[Stanleyhart]

Stanley is a 3 month old Boston Terrier. My girlfriend and I have had him for just over 1 month. I am frustrated beyond belief with this little guy. I love him, but he's driving me nuts! He keeps going in his crate. At first I figured the crate we had him in was too big and that he had too much room so I got a smaller one. The smaller one I felt was still too big and he was still going in his bed, so I put a box in the crate to make it even smaller. Now he has just enough room to stand up and turn around, from what I read on the net, that's all the room he should need, but he is STILL going in his crate. My vet told me after 8 weeks that he should be able to go the whole night without needing to be taken out, but clearly this isn't working and I don't know what to do!

Please help!

 

[PatchworkRobot]

Clean the crate and everything that you keep in it. Use an enzyme cleaner to make sure you get all the pee-smell out. Then feed him in his crate. Not in a bowl but spread the food out over the crate pan or bed. This is what we would do at work for dogs that went on their beds and it works almost 100% of the time.

Also, my doberman puppy (a much larger breed) was being taken out in the middle of the night until he was about 15 or 16 weeks old. Your pup, who has a much smaller bladder, probably needs t go out in the middle of the night at least once.

 

[Niraya]

My vet told me after 8 weeks that he should be able to go the whole night without needing to be taken out, but clearly this isn't working and I don't know what to do!

That dogs bladder is extremely tiny. At 3 months old - regardless really of time of day or night - the puppy should be going out probably every hour maybe hour and a half. Puppies do not have full control of their bladder until roughly 6 months of age. No 8 week old puppy can hold their excrement an entire night without going out.

My Siberian Husky was going out at least once a night until she was 3 or 4 months old. Sometimes I would wake her up to take her out just to make sure there were no accidents.

 

[lil_fuzzy]

How long do you leave him in the crate?

 

[HollowHeaven]

That dogs bladder is extremely tiny. At 3 months old - regardless really of time of day or night - the puppy should be going out probably every hour maybe hour and a half. Puppies do not have full control of their bladder until roughly 6 months of age. No 8 week old puppy can hold their excrement an entire night without going out.

^^^This.^^^

 

[UF Girl]

I have a 4 month old pit mix puppy right now and 5 hours is her limit. My SO goes to bed between Mid-night and 1 am usually and I get woken up between 5 and 5:30 am with her I need out to pee bark. Luckily I have learned the difference between that and the I just want out bark (whine).

 

[shellbeme]

There is no way a pup that small will hold it overnight, you should at least expect them to pee in the crate if they are left in that long. My maltese pup starts barking about 5AM and I take him out so he can pee and poop. He is also crated while I am at work, I do get to come home and let him out at lunch but we still have to clean the crate often, sometimes pee, sometimes poop...ugh. I have a set of towels I use for him so he isn't sitting right in his own potty though. He is four months old now.

 

[NozOnyCalAur]

I don't expect my 13 week old puppy to hold it all night. She goes to bed at 11 PM (I don't), gets an outing between 1 & 3 AM (when hubs comes home from work) and then again at 7 AM. I like to sleep in later than that so I give her something to do in the crate so I can sleep in till 10 AM.

 

[riapolo]

My pups about 15 Weeks old and is house broken. She sleeps in her bed at night (typically around 10 p.m) and then wakes up around 6-7 a.m, paws at my bed, we go downstairs, I let her out, she does her thing, comes back inside then we continue sleeping on the couch together. Consistency is key, Maybe I got lucky but with patience and time everything should work out fine! Good luck !

 

[Hambonez]

Mine started to be able to hold it through the night around 12 weeks. We had his crate open in an expen, with a weewee pad, because if we got up to take him out at night he would think it was play time and start all this drama at 3 am and no one would get back to sleep (fortunately he's grown out of that, too). Ergo, he'd sleep in his pen, but get out and use the pads overnight, which was way easier than him peeing in his crate or on the floor. He didn't get confused about going in the house or not - when he stopped needing them, he started shredding them so we took them away. He's been housebroken since just under 5 months old.

If yours keeps going in his crate, I would imagine he needs to be taken out more. I'd try once halfway through whatever time he's in there, see if that helps - if not try breaking the time up into thirds/quarters/etc...

 

[WhoRescuedWho?]

Yepp I agree with all of the above. Our pup was waking us up at about 5-6hrs to go potty. My rat terrier still goes this at times and I know if they paw me and cry at 1am its not to play and if I roll over and there is a puddle somewhere in the am its my own fault. You should set an alarm to wake and take him out and then just go back to bed. It may suck in the beginning but you'll get used to it and your pup needs it. If its not an option i'd use the bigger crat and have a wee-wee pad on one side so he can go and doesnt have lay back down in his mess.

 

[juliemule]

Ditto all above. Also some dogs will learn to go in their crates. Maybe you can try a small room with a baby gate, and a puppy pad. At least that way he can get out of the mess and not have to lay in it.

 

[cshellenberger]

Also, what are you cleaning the crate with? If the pup can still smell where it has dirtied the crate it will continue to use it as a toilet. Use an enzymatic cleaner and allow to sit in the sun for 3-4 hours (keep the pup tethered to you at this time so it doesn't have any accidents) then, bring the crate back in and sprinkle the bottom with cheese to it smells like FOOD.

Take the pup out frequently and reward heavily EVERY TIME IT RELIEVES ITSELF OUTSIDE. Set your alarm overnight so you wake up every three hours and take the pup out so it doesn't have a chance to go inside the crate, keep at that schedule for a week, then move that alarm to every four hours, keep this up, moving the alarm forward an hour each week until you can get a full nights sleep and you've 'trained' the pup to hold it's bladder. Be sure to backtrack if the pup has an accident overnight.

Always keep in mind that this pup is an INFANT, you wouldn't expect a human infant to be potty trained overnight and not have accidents, why would you expect it from a canine infant?

Oh, and your vet is full of BS, I've NEVER seen an 8 week old pup that could hold it's bladder through the night and I've seen a good many 8 week old pups!

 

[Rescued]

Oh, and your vet is full of BS, I've NEVER seen an 8 week old pup that could hold it's bladder through the night and I've seen a good many 8 week old pups!

Really? not trying to fuel the fire, but I've had 8 week fosters that held it! Granted, these were larger (mix) breeds and my definition of a puppy holding it "all night" is from about midnight to 6am- not sure if that changes anything.

 

[Niraya]

Larger dogs - larger bladders, kinda plays a big part.

However. Any dog that is able to sleep through the night can hold it but only if they're asleep. Realistically a puppy -cannot- hold it 6 hours until they actually have control over their bodily functions.

Smaller dogs have to go out much more often because they have tiny bladders. To expect a young puppy of a small breed especially to "hold it all night" is in my opinion absurd.

(also - in my opinion - any dog that is in a room/x-pen through the night and given the opportunity to relieve itself [via pads] isn't holding it throughout the night. My definition of that is when the dog can sleep throughout the night consistently without needing to be taken out)

 

[cshellenberger]

Really? not trying to fuel the fire, but I've had 8 week fosters that held it! Granted, these were larger (mix) breeds and my definition of a puppy holding it "all night" is from about midnight to 6am- not sure if that changes anything.

I don't consider 6 hours all night, that would be 8 hours. I'd say that even 6 hours would be rare no matter the breed, but we are talking about a Boston, which tend to be harder to house break due to a smaller bladder.

 

[ohbehave]

Hambonez.... I had a few chuckles with your post. I have a dachshund mix, too....almost a month older than yours. Your anecdotes are incredibly similar to mine both with crate training and her activity with her bedding, etc.

You say your dog is housetrained already?...at 5 months?

Ours has had a grand total of 5 accidents in the house since she was 12 weeks (thanks to severe supervision). She has never really "piddled" in her crate, and she was able to hold it in her crate all night.

In fact, just this morning, she was was taken from her crate after 9 hours.... we go outside...and she sniffs interesting scents for 10 minutes before piddling! So even after 9 hours, she was rather non-desperate to "go"!

So anyway, you say that your pup is housetrained. I definately wouldn't say that ours is housetrained. Meaning, if we let her have the run of the house for, say, 5 hours.... I believe that she would piddle. If she were in her crate, no way... but running free, she would.... and probably near the door.

Do you think your pup is trustworthy with free run of the house?
(I ask, because I am waiting for that magic moment myself)

 

[xxxxdogdragoness]

In all th dogs I have had, I have only had three in my life, my first dog, Sugar, bear, & Izze that could be trusted 'loose' in the house. All thr others are crate trained & even the adult rescue we have who is loose in the house when we are there is crated when we are away.

The bottom line is... You're going to have to cowboy up & take the pup for a nightly potty break, your not alone: I did it... We all did it... In the rain, the cold, sleet, BOTH etc...

 

[bgmacaw]

You might want to try using pee-pee pads. This is what we use with our Chi mix and it's worked out well. Her pads are near the litter boxes for the cats. She quickly learned to go there and take care of her business and she's been very reliable with it. The only hitch has been that she'll grab a "kitty snack" after she's done.

As for how long she can hold it, she's gone up to 12 hours without going. This happened on what was supposed to be a 2 hour drive when the interstate got shut down due to a major accident. We sat in the backup for hours. When we got home she went right to her pad and let loose a river.

 

[Hambonez]

Hambonez.... I had a few chuckles with your post. I have a dachshund mix, too....almost a month older than yours. Your anecdotes are incredibly similar to mine both with crate training and her activity with her bedding, etc.

You say your dog is housetrained already?...at 5 months?

Ours has had a grand total of 5 accidents in the house since she was 12 weeks (thanks to severe supervision). She has never really "piddled" in her crate, and she was able to hold it in her crate all night.

In fact, just this morning, she was was taken from her crate after 9 hours.... we go outside...and she sniffs interesting scents for 10 minutes before piddling! So even after 9 hours, she was rather non-desperate to "go"!

So anyway, you say that your pup is housetrained. I definately wouldn't say that ours is housetrained. Meaning, if we let her have the run of the house for, say, 5 hours.... I believe that she would piddle. If she were in her crate, no way... but running free, she would.... and probably near the door.

Do you think your pup is trustworthy with free run of the house?
(I ask, because I am waiting for that magic moment myself)

We've had him from 8 weeks. He stopped going overnight around 12 weeks. He started asking to go out and hasn't had an accident in the house since a little before 5 months old. He's 7 months now. We keep him confined to a pen when we aren't home for multiple safety reasons -- we don't trust him alone with the cats (they jump the baby gate to come in the room - they could hurt him, I don't think he would hurt them, just really wants to play with them), we don't trust him not to get into things/destroy things he isn't supposed to, or chew wires, or find things to eat that he shouldn't eat (kleenex and the like, no matter how much I clean, he always finds something to get into!). He does NOT pee in the pen all day, even though he could very easily pee in one corner and hang out in his bed. We've talked about giving him gradually more time alone in the house not in his pen - like if we're running an errand - to see how it goes... but I don't plan on leaving him out any time soon. I don't really know when you can trust a dog to not wee when they're loose in the house, but I think our trust is more linked to how much he gets into things and his relationship with the cats.