Hi,
We just adopted a 5 week old puppy. The mother is a Bernese Mountain Dog, the father a Black Lab. We’ve had her for 4 days now and she’s doing fairly well with being house trained and spending time in a crate. My question is how best to handle full time jobs and a puppy. I realize that it’s too long to expect a puppy to stay in a crate from 7 to 3:30 so I’m looking for creative options. An outdoor pen? An indoor pen? Please any advice you’ve got is appreciated. Also from everything I’ve been reading it sounds like we got the dog too young, we just went with the breeders timeline, the mother stopped nursing at 3 weeks, so I’m not sure what helps at this point with the socialization process.

Hello, Yes you puppy is very young. I am surprised that the shelter adopted the puppy out so young. Generally puppies go home after they are eight weeks old. First and foremost try Pet Education.com it is a great site to learn what you need to know about your new puppy. It is hard to answer you question because, by eight weeks they are more self relaible and are better socailized, your puppy is still very young. Three weeks to a puppy is a very big deal. A young puppy eight or so weeks can hold messes for a max of seven hours and this is pushing it. Please read House training you new puppy it should get you started and on the right track.

Hi,
It will be difficult leaving her alone for this amount of time; with working a full-time job, but you can do it.
Working dogs need exercise, and be prepared to spend at least 45 minutes a day, taking her for walks. This will "tire her out", calming her down, and will be a great benefit in training; such as when to eat, poop, etc.
The previous answer gave some very good links and information.
I would like to add the following:

As a new puppy owner, I highly recommend a video by Ceaser Millan, a Professional Dog Behaviorist. He rehabilitates dogs, and trains people.

He has his own TV program, the Dog Whisperer, on the NGEO (National Geographic) channel, on Friday nights mainly, but also comes on some other days. This video is available from:
http://www.dogpsychologycenter.com/
I also ordered his new book, "Ceaser's Way", from Walmart online, around $15 US, and it's very good!

There are other good videos available on the web, but this one is really worth your attention.

Ceaser Millan's TV program addresses the "working dog" class in almost every program. Your mixed breed puppy is definitely in this class!

Thanks for the comments!
Fredg: I had purchased Ceaser's book and I'm reading it but at this point I've found The Dog Bible by Tracie Hotchner to be very helpful as a reference.

Lilfyre: we got her from a local family, she had been weaned for a week so I guess they thought it was okay to separate the family. From what I've read I understand the importance of keeping the litter together longer.

The dog has now been with us for 10 days and for the first work week my wife took her to work in a crate and set her up in her office. She really did well with that and I figure that has to help out somewhat with the socialization process at least with regards to different people and settings. She’s adapted nicely to crate training and last night she went the entire night without needing to go outside. My wife and I have her crate in our room at night so we can listen for her if she does need to go out.

Anyway I hope we can continue to have her accompany my wife to work until summer hits and the kids are home from school. This is our third family dog and I’m still surprised at how much time and attention the puppy process takes.

Thanks again.

I am sure your puppy will do fine, I wish you the best of luck, keep researching, I was hoping that it was not a shelter group that let a puppy go that young, all in all things will work out. I am glad to hear the crate training is going well. You can always come back and ask more question, and if you can not get an answer here try looking it up in the site I had listed in my last answer to you. All the best Donna

A good dog walker would help. This gives the pup an opportunity to stretch and use the bathroom. Most dog walkers charge as lettle as 5 or the most 20 per session they run from about 15 min to half an hour.

Hi,
Congratulations on reading about puppies and dogs. Having knowledge with which one is dealing, really helps a lot. Many puppy owners have no idea of what they are faced with!
Good luck, and I am sure things will be OK... sounds like the puppy has a wonderful and caring home!

We just got our puppie which is 12weeks old, and have had him for a week, but we are having trouble trying to potty train it, and we are unable to be with him during the day so we have him in the basement in a exercise pen with his bed, pee pad, food and water, but when I get home from work he poops on the cement instead of his pee pad. How can I properly train him to use his pee pad while we are at work for the day? This is our first dog and he is a Chihuahua. PLEASE HELP!

devil27, you have joined a very old posting. If you ask your question separately, as your own question, responses will be much better.

I'd cover the entire floor of his pen with pee pads. He will start using one section of the area for most of his messes. Slowly remove pee pads in areas he is not using.

With my chihuahuas I used newspaper or human pee pads (bed-wetting protectors) and found that they liked them better. Puppy pee pads are scented to attract the dog to the area, my dogs would avoid the pee pads.