go back to work, my puppy is 4month old-HELP!

[nina]

Sadie is 4month old and my husband has worked at home and been taking care of potty business for her at home.  She had several accidents whenever we thought she's got basic potty training and gave her some freedom (in the living room and we did not watch her for 5mints).  Now, she has not had accidnets for few weeks and we have been leaving her in the kitchen ( her favorite room in the house) for 6hrs without accident. I was so proud of her. She is standard goldendoodle and now about 20 pounds, so I asume her bladder must have bigger capacity.  Anyhow I thought she sees  the kitchen( our kitchen is very secluded with two doors) as a kind of her den and she won't do potty there.  Well, my husband had to go back to work everyday since last Monday, and today was the third day we had to leave her home alone.  My husband left her in the kitchen at 9am after her potty break thinking she will be alright until I come back.  Well, she did fine two days last week when I come back at 4;30pm but now today, When I opened the kitchen door, I was shocked by the sight of puddles and piles.  I do not know what to do.  She did fine other days but not today and why she has not understand the potty training?  Why she poops any time.  I thought dogs only poops when walking.  We walk Sadie everyday in the evening.  I do not know what to do for tomorrow.  Should I leave her in the backyard?  We have enclosed backyard with fences.  Will that be safe?  Please, help!  When she will be fully potty trained?  4 month is not enough?  She is doing OK as long as we let her out every 4hrs from crate and not let her roam in the house. But how long it has to be like that?  

Nina

[Jen & Ember]

Sherri- How old is Sophie now? My work schedule is shifting at the end of the month and Ember will be alone for 2 full days (8 hr shifts) a week. She goes to daycare the other two, and I'll be off one full day during the week. I can come home for lunch most days or get family to come let her out. Hoping that will not be too long for her! She's almost 11 months now. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I agree with all the advice here.  You say that you thought dogs only "pooped" when walking....that's true if the dog is walked OFTEN enough and is fully housebroken.  Sadie is a puppy, and the only way she'll learn to "hold it" is if she's in a crate or a confided area AND walked frequently enough.  You will need to find a way to get her outside to potty at least every four hours until she's older. Please do not keep this puppy outside all day....this is dangerous and so unfair to her.

[Colleen, Jake & Baxter]

 Please, please do not even consider putting your dog outside for the day:(  It is not safe and the puppy will think you have abandoned him and you are just setting yourself for more issues....including issues with your neighbors:( if the puppy is barking for long periods of time,  etc.

All of the suggestions people have given really need to be utilized.  It will require some sacrifice on your part.  Perhaps on sleep by getting up earlier and making sure that your puppy has a good walk before you leave him for hours.  Perhaps it will be a monetary sacrifice that you might have to hold off on some purchases so that you could hire someone to come in and walk your puppy during the day.

[nina]

Thank you all for good advices.  Yesterday, I asked old couples in my neighbor and they will let Sadie out around lunch time today untill I find a dog walker.  I have seen some ads on web site and need to make few phone calls today.   At what age, a dog can be fully house broken and free inside a house?  How long do I have to keep her in kennel all the time? She wants to walk around a house but I can not watch her all the time and I feel so bad to keep her in the kennel when we are at home.

 

 

[BG and Gavin]

Just use her leash to tether her around your waist and where you go, she goes.  This is great physical and mental stimulation for her and teachs her to watch you.  You are also able to be super consistent as you can redirect/correct on the spot if she does something naughty.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

All dogs are different. It depends on many factors, including exercise, eating schedule, supervision, consistency, rewarding the dog for relieving herself in the appropriate place and being able to catch the dog in the act of relieving herself in the inappropriate place so that you can give a correction. The dog needs to understand "Here, bad, there, good."  If you don't catch them in the act of making a mistaking, you can't correct them.

I've had puppies who were fully house-broken by 12 weeks of age, but those were puppies whose breeders started them on crate training, and I was able to spend a lot of time with the puppy the first few weeks so I was always able to correct the mistakes and praise the successes.

Also, I don't think anyone has mentioned that successful housebreaking also involves using an odor neutralizer made for this purpose. Just cleaning up is not enough; even if you can't see or smell anything, the dog can. Their sense of smell is up to 10,000 times more powerful than ours. If the dog can smell where she "went" before, she will return to that place unless you use an odor neutralizer. Nature's Miracle is a good one.

[Amy, Cubbie & Ollie]

We got Cubbie when he was 5 months old and had my brother come and let him out of his crate at lunch time until my DH was off of work for the summer.  When DH went back to work in August, Cubbie went back into the crate, but by that point he could hold it while we were out for the day.  Once we started leaving him out of his crate, we still confined him to our lower level (not a basement, but a downstairs family room).  It wasn't until we got Ollie last summer that we gave them full access of the house.  If we aren't home and they need to get away from one another then they have room to do that, but we still close off the doors to our bedrooms and office (I don't want to come home to doggie vomit on my bed again!)

My dogs are now 3 and 2 and even when they are home we keep an eye on them.  They have access to the whole house when we are there, but if they disappear for too long, I go check on them to make sure they aren't getting into anything. 

[Adina P]

There is nothing wrong with keeping a dog crated while you are at work.  Dogs do very little when they are all alone besides sleep, change position, and sleep some more.   Free in the house is more about safety than about potty training.  They can be potty trained but still destructive or ingest something that could hurt them.   I still crate my nearly 2 year old puppy because she is not to be trusted alone.  My 6 y.o. doodle is 'free' in the mud room with a baby gate up near the crate of the 2 y.o..  He used to be free in the whole house but discovered counter surfing last year and then diaper chewing and frankly I just can not keep up with my house well enough to prevent ALL of that right now.  So they are confined when we can't watch them or we are away.  They are fine.  You can also tether her to you with a leash when you can't watch her and give her a safe chew toy to crunch on so she is occupied.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Yes, Peri was crated until she was 2.  Now she is confined in a portion of the house.

 

I agree crates are fine but only if they can be let out after a few hours.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think though that Nina is talking about keeping the puppy in the crate all of the time, including when they are home, until she is fully housebroken, and not just when she's at work.

" She wants to walk around a house but I can not watch her all the time and I feel so bad to keep her in the kennel when we are at home."

I think we are all in agreement that being crated 20 or more hours a day would not be fair to a puppy.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

We came home every day during lunch until Peri was 2 years old.  We lived very close to work.  When we moved last year to a house, we started leaving them in the playroom and kitchen area (large area, probably 600 square feet) - they have their toys, beds, couches, lots of windows, etc...and they are good all day.  But we walk them for 30  minutes in the morning and again as soon as we get home (and one of us ALWAYS goes straight home after work).  I would say it takes a year or so of them needing midday breaks.  However, remember they are puppies for 2-3 years and NEED the 1:1 human interaction and exercise. At 1 year old, Peri would have still gone NUTS if I had left her all day without a break.

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

As in previous posts say... your puppy is still very young yet.  I have crate trained all my past and present dogs.  You will always have an accident here and there while training.  There are lots of great suggestions here, what has worked for me is begin crate training the second I bring the puppy home.  I work all day but do come home on my lunch hour to let the doodles out.  I pick up the water about an hour + before I leave for work, I take them out right before I leave.  My key was to limit the water a good amount of time before you leave.

 

Dogs are also den animals and both my doodles love their crate.  I make it a happy and comfortable safe place for them to go.  They are both loose 24-7 now with no accidents and the crates are gone.