Crate time and house training

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EJHUNTL

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Hanna's (11 weeks next Monday) been here 6 days now - no accidents first 3 days ( that was super easy as she would only come out of the crate if I picked her up), between Tuesday & Wed we had half a dozen accidents, none yesterday ( it was a busy day with lots of time in the car) and one this morning. She goes through the night accident free. I caught her in the act or just as she had finished every time except one. If she hasn't finished I say no, take her outside and give her a treat after she's done, if it's all over I just put her in the crate and clean up.

Our routine is that she goes out first thing in the morning, last thing at night, 5 minutes after after eating, after every play session ( we go outside for little walks every couple of hours), if she starts to circle, when she wakes up and anytime she starts to squat. Poop is already pretty regular at 2 or 3 times a day.

All of the accident have happened when I let her sleep or play by my feet under the desk and she wakes up or wanders off to go pee when I'm not paying attention -likely reading his forum <grin>. Should I be putting her in her crate all the time I can't keep my eyes 100% on her. Clearly that works ( first 3 days), but I'm concerned about too much crate time as she is in there all night. What's reasonable? I am home all day but I do need to take some time to do laundry, paperwork, chores so I can't be watching her all of the time. Exactly how do they know to have a pee the minute you are distracted by a phone call - LOL

PS: I've just finished training a POM, one day I realized he'd had no accidents for about a week. He was 6 months old - I'm kinda hoping to do a better job with Hanna. ( Dawson had a seizure and the vet was not able to save him, just as he was finally trained).
 
First 11 weeks is much too young to expect no accidents. It's simply an immature animal with a tiny bladder and no self control. You can keep her out of the crate during the day if you are willing to make a few concessions.

First, restrict access to the house. Baby gates can help keep her in your line of vision. Take her out regularly, but only to pee or poop. If she want's to play, then bring her back in right away. Always take her out immediately after eating or drinking, or a period of excited activity. Of course praise every success as if she's just won a Nobel Prize.

If you need to run errands or just a few uninterrupted hours to work it's certainly not unreasonable to crate her for that time, but at that age during the day it shouldn't be for any more than 4 hours.

Our pups (now 19 weeks old) are going to the door to relieve themselves and haven't had an accident for a few weeks, but we still can't trust them with free reign of the house. Right now they are crated at night and when we are out or at work. My wife works close and comes home to let them out for an hour or so at lunchtime so they don't have to spend all day in their crates, but it's still a good bit of crate time. They are happy to go in their crates when it's time, so I don't think there is a problem.
 
We're up around 7 - 8 am and usually not in bed until about midnight, so while she's in never in her crate longer than a couple hours at a time during the day( usually it's less than a hour before I take her out - unless she's sleeping) the total time for a day is more than 4 hours.

Watching her to me means that my eyes are on her at all times - so I'm not reading or doing other stuff. It takes about 2 seconds for her to pee, so if I need to answer the door or go to the bathroom I pick her up and take her with me.

I don't expect her to be fully reliable for at least another 5 or 6 weeks - I was just wondering if using the crate when I'm not fully focused on her is reasonable so long as I'm letting her out at least every couple of hours or sooner?

Hubby gets back from his canoe trip in a couple of days so an extra set of eyes is going to come in handy.
 
EJHUNTL said:
We're up around 7 - 8 am and usually not in bed until about midnight, so while she's in never in her crate longer than a couple hours at a time during the day( usually it's less than a hour before I take her out - unless she's sleeping) the total time for a day is more than 4 hours.

Watching her to me means that my eyes are on her at all times - so I'm not reading or doing other stuff. It takes about 2 seconds for her to pee, so if I need to answer the door or go to the bathroom I pick her up and take her with me.

I don't expect her to be fully reliable for at least another 5 or 6 weeks - I was just wondering if using the crate when I'm not fully focused on her is reasonable so long as I'm letting her out at least every couple of hours or sooner?

Hubby gets back from his canoe trip in a couple of days so an extra set of eyes is going to come in handy.
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I would say it all depends on what you are doing, if it something you are really engrossed in, such as important work, then I would crate her as it is easy to sometimes forget to watch, otherwise, I would keep her out but make sure you do watch her most of the time. My laddie was hard to housebreak, he is 7 months old, and he did not start telling us he wanted to go out until he reached 6 months, I still watch him however, pups can, and will make mistakes.
 
She's been out most of the day since I first posted and no accidents - so progress is being made. I think things will pick up in a few days when she's able to go over the door threshold without being carried. Right now it feels like a scary step to her. Soon I'll have to take out the baby gates to keep her on the main level, so have to remember to enjoy this stage while it lasts.
 
To try to answer your question as succinctly as possible, yes, you should crate her when you can't keep an eye on her. Do you have to? No. Will potty training go faster? Yes!

Puppies actually sleep a lot so putting her in her crate for several hours a day (and at night) is no big deal. Just keep her busy when she is up and interacting with you and she will be fine.
 
Thanks Corbicam - she seems to like her crate and I want to keep it that way, but I'm starting to think that so long as she gets lots of supervised free time and exercise the benefits of no accidents indoors outweight the cost of a bit of confinement as this age. My eventual goal is that in the daytime she will have total control over how much time she spends in her crate unless we're out of the house.
 
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