Leaving Louie for 3-6 hours

[I love Louie]

Hi,

Louie sleeps in his crate and does fine in his crate for 2-3 hours while we are home, but we have not left him in his crate while we are gone. In the past we have kept him in the kitchen with pee pads. We have stopped using pee pads in the house but when he's in the kitchen while we are out he has had accidents. We need to be gone tonight for about 2-3 hours and feel he should hold it and then again tomorrow for 5-6 hours. When he has had accidents it has been when we have been gone for longer than 3 hours. I think it might be some separation anxiety. I know we should have been leaving him in his crate and stepping out for increasingly longer periods of time but it hasn't happened yet. any advice as to what to do today and tomorrow?

Lisa

[Rebecca]

I hope you get this response in time to at least help with today's crate time for Louie! He should be able to hold it for that period of time, but you can help him to do that on days when he'll need to be alone for longer than usual by getting him some exercise before you leave and making sure he doesn't have food or water for a couple of hours before you leave him (assuming he doesn't have any health issues that would make that a bad idea).

Of course, you'll want to get him out for a potty trip immediately before you leave and you should be sure to be very calm when you leave and greet him... if you make a big deal out of coming and going, you're teaching him that it's a major life event to be left alone for a couple of hours and that can cause him to have anxiety while you're gone. We want him to know that your coming and going from the house are normal, everyday events that he shouldn't think twice about, so keep it cool!!

[I love Louie]

thanks Rebecca,

Last night went well.... sort of.... no accident except a little tiny nervous pee we got home. Thing was, I decided to keep him in the kitchen but make a smaller area using his play pen. I then put up his gate that we usually use as well. Now this gate is not a great fit and usually I put a chair against it to make sure it stays up. except last night! Well the little guy climbed out of his play pen and knocked over the gate and then was a bit trapped because he couldn't walk across the fallen gate. We still are amazed that he can climb that thing but he was described as a bit of an agility dog by a neighbor. We do make the comings and goings very low key and have been ignoring him when we return until he calms down. Last night was a bit different since he was kind of trapped so we go a bit of pee.

We are planning on giving him a nice long walk before we leave and after his after walk drink we'll take up the water. then we'll potty him right before we leave and leave a peanut butter stuffed Kong with him.

Then we'll hope for the best. Obviously, he will be in the larger kitchen with just the chair-reinforced gate. the sad part is I have just a hard a time leaving him as he does. Maybe more.

[I love Louie]

Yea, Louie! He had a great night while we were away. First, there was not so much fuss when we left and he was not overly excited when we came back (just some jumping up on the gate but no crying.) I let him out of the gate and he went straight to the patio door to potty without having a lead on. No nervous pee or accident!!!

Rebecca, THANK YOU SO MUCH for what you do. It was very comforting to find this site and learn that our dog was not the only dog over 5 months to not be housebroken. I think we are making good progress.

I'm going to read up on training him to use a bell. He will stand by the patio door and that is a sign but once we are not supervising him, that might be a good idea.

Lisa

[Rebecca]

Hi, Lisa...

Glad to hear things are going well! Sorry for the delayed response... went on a trip and returned to some computer problems, so things have been a little dicey this week!

The bell training usually works very well, especially for dogs who already have some sense of asking to go outside by sitting or standing by the door, barking at the door, etc.

A little tip about the gate climbing stuff... there are a few tricks for this, but the easiest is usually to get a gate that just has vertical bars so he doesn't have anything to hook his little feet on to make a great escape!

[I love Louie]

I thought you might be having some R and R. sorry to hear about the computer problem. the gate suggestion makes sense! duh.