My wife and I have been looking into adopting a puppy for a few months now and I'm wondering what people on this forum think we can make it work given our situation.
We both work, so neither of us is currently home at all during the day. However, my work is pretty flexible and I could definitely come home once or twice a day for the first year or so. We have a small patio that is about 12ftx25ft in area that we could make accessible via doggy door.
I'm wondering if it would be possible to setup a small area indoor, probably not much larger in area than a typical crate would be, but allow the puppy access to the doggy door to the patio for when it has to go potty. The patio walls are about 6 feet high, so it is secure.
I'm an early riser and will take the puppy out in the morning before work, and like I said, come home once or twice a day until the dog is housetrained. And then a walk in the evening as well.
I guess my questions boil down to these. Will this setup help the puppy become housetrained (along with us working with the puppy)? And will the puppy be able to adjust to being home alone most of the day? I'm thinking we can slowly increase the amount of space it has indoors while we're at work and probably slowly space out my return visits to home until I don't have to come home mid-day as often.
I will also mention that we have considered adopting an adult dog and we would also be happy going that route, but our preference is definitely to adopt a puppy if we could make it work.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.
We both work, so neither of us is currently home at all during the day. However, my work is pretty flexible and I could definitely come home once or twice a day for the first year or so. We have a small patio that is about 12ftx25ft in area that we could make accessible via doggy door.
I'm wondering if it would be possible to setup a small area indoor, probably not much larger in area than a typical crate would be, but allow the puppy access to the doggy door to the patio for when it has to go potty. The patio walls are about 6 feet high, so it is secure.
I'm an early riser and will take the puppy out in the morning before work, and like I said, come home once or twice a day until the dog is housetrained. And then a walk in the evening as well.
I guess my questions boil down to these. Will this setup help the puppy become housetrained (along with us working with the puppy)? And will the puppy be able to adjust to being home alone most of the day? I'm thinking we can slowly increase the amount of space it has indoors while we're at work and probably slowly space out my return visits to home until I don't have to come home mid-day as often.
I will also mention that we have considered adopting an adult dog and we would also be happy going that route, but our preference is definitely to adopt a puppy if we could make it work.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.