puppy gates
I was just out trying to find a gate for my puppy who will be arriving next weekend hopefully. I have the hardest time finding a gate that will fit and if it fits it isnt sturdy enough. Where do you guys leave your pups when you aren't home. I want to leave her in the kitchen so she has things to see and a bigger area to roam instead of the laundry room because it is so tiny( can only fit about 3-4 people). The opening to the kitchen is like 45 inches wide and the gates I find are only up to 42 inches. It is so frusterating, what do you guys do. I really need to get some help on this before my pup arrives. I dont want to leave her outsid ein case it rains or gets too cold and she is only 8 weeks old and roaming around the house is going to cause all sorts of bad habits to form and especially if she isnt potty trained yet. Any advice?? |
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why not get a play pen? it was great for london until he outgrew it when he was like 4 months.  he'd topple over it and now we only crate him at nights.. you can buy a really tall pen (48") and put it in the kitchen. |
| the problem is that my kitchen can only fit like two people wide and like 2 people tall. otherwise i would get one of those pens but i dont think it will fit and Im afraid outside will be too cold. |
| We crated Clyde until about 7-8 months for longer periods and started leaving him out for longer and longer times until we finally ditched the crate altogether. He always hated the crate but also came to feel secure there too and didn't mind it while we were at work. Confining keeps them calmer, especially when young. The less freedom, the less chance of destruction! |
| well Im going to be gone for about 4 hours a day and I feel bad about leaving the pup in their crate for that long especailly if they arent potty trained and will dirty themselves everytime, that just gets them to associate the crate as a bad place. Im hoping to give her freedom like I did my other OES who was never crate trained but I dont know if I can. The entire apartment is carpet and i just cant figure out a solution. |
| No, don't feel that way (bad that is!). Essentially, going in the crate shouldn't make them resent the crate, it will make them resent making a mess in the area that "belongs" to them. That's really what crate training is about, giving them a place to call their own-- kinda like their own room! Some dogs wind up loving their crates and hang out in there all the time. Mine didn't but it happens!
Honestly, I also would much rather have not used the crate either but we just couldn't be home all day to keep him outta trouble and he got even more upset when we tried gating him in a room. He liked the security of the crate but he knew going in it meant we'd be gone for awhile so I think that was why he'd get bummed out. |
| The crate I have is kinda big for an 8 week old puppy and I know that sammy, my moms OES, hated being crated and now wont even go into the garage where his crate is. my mom has to push him into the garage or lure him in. I would like to crate her cause it so much easier but if she is alone for several hours wont she soil herself? |
| Something else I would be worried about with crating her instead of just locking off the kitchen is that she is flying in from a different state and she already has to stay in the crate she comes in and might have been frightened by it so she might already hate crates. Or am I being paranoid and should just crate her anyway? |
| She will probably feel the crate is a plce of security rather than the opposite... IMO crate training is easier, safer, and more comforting for the pup and you... but it's your decision.
As far as a gate, look in the classifieds for used old cribs, or yard sales. The rail part of a crib can be used sideways or vertically, and make awesome gates. I have one to gate off my kitchen, with hinges on one side and a hook lock on the other side. For a wider doorframe/entryway you can lay it on it's side and it is still tall enough. Here is a pic of my girls behind my homemade gate.  |
| I think that I am going to go with the laundry room. I really have looked all over for a gate for the kitchen but just can't find one. I have a small gate that fits a normal doorway so I put that in between the hallway and the laundry room and am going to remove anything she can get to when she arrives. Ill give her a new bed I bought her with a bear so she kinda thinks she has her mom and put a pee pee pad on the opposite side ( 1 foot away) so she can pee pee there. I hope that doesnt give her the idea she can always go there but this is only at night. During the day she will be outside when Im not home or inside with me when I am home. What do you guys think about that idea? I also really odnt want her to learn to go to the bathroom on the patio so Im hoping that by putting down a pee pee pad and hoping she learns to hold it quickly that she will not potty out there when she is potty trained. |
| If I were in your situation I would be keeping her in the laundry room during the day for the 4 hours at a time (too long for a crate), but leave her a pee pad for that time. Then at nite put her in a crate and get up to let her outside during the nite to pee outside with you giving her a treat. Not the best situation, as you don't want them to start going in the house but right now you don't have a choice.
(Are you suggesting leaving an 8 week old puppy outside unsupervised is an option?) |
| No not for long periods of time and not at 8 weeks old. I meant for her to get some play time outside while I do laundry or something. Sorry I didnt express that well. No she is too young. I would leave a pee pad with her when I am not home in the laundry room and maybe at night depending on how she does with her crate. If she hates the crate then just laundry room with pee pad if she likes her crate then she will go into the crate and Ill take her out when she needs to go. The first night I am going to put her in the laundry room in the crate. If she hates it im going to try the next night with the crate open for her to go into and a pee pad on the opposite side of the room so she can decide on her own. I already know that when she is potty trained that she will sleep wherever she wants unless she loves her crate then she can go in there. Im just mainly worried about the time when she isnt potty trained yet. I guess I will see what happens. |
| Careful with the pee pads unattended. I hear they're delicious, at least that's what Clyde thought as a baby! |
| Oh I didn't know that. Ill have to watch out for that then. Thanks for the heads up. If that happens Ill just have to find something else. or just clean it up afterwards. |
| I would suggest keeping her crated at night near your bed personally... it makes it so much easier for the pup to adjust, not haivng to feel alone if you can reach down and reassure it, and also helps with house training if you hear when the pups wakes in the night. |
| I have to tell you, I started with the notion that it "wasn't fair" to leave my puppy in a crate and events have made me a huge crate proponent. We started off with one of those standard puppy pens (the highest size you can buy). When Bailey was about 12 weeks old we went out for the evening for the first time, dinner and a movie. When we came home - HE WAS GONE! We couldn't find him anywhere and he wasn't making any noise. I was completely hysterical. He had gotten over the puppy fence, climbed the stairs for the first time, and was hiding in the upstairs hallway, scared to death because he didn't know where he was or how to get down. We bought the crate the next day. My husband still referes to the puppy pen as one of the worst investments he ever made.
When Bailey was about 7 months old we started leaving him unrestricted more and more. Until the day I realized he had been chewing on the security system wires and had taken several of the window contacts clean off. So, we're back to crating Bailey when we're not home, for his own safety. He seems to like his crate. He goes in willingly when we ask him to. We have a special, super yummy treat that he gets whenever he goes in his "house", which makes it more fun for him. Even when we're home he wanders in and out of it during the day (we use it for toy storage so he has plenty of reason to visit it). I also disagree that four hours is too long to leave a puppy in a crate - some of us have to work and we do the best we can in our situation. Bailey spends the day in his crate and doesn't mind (the dog sitter comes in at lunch to give him a break and some play time). Some days when I come home he looks at me like "What are you doing home so soon? You interrupted my nap!". Whether you choose a crate or the laundry room, good luck with the house training and enjoy your new puppy! It's a great time and it goes so quickly... Sue |
| How old was bailey when you first got him and did you crate him right away or let him get used to the crate first and by putting him in there little bits at a time. How old was he when he had to stay in there for a long time and for how long was it? Ive heard and read that you can't crate an 8-10 week old puppy cause they just can't hold it which I understand but how long is acceptable then? Say I have to be gone for say 6 hours one day, can I crate the 8week old puppy for that long. Im sure she would have an accident but is that ok, Im sure they learn it that way too but can I do that? |
| http://www.frontgate.com/fg/pdp.jsp?pro ... 2&cursor=0
If you are still looking for a gate there is a link, I bought one very similar from them (they don't have it any more , I didn't see it)It fit's opening up to 53''. Hope I was of some help. I never crated my dogs ,but we did leave them in the kitchen and sometimes in the laundry room with the gate up . Tanya |
| Oh I forgot ,it's up to 53'' with extensions ,they are sold separately.
Tanya |
| When I got Sky I took time of work so I was home with her for a bit, but still crated her at times during the day, if I had to go out and all night at bedtime. When I went back to work for the first few weeks I came home at lunch and let her out, and to feed her, since a pup that young should be fed 3-4 times a day. She was fine in her crate all night, didn't pee in it even from the first night home. |
ButtersStotch wrote: Careful with the pee pads unattended. I hear they're delicious, at least that's what Clyde thought as a baby!
 so true. When I was housebreaking London, I used pee pads for a while until he started shredding them.. so i ended up purchasing a wizdog (www.wizdog.com) and it worked great! was really easy to clean up too, before it was in the bathroom and eventually i moved it outside because I felt that he was housetrained. London is older now and still uses his wizdog outside as a habit - which is fine with me:)
maybe a wizdog is an option? |
Bailey was 10 weeks when we got him and 12 weeks when we got the crate. He didn't seem to care about the move from a penned in area in the kitchen to the crate in the kitchen, and honestly I wouldn't think that a puppy would differentiate much between a gated laundry room and a crate. Puppies spend the vast majority of their time napping anyway, lucky puppies  . I used the crate to help with house training. I would take Bailey from the crate directly to his "potty place" in the yard. We'd go back in the house and play for a little while, then put him right back in the crate for a while. Then right out to the "potty place" again to reinforce the fact that he should wait to go after he got out of the crate. We had a few accidents, mostly when I got involved in conference calls or work projects when I forgot to crate him. But using the crate really limited the number of accidents when he was small. He never soiled his crate. I was lucky because I was working from home at that time, but the time I had to go back to the office he was about 14 weeks old and we would leave him for 4-5 hours at a time (with a dogsitter around lunch to give him a break) and he was fine.
I had more trouble getting him to sleep through the night than I did with crating or housebreaking. Those first few weeks he would howl his little heart out at odd hours! We kept his crate in the kitchen, and it might have made it easier to crate him in our room. |
| The rule of thumb for the length of time to have a pup in a crate is 1 hour for each month of age, plus one. So a 2 month pup should not be crated for more than 3 hours, and a 3 month pup shold not exceed 4 hours, etc. A doggy sitter can assist or coming home at lunch for times longer thatn that, until the pup is adult. Any time longer than that a bigger room to provide a space for the pup to releive himself is needed. You definitely do not want a pup to go to the bathroom in the crate because there is no other choice. I have had limited success with pee pads, as my pups loved to play with them after a while. I used them until they started to tear them up, then on to plan B.
Nighttime crating is different. When a puppy sleeps all nite everything slows down, even the creation of urine, so it is easier to train a pup to go all nite without having to do potty, or to go longer than 3/4 hours. But it still takes time to train a pup to sleep all nite. For nighttime sleeping I like to keep pups in a bedroom, in a crate, so they they learn that this is different, and withhold water after 8 :00PM.. Daytime they can be in a crate or a penned area on the mainfloor or in a different room. I have 3 dogs and baby gates all over the place and at one time had 7 crates set up , all in different areas of the house. A lot of the crating, penning etc, is management while they are pups, but the do need consitency, and they need to be helped to udnerstand what is expected, and also helped to learn. My dogs are all crated or pened during the day when I am at work, until they are reliable. And some dogsa re never realiable, so will be crated for ever. |
| Ultimately, and I'm sure you know this already, every dog is different. I didn't mean to imply that someone should keep an 8 week old puppy in a crate full-time nor to keep a puppy in there longer than necessary just to "teach" it not soil itself. It sounds as if that may have been misinterpreted. I hope no one thought I meant it as a punishment. I could never think that anyway since Clyde LOVED to pee on himself for fun!
Essentially, puppies can only "hold it" their age in months plus one so you can adjust crate time accordingly. Clyde really didn't care where he peed for a long time despite our best efforts. We did everything according to the book and he violated every rule! I remember one very trying day when he was about 12 weeks old where I thought he'd never get better: One day he peed in his crate while we were home (we were trying to get him used to being in there in small increments so he wouldn't feel abandoned for longer periods). No scolding, I picked him up calmly and took him outside to his spot and told him to potty. He did so, lots of praise, little treat and back inside we went. About 5 minutes later, I was putting dishes away and Clyde was sitting right behind me watching...or so I thought. I turned my back and heard water hitting the floor. There he was peeing on the floor. Again, no scolding, just picked him up and took him outside (did I mention he still had pee all over him from the first pee in the crate?). This time he didn't want to go so we put him back in the crate to start over again and so I could start running the water for the bath that he desperately needed. I went upstairs, ran the water, came back down and guess what? You guessed it. Pee! I seriously thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. On the plus side, the longer it takes to crate train a dog, the more he or she will learn to like baths because he'll be getting a lot of them! 
London's mom suggested Wizdog (http://www.wizdog.com), which seems like a really good solution for the crate. Had I known about it before Clyde was housetrained, there would've been a lot fewer baths. Even out of the crate, they can't track pee all over the place with Wizdog either like they would without it and there's no danger of eating it either! |
| I think an important thing to remember is consistency. The puppy will learn to live with whatever situation they find themselves in. I think that if you are going to try crating, you should do it right from the start, so the puppy doesn't know anything otherwise.
We got Barney when he was 6 months old and he was flown to us and he didn't like his crate at all. We also don't know what kind of life he led before coming to us, either. So we tried crating him and it didn't work--we have him baby-gated off in the kitchen which is where he sleeps at night too (the rest of our house is carpet, for the most part). The puppy will not resent you for keeping him in a crate for a long time (they can't tell time)...most likely he'll be sleeping. There was a good article that Lil' Walty posted last week about dog thought processes--that might help in thinking about this situation. As long as you love your dog while you are home, then I don't see any wrong with crating him when you need to. My parents' dog LOVES her crate. She'll go in it unasked, and she likes to sleep in there and that's where she brings her stolen food after she had counter surfed. And Barney, my dog, had to go to the kennel for 2 weeks while we were out of state and after we came back, he likes his crate now and we'll find him in there hanging out with Shrek or just napping... Also, I wouldn't leave your puppy unattended outside for any length of time. They can get into trouble awfully fast, and people might see your dog and take it (it happens!) Good luck with your puppy--I know you have a lot of questions now but I"m sure you'll figure it out once he actually arrives! |
| thanks everyone for all of your input and advice. It really helped me get an idea of what to do. Its been 11 years since I potty trained a puppy so I definitely needed the help. I will have to see how it goes and let her set the pace a little bit but will definitely be keeping everyones words of advice in mind along the way.
nina |
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