Hi All,

I've searched but cannot find a definative answer......

We are hoping to get a new puppy soon - going to meet the breeder tomorrow. We have a concern about time in crates.

When we got Teagan, I was off sick from work so was at home for a long time. Whilst we crated Teagan from the word go, we were told the longest we could crate her was 4 hours, unless it was bed-time. We stuck to this religiously, panicking if we were 10 mins over the 4 hours!

I'd like to think we're a little more knowledgeable now - ready to make all new mistakes

However, with us both working shifts there will be some times that the dogs would need to be left for over 4 hours. With Teagan this isn't a problem, as she now stays in the utility room with bed and crate open.

Can we, on occasion, leave a puppy for longer than 4 hours in a crate without it dying/exploding/or turning into a psycho?

Our worry over this is the major factor in stopping us get a pup.
(And yes, the puppy dvd is on its way )

Many thanks

Rob

It depends on the pup. With an 8 week old pup I think you will come home to pee if you leave them for 4 hours. General rule of thumb is 1 hour per month of age.

If you dont mind them peeing in the crate then 3 hours or 5 hours doesnt make much difference unless you bought your puppy a Rolex

In addition to what Mike said, even if it is bedtime (night), you'll still have to wake up to let pup out to pee, once maybe twice a night. Again, depending on the pup.

General time in crate: just make sure the pup gets lots of puppy play time and bonding with you and family. He'll sleep a lot also, as you probably already found out with your current dog

I did what Ed said not to do. I used an ex-pen with wee-wee pads. That way the dog had room to play and stretch its legs and didn't have to sleep in his pee.

I raised a litter of rescues until 3-4 months old. They stayed in the house in a pen made up of ex-pens clipped together. I made no special effort to housebreak them but they began to prefer going outside at 3 months and would naturally use the pee pads if I didn't get them out fast enough. I kept one pup, started housebreaking when his last littermate left at 4 months; he is 6 months now and has been fully housebroken since 5 months.

With my dogs, I did the best I could, the way they were raised was not ideal but it was all I could do and surprisingly turned out very well. I didn't feel I had any issues with housebreaking above and beoynd what I would have had, even having used the pee pads. My puppy still plays in the "puppy pen" and never soils in there.

My point here is, try to come home on your lunch break and let him out, but provide him an alternative if you can't get home fast enough. From experience an 8 week old cannot hold it long enough even until lunch break. I would NOT crate him because you don't want to set up a habit of peeing in the crate.

Do what I did and get an ex-pen where he can have a bed area and a pee area.