Thanks. Adopted an adult dog and he hasn’t have accidents when I’m home but in the first 3 days I’ve had him and he’s home while I’m at work seems to be “marking” spots where past senior dogs might have peed. I work full time and have never had to housebreak a dog so comments about the crate are making me feel less guilty. I hope I can get him to just sleep while he’s in there and not have any accidents. He will have to be in the crate about 9 hours.
Thank the good lord for crates! I have a bitch in season and a stud dog in my house. Open a door close a door all damn day. I am lucky enough to have a nice dog run down one side of our house. The stud and my older bitch hang out there most of the day and the puppy is in the house with me.
However if I have to leave I always crate my boy and the puppy. My older girl is always loose in the house. She is past the age of getting herself into trouble.
As for training a dog not to destroy when you aren’t home? How does one do that as one is not home to stop the behavior? You say exercise? BWHAHAHAHAHAHA! I brought my youngster out for a walk around the lake (2 hours) then we went quartering in the field across the street and hunted birds for another hour. Then she came home and played zoomie crazy dog in my family room for 30 minutes with my big boy. Not 15 freaking minutes later I caught her eating a damn placemat she pulled off the kitchen table.
Some dogs just get into stuff. They are busy busy dogs and must always be looking for excitement. I seem to have a little bitch in this category. She is about to turn two and I do not turn my back on her still. She can get into trouble in zero to 60!!! She is very stubborn and strong willed alpha bitch and has been a total bear to train.
Our stud dog is 100 pounds and is massive. His crates are also massive! He can stand up to his full height with room to spare, turn etc. I also always have a hanging bucket for water in my crates, except at night.
My dogs are show dogs and need to be comfortable in crates. Traveling, shows, and in case of emergency at the vets.
We recently had to evacuate due to the Northern California Sonoma fires. The first thing I threw in my car, 3 soft crates for my dogs. We stayed with family that had cats and the dogs had to be crated when indoors. They were calm and quiet in their crates. Had they not been crate trained this could have been a nightmare. The air quality was horrific and keeping them outside the entire time would have been detrimental to their health.
Just like any tool crates can be over used. However I think those of you saying they are cruel and the same type of people who tell me that whenever I have a litter or buy a new dog I am directly responsible for a shelter dog dying. Yup those folks. Sigh.
Belly band for marking. Best invention ever.
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I have a 5 month old Rottie, Grace, and she has been crate trained and now is in wire kennel big enough to stand up, stretch, etc. I have a job offer where my job training will force me to leave her in her kennel 9 hours per day for 3 weeks. After that my hours will be part time. Received some negative comments on a Rottweiler site…so looking for more feedback. I haven’t worked since she was 8 weeks old but that needs to change.
Hire a dog walker to do a midday visit for those 3 weeks. There are lots of online services now that make it easy to connect with local people who do this as a service. Choose someone that has a reasobably long history with whatever service and also of course with lots of positive reviews. Services won’t list people with too many/too serious/too quickly get complaints. And individuals pay a very good cut of their rate to these listing services because it generates so much business for them.
It would not best for 5 month old pup to do 8 or 9 hour days. Hiring a walker to do a midday visit is best. But if truly not possible for some reason, then she will survive it for 3 weeks. Not ideal. But it is not puppy abuse, either. Ultimately it is in her best interest to have owner who is gainfully employed so that can provide for her needs over her lifetime. Or if not financially imperative, and you just need to do this to be happy in career and life, then that is really also in her best interest. Happy owners are better dog owners. It is 3 weeks. Just take care of the pup as best you can and do what you gotta do.
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Can it work? Sure, but your puppy will be holding their bladder and/or having accidents each day. I agree - it’s too long for a 5 month old. The other concern is that things like jobs and traffic aren’t 100% predictable so 8 hours can turn into 9 or 10 pretty easily.
A dog sitter or doggie daycare for a short period would be a better choice.
Not only for the dog’s health/comfort but for the long-term crate training/house training effort. You definitely do not want a puppy to learn to hate their crate or go to the bathroom in it. You will (hopefully) have this puppy for 12-13+ more years. This is a really essential time for training.
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Agree with the others, its not ideal and I’d be anxious about this situation if it were me and find some other way that doesn’t involve leaving her alone in a crate for 9 hours at a time. Even an x-pen would be better so she can move around at least. If I just had no other choice, I’d do a pen along with a dog walker in the middle of the 9 hour stretch.
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I would never leave a Rottweiler in an ex-pen unless it was a heavy duty one. They aren’t that secure even in the best of circumstances.
Nope - don’t think a dog needs me that much.
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8-9 hours without a break is too much, imo. My co-workers leave their dogs crated all day, without a break at lunch, and I honestly think it’s horrible. I have been going home at lunch to let my youngest puppers out of the crate for a break, but she is getting to be old enough that we are starting to leave her free in the house (she just turned one year Feb 1st). She hasn’t been crated at night since she was about 5 months old.
We started with 1/2 days crated, then leaving out after lunch break, or leaving out in the morning and crating after lunch break, and actually just last Friday was her first full work day of being lose in the house. Happy to report that she made all good decisions; no messes and no destruction 
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Not understanding your post?
We started with 1/2 days crated, then leaving out after lunch break, or leaving out in the morning and crating after lunch break, and actually just last Friday was her first full work day of being lose in the house. Happy to report that she made all good decisions; no messes and no destruction
I wouldn’t leave any of my dogs loose in the house all day. Maybe a room or a sectioned off area. This is the absolute best way to un-do house training. One accident and that’s it - they will find the “bathroom place” and just use it. Not to mention all the potential for trouble - especially eating things that are toxic, typically found in kitchens; plants, food, gum, dish towels with food on them. Not worth it in my opinion.
Well then, I think this thread illustrates that different things work for different people/dogs lol.
Consensus though is that 9 hours is a long time to leave a 5 month old puppy alone, regardless of the set up.
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9 hours without a break is too long.
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For a puppy, sure, but I haven’t had the experience that a year+ dog will “undo” it’s house training.
I think crating all day is fine as long as they get a break half-way through to walk around, stretch, go potty, have a drink, etc.
I may not have been clear… when we were starting to leave her unsupervised in the house, we started with shorter periods of time, and we are working up to full days. She’s been pretty reliably house-broken for months now, so I’m not as worried about her having an “accident”, just taking things slow to make sure she doesn’t decide to chew the wrong things.
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No, I get it. I am just saying that if there is a bad day and the dog has to go, they may very well find a remote corner and go in it. And once that happens, it’s very hard to undo that habit. Given enough space, many dogs will not bother to hold their bladder or bowels. They will just go further away.
I haven’t had this problem with my previous dogs, but if I did, I could easily go back to crating during the day (and coming home at lunch). It’s worth a shot for me… my day is a lot easier if I don’t have to go home.
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Our 12 month old Mastiff only gets crated to sleep (only because he’s too big to sleep in our queen size bed with us lol). He’s perfectly happy to be in there overnight and his crate is seriously huge. The Mastiff goes with us to work every day (I am so seriously lucky there) . He can be left alone but we keep him in one room if we do rather than in the crate. Our other dog who’s 12 has never been crated (technically he belongs to DH’s parents and they thought crating was cruel) and is perfectly behaved being left loose- he will not touch anything including food that is at floor level even with no supervision. Same thing with any dog we had growing up, always loose, never got into anything or had accidents. Of course these were all dogs that were part of the family and well exercised. I don’t have anything against crating for the day but it’s not how I would want my dog to be- if I wanted to do that I might as well just have gotten another cat lol
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Have you had a lot of dogs with this issue? All the dogs in my family have eventually been trustworthy to stay home alone all day.
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No, just one. Not sure how it started - but found a pile of poop behind a chair once, and after that, far reaching corners of the house became fair game for use as a bathroom.
If confined to a smaller area, it wasn’t a problem.
That said, the next dog we got wasn’t a very trustworthy puppy in general, so I never let him have access to the whole house unsupervised. Even as an adult he doesn’t get free access to the house when I am not home.
