Daily walks

[Pam & Frankie]

Frankie is about 5 months old and has been doing great.  She hasn't had an accident in about 2 months, and we rarely catch her chewing anything other than her toys.  Since my husband and I both work, we have a dog walker walk her twice a day.  She is otherwise in her crate while we are at work.

First, we were thinking about asking our dog walker to come once a day instead of twice.  Right now, between us and the dog walker, Frankie goes out at least five times a day (with us before work, twice with the dog walker throughout the day, with us after work, and with us before bed).  She doesn't even need to go sometimes when we take her out.   We think we could try reducing it to four and having the dog walker come only once, but don't know if it's too early.

Our second question is about leaving her uncrated.  We have a long hallway area that we can easily gate off that would give her room to run around, play and have her toys and water, but without giving her access to furniture and other destructibles.  The only concern I have is the possibility that she chews on the baseboard or goes nuts on the walls.  In our 3 months with her, she hasn't really done any of those things, but we are always around to watch her.

Does anyone have any good advice on when to transition her to these things?

[Leann]

I think I would wait and see what Frankie is like as an adolescent. Its basically the equivalent of a tween/teen child. From about 6-18 months they start to test boundaries more than they did as a puppy, they have a ton more energy and even though they have their adult teeth, they still feel the need to chew A LOT.

[Olivia & Chanel]

Our pups are about the same age. We have a dog walker that takes her out for a long walk--she's usually gone for 2 plus hours--I hr of that is actual walk time at a dog park or hill hike. We will take her out for a short walk in the morning or evening or a trip to the dog park where she really runs a ton. Otherwise she's crated at home. Usually up to 3-5 hrs and she's doing great. We usually just let out in the backyard instead of walking right after work and before bed. I don't know of that is an option.

We have left her in the playroom uncreated for brief periods 1 max just as a trial run but we aren't on any rush as long as she is getting enough exercise.

[Judith and Addie]

Way to go Frankie. She seems to be doing well.

Have you considered  trying the hallway either when you are home and she is normally not crated, or for a short time sometime when you are not at work - just to see how she does?

[Pam & Frankie]

Thanks for the advice.  I think it makes sense to wait on leaving her out of her crate while at work until she's a bit older, but we will try it a few times while we're out to dinner or something short.

As far as switching to a single walk, no walkers in the area offer 2 hour walks, but we would make sure that she had a nice long walk right in the middle of the day so that it breaks up her day.  We were thinking about rotating in some days at the doggy daycare so she can expend her puppy energy and meet other dogs, but it's not feasible for us to do it daily.  Not sure if anyone has had the experience of transitioning a puppy from two walks to one and when they made the transition?

[Toni Clayton]

Pups can usually hold their urine their age + 1 in hours...so for Frankie it would be 6 hours..is the time between the dog walking and you guys less than that is probably a helpful question...as far as being uncrated while home alone, I have no intention of starting that until George is about 1 (he's the same age as Frankie). He does have an ex pen attached to his crate and gets free roam of that all the time...with a couple toys and a bully stick in there all the time...but he can also lay down in his crate if he wants to. What I've heard is people will start with a shorter amount of time (say 20 minutes and go run an errand) and work their way up...you could also put her crate in the space so she has it to go to if she gets anxious...

[Lovemydoodle]

Finnegan is turning 6 months on the 6th and I have confined him to my bathroom.  He is super good and hasn't destroyed anything he wasn't suppose.  He's super mellow.  I take him to doggy day care once a week (usually Tues or Wed) and it takes him about a day to bounce back. I walk him a mile before work, take him out after work and run him with a long leash at the park across the street.  

I'm a teacher and now have the summers off but have been keeping up with our schedule just the same.  

I was super nervous leaving him alone in the house alone until someone from the site suggested I leave him for small increments at a time to test it out.   I have left him alone for 2 hours with great success.  My only concern now is to keep him away from windows so he doesn't develop and aggressive barking at people passing by attitude...

[Christina]

Oakley is 5 months also and we have been leaving him in our laundry room when we are not home since he was 31/2 months old. The only difference he he has access to a doggie door ion that room and so I know we won't have accidents. But he has never chewed up anything including a wooden chest, area rug, baseboard or scratched up the wainscoting or door. We leave him with a bowl of water and lots of toys and a chew treat. He has been left up to 6 hours... No problem. Being that you don't have access to a doggie door in that area I would not leave him for than a few hours but I say give it a. Try. You know your dog best and like you, Oakley is not a huge chewer and has never destroyed anything.... Yet ;)