Hello,My husband and I are picking up our new Labrador puppy in 4 weeks.We want him to be an indoor dog,and we have the time to devote to this.Are we being reasonable to think this way?We are active amd will be providing lots of outdoor time,but we want him to live indoors with us.Any tips would be greatly appreciated.Thankyou.Robyn and Leigh
If by indoor dog you mean eats, sleeps, and spends all its time inside unless you're out on walks, then almost every dog I know is an indoor dog. Do you live in the south? I know it's much more common down there to leave dogs outside, but it's definitely not the norm elsewhere in the US. It's totally fine (in fact better for the dog) to keep them indoors. The climate is better, and they are more likely to behave well around people. The only challenge is potty training - there will be lots of accidents for your first few months. This website and others have a lot of great tips on how to potty train your puppy, so read up! I would also highly recommend crate training your puppy from day 1 (an indoor crate - not an outdoor one). Puppies will not go to the bathroom where they sleep, so leaving your puppy in the crate when you're not around to supervise will help reduce accidents. By the time our puppy was a few months old, he could happily spend a couple hours in his crate alone. This let us go about our lives when we needed to (e.g., going to the store) without coming home to accidents. And he spends the entire night in his crate, so we don't have to worry about him getting into trouble (biting furniture, getting into the pantry, etc.) when we're not awake. Just be careful because you can't just leave puppies in their crate for extended periods of time without building up to it the right way. If you force the crate on your puppy they will grow to hate it rather than like it. You want it to be like their beloved den/home, not a prison cell.
Our girl (nearly 4 years old) has been indoors from day 1. She has access to the backyard via a doggy door, but prefers to be with us where the action is! She has the run of the house and we have never had a problem. She is exercised daily at a local park where she can have a run and sniff to her heart's content.
Our Labs have all been "indoor" dogs. They have a doggy door to the back yard, but normally prefer to be in the house with us. We buy our furniture based on our labs requirements.
