Chuffy
Posted : 12/19/2006 3:57:37 PM
If he is sleeping in a kitchen or utility room or somewhere in the house alone at night, he may be feeling quite anxious at being left alone. Spending the night apart from the group is completely unnatural for any young, vulnerable group animal and they can take a while to adjust to it and may need a lot of help. Anxiety lessens the control over their bodily functions, so the more you can soothe him at nighttime the better. My preferred method is to put the crate beside the bed and get up in the night to take the puppy out until he has settled in his new home, has got the hang of house training and is able to hold it through the night (provided I still go to bed late and get up early for a while) I can appreciate this isn't for everyone and in any case, if he already has a permenant sleeping area moving it may just confuse and upset him. Could you give him an old piece of clothing with your scent on so he doesn't feel so alone? Have you tried a DAP diffuser?
If you have a crate large enough for an adult dane, he will still be a little dwarfed by it and he won't mind too much sleeping one end and peeing the other! If it's a smaller size or has been partitioned off to suit his size better and he is actually peeing ON the bed, you need to take action pretty quick, because this is not normal behaviour for puppies. Some puppies that have been inadequately housed when they are very young (still with the dam) have had to override the basic inhibition against soiling the nest and have no compunction about it. These pups are much harder to house train. If you pup does not fall into this category then he either has a urinary infection or he is being left in his crate for far too long. Take him to a vet to rule out the former and make the times he spends in his crate much much shorter and less frequent.
Don't allow him any food after, say 7pm at night and no water after 8pm. Let him out for his last wee as late as you can before confining him for the night. For the first couple of nights get up several times to make absolutely POSITIVE there are no accidents, then wean him off to just one or two nighttime trips and then, when he seems to have got the hang, dispense with them altogether. I always get up in the night with new pups and I only have to do it for a few nights because they catch on very quickly. Your pup will have to "unlearn" a habit which is harder and will take longer.
It sounds like he is crated too much in the day (IMO) What we have done with our pups when they have to be left during the day is section off an area of the utility room with a collapsible puppy play pen and the carte (OPEN) inside it. We put down a small amount of water and some safe chews/toys. There was nothing they could chew except what it was OK for them to have and nothing they could pee on. Is there an area you could prepare for him like this?
I make sure that any new puppy works very very hard to make sure they save up any pee to do in the garden because they get a super special treat for it which they dont get at any other time (bits of cut up hot dog sausage) - do you have a super special high value treat you give him when he performs in the right place? Liver cake is popular - stinks to high heaven, but my friend tried it and that was it - the dog was fighting to get out the door several times a day just so he could do a wee and get his treat.
Try also changing the bedding to a different material. Puppies are often stimulated to "go" by being on the substrate that they are used to eliminating on. So if you have worked very hard to make sure a pup is ALWAYS in the garden when he needs to pee, just taking him out there and letting him sniff on the grass is enough to make him NEED the toilet even if he didn't need it before you went out. Unfortunately, a

up that has had a lot of accidents or has learned to soil their bed is then stimulated to need to go by being in a certain area of the house, or by being on their bed.
This sounds very obvious, but are you actually going out with him and making sure he does all his business before confining him? Could someone pop round to check on him and let him out and make the time he spends alone even shorter? The more help you can give him the cleaner and less confused he will be.