How much time should my 13 week old bulldog puppy soend in her crate during the day.

[rmurray]

i have a 13 week old female puppy. I have had her just 1 week. I'm attempting to crate train her but I am having some problems. One thing I am unsure about is how much time per day my puppy should be in her crate during the day. I own my own business so my schedule is very flexible. I have been at home most of this 1st week with y puppy. She hardly ever spends any time in her crate until bedtime. I love playing with her but I can't play with her all day everyday. Once she is housebroken, she can stay out of her crate as long as she wants. I would prefer her to stay out of the crate ounce she is housebroken unless she just want to go in her crate. Any help on this topic would be appreciated as I'm not sure what to do. Thanks

 

[2BullyMama]

You want the crate to be their comfort/safe place so use it for naps and such.... dogs can hold their bladder for 1 hour more than they are old, so right now you can go as long as 4 hours. The longest I've done with any of my babies has been 8 hours.

 

[JeannieCO]

Emma is also 13 weeks and she spends 10 hours during the day. Right now she's holding her bladder about 4 hours during the day and is starting to go several nights without going which means I get to sleep more. I wish she didn't have to be crated that long (Wilson's crated right next to her - he's 1 now) but there's not much choice. She's doing great in it though and now I have a monitoring systems installed so I can watch her and Wilson, as well as my other dog that's out of his crate during the day.

to EBN too.

 

[Poppy]

You can start by putting her in there to nap after a play session. This should kill an hour or so. Slowly increase the amount of time, as 2bullymama said - she can hold it for 4 hours...in theory, but sometimes you'll find them covered in pee, that's puppyhood for you

When my pups were young and I wanted some time to myself, they'd each get a stuffed Kong or nylabones in the crate. This is at least 45 minutes of peace and quiet.