Switching from loose in house to "puppy apartment" concept?

[Sjill]

Help! Daisy is 8 months old. She's a good girl, but I have been inconsistent with training and, because of that, find myself in need of advice. I've searched teh forusm and still have questions.

I currently leave her loose in my small house all day while I'm at work, but I have a baby gate up so she doesn't have the whole house. We go outside when I'm home. She uses a pee pee pad, but not always.

Now I must move into a relative's house. This relative has very nice carpet, hardwood, and tile. Daisy's accidents will not be tolerated.

I have never tried crate training with her.

I've been researching online about possibly setting up sort of a "puppy apartment" (although not the ones with that brand name) for Daisy to stay in all day. I am gone Monday through Friday for 8 to 10 hours, and unable to come home to let her out mid-day.

For her first few weeks at home, I used a rectangular soft-sided crate that had been given to me. There was enough room for her little bed, her food and water bowls, her toy box, and a pee pee pad.

After several days of coming home from work to find the soft crate on its side with food and water spilled, I started putting her in this 45" octagon-shaped puppy play pen.

33" 45 48 57" 600D Oxford Portable Pet Puppy Soft Tent Playpen Dog Cat Crate Pen | eBay

The playpen is still set up in my house, with the door unzipped so she can go in and out. I keep her food and water bowls in there, along with her little soft bed and toy box. I keep a pee pee pad in there, too.

When she was tiny, we used the playpen with the door zipped closed and without the mesh top. Things went well.

Then she figured out how to unzip the door. I tried several tricks to keep it closed. Meanwhile, she grew and became quite the jumper. I added the mesh top and zipped it.

This worked for just a few days.

When I came home and the entire playpen was knocked on its side, with food and water spilled everywhere, I gave up on confining her to the playpen and let her stay loose in the house during the day.

HERE ARE MY OPTIONS:

1. Bring the playpen to relative's house to confine her all day, with the playpen set up in my bedroom and the bedroom door closed. Set it up with her soft bed, food/water bowls, toy box, and pee pee pad (which she is used to since it is set up like that in my living room, but unzipped and no lid). She'll jump out of it if the door is zipped. If the top is zipped in, she could roll it again, but the room is small and wouldn't roll far. She could still have accidents on the carpet rather than going back into the playpen to use the pee pee pad.

2. Buy a sturdy wire crate big enough to hold her soft bed, food/water, toy box in one end, and then put the pee pee pad on the other end.

I've read pros and cons about doing things this way.

By the way, we are making a commitment to be consistent with our training.

Thanks for any advice.

[Sjill]

No advice at all?

I've searched the forum looking for answers and was hoping to find something.

[Maximo]

My boys are pad and outdoor trained. They have the pad available to them at all times. The key to any training is praise and reward.

When you are home and able to supervise, she needs to be praised and rewarded for using the pad, otherwise she might not ever be consistent with using it. Praise for outdoor potty too. My boys are 7 years old and I still throw parties for good potties. They love it.

If you are having problems with the soft-sided xpen, then the wire xpen might be better, as long as she is not a climber or jumper. I needed the taller one (4' high?) when Max was a 3 pound puppy because he could jump high.

Being alone for 8 - 10 hours Mon through Friday, ideally I would give her run of your bedroom with the xpen open with the piddle pad in one corner. Having a little more room to move around will make her less likely to want to upset her water and food bowls and other things.

You do have a challenge with perhaps the pad becoming full, or maybe poops discouraging her from being consistent with the pad. My boys expect pads to be cleaned up right away when there is poop. Your girl might be pooping elsewhere to hide it, or she may not want to return to the pad if she does it there. I hope that I am explaining that adequately.

Ideally if you could get her body rhythm on a schedule of pooping before you leave and then later in the evening when you are home, that may help. Walking outdoors often stimulates my boys to do their big business. Good luck!

[buddybear]

I just saw this post. Since we're retired we don't have your problem but when we go out on our dinner night Buddybear goes into a long crate with his food, water , toys, and a bed. He never would use a pee pad so we don't stay gone that long. However we do turn on the radio to soft music. I just got a toy that dispenses treats (cherrios) that he has to knock around and he enjoys it. He also enjoys putting Cherrios in an empty water bottle which he can carry around and play ruff to get them out.

Not an ideal situation for you two but protecting the carpet might mean putting down super heavy plastic while you are gone. Good luck.

[Kimmieann]

Originally Posted by buddybear

I just saw this post. Since we're retired we don't have your problem but when we go out on our dinner night Buddybear goes into a long crate with his food, water , toys, and a bed. He never would use a pee pad so we don't stay gone that long. However we do turn on the radio to soft music. I just got a toy that dispenses treats (cherrios) that he has to knock around and he enjoys it. He also enjoys putting Cherrios in an empty water bottle which he can carry around and play ruff to get them out.

Not an ideal situation for you two but protecting the carpet might mean putting down super heavy plastic while you are gone. Good luck.

I want to give my Lily a bottle with cheerios in it, what kind of bottle are you talking about? a regular water bottle? did you poke holes in it or something? Please explain. Thank you.

[buddybear]

A clean empty water bottle, soda bottle or any clean bottle they can get their mouth around the neck area. Remove all labels and when dry on the inside place a handful of Cherrios or small treats instead. I shake the bottle and sit it on the floor. He goes crazy.......grabs it and runs all over the room gobbling up the cereal as it spills out. No need to poke holes in the bottle, as they will figure out if they bite it in the middle or large end the cereal w come out of the top. It's so fun to watch!
If,when, the bottle gets too sharp on the end from their teeth just use a new bottle and recycle the old one. Also make sure the part of the cap that is usually left on after you twist off the cap is removed as it will eventually come off and be a hazard.