Are we on the right lines??
Hi,
We have just brought a beagle pup - Sammy. He's now just 8wks old and we've had him just under a week - and never had any experience of house training before so I was just wondering if we're going about it in the right way.
He doesn't have free run of the house, and rather than a crate he has a puppy pen with a bed, toys and water in it that he spends most of the time in (he whinged about it at first but now seems more comfortable and settles to play or sleep on his own within a couple of mins).
At the moment I'm at home all day for 3wks and after that he'll be on his own for maybe 2-3hrs a day so not long.
I take him out after every nap, when he's done his business we come in and play in the lounge together for about 10-15mins (any longer and he does an excited wee!), then I take him outside again so he can go again before then playing with him in his pen for a bit to settle him and then he's on his own. Usually he then sleeps for about 30mins and the process is repeated. He seems to be getting the idea - now when he wakes up, he gets out the pen and heads straight to the back door, and he now does his business almost immediately when outside rather than before it used to take him ages. He gets ridiculous amounts of praise when he goes.
I also try to leave him in the house on his own for an hr each day so he doesn't get used to me being here all the time (sometimes I go out, sometimes I just go upstairs so he can't see me and he settles in mins and is fine on his own) If I'm away more than an hr or so he tends to wee though.
Unfortunately I can't get up to him in the night because I have a sleep condition so over night I put a puppy pad in the pen so he has a toliet and he uses this maybe once or twice (although I've never actually taught him to use the pad - he just does it). My thing is he doesn't seem to be able to hold on for more than an hour during the day - I'd love to put him out every hour, but he wakes up etc. more often than this....is this ok? he does drink a large amount of water each day, but am I right in think I shouldn't restrict his access to this during the day? Except overnight he never poos (and almost never wees) in the pen or in the house, and has only had a couple of 'excited' wees, which occur anywhere rather than where the pad was.
My question is really - are we doing ok? And when will he start to go slightly longer without needing to go out? He can't go out for walks yet because of vaccinations - will this help once we can take him for walks?
Any advice etc. about what/how we're doing would be great
Thanks :)
