Yes, sorry! I should have made that more clear! He definitely does not have free roam of the house, just the kitchen and living room that are attached to one another and not very large - the entryways into the kitchen/living room are blocked off by baby gates but since they are open floor plan we could not make the area smaller -- but even with the baby gates and small space of kitchen/living room we still have accidents & when we bring him to my in laws or any place that is not our house it is even worse, but the UTI definitely set things back a few weeks for us, so I am not getting too stressed about it anymore and just taking it a day at a time - he was only "cleared" of not having UTI anymore last week and definitely has had a LOT less accidents since then so I am just hopeful that one day I look back and think oh wow he hasn't had an accident in a long time! haha Yes it is a LOT of work! But to be fair, I did take off 5 weeks in between jobs and starting this job working from home because I heard how much work it was and thankfully my new job start date was very flexible because when he got the UTI I had to push the start day back another week so basically I didn't start working from home with him here until he was about 14 weeks,which really helped... I cannot imagine not having taken off those 5 weeks especially with the UTI, but still even without the UTI having a 17 week old puppy and working from home is a balancing act and I have had to figure out a routine and stick to it & it is a lot of work! I just make sure to take him on a walk in the morning & let him hang out outside after he eats his first meal... then mid morning potty break... then lunch walk and outside play time with other dogs that walk by... then mid afternoon outside as well... mostly so many outside visits because I feel guilty if I don't take him outside a lot and get him a lot of social interaction and play time! especially now that the weather is getting nice
Well at least you can gate off a couple rooms. We have such an open concept that there really isn't a way to do that so this should get fun. NOT. I think they should come up with some kind of spray we can put on the floor that is safe for humans and dogs but discourages them from going inside.
Duncan has recently been so great with house training, but the past couple days he has definitely been regressing... so I have had to be more diligent and take him out a lot more often Boy do I love him, but boy is he a handful! He is a full time job! haha
So adorable! He's about 18 weeks now right? How often does he go out? Does he let you know or do you just take him out every couple hours? Is his UTI all cleared up? I still don't know how anyone can work and keep up with a puppy. It's such a full time job from 6am to midnight going up and down 2 flights of steps to get him outside. He's wearing me out.
Yes, he is about 18 weeks now! We take him out first thing in the morning around 6am when my husband gets up - then around 645am I feed him and take him for a walk then around 8-830 once more outside for good measure because then he is in his crate for about 3 hours while I work from home.. he has never had an accident in the crate, so he holds it while in the crate and is really good about that and I will take him out again around 11 feed him and take him for another outside time then back in crate for about 3-3 1/2 hours while I work and then out again! When he is not in the crate or it is the weekend I would say he still has to go out about once every hour to 2 hours - he definitely does not let us know and we just have to take him out every hour or every couple of hours if he is not in the crate His UTI is finally all cleared up, but now he has been having diarrhea - we are seeing the vet tomorrow they kept giving us instructions over the phone but we want to bring him in to make sure everything is okay It is one thing after another with these puppies! It really is a full time job! haha
For us it was like a button...as soon as she turned 6 months she stopped needing to go out hourly (or more!) and lets us know she needs out by sitting by the door (from about 18 weeks on she would cry and/or sit by the door but not 100% of the time). I thought we would never crack house training as we were having accidents still at 5.5 months and everyone else seemed to have cracked it by 4 months! It's true that every dog is different and they all eventually get it though! It really is a full time job (we also have two flights of stairs!).
