Our little bundle of destruction ... erm ... joy will be coming home soon.
It has been a very long time (more than a decade) since I've had a puppy and had to do the house breaking thing. We do intend to crate train right from the very beginning. I learned that lesson with the many books and shoes lost to a Boston Terrier with separation anxiety. Unfortunately, when I got my Boston Terrier (his name was Bolt) I was a stay-at-home-mom, so I was home ALL of the time.
Now I am a nursing student and some of my days are pretty long. I have enlisted the help of my mom (lives 4 miles away and is nearly as excited about Loki as my daughter and I are) to come over during the day and let Loki out several times a day.
The book we have about training puppies talks about taking them out every hour. Now if I was still a SAHM this would be a doable and workable thing. Right now, as it stands, I can do this several days each week, but there are days when I have classes and clinical rotations and I simply cannot do this every single day.
Does a puppy really need to be taken out every hour? Will every two hours be okay?
I have a break between semesters that will last most of December and into early January so I'll be home for those weeks. When I go back to school he will be about 12 - 13 weeks old. By that age do you think he'll be able to go for two hours before he gets a potty and play break during the day?
Is is possible to housebreak and train a dog if you're not with him 24/7? The books make it sound impossible, but surely there are other people out there who have jobs/school and aren't home with their dogs all day every day. Right?