Help can't get anything done!

[Mickelle Weber]

ok...Cleo has made leaps and bounds in the dicipline dept, she is now 12 weeks old but now we still have the problem of what to do with her during the day...both my husband and i work from home and despite our best efforts both of us have been unable to be productive at the same time(one of us always has to be watching her so she doesn't pee/chew ect. we have tried to put her on a leash and tie it to our chair or us, with a blanket so she can lay down and toys for her to play with...but all she does is throw a fit!!!! we crate her for naps and when we are gone but it seems kind of mean to crate her all day when we are here!
also, she pees A Lot! when i say a lot i mean many many times a day...i have heard approx 1 an hour but she sometimes goes 3 times an hour(little amounts at a time) we take her out every hour or whenever she seems restless, but she still has accidents....i feel like we have been really consistent and i don't know what to do from here...any advice would be great! thanks!

[Marsha]

Sorry that I can't give you any good advice, but I know exactly what you're talking about. My puppy is 9 months old, so I'm not having that situation anymore, but I did for the first few months. I don't work, but it seemed like I couldn't do anything at all during the day when no one else was home because I was constantly needing to watch Spanky. And he also was going out ALL the time to pee. He could hold it for 2-3 hours in the crate but not if I was home and he was out of the crate!!
It has gotten much better. I'm not constantly watching him anymore. I go check on him if he's quiet and I haven't seen him in awhile. Other than that, I don't have to watch him. As for going all the time....when he was about 5 months old, I bought a timer and started just letting him out every hour. Every week I would increase the time by about 10 minutes. If he asked to go, and I saw him, then I would, naturally let him out then, too. This has worked for us. He goes close to 3 hours without having to go out now alot of the time. We have to let him out more frequently in the evenings for some reason, though.
Anyway, I did feel like I was spending WAY more time than most people watching our puppy, and I never did figure out what I was doing wrong!

[Eric Vecc]

Your pup is still VERY young - just a baby at that. He is going to be quite a bit of work for the next few months. But the good side of this, puppies sleep alot - sometimes up to 16 hours a day! You need to be comfortable crating her during the day. Look at it like you are doing it for her safety. You have the luxery of letting her out every now and then for potty. We got our pup at 8 weeks and he was in a bathroom until 12 weeks. The bathroom had a walk-in shower lined with paper for potty purposes. At 12 weeks, although not 100% housebroken, he went into his cage and never once had an accident. My wife and I work 8-5 and come home for lunch. So he is in that cage from 7:30-12:00pm and 1:00-5:00pm. He is doing wonderful with it. Now that he is almost 7 months, he spends more time in our fenced in yard but most days its in the cage.
I feel the crate is the best tool to build up bladder control - assuming your pup was raised with proper mothering and is taught to not potty in the sleeping area! Anyway, best of luck and buy lots of kongs.

[Ann Albers]

I am a stay-at-home mom with a 5 mo. old puppy so I know what you mean! Can you gate her into the kitchen, bathroom or laundry room so that she isn't in her crate all day? Or get an Xpen and set it up where you can keep an eye on her while you work. If she fusses at this, let her. Eventually she will realize that you are in charge and will accept it.

When I am ready for puppy to nap (and he's not) we go on a walk. He loves this and it tires him out completely. If you and your husband take scheduled turns being "on call" it may make it easier to manage, too.

You may want to have her urine checked if she seems to be peeing too often.

Having a puppy is like having a baby! Things will get easier with time...

[zok]

Just a thought, your pup could have a Urinary Tract Infection. Our puppy (almost 4 months now) and our 2 year old were both rescues and both had UTIs when we brought them home. Both were placed on antibiotics by our vet and this seemed to help.

Their symptoms were that they urinated very frequently but sometimes very little came out and sometimes nothing came out at all.

It could just be that your puppy has to go a lot, but if it's a UTI an antibiotic could really help.

Good luck!