looking for advice from single apartment dwellers.

hooligan

New member
Sep 27, 2011
27
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To tell you a little bit about myself. I'm a 28yo male who enjoys a fairly social life style. I'm excited to get out to some of the many dog friendly venues that are all around Portland. I'm a cook and generally work nights, but have all morning to spend with my dog before work(I start around 2pm). In my time off I enjoy brewing beer, working on cars/motorcycles, and spending time at the bar. Hopefully Brixton will enjoy hanging out at the bar as well. Hi I'm trying to get myself ready for my bully coming home in 4 weeks and reading and learning as much as I can about raising and training him. I know a lot of people with bulldogs have a larger house and a family that are around the dog.

I have a small 2 br apartment and a roommate. I trust my roommate with my dog, but don't expect her to be responsible for the dog. I'm trying to work out how my schedule will work with the dog and how I will manage my dog when I'm away from home.

Currently the thoughts were that I would have an exercise pen with a bed and a few toys and a potty pad on the other end for when I'm away from home at work (8 hours). My options are that the pen can be in the kitchen, or in my personal bathroom (3'x6'). I will try to arrange to be able to go home on my lunches, but that isn't a guarantee. For the first few months I won't be going out at night and will be spending all of my spare time at home with the puppy working on crate training and obedience training.

From the methods of crate training that I've been reading about one really sticks out to me. It's a 1 hour schedule broken up into 3 phases
1. nap in the crate. 15 minutes or more. If the puppy is sleeping , leave him.
2. OUTSIDE TO POTTY immediately after nap 5-10 minutes
3. FREE TIME with family. Eat & Drink . Up to 30 minutes of play .
then repeat the process. Is repeating this process every hour a little over the top? I was thinking that it would really drive home the purpose of the crate. What have you had the most success with?

I'm wondering what methods and how long it took you to house break your dog. Should I plan on keeping my dog in an exercise pen when I'm gone even when the dog is done being potty trained? What kind of advice would you give to a single "parent" raising a puppy.


-Loki
 

JAKEISGREAT

.................
Mar 25, 2011
14,802
1,155
Southern California
Bulldog(s) Names
Jake
canismajor.com/dogcrate..this is a great resource for puppies! The crate instructions worked great..my guy was done in a couple weeks..and NEVER..had a :poo: accident!..how exciting for you. I would definitely crate train him..best for him..and safest too! If you have trouble with pulling this up let me know..I will try to PM the link!

It's www. But didn't want to post link here!
 
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anatess

Well-known member
Jul 26, 2011
1,758
398
Country
US
Bulldog(s) Names
Bullie (RIP) & Angus (RIP)
Ooooh, exciting about the new puppy!

I start out my puppies on a 2-hour schedule from 8 weeks until they are 2 months old, then I go to a 3-hour schedule until they're 3 months old and then every 4 hours after that. They can actually "hold it in" for 8 hours or more by the time they hit 6 months of age, but 8 hours in the crate is just too long for a puppy to be in so the play-yard is a good idea. But, I don't like the idea of having a pee-pad in the play-yard if it is indoors at any time during the puppy's growing up years. It would be difficult to re-teach the dog not to pee in the play-yard when he gets older and can "hold it in", do you know what I mean? It would be a pain to have to keep a pee pad in there at all times.

So, what I would do in your situation is to have your room-mate help you out during the time that you can't come home for lunch - even if you pay her to do so. If you don't like to impose on her, then it might be worth your while to spend some money in the first 6 months to hire somebody to come in and take your dog out on a set schedule. This would be a perfect job for some middle-school neighborhood kid that you trust.

The length of time it takes to house-train a puppy depends on the dog. Most of my dogs were potty-trained between 2 weeks to a month (using the every 2 hour schedule). But, I have a 4-year-old Bichon Frise right now who still pees in the house to "mark". I put him on a belly-band if he's unsupervised (I work from home and he is always sitting by my feet everywhere I go, but sometimes he doesn't come near me, like when I'm running the vacuum cleaner - he wears his belly-band then).


Hope this helps.
 
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cali~jenn

..........
Mar 28, 2010
0
419
Southern California
Bulldog(s) Names
Cutty, Miila and Mugsy the pug :)
no help at all but how exciting for you! An apartment is just fine for a bulldog, we had one when we first got our Cutty. I think once you get the baby you will figure out what to do and how it works better.
 
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hooligan

New member
Sep 27, 2011
27
0
  • Thread Starter
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if I'm not supposed to use a potty pad in an ex-pen when I'm gone should I keep my dog crated? My problem is that I can't guarantee that I'll be able to come home from work on my lunch or that my roommate will be home to take him out. I don't want to leave him home in a crate for 8-9 hours. should he be left in the ex pen w/o a potty pad and I just clean up the mess when I get home? I feel like that would go against the whole house breaking concept.


-Loki
 

anatess

Well-known member
Jul 26, 2011
1,758
398
Country
US
Bulldog(s) Names
Bullie (RIP) & Angus (RIP)
if I'm not supposed to use a potty pad in an ex-pen when I'm gone should I keep my dog crated? My problem is that I can't guarantee that I'll be able to come home from work on my lunch or that my roommate will be home to take him out. I don't want to leave him home in a crate for 8-9 hours. should he be left in the ex pen w/o a potty pad and I just clean up the mess when I get home? I feel like that would go against the whole house breaking concept.-Loki


Ideally, we crate when we are not home until the dog is potty trained. Crate with playpen set-up when we are not home is for when the dog is already potty-trained because crating for 8-9 hours can be too long (not because he can't hold his pee but because it's too little stimulation).


So, that's why I recommended hiring some kid to take your dog out until 6 months of age (if you can't arrange with your boss or your roommate to consistently give you a lunch hour) because a puppy, even when potty-trained, cannot hold his pee that long. It's just part of having a puppy - it's a pain in the beginning but the rewards more than make up for it.


Note: this is ideally. We all make the best of each and every unique situation. So, if your only choice is the potty pad, then just know that the consequence of that is a re-training later.
 

Sarah

New member
Jun 7, 2011
423
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CT
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Brooklyn and Franklin
we started potty training with pee pads at our first apartment because we were not supposed to have her there and there were times when people were in the hall or outside and we couldn't sneak her outside to pee. she transitioned from the pee pads and going out when possible to being fully outside very easily after moving to our new place. but all dogs are different so it is no guarantee for yours.
 

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