Hello everyone! OK so I know this is a Yorkie forum, but I'm hoping it's ok I joined even though my new pup is a Silky-Poo?!
I'm just looking for some general advice/training tips for when I bring my new puppy home at the beginning of August. He was born on June 1st so I can't bring him home quite yet.
The main concern I have right now is housebreaking. I've heard Yorkies can be hard to housebreak, and I'm guessing Silkies are the same in that way?! The dog I grew up with is a Papillon so we had it SO easy when it came to the training! He came to us from a breeder at 2 months and was mostly housebroken already! I have a feeling housebreaking my Silky-Poo is gonna be a bit more of a challenge.
I want to be as prepared as possible by next week!
I live in a house alone so I will be doing 100% of the training.
I'm sort of in between 2 different jobs at the moment so right now my shifts are mostly only 3 hours, and then I'm able to do the rest from home. I leave around 8:45 am and come home around 12:15 at the latest. Usually I'm home even earlier. I feel like that's still gonna be too long for this little guy to hold it in a crate- so I was thinking I would get a 30" tall exercise pen (
Amazon.com: Midwest Black E-Coat Exercise Pen, 24... ) for when I'm gonna be gone more than a couple hours. I was planning on putting a scrap piece of vinyl flooring underneath the play pen in my living room so my laminate floors don't get ruined! I'm going to try to stay away from puppy pads if possible because ideally in the future I would like my dog to pee/poop outside only.
I also want to buy him a crate so I can do crate training when I'm gone 2 hours or less (or maybe a little longer once he gets a little older). One question I have is- what size of crate should I get? His parents are 5-6 lbs. and 7-8 lbs. apparently. They almost looked even smaller than that to me when I met them. I can't picture him getting any larger than 7 pounds- his parents just look so tiny! Would a size small - 13"L x 19.5"W x 10.25"H crate be too small?! I know they say they supposed to be pretty small but I don't want him to be uncomfortable! That might be cutting it close depending on how big he gets?
So what I'm trying to figure out is- how do I potty train using the exercise pen and the crate? Should I limit the crate time to 2 hours initially? Or even less? Do I just let him pee wherever he wants in the exercise pen when I'm gone for 2+ hours? Or would that start bad habits? Right now I have short shifts but after a couple week of having him I will probably be working longer shifts- but I'm planning on coming home during my lunch break. And they still won't be 9 hours days for a few months. Actually I had a schedule pretty well figured out but some things about my next job are a little up in the air now so I'm just having to play it by ear!
I just really want him to get a good head start with potty training and don't want to slow the process down by letting him pee in the play pen- I just don't see any other options when he's still so little!
So any potty training tips would be great! And any other tips, too, actually! Like crate training, getting him to sleep through the night, etc.
Sorry this post is so long I just have so many questions!