Leaving Puppy Outside

[BelgianPup]

We have a 10 week old golden puppy. We've had him since he was 8 weeks old. My partner and I have been fortunate enough to have 3 weeks off work (1 week left) so puppy has had lots of human time. We've started leaving him alone for small lengths of time, well, seperate from humans, lol, he's with our 18month old Belgian. This week we plan on increasing the time he's without us. When we go back to work he will be 11 weeks. Is this too young to leave out in the yard during the day? (Puppy proof yard with large warm kennel for both dogs.) He is currently escaping the 'puppy barriers' inside (we are purchasing a crate asap) but obviously crating an 11 week old puppy for 8hrs or more seems too much of a strain on his bladder! Advice and experiences appreciated

[Odin-Genie]

How does he get along with your 18 month old dog? Do you plan to leave them both together in the yard? Have you tried leaving them out together for long periods of time while you are at home? How do they react?

I won't advise leaving a puppy in a crate for eight hours. At that age, they need to toilet every few hours (at least mine did ).

[Miranda]

I wouldn't leave a puppy this young alone with a large dog without supervision. I'm not saying that your dog is going to attack him or anything, but the difference in size is a worry, rough play could get out of hand and the older dog could unintentionally injure the puppy. You can't leave him crated for eight hours a day so I'd be investing in a dog run and keeping them separate until the pup is bigger and you can be sure that they are going to get along.

[BelgianPup]

Puppy and Belgian get along very well. She is very gentle with him when they play but yes we also wondered about leaving them together while he is still very young. We are just starting to leave them out together for longer periods of time. THanks for the advice

[puggy_puggy]

If your yard is puppy proof and your other dog is fine with him then I wouldn't have a problem leaving him outside with her.

Edited April 9, 2009 by puggy_puggy

[Cosmolo]

I don't think there is much of a size difference to be concerned about either Not your normal sized belgian With things going as well as they are, they should be fine.

[Jen21]

I have been leaving my puppy outside while I'm at work (9-10 hours per day) since he was 10 weeks old, and as long as I provide him with different things to keep him entertained - bones, toys, sunbed and kennel, etc - I haven't had any issues. The few times I popped home to spy on him in the early days to make sure he was ok, he was sleeping anyway.

The other thing you may want to consider, and I do twice a week, is to get him professionally walked. The lady who took our puppy classes is also a walker so I have her come and take him out for 1/2 hour walks every Tuesday and Thursday - just to break the week up for him a bit. She brings other friendly dogs around to walk/play with him too, so it's great to get some extra socialisation in there. It works well for me, as if I need to make after work appointments, I tend to make them Tuesday or Thursday nights, as that way I'm home early to walk him on the off days.

[Seita]

Should be fine outside during the day. The last of my litter of pups just left today (at 9 weeks old) and they've had access to their yard all day since they were about 5 weeks old. They did have access to the laundry as well but only the laundry and the yard and they've been fine. I do keep my pups seperate from the older dogs as I don't want them to play too much. But also letting your pup spend too much time bonding with the older dogs forces your pup to become dependant on the older dog which can turn nasty if you ever need to seperate them for any length of time. I preffer my dogs to be friends with each other but able to cope just fine on their own without the company of another dog as well.