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Puppy peeing in crate (help me!!!)

Posted : 8/10/2006 9:15:47 PM

Ok, this is the first time I've actually crate trained a puppy, all our other dogs were strays so they got potty trained by being in for a little while then going back out and so forth. Anyhow, my foster dog (Sport) is 6 months old and it seems that no matter what I do when I come home he has peed in his crate. At first I had him in a good sized crate with a nice thick blanket and toys and such, then I gated off part of the crate to make it smaller thinking that maybe he just had too much room, but he is still peeing even though he has to actually lay in it once he does it. I have thought that maybe he is peeing just when I come home (out of excitment) but I dont really have any way to say for sure. Right now I only have a towel in the cage for him to sleep on and I feel terrible because that's not all that comfortable, but I'm getting very tired of having to wash towels every day because he keeps urinating on them. Part of the reason that this confuses me so much is because he's never in the crate for longer than 5 hours at a time, and he has been sleeping loose in my bedroom at night and hasn't had one accident. He never goes potty in the house (unless it's the basement, but that's a whole other story), so I just can't figure out why he's doing this in his crate. I always make sure he goes potty before I leave him in the crate, so I dont think excess water is the problem. I hate keeping him in such a small space and without comfortable bedding, but I dont know what else to do. Any and all suggestions are welcome!!! Here are some pictures of his crates, the first picture is of the large crate that I would idealy like to keep him in during the day and the second one is of the crate that I managed to partition some of it off to make it smaller. I hope you can see the pics ok, it's hard to take a good picture of a wire cage!!

Melaney B.

Posted : 8/10/2006 11:51:48 PM

I have thought that maybe he is peeing just when I come home (out of excitment)

i'm really thinking this is the case considering his age and that he hasn't had accidents in your bedroom while running freely at night (or atleast one's that you know of,lol) anyway, my friend has english cocker that does this out of excitment. there really isn't anything you can do to prevent this (considering it is just a natural thing that can't be helped)! what you could try is to ignore him until you get out of the door and maybe he'll not be eager to pee as soon as he see's you. is the pee warm when you clean it? that could be a sign of how long it's been there and if it's out of excitment or not.

Elizabeth

Posted : 8/13/2006 3:45:17 PM

Thanks for the response. I finally decided to just keep him in the bigger cage, because even if he's peeing on purpose while I'm gone he does it in both cages so I might as well give him more room to stretch out. I have been trying to get him to sit as soon as i walk in, hoping that might keep him calm long enough for me to let him out and that seems to be working most of the time. I hope he grows out of this, it makes me hesitant to leave him out of his cage while I'm gone because I'm not convinced he's potty trained, but idealy I would love to let him roam the house while I'm gone so he has room to play and move around more. I guess we'll just keep working at it until he gets it right

jones

Posted : 8/13/2006 3:54:19 PM

I actually think the non-partitioned crate is plenty small enough for housetraining. The partitioned one is just too small, so I'm glad you reversed it.

When you come home, rather than asking him to sit, it would be better if you just ignore him completely for a little while, but within his sight. When I was crating/housetraining I used to come in, sit down on my bed and take off my shoes and sort the mail for a few minutes. The puppy was right there in his crate watching me but I didn't say a word to him or make eye contact at all for 5 minutes or so. Then calmly greet him in a soft voice and let him out. You might also want to take the towels out. I know you're concerned for his comfort but soft bedding can be an inviting place for a puppy to urinate.

You are correct that your dog is not housetrained yet. You probably shouldn't even think about leaving him loose in the house for another 6 mo if not a year. It's not just a housetraining issue but also during adolescence (6mo - 18mo depending on breed and individual dog) many dogs get really into chewing and are prone to destroying household objects if left unattended.

Elizabeth

Posted : 8/14/2006 7:12:59 AM

Thats a good idea, I already know he's going to throw a fit when I dont let him out right away, should I just ignore him until he's quiet and then let him out? Right now I"m ready to try just about anything to get him to stop doing this, so I'll take his blanket out and try ignoring him and see how it works. Dont worry, I'm not even thinking of leaving him out while I'm gone for a long while, that's just my long term plan if I have him long enough.

glenmar

Posted : 8/14/2006 7:22:07 AM

thinking of leaving him out while I'm gone for a long while, that's just my long term plan if I have him long enough

I find this attitude profoundly disturbing.

Elizabeth

Posted : 8/14/2006 7:52:32 AM

I thought I had mentioned that this was a foster dog, I'm sorry if I was misunderstood. I meant that if I'm fostering him long enough that's my long term plan, but if he gets adopted then I obviously wont have him any longer.

Debbie R

Posted : 8/14/2006 12:11:41 PM

You didn't answer the is the towel warm from the pee when you get in? It may be anxiety, just about being left alone.
"I finally decided to just keep him in the bigger cage, because even if he's peeing on purpose"
What does that mean?

Elizabeth

Posted : 8/14/2006 1:43:39 PM

Sometimes the urine has soaked into the blanket and sometimes it's still really wet, although the last couple times when I came back it wasn't warm, so does that mean he didn't do it when I walked in the door? I said that I decided to keep him in the bigger cage, because he was peeing in both of them anyway. I always knew that when your crate training a puppy if the cage is too big they will go potty on one side and sleep on the other so I thought that maybe by making the cage smaller that would stop him from peeing, but it didn't. So I figured if he's going to pee in the cage anyhow, I might as well keep him in the bigger one so that he has enough room to lay stretched out instead of squeezed in a small space. I hope that makes sense, I'm trying my best to make him comfortable because he has to stay in his crate for 5 hours at a time, but I also want to succesfully teach him to hold his pee until I get home to let him out.

Debbie R

Posted : 8/14/2006 6:28:40 PM

No you did the right thing, giving him the room he should be able to hold it for 6 hrs. But I was trying to establish if he peed when you left or when you came home. He is still a baby, and may have been left in a crate all day, so he had no choice but to go in it.You need to go back to housetraing 101 and give him some confidence. I know it's frustrating for you, but try to be patient and think about how frustrating it is for him, he is trying to fit in and make everyone happy and he doesn't have a clue. If you have a weekend to spend w/him just house training him, I think you could do it. And give him confidence, let him know you have it covered. Don't make a fuss when you come or go, NILIF and close doors when you go out of the room, example the bathroom. I love that you are fostering him, and giving him a second chance.
It's a lot of work but I think you will be happy w/ the results.

Edie

Posted : 8/14/2006 7:21:02 PM

Why dont you try leaving him out while you go to work? Without the stress of being confined to a cage he may not feel the need to pee.You wont know until you try. If he's fine all night uncaged then the peeing points to being caged IMO.

The only time i ever used my crate was at night when i went to bed and my puppers were always right next to me(next to the bed).During the day when i went to work they were confined to the tiled kitchen,family room area.Being in the crate all night was long enough,without subjecting them to it all day too.This IMHO would almost gurantee a stressed out,unhappy dog [&:]

ColleenC

Posted : 8/14/2006 9:16:38 PM

But hes a puppy and may get into trouble. Electrical cords, blinds, furniture...all sorts of trouble. In my opinion, its easier to clean up a crate than it is to worry about my dog getting hurt while I'm gone.

Elizabeth

Posted : 8/14/2006 9:32:23 PM

Deb, by taking a weekend to build his confidence are you talking about doing stuff like putting him in his crate and walking out the door, then walking right back in and establishing to him that I'm not going to just leave him there? I would love it if you had some specific ideas that you would be willing to share, this weekend I dont have anything big planned so I could take quite a bit of time to work with him on this as long as I know what I'm going to be doing. I tried the ignoring technique today and although it just about killed me when I was home for lunch (he was barking and clawing at the cage and basically sounding very unhappy!!), it was amazing how quick he caught on, it took him a good five minutes just to take a breather long enough for me to praise him and let him out at lunch, but when I came home tonight it only took him about two minutes to stop barking and just look at me quietly. I honestly think he wants to please, and he trys so hard, I think the problem is that I have a hard time showing him exactly what I want.

Edie, the only place that I would be able to lock him in a room that has hard floor (I'm not willing to risk the carpet yet) is the kitchen and my landlord just redid it with new cabinets and flooring and I'm worried he might do some damage. Add to that the fact that none of the cabinets have locks on them, and there are potentially dangerous things for a puppy to get into and it's enough to convince me the cage is the way to go for now.

Edie

Posted : 8/15/2006 12:45:14 AM

But hes a puppy and may get into trouble. Electrical cords, blinds, furniture...all sorts of trouble.

Puppy proofing a house isnt that much different to baby proofing it [

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Take them out for a long walk before you go to work every single morning to tire them out,leave out a few extra large knuckle bones or unbreakable chews,some toys,hire a dog walker or get a family member in to take them out for another walk at lunch time and they shouldnt have the time or inclination to climb the walls,or eat them or chew on electrical wires...

Most times than not i have puppies at home(i foster when needed) and i have never had to crate a pup or adult dog during the day.The key is to think dog,if you have to go out and leave them for 8 to 10 hours a day everyday,then to make up for this you need to revolve your world around them and make sure they are happy and content with this arrangement.If that means getting up 1-2 hours earlier so you can take them out for a walk then so be it,if that means you have to go without something to afford a dog walker then thats what needs to be done.I think the bottom line is if a working person decides to get a dog then they better make darn sure that that dog's every need is catered to,and putting them in a cage for hours at a time everyday is not doing this IMHO.

Barngirl this post isnt directly aimed at you,i just wanted to prove that raising a cage free dog can be done.Like i said you have think dog [

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Debbie R

Posted : 8/15/2006 4:01:01 AM

I do agree w/ Edie on most of her points, however I do believe in keeping a dog crated for their own safety too.
The link below is what I used on Trixie, I realized after she was 100% house trained that the only time she would have an accident (hers was poop) was when no one was home, and that she was a wreck when we came in. This really worked for me.
[linkhttp://www.wagntrain.com/SeparationAnx.htm]http://www.wagntrain.com/SeparationAnx.htm[/link]