# hours/day puppy can be in expen?



## FancyNancy (Oct 7, 2009)

Im on board with keeping EYES on the puppy every second unless she's in the crate or ex pen. We watch her like a hawk so we can take her outside at the first signs that she needs to pee or poop. That's all good. 

When we're not watching her she goes in her ex pen. It's very comfy and she likes it a lot - 6 feet long and 3 feet wide with a pad at one end and a cozy corner at the other and filled with toys. We typically leave her in there for an hour, take her out, let her pee/poop, and then let her play for a hour or more. Then it's back in for a rest. However, this schedule is very demanding and we would like a bit more time for ourselves - especially if it's going to last for 6 months or so!

How many hours per day is it OK to leave a 3-month old puppy in the ex pen? Does anyone have a schedule they would like to share of hours in and hours out? What we're doing now is too consuming and we will never get through 6 months of it!!

Thanks in advance!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

FancyNancy said:


> Im on board with keeping EYES on the puppy every second unless she's in the crate or ex pen. We watch her like a hawk so we can take her outside at the first signs that she needs to pee or poop. That's all good.
> 
> When we're not watching her she goes in her ex pen. It's very comfy and she likes it a lot - 6 feet long and 3 feet wide with a pad at one end and a cozy corner at the other and filled with toys. We typically leave her in there for an hour, take her out, let her pee/poop, and then let her play for a hour or more. Then it's back in for a rest. However, this schedule is very demanding and we would like a bit more time for ourselves - especially if it's going to last for 6 months or so!
> 
> ...


The thing is, the better you are at avoiding accidents in the beginning, the faster they train, and you can give them more space. And it really DOES vary a lot from puppy to puppy. Pixel practically trained herself. She was totally reliable either in the kitchen or in my office within a month of bringing her home. So that gave us a lot more flexibility. If I was working in the kitchen, she could be there with me, not penned, but gated in. If I was working in my office (which is where I probably spend the majority of my indoor hours) she could be in there with me. I can't really tell you when we started letting her totally loose, but I don't think it was until after Panda came. But then again, I wasn't in any hurry. She was with me most of the day, and very reliable in those spaces. When she was in rooms with rugs (I had removed my office rug for the duration of puppy raising!  ) THAT was when I watched her like a hawk.

Panda had a couple of set-backs, because she had two UTI's which caused her to pee EVERYWHERE, poor thing! The second one was when she was ALMOST completely trained, and she associated the litter box with her pain, and refused to get near it for months. So she took longer overall, though she still was completely reliable in my office.

Kodi took longer, but I KNOW that was because I didn't do as good a job with him, because he was my first and I didn't know what I was doing.


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## FancyNancy (Oct 7, 2009)

Thanks Karen. But a few more questions - how do they let you know when they have to go out? Rosie goes to the door and waits (for a second or two only) IF she's in the kitchen where the door is. If she's in a different room she has no idea how to signal. What did Pixel do? I wish Rosie would bark or something. Is there a way to teach them to signal? I assume it will get easier when her bladder gets bigger. For now she sometimes pees several times in an hour. She does stay in her crate at night for 7-8 hours so I caught a break on that! Thank you again for being such a source of information and strength to all of us. What would we do without your counsel?
xoxoxo


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## Genie1000 (Apr 13, 2017)

Just replying to follow this thread! Rosie is about Penelope's age and we seem to be having a similar experience. 
I also thank you, Karen, for being a wealth of knowledge and so patient


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

FancyNancy said:


> Thanks Karen. But a few more questions - how do they let you know when they have to go out? Rosie goes to the door and waits (for a second or two only) IF she's in the kitchen where the door is. If she's in a different room she has no idea how to signal. What did Pixel do? I wish Rosie would bark or something. Is there a way to teach them to signal? I assume it will get easier when her bladder gets bigger. For now she sometimes pees several times in an hour. She does stay in her crate at night for 7-8 hours so I caught a break on that! Thank you again for being such a source of information and strength to all of us. What would we do without your counsel?
> xoxoxo


It can take a LONG time for them to develop an OBVIOUS signal. With Kodi, he was almost TWO before he barked to go out. I used to joke that he didn't have accidents because I was so well trained!  Pixel scratched on the door from very early, so she developed a signal on her own. Panda's signal is pretty funny. She'll run to the litter box and stomp her feet in the pellets to make noise, then run to the door (because she's WAY rather go outside than use the litter box! :laugh: But she will also sometimes sit at the door and not make any noise... and Pixel goes and scratches on the door for her! In fact, if Panda is out and Pixel is in, Pixel will also scratch on the door to let me know that Panda is ready to come back in! :laugh:

You CAN teach a lot of dogs to use a bell as a signal (though Kodi found the bell totally aversive, and wouldn't get near it) but usually it's best to train that AFTER they already understand about going out. But this is another reason I'm a big fan of indoor potties... It gives dogs the chance to be right, even if you miss their signals. With puppies who haven't developed a clear, purposeful signal yet, it's a matter of watching them like a hawk. When you see them start to get restless, or start sniffing the floor, it's a good sign that they might need to go. They can be REALLY quick when it comes to peeing, though. I know that. IMO, it can actually be helpful if they start to pee somewhere they aren't supposed to IF YOU CATCH THEM IN THE ACT!!! I would scoop them up with a cheery "whoops!" and deposit them on the potty, saying "go potty!" You might startle them out of going at that moment, but hopefully they wills tart to get the idea that that WASN'T a good place to go!  But it is SUPER important that you catch them in the act. If you don't notice it until after they have moved away, all you can do is quietly clean it up and say NOTHING.


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## Roz (Mar 27, 2008)

I was frustrated that our puppy Chico wasn't signaling us when he needed to go. I decided to try the bells. It took him less than 2 days to learn to use them. The bells gave Chico a voice. However, he also rings them for other reasons, such as to get our attention if we are ignoring him, when one of our cats run by or when he is bored and wants to go outside to play. We took him out every time he rang them to reinforce their use so we ended up going out a lot more often. But it's worth it if it helps with potty training. Since I'm still not willing to give Chico total freedom in the house, he is gated in my kitchen with the bells unless we can be eyes on him. He never has an accident there. Chico had accidents in our living/dining room when he started marking. We didn't know until after they happened. The last time it happened (maybe 2-3 months ago) we caught him in the act and let him know it wasn't okay and took him outside. He hasn't had an accident since but we are still eyes on him when he is in that room. Karen is 100% correct with that advice. Once when he was in the living room he ran to the kitchen to ring his bells and we took him out and he did go. However, it doesn't seem to occur to him to always use the bells when he is in another room. I don't want to take chances and have bad habits get ingrained no matter how long this takes us!


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## Genie1000 (Apr 13, 2017)

We just bought a set of bells at the pet store. It came with an instructional DVD. I think I may take a peek at that!


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## DuketheDog (May 1, 2017)

FancyNancy said:


> Im on board with keeping EYES on the puppy every second unless she's in the crate or ex pen. We watch her like a hawk so we can take her outside at the first signs that she needs to pee or poop. That's all good.
> 
> When we're not watching her she goes in her ex pen. It's very comfy and she likes it a lot - 6 feet long and 3 feet wide with a pad at one end and a cozy corner at the other and filled with toys. We typically leave her in there for an hour, take her out, let her pee/poop, and then let her play for a hour or more. Then it's back in for a rest. However, this schedule is very demanding and we would like a bit more time for ourselves - especially if it's going to last for 6 months or so!
> 
> ...


I've had my puppy since he was 8 weeks old and for the first few days we were at home and he didn't have to be left in the pen much. We have exactly the set up, our kitchen is gated off one area is food the other is sleeping and toys and then the other is just bare floor encase of accidents.

We leave our puppy anywhere from 1-4 hours at a time in the pen depending on what we have going on typical day would be in the pen from 8am-11:30ish then home for lunch from 11:30ish-2 then back to work 2-5, and home for the rest of the night unless something is happening and we have to leave again for only an hour or two..

Honestly your puppy will adapt to whatever schedule you choose, and that is all up to you. The key is consistency! We take our puppy out at any sign of him having to go, it's all about knowing what your dog does before they pee or poop. We learned VERY quickly our puppys habits and the more time passes the better he is getting. we now go days between accidents, and then like last night he peed inside like 4 times!!!! With no warning at all!!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

DuketheDog said:


> Honestly your puppy will adapt to whatever schedule you choose, and that is all up to you. The key is consistency! We take our puppy out at any sign of him having to go, it's all about knowing what your dog does before they pee or poop. We learned VERY quickly our puppys habits and the more time passes the better he is getting. we now go days between accidents, and then like last night he peed inside like 4 times!!!! With no warning at all!!


You really want to try to avoid that. Every accident they have means even MORE time that you have to take to establish GOOD potty habits.


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## karidyne (Apr 28, 2017)

I just recently ditched the ex-pen/ugodog for the crate/tether method to start outdoor potty training. It's made his schedule much more consistent and the constant supervision means no accidents. Even at 10 weeks he does fine spending 2 1/2 hours in the crate because we make sure to tire him out beforehand. He does complain at first sometimes when he is in his crate and we are home, but that's a different problem.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

karidyne said:


> I just recently ditched the ex-pen/ugodog for the crate/tether method to start outdoor potty training. It's made his schedule much more consistent and the constant supervision means no accidents. Even at 10 weeks he does fine spending 2 1/2 hours in the crate because we make sure to tire him out beforehand. He does complain at first sometimes when he is in his crate and we are home, but that's a different problem.


It's all about the supervision and setting them up for success. If tethering and crating is what makes it possible for you to supervise her closely enough, that's great!


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## Hava Novice (Aug 30, 2016)

It sounds like you are doing everything right to create success. We kept Oreo confined in his crate for up to 3 hours when we got him at 11 weeks. Of course we only put him in his crate after he had pottied. We graduated to a pen, and by the time he was 4 months old he was trained (or we were). He has only had one accident since then, and I attribute that to his being on prednisone which increases urination. At around 7 or 8 months I was delayed getting home one afternoon, and I was relieved to find that he was fine after 5 1/2 hours in his pen. I have only left him that long maybe one other time, but it is a relief to know that I don't need to panic if I am delayed getting home by my 4 hour goal. The key as Karen has said is not allowing accidents in the first place. As we are approaching Oreo's first birthday, he still doesn't have a specific reliable signal (sometimes there is a little whimper), but I know his schedule, and recognize the behavior that indicates that he needs to go out. The way you are going, you are very close to the light at the end of the tunnel! Good luck!


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## DuketheDog (May 1, 2017)

krandall said:


> You really want to try to avoid that. Every accident they have means even MORE time that you have to take to establish GOOD potty habits.


LOL that night was next to impossible to avoid, he didn't even get into a pee stance... I think it had to do with that he is crazy about his new bone, he was running to the back door and BAM PEE!

He is doing fantastic with going potty outside, he will wait until we are home to go when he is in his pen, I think that is great potty habits.  Plus he loves pooping on the grass, he is now big enough to go down the stairs himself and we set his pen up at the bottom of the stairs and he can't wait to go out and pee/poop on it! He even stopped attacking and eating grass like a crazy!!


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