Hello!
It is true, that you really should start your dog on heartworm preventative after the blood test, but having a 11 week old puppy infected with heartworms is quite rare. Unless if your puppy was abandoned outside, been outside bitten by misquitios, or anything of the like.
In any way of how you housetrain your puppy should NOT be the techinician's opinion. She may offer advice..should say, "Have you learned about crate training and its methods?" or "Would you like to know different options of housetraining?", etc. Usually crate training is high on the list of various ways. If you are considering of not using the crate, the technician should NOT say, "You're doing it incorrectly". It's putting you down.
I don't think a puppy at 11 weeks can hold it 8 hours straight...that's a little too much to ask for. 4 hours to 5 hours seems reasonable..that a puppy can hold in the crate. Any longer than that will pretty force the puppy to pee in the "den", which is what you want to avoid.
When I got my puppy at 4 1/2 months (two months ago), she was able to hold it for 7 hours in the crate. Mainly because she sleeps, so the body functions slows down. I haven't had any accidents.
If you ever feel uncomfortable for whatever reason, I do suggest you to find another vet. You want to be comfortable with the animal hospital and its staff. I got lucky with mine. It's about 30 minute drive, but it's all worth it.
Rule of thumb - More expensive vet doesn't mean better staff, or the bigger the hosptial doesn't mean the better the vet/staff is.
It is true, that you really should start your dog on heartworm preventative after the blood test, but having a 11 week old puppy infected with heartworms is quite rare. Unless if your puppy was abandoned outside, been outside bitten by misquitios, or anything of the like.
In any way of how you housetrain your puppy should NOT be the techinician's opinion. She may offer advice..should say, "Have you learned about crate training and its methods?" or "Would you like to know different options of housetraining?", etc. Usually crate training is high on the list of various ways. If you are considering of not using the crate, the technician should NOT say, "You're doing it incorrectly". It's putting you down.
I don't think a puppy at 11 weeks can hold it 8 hours straight...that's a little too much to ask for. 4 hours to 5 hours seems reasonable..that a puppy can hold in the crate. Any longer than that will pretty force the puppy to pee in the "den", which is what you want to avoid.
When I got my puppy at 4 1/2 months (two months ago), she was able to hold it for 7 hours in the crate. Mainly because she sleeps, so the body functions slows down. I haven't had any accidents.
If you ever feel uncomfortable for whatever reason, I do suggest you to find another vet. You want to be comfortable with the animal hospital and its staff. I got lucky with mine. It's about 30 minute drive, but it's all worth it.
Rule of thumb - More expensive vet doesn't mean better staff, or the bigger the hosptial doesn't mean the better the vet/staff is.
