Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rebecca Marie O'Bryan on March 17, 2011 at 2:20pm

its ok :) pups do this from time to time. their bladder isnt fully developed so he will have accidents but make sure u clean his crate/blanket or bed really well because if not he will continue to potty in there. but i would say no matter how tempting it is never restrict your puppy from water (except at night pick it up 2hours before bed) puppies need a lot of water. not having enough water to flush the toxins from his system will lead to UTI

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Permalink Reply by Samantha & Bowie on March 17, 2011 at 4:15pm

Thanks for the input! I should have specified, I meant limiting his intake of water 2 hours before bed. You all are right though....I think I am overly stressing myself out when I know he's just a pup. Thanks everyone. I will keep you updated with his progress.

 

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on March 17, 2011 at 3:40pm

Hi Samantha, he is doing this because he is only 8 1/2 weeks old, pups get distracted easily, you need to take him out on a leash, on time, on schedule, establish a solid structure. Check out the FAQ, good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on March 17, 2011 at 3:54pm

8 weeks, he is an infant. He doesn't always know he is going to pee when he does it at this point. Think of humans that take 2 to 3 years to figure it out! Potty training is a process requiring a lot of patience and a very regular schedule. Good luck, I always find just when I think they will never get it they are trained.

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Permalink Reply by Meredith and Paisley on March 17, 2011 at 4:57pm

Paisley did this a bit at this age too. What I did to fix it was just take her out even more often. She had a super tiny bladder (as I'm sure any 8 1/2 week old puppy's is), and I found that to make sure she didn't pee in the house or in the crate was to take her out every hour during the day. At night she would go 4 or even 6 hours, but during the day I would just set a timer and take her out every hour no matter what I was doing. When she was about 10 weeks old, I was taking her out about every hour and a half and just slowly extended it every week. It is crazy time consuming and was a lot of work (we lived in a third floor apartment so that was a lot of stairs), but by about 4 months old she knew how to ask to go out and was pretty reliable. Also, make sure you clean the crate and everything in it really well after he has an accident, so he doesn't continue to smell it and think he can keep peeing in there. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Samantha & Bowie on March 17, 2011 at 5:30pm

Thanks so much for your reply! It's good to hear from people who experienced the occasional peeing in the crate also. I was just worried because I thought it was instinctual to avoid peeing in the crate, but you are right, he's just a pup. I live in an apartment too (4th floor) so I can relate to all the hard work! Haha. Patience is key and I'm sure it'll get better over time. 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Lucy & Ricky (Wendy/Jack ) on March 19, 2011 at 3:46am

Lots of good advice here, Samantha. Just curious about the size of the crate. A little puppy needs a little crate. If it's too large, there's room to sleep away from the mess. As long as the crate is big enough for your puppy to stand in and also roomy enough for your puppy to turn around, it's big enough. A smaller crate can work wonders in stopping mid-night peeing. Good luck with your baby, Bowie.

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Permalink Reply by Krystle (Luna & Twinkie!) on March 18, 2011 at 12:58pm

At that age I had to take all of Luna's bedding out and set a timer to take her out in the middle of the night: I would take her out right before bed at 10:00, again around 12:30, then 3:00, and finally at 6:00.  She would be half-asleep, and so would I, but I made her go potty then tucked her back into bed - no playing, no coddling of the puppy, just sleep time.

Around 10 weeks I stretched the time out a little more and gave her some bedding back.  A few more weeks (say 13-15 weeks old) I took out the middle of the night one, so was only doing 10:00 and 6:00.

It's a process, they are babies and we need to train them (and their bladders) to go only when and where we want them to.

Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Jen on March 18, 2011 at 5:28pm

Ginger peed in her crate for the first 2-3 weeks we had her.  We got her when she was 10 and a half weeks old.  I think she just couldn't hold it as long as we had her in there.  After a few weeks she stopped doing it and we haven't had a problem since.

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Permalink Reply by Don on March 20, 2011 at 2:28am

Hum,

Well given your pup really won't have somewhat reliable bladder control until no less then 3 month's, and sometimes longer. Some things that might help.

Crates you usually don't want much larger then the lenght of the pup plus about 4 inches, and comfortable to turn around in. Anything larger and you'll find that accidents occure.

For now you may want to consider making the crate only bedtime and emergency's. Other then that try keeping the pup in a portable enclosure in the kitchen, also make sure you use potty pads as well.

Food and water offered in the crate, in the wild when a dog establishes a den he/she will not soil it.  The idea is to create a den like enclosure for your pup. Also if your pup has a bed or pillow this goes in the crate as well, favorite toy as well. Some have had sucess in covering the crate as well which will limit the whining at night. 

For now might want to start letting the pup sleep in the crate, I know most say " well he/she won't stop whining if I do this" the key term most miss is that they aren't saying don't let your pup sleep in your room, actually I'd recommend that the crate be put in the same bedroom as your'se, this reinforces the den idea and establishes a bond with your dog.

Patience, it will happen for you. Also as a reminder...just washing bedding in laundry soap will not remove the urine smell...use bleach which will remove the amonia and elimiate the urine.

Hope this helps a bit,

 

Sincerely,

Don and Crew

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Permalink Reply by Dominique Salazar on March 31, 2011 at 11:47am

What we did was when we first brought Shelby home we had an oversized crate used by the previous corgi. She had quite a few accidents in her kennel. She would sleep St the front and go in the back. After doing this a few times a friend of ours suggested to put some plywood in the middle so it would just keep her towards the front, but still leaving her plenty of room to stretch out. She stopped doing it in the kennel, and we continued to take her out frequently.
She still did it in other areas for awhile, but we did catch her if she was trying to do something. She taught herself to sit by the door and i would mention "potty" and she would go in the direction of her leash so i would take her out. I gave her a couple of treats in the beginning whenever she sat by the door or would sit and look at me indicating she had to go, (she does this right after a meal.)
Also, we were dog sitting, and because they were in a different environment and had a corgi constantly herding them they were stressed. I think since Bowie is in a different place it will probably take some time to adjust to the new surroundings.

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Permalink Reply by Samantha & Bowie on April 6, 2011 at 10:59pm

Bowie has been doing MUCH better. He hasn't had any accidents in the crate for about 10 days now (knock on wood), and the few that he had previously were all isolated incidents. It was probably because his little bladder couldn't hold it that long yet. Thanks for the great advice though everyone! He's definitely coming along (yay!)

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