First and foremost, I recommend you raise your puppy in the house with you for the first few months. This is important to create a bonding. Puppies soak up information at an extreme rate until about 4 months old. Take advantage of it and do not procrastinate training your pup. The more time he is with you, the more he is learning and bonding to you and your family.
To begin with space and freedom are not your friend when it comes to training. Before any dog can get the full run of the house, she must learn the rules of the house. The idea is to make it easy for a puppy to make the right decisions. We do this a little at a time.
Keep your puppy confined to a fairly small room. You can use baby gates to section off rooms.
a comfortable bed (crate),
a water bowl
5-6 chew toys (3 stuffed with dog food).
Preparing a schedule:
Schedules are personal and should be tweaked to work with the family and the pup. There are dozens on the web under crate training schedules or potty training schedules.
Short Term Confinement Area
The best solution for short term confinement/management/potty training in your puppy set up is a crate. The crate will also double as your dog’s sleeping area in its early months.
You need a crate that is big enough for your dog to be able to get up and turn around in. There are many good options on the market but if you want to ‘future’ proof your purchase then a crate with a divider in is ideal. This will allow you to expand the size of the crate as your puppy grows.
The crate should include a bed or soft cushioning so your puppy can lie down comfortably.
Start crate training your puppy from day one. A key to success in crate training are chew toys. Get to stuffing those Kongs! If you can get your puppy hooked on these from an early age then it helps in your dog developing an ability to settle and accept being alone when required. After a puppy has settled and is mentally stimulated following the extraction of all the treats from its toy it will more than likely fall asleep – puppies sleep a lot.
Puppies should not be kept in a crate for long periods of time and should be allowed out to potty and have play and training sessions.
Longer Term Confinement Area
Enter the play pen. This should be used for longer periods of confinement such as when you have to leave the house. Chew toy and crate training with your dog will help them acclimatize to a larger pen area.
As your puppy gets used to their surroundings the pen can replace the crate for an area where your dog can keep themselves occupied if you are up to something in your house where it would be safer or easier if your puppy wasn’t under your feet.
Remember every feed time with your puppy is an opportunity to train. I would suggest training with kibble at every opportunity in the first couple of months – put that bowl away.
The pen should contain a crate or bed, a water bowl and an acceptable area to potty as far away from the bedding area as possible. I do not allow pups to soil in my house, so long term confinement for me consists of a kennel run attached to an indoor room. You could ‘fence’ off the doggy door area with your playpen and allow pup access to the yard (as long as it is not too large and is securely fenced). Make sure your pup is comfortable using a doggy door before implementing this!
As your puppy grows and becomes more dependable, your ‘control zones’ can grow as well. Give the pup a bit more freedom with a bit of a larger yard or maybe a whole room. If you have ‘issues’ opening up a larger area, return to the last step and repeat that again until the pup gets it.
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