Expert: Madeline Friedman - 10/23/2009

Question
"I have read your bio and agree to read and rate your response promptly and fairly."

I have a 3 month old papillion puppy.  I am just as confused as my dog when it comes to this potty training business.  I am trying to use crate training to teach him to pee/poop outside.  I was wondering if you could give me a schedule/guidelines as to how long to leave him in the crate or when to take him out.  I take him out first thing in the morning, if he pees I play with him.  When should I put him back in the crate again?  How long should I keep him in this crate before I take him out again? I don't know when to let him run loose or when to put him in the crate.  Please help!

Answer
Hello again,

As I said, at this late date, it was no longer necessary to rate me.  But, since you finally did, I will make the donation, but in half the amount than I originally intended.  Perhaps you might think of making up the other $25 to an animal related charity of your choice.  Our actions have consequences, not only with our dogs, but with people as well.  If you didn't intend to keep your promise about rating me promptly, then you might have thought twice about making it frivolously.  I freely gave to you of my time and my experience in order to help dogs and people, not just you - but others who might be reading as well.  It would be nice if I were to get the barest amount of appreciation in the form of a rating for volunteering my time on the face of volunteering my time alone and for that reason alone, since I think it's a good objective.  

I hope my advice will work for your pup.  My goal is to help dogs and their people.  And, for what it's worth, in the lst month I donated $300.00 to charities.  

Best regards,
Madeline
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Gina,

Just so you know - I have a policy of donating $50 to an animal shelter every time someone reads and rates my responses promptly, as they promise to do.  You just cost an animal-related charity $50 for not doing as you promised.  Just thought you'd like to know.  Please don't bother rating now.  Not only did the charity I chose lose out - but, potential questioners are also losing out because I won't answer further questions until you do as you promised.  And, if you rate me unfairly, another shelter and more questioners will lose out.  I think you owe them an apology.

Madeline

I have revised the spelling in my response, but not the content.  I initially responded from a handheld device where I could not use SpellCheck, and am now correcting a few typos which I caught after I sent my response.  In my haste to respond quickly, and also being that the type is small and not as visible on a handheld device, a few unintended typos occurred.  In case the typos made my response unclear in any way, I have corrected them:

Hi Gina,

Thanks for reading my bio and submitting your queation to me.

You're doing the right thing by taking your Papillon out first thing in the morning. So, let's start there, right with the morning schedule while I give you a general idea of what a pup's day might look like potty-wise.

as soon as she or you wake up, you take her out.  She pees, and then you play with her.  That's great, because by playing with her after she potties, you're doing two things.  

First, you're allowing her to get out there and do her business.  Second, you're rewarding her with some play time after she potties.  So, you're not clueless as you think, you've actually got great instincts.

I'll assume that after she pees and plays outside in the a.m., that you feed her.  Feeding stimulates most dogs'colons to start working a short while after they eat, so it is likely, but not a given (all dogs are different), that she may need to poop about 10 minutes to 40 minutes after she eats.  

You should watch and listen to her in order to see and hear the signs that she has to go out.  She may circle in her crate, whimper, paw at the door or the floor of the crate, and you'll need to be attuned to her as you don't want her to learn to soil in her crate.  Once dogs do so a few times, it can be a difficult habit to break.

Of course, when she potties outside, always reward her afterwards, verbally, with a treat, with play, or anything she likes.  Wait a few minutes after she potties to bring her in, as some dogs may view pottying and then immediately being brought inside again as punishment, and they may start to delay pottying.

If she doesn't potty again after the post-meal walk, crate her for 5-10 minutes again, watching and listening carefully, and try again.

Once she has completely eliminated, give her some free time in the same room with her where you can watch her outside the crate, until you leave the house or until she needs to potty again.

Dogs may need to potty upon waking up from napping or sleeping, after being trained or played with, after eating or drinking, and if they've been excited by something.  A rule of thumb is that pups can only "hold it" as many months old as they are, plus one.  That means for a three-month-of-age pup, that the longest she can probably hold it is four hours, so make sure that she gets a chance to eliminate at least every four hours.  The exception is through the night, when dogs' metabolisms slow down, so she may be able to hold it a bit longer through the night.  However, most puppy owners find that they're a bit sleep deprived in the early months, and this just goes with puppy ownership.

She should have at least five walks a day, or more if needed, in a schedule that roughly could look something like this and which you may tweak to suit your personal needs:

6 a.m. Wake-up walk
Feed/water
Walk again by 6:40 a.m.
Leave for work and crate
Walk again by 10:30 a.m.
Allow exercise and play time
Walk again by 2:30 p.m.
Walk again by 6:30 p.m. And within 5 - 40 minutes after feeding and watering.
Walk at 10:30 p.m. for the night
Crate
And...begin again.

You will find that you'll get to know your pup's schedule, and writing down when and how she eliminates can help you detect a pattern.

Hope this helps!  Congratulations on your new canine family member.

Best regards,
Madeline