calliecritturs
Posted : 9/2/2009 10:00:32 PM
How often does the dog go out during the day?
How long have you had the dog?
Learning to "hold it" is gradual -- and it is something you *teach*. They don't sleep thru the night for a good long while and you gradually ask them to "hold it a bit longer?" and wait 5 minutes and see if the dog goes back to sleep or it is still agitated. Take it out.
Make sure when you take the dog out at night there is NO play. Out, do your stuff and go right back to bed. When the dog vocalizes tell it "shhh" -- sometimes just sticking your fingers thru the bars may help. Even having the crate up on a chair so the dog can SEE you may help ease this (he wakes up, and doesn't go right back to sleep so he wants to go 'out' rather than learning to hold it).
Also -- how much is the dog drinking? Does the dog go right to water every time he comes back in? It is EASY for a pup to have a urinary tract infection -- so before you get too concerned you may want to have the vet do a strip test JUST to see. A dog needing to drink too much may simply be trying to make it burn less when they go. that makes housetraining harder.