I have never had a problem with potty training or crate training… so I disagree with your assessment. Might be true for your Basenjis, but not for mine or any of my pups that were placed. Potty training was the easiest.... Depends on the Basenji... each one is different...
Crate Time
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Allrighty, I've read a few threads in here on this, and I want to share my "crate training plan" with you guys and see if you can catch any problem areas I may have.
These first two days home, Paco has had me and Chris all to himself at the apartment, because it's the weekend. He stayed in the crate last night, complained a little, was let out at 2 am and 4 am for potty breaks, and today has napped in the crate with it open (yay!). Hopefully he'll be as good tonight in there.
Tomorrow, I will have to leave at 10am for work, and I plan to leave Paco in the crate with chew bone filled with peanut butter. My brother will come by at 12 and let him out and even play with him (he's a puppy lover) and says he's willing to stay until I get home at 3:30 or so.
Tuesday, I'll be leaving at 10 again (normally I don't leave until 12, this week is just the first week of a new semester - I teach afternoon classes). Peanut butter bone again, and a friend of ours will be back around 12 or 1 to take him out and let him go potty, but he may not be able to stay around for play, so Paco may wind up back in the crate from 12:30 until 3:30 or so.
After that, he should only have to be in there from 12 - 3:30 each day. Is this ok for a 9 week old puppy? Eventually, when he is fully potty trained and isn't chewing our carpet, we'd like to let him be loose in the apartment. I'm hoping this time will come before May, as I leave in May to work at a summer camp and Chris works every day from 7:30am until 5pm or later. We found an affordable doggy day care center nearby that we might be able to use on day Chris knows he'll be working long hours, but I know we need to socialize Paco thoroughly first.
Tips? Problems? Suggestions? The three of us appreciate it!
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Sounds to me like you have a very good plan. And 12 - 3:30 should not be a problem for a 9wk old. If he gets stressed, he may have accidents, but I think you should do OK. As far as leaving the puppy out by May, I would be very surprised if that works… Usually Basenjis or any puppy is not really reliable enough for large spaces till at least 1 or 2yrs old.... Some of course will be OK, but in general, I would say you could have a problem. You might want to look into an Xpen that would give him a little more room if you are concerned. And doggy day care is an excellent idea
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Thanks, tanza! Do you think it's possible to build something as safe as an xpen with something like chicken wire? If we did something like that, it would probably be in the kitchen and I think we'd need to custom build it ourselves to make it work. Chris is a handyman, so if we knew of safe materials then maybe we could do something like that.
(Also, Chris is excited about the idea of a doggie door that leads out to our balcony, but I think our balcony is to…escapable. Maybe we could build a pen on the balcony, though, that the door opened to. Hmmm...ideas....)
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Something like a doggy door to the deck is a great idea, provided that the deck is really safe and he could not climb and escape…
I would not use chicken wire... heavier wire would be better... or you can build one out of PCV pipe, which I think would be much safer then chicken wire. Remember however you need a "cover"... Basenjis are great climbers and jumpers.
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I think I's use hog wire rather than chicken wire. The wire is much thicker and has various sizes of mesh from 1/4 inch "squares" on up. Chicken wire is much too puny for the likes of a Basenji and can fray, which can cause all kinds of injuries, not the least of which are eye injuries.
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Here is a link to a great crate training article, http://askdryin.com/movies/CrateDogLR.pdf
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Thanks for the link, Ivoss! And thanks for the wire suggestions, as well guys. Chris is actually a plumber, so we have a surplus of PVC lying around! I'm sure that's going to be Chris' next favorite project; once it gets going I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes.
Any ideas on what the maximum space between pipes would be? We don't want him wriggling and squeezing his way through.This might really help for while I'm away!
