[bobt]

Hello again,

How many months old will I see the puppy stop doing #1 in her crate? 6 8??

This is getting old quick. 2 times this morning. Once yesterday after taking her out 1/2 hour before. Took her out on this one, had to go to the store then half hour later #1 on the carpet after taking her out of the cage to play by another family member. That one may be part of separation disorder.

When should I start to worry this may be a permanant trait? She's 4 1/2 months old now.

I've had alot of victories with her, walking, biting, sitting etc but this one seems there's no end in sight. I also never catch her doing it and yesterday she started going on the carpet outside the cage. If this keeps up into 7, 8 or 9 months maybe she'll be looking for a new home.

Thanks!!

 

[TooneyDogs]

Fine tuning the potty schedule takes some time/experience. So long as you're doing your part by taking her out every hour...making sure that she goes twice before bringing her back in (puppies rarely finish on the try.....they get so distracted) then, it should get easier.

 

[Thracian]

I see from a previous post that this is a pet store puppy. That can make housebreaking with a crate a bit more tricky because the puppy was forced to eliminate in its cage at the pet store. Therefore, it has less of an aversion to doing the same in its crate.

I've found a few articles that reference housetraining pet store puppies that may help you.

http://www.webtrail.com/petbehavior/may99.html

http://www.wonderpuppy.net/canwehelp/htdogs.htm

Good luck!

 

[bobt]

Just thought I'd post the conclusion to my problem with my puppy messing the cage. Maybe it will help someone else.

My puppy ate an entire rawhide (double knot type) after picking up her water for the night around 8:00pm. She made a mess during the night. I've also noted many times after the rawhide, she'd make a mess in the cage.

I took her water out of the cage and stopped giving her rawhides. She only gets water when she's out of the cage. The messes reduced significantly at first!! Now it's rare she has one during the night and almost never during the day. Hope it keeps up. I was really getting worried.

Don't know if the rawhide had anything to do with it but maybe the combination eating rawhides then having water in the cage encouraged her to do it in the cage.

 

[txcollies]

Mine have stopped by 12 weeks, usually earlier.

 

[FourIsCompany]

Glad to hear it's going better.

I am a firm believer that ANY dog shouldn't have rawhide unsupervised, especially a puppy. I had to extract one that was stuck in my dog's throat one time. If I hadn't been there... Let's just say we don't give rawhide anymore at all.

 

[misty073]

our dog (7.5 months now) was peeing in her crate and we used a board to make it smaller and she stopped. We had a trainer come to the house to work on training with us and she said our crate was perfect size....but after reading up about peeing in the crate on the internet we decided to cut it in half (she had just enough room to turn around and lie down comfortably). We did this for about 3 weeks and she never peed once. Now she is back to her reg crate size (about 2 weeks) and she hasnt peed in it at all.

 

[Cracker]

I agree that rawhides are only for supervised chewing. I don't like them at all truly. I worked at a vet and we saw rawhide issues a LOT. Rawhide is NOT digestible. A rawhide bone should only be chewed until soft and then taken away if you are going to use them at all.
Also, your pup was probably eating the rawhide and then was REALLY thirsty! Drank a bunch of water and then had to go. Good for you for figuring that out.

Safe puppy chews are kongs (filled with food), puppy chew toys meant to be soaked and frozen (for sore gums and teeth) or soft toys without plastic eyes etc.

Remember that your pup will need to go pee (at the least) after a nap, everytime she comes out of her crate (everytime!!), after play, after a meal and after a training session. Any movement of her body moves the insides too! Also, be sure not to give her unrestricted freedom in the house. You need to be watching her, have her tied to you or in her crate. She doesn't have the capability yet to know "inside/outside"..only don't pee in my bed. Anything else is fair game for pee time. It's up to you to anticipate it.

When in doubt, take her out!