What is your puppy schedule like? (crate training)

[Lucy & Ellie]

Hi again... I just posted a question about whining below but I am also just curious about what your day looks like with your puppy.  Lucy is 9 weeks tomorrow and she's our first puppy so we are just trying our best to do things the right way!

We are lucky that we are home during the day.  I homeschool my kids so we can take breaks when we need to to give her playtime.  While we are doing school and Lucy is a puppy, I have her in her crate.  I'm thinking no more than a 2 hour stretch for now.  What do you think the longest you can keep a 9 week puppy in for?  She sleeps from (11 till about 5am at night). How much out and playtime should we plan on when we let her out?  

I like the book by the Monks of New Skete - The Art of Raising  a Puppy.  They lay out a schedule and we try to stick to it the best we can.

Can I just lay out our day here and see what you think?  It helps me :)  This is our first day back to school since we got Lucy and here's how it's going so far.

We got up at 8 and let her out.  Then she got breakfast, played with, and taken out again.  Back into her crate at 9.  She was pretty barky/whiney.  We let her out at 10:15 because I thought maybe she really just needed to either potty or get some energy out.  The kids played with her outside, then back into her crate at 10:40 and she's been very quiet.  I hope to have her in there till 12:40 so we can get more work done.  

12:40 she will go outside to potty, have lunch and playtime, then potty again before going into her crate.  I'm not sure what a good length of time to have her out is.  Suggestions?

She will HAVE to be back in it by 4, as we need to leave the house.  We will be back at 6 to get her out.

So I'm just curious how long most pups can be in their crates and how long they should be out (being watched for accidents of course)!  What does your puppy do most of the day?  Just... what does your day look like?

Thanks!!

[Emily, Jace, & Maggie Devers]

My schedule is a little weird and changes depending on the day because I'm in school right now. Monday and Wednesday Maggie is in her crate from 8:30 until 12 and then I'm home for the day, Tuesday and Thursday she's in her crate from 7:30 until 11 and then on Tuesday she goes back in at 1:30 and is out by 3 Friday she's only in there about an hour. She goes to sleep at 10:30ish and I take her out at about 7 each morning. She's a little over 5 mos now so her time in the crate can be a little longer than your furbaby:) when Maggie was that young I had an x-pen I would put her in so she could play and feel involved but still be in my sight, oh how I wish I would've had one with Jace! It was a lfe saver, and I contribute it to my success with potty training early on! :P now I use it as a gate to keep her down stairs while I'm down there. Btw she's a cutie pie!,

[Vicky loves Chachi]

I read that book and thought I would use same scheduling guideline. Well we didn't do it because we were home for the summer and he slept so much that we were able to watch him closely. Your girl should be able to hold it for two hours at a time. Don't take her out when she whines otherwise she will continue to whine and expect to be let out. Remember to make her fit your lifestyle and schedule. She will adjust. Enjoy! Time flies, my guy is now 9 months old and it feels like yesterday when I brought him home.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

If we were home. Enzo spent very little time in her crate. Only if we absolutely could not watch her. IE showers or something similar. Other than that, she was tethered to one of us. Now, her only crate time is if we are not home....she is free to go in and out of her crate, while contained in outer bedroom at night.

[KLN]

I have heard an hour for every month they are....of course with reason as they get older. :)  I am working from home now so I have a much more flexible schedule but when I was working in an office, I never went over a five hour window.  When I first got Finley (up until about six to seven months), I got up extra early to play with him before I went to work.  I would give him a solid hour and a half of play time before I got into the shower and then would give him a bone to chew for another 30-45 minutes (while I was getting dressed) so he wouldn't fall asleep before I left...in an effort to really exhaust him before putting him in his crate.  I would then come home at lunch and play with him (we would run circles in the yard because it wore him out) for another hour to hour and a half.  He'd go back in his crate and we'd do that all over again when I got home from work.  He'd usually konk out by 8pm and sleep until about 6:45 the next morning.  I thought the key was wearing him out early in the morning...with a solid hour and a half of play time in the mornings, you should be good to go through lunch.  At least in the beginning, y'all might want to get up a half hour or hour early to get a good play session in.  I'm not a morning person so this was REALLY difficult for me...half the time I think I was throwing a ball half asleep. Good luck!