Preparing for Puppy

[angela0119]

Hello! I am new to the forum, and will be a proud owner to a Cairn puppy, Max, next month. He is still with the breeder as he is still less than a month old. When I say I am a newbie, I really am...not just to the forum but to Cairns as well. I've read so much about the breed and spoken with owners and I feel like I have chosen the perfect dog for our family. So, I am a working single parent. I work Mon-Fri, 8-5. Before you jump on me like some other folks have about getting a puppy, and being away from home so much, and how unfair that is to a dog....please know that I am going to do everything I can to make our dog's life happy. That being said, I'm trying to figure out how I will approach housebreaking him. Since I am at work during the day five days a week, I can't possibly keep him in a crate and would never dream of doing that. I also can't keep my eyes on him and stalk him around my house to train him since I won't be home. So, here's my game plan:

Get a large petyard (the octogon shaped plastic gate kind) and keep in my living room or my bedroom while I am at work. Put his crate on one end, food and puppy pad on the other end. The breeder says her puppies are fairly well trained to a pad when they leave her. (we'll see...) Then, when I am home after work and on weekends, do the stalking and taking out and all that business. Crate him at night to sleep and take out first thing in the morning.

As experienced owners, do you think this approach might work or am I going to confuse the heck out of him? Will it be best for me to put the petyard away when I am home or should I just treat that like his little home and leave him access to it always so that he won't associate it with being left alone?

Help! :-)

[bradl]

Is there any chance at all you can get home for even 20 minutes at lunchtime each day for a few months? We generally follow the rule of thumb of a puppy being capable of 'holding it' during the day of one hour per month old. So you can speed things up by helping him out in the early days.

I personally do not stress about housebreaking. I do not consider it a digital thing (housebroken or not_housebroken) but more of a probability or statistical curve - maybe like a batting average. I'm hoping for 100 % but realistically, I know I'll be cleaning up messes off and on for the next 14-17 years. I'm not going to panic if he hits 99% reliable next week, next month, or next year. It will happen, there will be many years of reliability, there will be occasional short backslides, and then one day he will be so old we'll end up right back where we started. Sorry to say I expect the same for myself, although hope springs eternal

The above is just a long way of saying that even if you go with a "pen" or "baby gates and confined to a hallway" method, although progress may not be as smooth and fast as it would be if you helicopter over him all day every day, progress will come regardless, sooner or later. So enjoy him!

Welcome to the forum.

[angela0119]

Well, I'm hoping to recruit my mom who lives really closeby to check on him some during the day and take him out for a potty break. Once she sees how cute he is, I'm hoping she won't be able to resist! haha

[Idaho Cairns]

Thousands of families that take on puppies everyday work full time so, yes, it is certainly possible to have a pup when you work all day. Some training functions clearly will take longer and the most important is, of course, housebreaking. It is easier to get the job done when you can take the dog out every hour but I am of the opinion that dogs prefer to potty outside, primarily because that is where all the smells associated with same are lingering. If you keep all the inside messes completely deodorized, then the outside becomes the place where your Cairn will want to go.

I think many of us have raised Cairn puppies while working full time and I agree with Brad, it really helps if you can get home at sometime thru the day to let the pup out and to soothe that need for human companionship. Your Mother will be a fine substitute and, who knows, if she gets bit by the Cairn Bug, she might take him on as a babysitting joy!

In any case, the more stress free you are the better it will go for the dog so enter the relationship with your pup knowing that there is going to be some disappointment and disatisfaction along the way, some frustration that "things aren't moving quickly enough", but that in the end you have chosen a breed of dog that is both smart and adaptable which will be a wonderful companion for your children (make sure they are always gentle with the pup--very important at first!) and great dog for the household.

The more you interact with your Cairn the better so, no, when you are at home keep the pup close but also make sure he has a place to retreat to when he wants some peace and quiet and he will want that, especially in an active household. Make an area that is his but also include him in as much of the home activities and away from home activities as you can.

[pindrop]

Hi Angela and welcome to the forum. You will find this resource invaluable once you have little Max home. You and your family must be so excited having a puppy on the horizon. When we first got our little girl Layla, she was 9 1/2 weeks old and hubby, being retired, was in charge of her during the day. She became "my dog" once I walked thru the door at suppertime. We had an X-pen (8 sided) and we put her crate in there as it was suggested from the breeder and that became her "home". Whilst we were home, she was confined to the general "great room" as I had a baby gate blocking off the hallway (beyond were the bedrooms and washroom.) I removed all carpeting (as we have hardwood floors and easier to clean from puppy messes). Even with constant watching, Layla wasn't fully housetrained (98%) till she was about 6 - 7 months old. Once we were pretty sure of her, we replaced the carpets however the baby gate stayed up for the first year and is now no longer in use (Layla is now 16 months old.) Valuable advice that I got from this forums members was "the crate" - not too big (that she could potty at one end and sleep in the other) - just large enough for her to turn around in. Also, having her sleeping crate in our bedroom (on top of a chest ) seemed to give her some comfort as she could hear us breathing and that helped her sleep at night knowing we were close. No doubt you will have many questions, and as we have pretty much all been through what you are going to go thru - we are here should you need our help and advice. Once other thing - we live for puppy pictures so make sure you have a camera so we can watch little Max grow up. Oh...and good luck!

[angela0119]

Thanks for the good advice! I know I am probably worried more about it than I should be. I have the perfect house for a dog with no carpet, and a privacy fenced backyard with plenty of room to run! I know he will love it once he gets settled in.

[Jamie Wortley]

We got our Cairn, Fred, in August. I work a fulltime job as well & I decided to go with the crate. He did wonderful, yes we had accidents here & there but he is now 9 months old and we hardly ever have accidents. Cairn's are extremely smart dogs & they like to keep their owner pleased so you shouldn't have any issues at all getting your puppy trained. I think you made a wonderful choice with the Cairn & your family will love him so much!

[Lynn in TN]

Welcome to the forum. I also found this to be a great place for advice for my Cairn Kelly. In my opinion whether or not you work a full time job has no bearing on you being a good pet owner. With love and lots and lots of patience your Cairn will eventually be house trained. They are very smart dogs and adapt well to almost any kind of household. The do love to be included in all aspects of family life and the more you include Max the happier he will be.

Kelly loves to go everywhere with us and she lets us know if she thinks we aren't paying her enough attention. Yours will be fine. I am excited for you and the wait seems like forever. I can't wait for pictures and stories. Good Luck!

[Sue G]

I don't think most people on here would give you a hard time for working full time and wanting a puppy. There are a few that work from home, but for the most part most people work away from home 8 hours or more a day. I'm gone about 10 hours a day and Ozzy does fine. I can't give advice on housebreaking as he was a year when I got him, but your pup should be fine once you get him housebroke. Ozzy even fiddles around sometimes when I get home after a 10 hour day and doesn't want to go outside right away.

[Hillscreek]

Welcome to you and Max.

You'll get loads of friendly advice, support and help form the folks on this forum.

My puppy Angus is just turned 7 months and I'm thinking (fingers crossed) he is housebroken. He was nine weeks old when he came to live with me. I have recently retired and am home with him most of the time. But I think whether you work or whether you are at home when his bladder is mature enough he'll be fine.

I agree that it would be really nice if he could be taken out in the middle of the day for a potty break.

Good luck with him and send us pictures. We all love to share pic and videos of our little rascals!