Got my first puppy ever, a mutt from a foster home. I admit I was pretty ignorant to puppy needs. My biggest challenge is that it is 4 months old and I live alone, working full time. I crate it in the daytime and at night give it free roam. Within 3 days it got puppy training pads down well but I realized I was confusing it letting it do one thing at night and making out go outside in the day.

I have used the clicker and treats when it goes outside. I know you are supposed to let it out every 4 hours or so and I do by using my lunch break at work. Crating it in the evening would mean it was in crate close to 18-20 hours a day, which is a lot. Not too mention it barks his head off and does not like crating at all and gets more hesitant to be a part of it.

Had I known the bladders of puppies or thought of the difficulties of house breaking I may have chosen otherwise. But now I have the dog and I love it.

My plan is to fence off the yard this week. And get a pet door maybe 7-10 days from now. I'd get up at night to let it out of the crate but have epilepsy and lack of sleep can really cause problems. But I need to get it house trained! It is currently 30 pounds and I have owned it for 4 days.

Anytime I see it go in the house during the act I say "No!", outside I reward it. I feed it really good food so it makes less of a mess and try to feed it regular times. I give it water 4 times a day and food at night and day- more at day). I walk it morning, after work and before bed. And I was thinking I should probably close off my bedroom which is VERY small and the dog has literally only about 3-4 feet of floor space. If it really needs to go it can but it won't have free roam encouraging it. At least this way it will wake me up when it needs to, but I am not sure if that is some night yet or every other hour.

Would it be fair to crate it overnight for 8 1/2 hours while it's 4 months old? Any weaknesses in my system that someone would recommend doing a better way. (Aside from leaving it in the crate and coming home constantly to let it out or wake up a few times a night).

Your situation is certainly not ideal, and was this pup from a rescue organisation? If so, they obviously don't vet their potential adopters! I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear, but maybe you should have thought about all this BEFORE commiting to a puppy. My advice would be to get a puppy sitter in whenever your not there. No dog, especially a puppy, should be crated for that amount of time. Its unfair.