Hello, I am a first time poster and a complete novice on dog training.
MY HISTORY ….Both my husband and I have had outside dogs (strays) growing up. Our last dog was a german Shepard/Lab from the pound. He was 13 years old when he passed away 18 months ago. We are now ready for another dog (puppy). We have a 9 yr. old and a 2 yr old. We are planning to get a puppy for the 9 yr. old as Christmas gift. Yes, we know we will be doing most of the work

MY QUESTION…
We will be getting a 6 wk 3 day old Redbone Coonhound on Dec. 24 from a breeder.
Long term, we want this to be an outside dog. However, it just seems cruel to put such a small puppy outside in the cold. So we are thinking of keeping it inside until spring. We will take it outside for bathroom breaks. Based on reading I have done on this web site, we will crate the dog.

How often will a 6wk pup have to be let out during the night? And at what age will the dog be able to stay in the crate all night?

By the way I have ordered Your Puppy 8 weeks to 8 months. I haven’t received it yet!! I hope it will help too.

Thank you in advance for your help!

The puppy really needs to stay with the litter until 8 weeks. There is a lot of development that goes on in the last few weeks.

Christmas is a really bad time to bring a puppy into the family. Put a stuffed toy under the tree with a note. Pick up the pup in a few weeks when things are more settled and the puppy is older.

I was wondering about that. 6 wks seems young to me. 8 wks is fine though?

 Quote: Charlie Snyder

The puppy really needs to stay with the litter until 8 weeks. There is a lot of development that goes on in the last few weeks.

Christmas is a really bad time to bring a puppy into the family. Put a stuffed toy under the tree with a note. Pick up the pup in a few weeks when things are more settled and the puppy is older.

VERY GOOD advice! Also when the pup comes home figure roughly every 2hrs and yes that means in the middle of the night as well.
I would definatly not put him outside that young regardless of the shelter.

Hi Mardena. Congrats on your new pup! I second Charlie's motion about 8 weeks being better, and also post-holiday madness (depending on how much madness you have in your house during this time) being better.

LOL - I'm a rank novice to Schutzhund but have almost 20 years experience potty training a number of pups. I learned the hard way.

Routine, routine, routine is important. With 8 week old pups, we find they need to go out every couple of hours, at least for the first couple or three weeks. We have found that the potty training phase seems to pass more quickly if we are vigilent up front, and minimize the risk of crate or household accidents to the max. I'd rather take more intense "pain" early on than have a confused puppy where potty training can seemingly go on forever.

A few of my favorite things to remember:

* Puppy whining in crate means go out to the potty area. No playing, no cuddling - just out to the potty area with no fanfare (except for Good Potty! praise) and back to the crate at night. I also think it's helpful to use the same area all the time - that's a different area than where you play outside. It's more consistent for the pup, and makes cleanup now and also down the road much easier.

* Puppy is either in your site or in it's crate all the time during potty training (and beyond - chewing, etc. is another story). During the day, when puppy comes out of crate, head straight to potty area. If you have a successful potty, then it's play time (for us, that's daytime only - not at night).

* Make the crate a good place. Feed puppy in the crate, include appropriate toys in the crate, offer reward (treats/toys) for calmly going into the crate, etc.

* For pups in potty training, we pull up the water dish out of the crate a couple of hours before our bedtime.

These are just a few that came to mind right away. I'm sure others will share additional great tips. Best wishes!! Have fun. (well, it gets more fun once you can sleep through the night again.)

Beth

In my opinion, your original instinct to keep the pup inside until spring is a good one. This will also allow you some bonding time with the new pup.

However, I personally feel that if this dog is to be solely a pet then why not allow him to be inside with the family? Dogs are social animals and would rather be with other pack members than isolated. If your concern is that the pup may have destructive behaviours...use the crate and train the pup to be a well-balanced member of the household. Again, this is only my opinion, but you get out of dogs what you put into them, and leaving them outside won't allow you to have as many bonding experiences.

Finally, I echo everyone else...why is the pup being given away so early? Good breeders won't allow their pups to leave their moms before they're ready, even if that makes the pup late as a Christmas gift. If the breeder you're getting this puppy from is willing to let the pup go early, then I would make sure that you have a GOOD written health contract as well. Maybe nothing will go wrong, but it is a warning bell to me.

I realize I sound like I'm lecturing!!! Sorry! I really don't mean to. E-mails make it hard to express your tone well!

Good luck to you.

Thanks to all for your responses.

I wonder if the breeder is responding to us? We asked if we could get the pup on Christmas Eve, but at the time we asked we had not counted up how old the puppy would be at that time... when I got home and ran the numbers I was curious about 6 wks, but not really concerned until now.

One more question in response to Beth Fuga's comments...
We will actually have more time to devote to the pup if we get it on Christmas Eve. 10 days as a matter of fact. All of us will be off from work/school until Jan. 4 with no specific plans.

Compare that with waiting until the pup is 8 wks. I think that will be Jan. 4. So, we will have less time to devote.

So, I would be curious what you all think of the value of the extra time we would have vs. the additional time with the mother.

I want to do the RIGHT thing here... so be honest...

Spending the time with the female and littermates is going to be more beneficial all the way around.
When we had Lab pups they did not leave our place until they were 8wks and no later than 12wks unless we were keeping one for a hunting prospect to start and place with a working home later. The more someone tried to talk me into letting them have the pup early and after explaining to them why, they still kept on about it, the more concerned I became about placing the pup with them. I actually have given money back due to that and once we actually took the dog from the owners after checking on them and finding out they lied to us about how they were raising the pup.
I know that having 10 days off to spend with the new addition seems ideal to you, but you and your pup will be better off in the long run if you wait.
Also, you need to make time to devote to the pup, forever...not just the first 10 days.
Have you had "hound" breeds before? I only ask because they are one of the more difficult breeds to train and keep home.
Congrats, I love Redbones. I had the opportunity to start one this past summer in trailing for someone and it made me absolutley adore the breed.

I'm with you Amber,
Keeping a dog to be an outside pet only, humm I have reservations on that.
But I have little ones too(children) and getting a dog just for the purpose of Xmas , not a good idea especially it is 6weeks. Kids at 2 years of age have no concept of taking care of a puppy or being gentle with them. Very hard for them to understand. A 9 year old a bit different but the 2 year old will be the one wanting to play with the puppy the most.That is what happend to us with our king Charles.My toddler still chases that puppy around all day if you let her.
I would rethink that idea a bit.

Hi Mardena,

Yes, "Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months" will make ALL the difference in the world & it will arrive SOON <:-)

Since I'm older than Ed Frawley, I used to bring home puppies at 7 weeks of age, back when that was considered the optimum time to do so -- But WAY back in the day, I've also brought home pups at 6 weeks old when THAT was thought to be the "right" time & guess what, they all turned out to be perfect pets (plenty of orphaned and/or singleton puppies have been hand-raised without any outrageous side-effects, afterall)...

So, under your particular time constraints, I would just go ahead & get that baby on Christmas Eve, all other things being equal -- And I would also keep it in the house, not only til Spring, but after that I'd build an outside kennel & let your dog be an indoor-outdoor pet as well <:-)

OK, now I'm putting on my fire-proof clothes, in case I get flamed for giving out this "heretical" advice LOL