[Gracie2006]

Gracie is now 10 weeks. I got her at 8 weeks. If I am not home or can't watch her, I have her confined to an ex-pen. In one part of the pen I have her crate full of bedding, with the door left open. At the other end are the pee pads. Toys and food are kind of in-between. She has been mostly consistent with using the pee pads. She has not had one crate accident. Yesterday, I had her out of her pen playing, with the pen door wide open. Twice she ran into the pen and used her pee pads. Good girl! This system is working great for me. I too think that 6 hours in a crate is way too long. If you put the pad in the crate, it only teaches the baby that it is ok to go in the crate. That defeats the purpose of crate training (dogs don't like to soil their dens).