Jessie is now 18 weeks old. I am home most of the time so I haven't had to leave her for long periods yet, however she has been left regularly for short periods since 9 weeks old. I feel I should get her used to being left for longer periods of time now she's a bit older, as there will be occasions she needs to be left for longer but what length of time is appropriate for a puppy of this age? Also what sort of water bowl do people use? I've seen ones that clip to the crate and are open or our puppy trainer mentioned hamster style bottles, but I can't get my head around this! Surely not enough water comes out??! Does anyone use one of these?
I have a very deep Mason Cash ceramic water bowl, which holds loads (I need lots with two dogs) and is untippable. I never used a bowl in the crate, because they didn't have water overnight and I was never away long enough to warrant it during the day before they were decrated. I work from home, so it was a bit of an effort to do separation training at first. I managed it at first by shutting myself in the bedroom to work when Willow went into her crate for a nap, for example after lunch. I increased the time I was away slowly. Sometimes, I put her in the crate at other times with a kong to distract her. It wasn't a big problem and I quickly got to the point where I could leave her for an hour and she'd just go to sleep. I'd say up to an hour is fine to work up to over the next couple of weeks, depending on how long you're leaving her now. The good thing about being in the house still is that you can monitor her tolerance to the times a lot better.
I would build up to a couple of hours - it doesn't have to be every day, of course. I make sure my two have a couple of hours on their own (without each other or any people) about 3 times a week. .
I would say 2 - 3 hours would be fine. I used to leave Juno at 11 weeks for a couple of hours once a week while I attended a French class and an hour or so a couple of times a week for shopping. I never left water in the crate while I was out. Along as the crate isn't subject to heat or strong sunlight Jessie should be fine for a couple of hours without water.
That is really helpful. Thank you everyone. We are up to around an hour now, which she is fine with, so I will start stretching this a bit and not worry about water then. Her crate doesn't get direct sun, so she should be fine.
We are able to leave Mole (nearly 18 weeks) for an hour and a half uncrated in the kitchen with a Kong now - as long as he's had a walk before and then his Kong he seems fine and is always in his bed kipping when we get back. I am waiting for the day we get back to mass destruction - we built up to it and he seems fine with that.
We are leaving our 14 week old pup for about an hour and a half in her crate, once a day and have built up to this gradually. We have found it helpful to time being left with a time in the day that she is usually sleepy and quiet. After her morning walk and training session, and tucked up with first kong of the day
That's the main reason most of us crate train, so we don't have to worry about chewy pups/teenagers or the harm they can do them selves; if you're lucky you have a puppy that doesn't chew - I know I was
He does go in his crate at night but so far he has been OK confined by baby gates in the kitchen with a Kong! I'm sure he would be happy to go in his crate if we needed him to as he loves it but at the moment it seems to be working ok. I am sure he will be eating the skirting boards soon like my last lab did but we hadn't discovered kongs with our last dogs!
Ha ha! I think the kong only delays the chewing of the house I only used the crate with Juno when I went out and at night but she was de-crated at 8 months with no problems and she has never had a stuffed kong. They are all so different though, I guess it's what makes living with them fun
