot that he sleeps. Most dogs naturally tend to avoid this, which is why crate training is an effective tool. However, once a dog has been forced to pee in the same place that they sleep, it can cause them to not care where they pee/sleep and make it harder to use a crate as a housetraining tool in the future.

If you opt against the crate and for the small area, note that the puppy probably *will* pee while he is alone (because there's no reason for him to try to hold it since he can pee in one spot and then retreat to his bed to sleep). In this case, I would put a puppy pad down and train the puppy to use that for easier clean up. Just note that you will eventually want to train the dog away from puppy pads and that can lengthen the housetraining process.

Therefore, I go back to my original point. If he can physically hold it, crating will expedite the housetraining process. If he can't, it could make things worse for you. Once he is housetrained, I would go for the small puppy-proofed area just to give him more room to move. For now, if you put him in a crate, try to make the crate just big enough for him, but give him something like a kong to occupy himself. If the crate is too roomy, it defeats the purpose of the crate as a housetraining tool because he can pee in one corner and sleep in the other.

 

[straw]

I would also crate. It's an invaluable habit for later on down the road (travel, management, safety), but in the short term it'll greatly reduce the number of potty training setbacks.

 

[milos_mommy]

I'm a strong advocate of crates. 3 hours is typically not a long time to crate, many adult dogs spend 7-8 hours in a crate fine.

However, for housebreaking purposes, I would not set him up to potty in his crate, and 9 weeks is probably too young to hold it for 3 hours. A general rule is one hour for each month.

Personally I would put him in a very small, puppy proofed area (ex pen, bathroom or small kitchen or even a hallway, covered in newspapers and wee wee pads. Then at 12 weeks move to crate for housebreaking purposes.

If the puppy has been crated 3 hours without pottying already a few times (and he goes when you take him out of it), I would continue crating.