We often take calls or receive emails from pet parents with a new puppy needing puppy sitting or visits during the day while they are at work. These visits are for potty training breaks, playtime, and love.
For puppy visits, at Rufus and Delilah, we often recommend 2-3 daily visits evenly spaced throughout the day to help the puppy form a routine for when to go potty. Generally speaking puppies can only hold their bladder for the number of hours that corresponds to how many months old they are from 1 month up to 6 month. This means a 2 month old puppy would generally need to go potty every 2 hours during the day time.
By booking two to three daily puppy visits during this transitional time for potty training, you can make sure your puppy has the opportunity to go potty either outdoors or indoors where acceptable (for example, on a wee wee pad or artificial turf). These visits are also used for play time to help burn off some of their energy and to give your new pup some love and one on one attention.
Until puppies have all their shots which is usually around the time they are 16-20 weeks old, they cannot walk or play in public areas used by other dogs. It is then often advised by veterinarians to wait an additional 5-7 days before going freely in public areas. If you live in a house with a private backyard, we recommend having your sitter take your puppy in the backyard on a leash to allow them to get used to walking on a leash and going potty while on the leash until they are able to go for walks in public areas.
If you live in an apartment, condo, or townhouse where you don’t have a private strip of grass for your puppy, we advise walking your puppy within your home on a leash to help your puppy get used to walking on a leash. We can then walk your puppy using the leash to their indoor wee wee pads or strip of artificial grass where it is approved to go potty indoors or outside on a balcony until they can go outside in public areas.
Once your puppy can hold his/her bladder for longer periods of times and is able to go outdoors on walks after having all shots, we then taper down visits to once or twice daily depending on each client’s needs.
This is Baron. He is one of many puppy clients at Rufus and Delilah who successfully used this plan for puppy visits. His parents first booked twice daily 45 minute puppy visits evenly spread out during the day. Once we he was fully vaccinated and able to hold his bladder for longer periods or time, his parents changed his schedule to be one daily 60 minute walk/visit.
If you’ve never hired a dog walker before you may find our articles useful on Tips For Finding A Dog Walker and Why Should You Hire A Dog Walker.
If you have personal experience as a parent to a puppy, what worked best when training your puppy when you were away from home for extended hours?
