Dog Community

Trying to Crate Train...

Posted : 11/14/2006 9:31:03 AM

Okay... Sci-Fi is just a pup so this could just be a patience issue on my part but I thought I'd ask.

I'm feeding Sci-fi at 6am, 12pm, and 6pm. Each time his food is left out for an hour and then collected. With the exception of yesterday I had his water dish out all day since he's pretty active with the kids in the house.

With only one or two accidents or close calls the last two days (we've had him 7 days now) I feel like he's starting to get the idea of being house broken. However, when I crate him for the night he will sometimes have an accident.

The crate is pretty small and he can only just turn around in it.
I'm getting up at 3am to take him outside and he seems to know exactly why I'm getting him and goes right to do his business and return to me.

The problem is that this morning I got up at 6am to feed and take him out and there was some poop in that little crate again.
Am I letting him eat too late at night? Am I not making him stay outside before bedtime long enough to eliminate?

Is this normal for a 12 week old and am I doing it right but just need to be more patient?

terryl

Posted : 11/14/2006 12:18:01 PM

ORIGINAL: slimjack

Okay... Sci-Fi is just a pup so this could just be a patience issue on my part but I thought I'd ask.

I'm feeding Sci-fi at 6am, 12pm, and 6pm. Each time his food is left out for an hour and then collected. With the exception of yesterday I had his water dish out all day since he's pretty active with the kids in the house.

With only one or two accidents or close calls the last two days (we've had him 7 days now) I feel like he's starting to get the idea of being house broken. However, when I crate him for the night he will sometimes have an accident.

The crate is pretty small and he can only just turn around in it.
I'm getting up at 3am to take him outside and he seems to know exactly why I'm getting him and goes right to do his business and return to me.

The problem is that this morning I got up at 6am to feed and take him out and there was some poop in that little crate again.
Am I letting him eat too late at night? Am I not making him stay outside before bedtime long enough to eliminate?

Is this normal for a 12 week old and am I doing it right but just need to be more patient?

Our two big shepherds eat on demand, we keep a bowl out with dry food and thouroughly clean the bowl after it's empty. (This is very important.) Water we change every day and wash the water bucket before we refill it with soap and water, rinsing it well.

As to the accident's your dog has in the crate. We have two very large crates. When the dogs were puppies, my wife would get up at about 2:00am every morning for about two weeks (in the winter bless her heart) and push both dogs out of the doggie door to the outside of the Arizona room where the crates were, and they would do their thing. My thought is that one cannot leave an animal in a crate at night (or in the daytime) for long periods without them having an accident.

Now that our dogs are adults, they have the run of the house, and because we built doggie doors to the outside, they can go out at night. This is easy for us because we have a fenced acre that they can roam in. It may be different for you if you are in an apartment or can't let your dog out.

Chris Hoyt

Posted : 11/14/2006 12:21:40 PM

Hmmm...

Everything I had read was pointing me to controlling the food while a puppy to help reduce accidents and housetrain. Putting the food out three times a day as a pup and then twice as an adult.... I'm wondering if this is going to boil down to a dog-by-dog thing.

(

Erin B

Posted : 11/14/2006 12:48:18 PM

Leaving food and water out for a set period of time is the right thing to do. Taking the pup out right after it has eaten and waiting until it goes to the bathroom is also effective.
You say you get up once at 3am to let the pup out to go for a midnight pee. It's possible the dog needs 2 midnight pees. I wouldn't crate the dog overnight, either. They don't like sitting in their own mess and it sounds like your crate is miniature to begin with. Have you tried baby-gating your pup to a non-carpeted or newspapered area overnight so that if/when he has an accident he doesn't have to lie in it? You might want to try twice per night for another week and then go back to once a night and see if he's alright. As long as he's a puppy, his digestive system works quickly and is sometimes unpredictable. Please don't leave your puppy in the crate overnight where he has to lie in his own mess...

Chris Hoyt

Posted : 11/14/2006 1:27:13 PM

ORIGINAL: Leroi

Leaving food and water out for a set period of time is the right thing to do. Taking the pup out right after it has eaten and waiting until it goes to the bathroom is also effective.
You say you get up once at 3am to let the pup out to go for a midnight pee. It's possible the dog needs 2 midnight pees. I wouldn't crate the dog overnight, either. They don't like sitting in their own mess and it sounds like your crate is miniature to begin with. Have you tried baby-gating your pup to a non-carpeted or newspapered area overnight so that if/when he has an accident he doesn't have to lie in it? You might want to try twice per night for another week and then go back to once a night and see if he's alright. As long as he's a puppy, his digestive system works quickly and is sometimes unpredictable. Please don't leave your puppy in the crate overnight where he has to lie in his own mess...

We'll give that a shot. He's currently not put in the crate until around midnight. So a bathroom break at 3am and then being released at 6am, I would think that's plenty. I'm wondering if the timing is just off.

Of course, I'd hardly call his digestive system fast if he's eating at 6pm and then still eliminating at 4am. [&o]
We don't want him in his own yuck either. It's both sad and disgusting when I'm cleaning it in the morning. The crate is big enough right now though that he's able to avoid it completely.

I wonder if blocking off 1/2 of the crate is a solution... the crate is currently wide enough where he can just turn around, but it is just over twice his length.

Sue and Buddy

Posted : 11/14/2006 9:25:10 PM

ORIGINAL: Leroi

We don't want him in his own yuck either. It's both sad and disgusting when I'm cleaning it in the morning. The crate is big enough right now though that he's able to avoid it completely.

I wonder if blocking off 1/2 of the crate is a solution... the crate is currently wide enough where he can just turn around, but it is just over twice his length.

YES, you need to block off the crate. It needs to be just large enough to turn around on all sides of the dog. I blocked Buddy's crate until he was about 5mo.-20 weeks and well on his way to being housetrained. He was also getting bigger. I moved the partition back a little and made his space bigger and then I took it out completely.

I have no idea about why he is pooping in his cage in the morning. Sorry!

Sue

Chris Hoyt

Posted : 11/15/2006 10:36:33 AM

Well here's a kick in the pants....

Last night I fell asleep on the couch with him and woke up this morning with him nuzzled up next to me. No accidents at all and he never woke me up!

When we woke up together it was obvious he had to go to relieve himself as he ran to the back door and was bouncing in place.
Now I'm a bit puzzled.