At my wits end...
I've posted about this before, but I really need some help now...We have a puppy that is 4 months old, and we have been trying to crate/potty train her for over 2 months. I've read books, I've done research, I've talked to trainers and vets... I've been getting up every 2 hours at night to take her out...she still goes potty in the crate AT LEAST once a night. Plus, she cries constantly when she's in there, which not only makes me feel terrible, but causes me to lose a ton of sleep...I don't know what else to do. I really want to keep her, but I can't keep going on like this...between the crying, taking her out, and giving her 1 or 2 baths every night, I've been getting about 2 hours of sleep a night. I love her so much, and I wish I could afford a trainer, but I just can't...Any suggestions? Thank you guys so much for your time.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Carla on
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I can't speak from experience because I've never had a dog go to the bathroom in their crate, but from my perspective, it seems like if it's happening this often and has been for that long a time, she's probably a lost cause in terms of using the crate for housebreaking. If she's continuing to go to the bathroom in the crate at such a frequent rate, I don't think anything is really accomplish by continuing to put her in there. She's basically gotten over the issue of going to the bathroom where she sleeps, and is now doing it freely. You'll probably have to take a new approach to potty-training if you want it to be even partially successful.
Maybe consider setting up a safe area, like an ex-pen, laundry or bathroom, with a special potty-area and a separate bed/sleeping area. Try to train her, using positive reinforcement, to go only in her new potty area (be it a box with grass/wood chippings or newspaper or potty pads) or to go outside. I think accepting that maybe crate training isn't going to be the best route for you and her, and trying something different might help, and it might alleviate the frustration of trying the same thing over and over with poor results.
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I don't know from your post if you're doing this already, but it might also help to put her on a schedule for both water and food. Free access to both can lead to accidents more frequently, but if you monitor and control her food and water intake, it might make it easier to schedule her potty breaks (when you know she's going to need to go) and to encourage her to do it outside. If you do this, particularly with water, you'll need to be vigilant about making sure she gets enough - but at least you would know how much water and food she was intaking and at which time, so you can start to get a sense of when her potty-breaks happen, and then schedule them accordingly.
I also assume that the vet ruled out any physiological reasons behind her frequent accidents?
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Permalink Reply by Melissa S. on
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I had a very sinular issue!
What i did (a little spendy) I had his wire crate, then I went and bought a small airline crate. both crates were just big enough he could stand and turn in, no bigger...
I then hooked the 2 together, the airline crate was his "den" and the wire crate was his "potty space" I put wee wee pads in the wire and a chew or kong in his den...... every day I cleaned his potty crate with bleach. after a month or so I was able to do away with the extra crate and he was able to hold it .
Some dogs are harder then others to potty and crate train. my female practically trained her self (thank goodness) my male on the other hand was a tad more difficult.
Oh and just so ya know, when I pulled the extra crate, I pulled the airline... so It goes to show he out grew pottying in his wire. he is 1 & 1/2 now and has been as good as golden . Even tho wire as a pup was his potty crate he was able to switch in to it as a den with now issues!!!
I hope I was of some help.... I am in a mad dash out the door so I am really hoping i made sense!!! GOOD luck
Patience and perseverance will bring you success!
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Permalink Reply by Lauren Wallace on
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I have a large wire crate with a divider in it. Will that work or do I need to get a small one? How exactly did you hook them together? Thank you sooo much!
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then den needs to be big enough for him to lay stand and turn around, the "exterior kennel" can be as large as you want it, but not super big.. when I pet the wee wee pad in the Potty one i folded it in half, if that gives you a idea of how large the potty one is... I hooked them door to door.. it was tedious cuz I had to un hook them each time to get Walker out... but honestly in my opinion it was worth the work... he went from wetting daily to once in a while to never again..
by attaching 2 together your making him learn that he cant pee in his "den" but else where. (the potty side) Sams advice was great too!
Walker never got water b4 i put him in his crate, as soon as I got home, I would allow what ever he wanted.
with the crying..... extinct the puppy unless you really feely she needs to go potty, but when you take her out... b stern and use your potty command, no playing and no baby love talk... sometimes they wil call your bluff and need to "POTTY" just to get out of the crate and play... there is a time for play and its not 2 in the morning.
When Walker or Willow would cry for me when they were crated I would gruffly say ugh ugh no whine. and leve it at that.. I now can sit and tinker on the computer next to them both crated and the dont even peep..
4 months is still young. b strong b consistent soon you will be on here helping someone in the same shoes you once where in and your pup will b super awesome!
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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on
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Hi Lauren, after reading our last reply, what kind of modification have you incorporate so far?
At 4 months, her kidney and bladder are still developing, they'll be fully developed by 9 months. At this point, it is normal for her to hold 5 hours.
1. limit her crate space, make it only large enough for her to turn around.
2. no water 2 hrs before bed, take her out one last time before bed.
3. no food or treat after dinner.
4. you need to walk her outside onleash for 45 mins, yes you can break them into shorter session throughout the day.
5. DO NOT open the door and let her go potty on her own off leash
May be you can explain your time schedule in detail and describe her environment and modification so far? I'm sure one of us can point you to the right direction. The more detail you provide us, will allow us to weed out things that don't apply to you.
Remember: No dogs are fully potty trained until the age of 9 months and fully accident free by 2 years. We've all been through this. If it makes you feel any better, a dog potty trained faster than a human baby :)
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Haha good thing I won't be potty training any human babies any time soon. Okay, here goes:
-I get up at 5:15, and I take her out right away. I stay outside with her for about 15 minutes, but 9 times out of ten, she won't potty. I take her inside, put her back in her crate, and leave for work.
-My boyfriend wakes up around 7:30 or 8:00 and feeds her. He takes her out about an hour later. She pees a couple of times outside, but always pees on the carpet within 20 minutes after coming inside. It's impossible to catch her before it's too late.
-We take her out every 2-3 hours throughout the day.
-We feed her at 6 PM, take up her water at 7, take her out at 11 when we go to bed, and wake up every 2 hours to take her out.
We try not to leave her alone, but when we both have to go out, she howls the whole time (neighbors told us) and she has terrible diarrhea (only when we're both gone) which makes me think she has some bad separation anxiety.
We have not really been taking her on walks just because she HATES her leash. She is constantly whining and trying to attack it when she has it on. She will hardly move with it on. (we don't let her outside without it though) I will start trying to walk her though. Thank you!!
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Permalink Reply by Kevin and Buddy! on
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I would definitely start working on the walks. Buddy didn't like the leash either but it just takes lots of time and patience.
As soon as you catch her going in the house, even if it is after she has already pottied, you should take her outside immediately.
Lots of cheering and encouragement, make a BIG deal out of it when she goes potty outside. It may be worth getting a super special treat to give her when she goes potty outside, and only give her that treat for potty training. Something super irresistable like a small piece of cheese or small piece of chicken.
I have a coworker that adopted a dog that howled when he was at work, his neighbors told him too, and I recomended that he give his dog a filled up kong when he put the dog in the crate. He fills his with low fat peanut butter and freezes it the night before. This will hopefully teach your puppy that the crate means tasty delicious kongs and it should hold their attention enough to help with the seperation anxiety.
Special treats for leash training are always a good way to encourage puppies too!
I am so sorry to hear you are having such a rough time, but I hope some of this info helps!
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Permalink Reply by Monica, Orion, and Laika on
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You mentioned that at 7:30 or 8 she is fed, then taken out an hour later. I'm not sure if she's being taken out after she's fed too but if she isn't she needs to be. Between the next ten minutes after having her meal, she'll probably have to potty so it's important to take her out then too. When Orion and Laika were first training I probably took them out about every 30 minutes to an hour if they were awake. If they were napping I'd watch them and as soon as they'd wake up they'd go out. When they peed and pooped outside they were rewarded with lots of praise. Maybe have a special potty treat that she only gets when she pees or poops outside. She NEEDS to get leash trained. If you are struggling with it, maybe enroll in some puppy classes. Taking them out on a looooong walk before bedtime helps put them to sleep for the night. I can tell when Orion and Laika haven't had enough exercise during the day because they're more restless at night and wake up a lot. So make sure she's getting plenty of activity during the day which will help her sleep at night. Think about it in terms of humans (well this applies to me anyways), if something wakes me up in the middle of the night, I'll probably have to get up and pee, but if it didn't wake me up, I'd sleep on until the morning and pee then. So if she's extremely tired and is in deep enough sleep to not wake up as often, she may have fewer accidents because she'll sleep through it. Eventually if nothing works, it may be too late for crate training as she may have associated it with an okay place to potty.
Good luck! We all know puppies can be a handful and we've all been there with the frustrations but once you get through all this you're going to have a fantastic companion so don't give up!
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do you just leave her out side or stay out with her???
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I stay with her. We live in a 3rd floor apartment, so I kinda have to. Not that I would just send her out anyway. All those stairs are NOT my friend at 2 in the morning though haha!
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a pepto pill cut in 4th will help with diarrhea
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