Crate Training problems

Unfortunately 4 hrs is just a little too long for her to be crated. She can't hold it. 3 hours is typically the maximum time a puppy that young can be crated and keep from pottying. And every time she goes in her crate she is learning to go in her crate... if the crate is oversized, what you might think about doing is training her to go in a litterbox and putting that at one end of the crate... or rigging an Xpen around the crate with a litterbox somewhere in the pen. Basically she needs to be able to potty at least every 3 hrs until she's a little older.

Unfortunately, 4 hours is too long for a 9 week old to be in a crate. The rule of thumb is that a pup can hold it for his age in months plus 1...I.E. 2 month old can hold it for 2 hours + 1 hour. Also, puppies often have to go poop more than once in the a.m. My 5 month old does. First thing and then sometimes 2 more times before i leave for work. Make sure you take him/her out for a decent little walk to "work it on out" too. Until he can hold it for 4 hours....gate off the kitchen or bathroom and put the crate in with door open for a bed. Its unfair to make the little one sit in poop, and it will teach the behavior of it being OK to poop in there and he will become comfortable with it, therefore hindering the training. Also, keep in mind...you said its day 6....it wont happen over night. Puppies are trained fully for months! I am STILL working on it with my little gal at the age of 5 months! Some take longer, some get it quickly! Just depends!

Hello again,
 
It has been another month and our little Maisy is still having problems with eliminating in her crate. My wife is with her everyday and is putting her in the kennel for a varient amount of times and still getting the same response.  Maisy is 3 and a half months old, and our vet says she is displaying separation anxiety.  I understand it isn't going to happen overnight but over a month's time she has not shown any progression.  Today my wife took Maisy out and she went to the bathroom for the 3 time this morning--eliminating twice ans peeing three times.  My wife put Maisy after her second time eliminating, and went to take a shower.  When she came back after 20 minutes or so Maisy had eliminated again--while barking and bouncing around the entire time so it was a mess everywhere.  I understand the rule of an hour per month, she is almost 4 months and can't seem to hold it for half an hour. We are greatly concerned about what we will need to do when my wife goes back to work in a couple weeks, and she will be alone for nearly 8 hours. We have tried not paying any attention to her before we leave and after we return, but to no avail. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Paul

I don't know if she has separation anxiety or not but that is probably a separate issue from not being housetrained. I hate to break the bad news but 3.5mo is too early to expect your pup to be trained or even show a whole lot of progress, because she's still a baby and doesn't fully have physical control of her bladder and bowels yet. Basically at this stage you the humans should be trained rather than the puppy... she will get it but needs more time, probably a few more months to really be reliable.
 
I'm not exactly clear on how often or when she is going potty. Could you post the approximate times? If she is urinating twice in 20 minutes she should be checked out for a UTI.

Thanks for the response.  In regards to her going to the bathroom, she doesn't appear to be peeing in her kennel just eliminating.  We feed her at 5:00 every morning and she is taken out directly afterwards-generally just goes pee.  She then goes out around 7, where she does both.  She went out again about 10 and did both as well, and then when she was put in her cage again for 20 mins she eliminated again approximately 30 mins after the previous one.  We are trying to follow the low end of the guidelines for feeding on the Solid Gold Hunchen Flocken, feeding twice a day and 1 1/4 cup in the morning and evening.  The package I believe lists 2 to 3 1/2 cups for a uppy 3-4 months and weighing 10-20 pounds--she currently weighs about 11 ounds and does not seem to be gaining a lot of weight or loosing any either.  Thanks for any suggestions--it truely is appreciated.
 
Paul 

You very well may have to do a food switch.  Even though this is a high quality food, there is no way your pup should be going potty this much! 
 
My Strauss is a GSD, and at 9 weeks old, he'd poop twice a day, TOPS.  If your pup is going more than twice a day, she's not utilizing all the nutrients in the food.  Also, if she's pooping in her crate, but isn't sitting in it, it's because her crate is too big.
 
Does she poop in one end and go sit or lay down in the other end?  If so...crate needs to be a bit smaller for awhile.

ORIGINAL: novalty
 In regards to her going to the bathroom, she doesn't appear to be peeing in her kennel just eliminating.  We feed her at 5:00 every morning and she is taken out directly afterwards-generally just goes pee.  She then goes out around 7, where she does both.  She went out again about 10 and did both as well, and then when she was put in her cage again for 20 mins she eliminated again approximately 30 mins after the previous one.  We are trying to follow the low end of the guidelines for feeding on the Solid Gold Hunchen Flocken, feeding twice a day and 1 1/4 cup in the morning and evening.  The package I believe lists 2 to 3 1/2 cups for a uppy 3-4 months and weighing 10-20 pounds--she currently weighs about 11 ounds and does not seem to be gaining a lot of weight or loosing any either.

 
You may be overfeeding slightly - by about a half cup - but I disagree that this is really an abnormal number of BMs a day for a puppy, even on a premium food. It may be that at her 10am potty break she just wasn't really finished yet and. I do agree with Xeph that it's likely the crate is too big - otherwise I would expect her to try to hold it for a little longer than 20m. But as far as pooping goes... if there's one thing I learned firsthand it's that people can't decide when a puppy "should" go... you have to try to work around their schedules as much as you can.

Hello again,
 
Thanks for the responses.  We are going to try reducing her food to 1 cup twice a day.  My wife and I discussed Maisy's eliminating and she went at: 5am, 7am, 9:30am, 10am (in kennel), 1:30pm(smaller amount in kennel), and last at 7pm.  We might need to reduce her space, her kennel is about 24"w x 36"d and we have her blocked off to half of it. We try some changes, and hope it shows some improvements over time.
 
Thanks for the suggestions!
 
Paul