Help with Crate and Potty Training!

MunasG · May 23, 2016

Hi all,

Firstly sorry that this is a duplicate post! I had posted this in response to thread on the FAQs section. I didn't realize their was a forum for training.

Now that me baby girl is feeling much better and back to her old self again after parvo at 9 week, gird and worms at 10 weeks and vomiting and regurgitation as well as aspiration pneumonia at 11/12 week old... YES! she's been through lot but she's a fighter. I am so excited to be having fun with her and watching her grow. But now i am facing a dilemma with crate training and house training her and need some help! When i got her a 9 weeks she was sleeping in her crate at night and only whined and cried the first few nights. But during the day when we are home, she doesn't like to be left in there, she will whine and scream until we took her out. Because she was only 9 weeks and hadn't received all of her shots, we did not take her outside for potty and used pee pad next to her crate which was inside a bigger pen. She was good with that and only peed and posed on the pads. Then she had to go into the emergency 5 days after we got her because of parvo and was in there for 10 days. When she came home we were so excited and wanted to keep her and the other dogs in our neighbourhood safe and we still did not take her outside for potty and let her use the pee pads until her follow up check a few days ago. During this time, she had a few accidents, mostly peeing on the floor when my boyfriend was watching her and she was outside of the pen. Once or twice she also posed on the floor when he was watching her. I do my very best to watch her like a hawk to make sure she males no mistakes, and when i notice the signs, i put her in the pen with the pads and she does her business. But the accidents seem to increase because she spends more time with my BF when am at home. His job allows he a lot of flexibility so he can be home with her but only for the next week, then we will both be away for most of the day. When we took her to her follow up check a few days ago, the vet said that its safe to start taking her outside for a bit, so we've started outside potty training. She's taking well to it, but its been a long weekend here and we've both been home with her for 4 days and taking her outside has been easy. I have been waking up at 6 am, taking her out right away, she pees and poos just fine after my "go potty" command. Then i feed her at 6.30am, and take her out again 15 mins later to potty again and she does. Then we play for a bit, then she naps and after she wakes up i take her out again and she pees. Then every couple of hours or more frequently if she eats or drinks. The issue is we are both going back to work full time starting tomorrow and was considering starting crate training. My BF can come home after 4 hrs and let her out to potty and feed her and play with her for a bit. I am just a bit nervous about starting to lock her in the crate. Because up until now, the crate door has been open and its only the pen that cuts her off from us. Any advice on whether its too soon to leave her in a locked crate for 4 hrs? We have a sitter who will be coming to spend a few hrs with her on days when we can't be home. Any tips and advice on crate training and house training will be great. She is 3 months old right now and i know she can only hold it for about 4 hrs, but we haven't tested this yet.Also what advice do you have for overnight? Should we still continue to use the pee pads? Apologies for my long rant! I want to reduce the amount of accidents and remain consistent! And also wean off the pee pads

Jakeyjake · May 24, 2016

This is what worked for us at night with Jake. We placed a crate with the door open in an x-pen with pee pads. Once I discovered that he did not use the pee pad through the night for a couple of nights, I then closed the door on the crate and knew he could hold it. I don't remember what age this was though.
12 weeks is still quite young and you should limit her freedom in the house until she is fully housebroken. We used the x pen alot and also kept him on a leash in the house.
Also I would never remove her from the crate or pen if she is whining or crying. This will just teach her that barking gets her out of the crate/pen. Sometimes covering the crate with a light sheet helps. I would also stuff a kong and give it to her in the crate. Only give her this special treat when you put her in the crate. Sounds like she's been through a lot and establishing a regular routine will help her learn what is expected from her from here on out. Good luck and hang in there. It gets easier.

Schimpfy · May 25, 2016

Best to get on it right away before she develops anxiety over you leaving, great advice from Jakeyjake - best of luck sure Nellie will make you proud

MunasG · May 25, 2016

Thanks you both for your advice! She doesn't necessarily hate the crate, she sleeps there every night with no fuss as long as the door is not locked. I will try what [MENTION=600]Jakeyjake[/MENTION] said and try crating her during the day while am away for 4 hrs at most and see how she does. I've been feeding her in the crate and leaving her tears and her Kong there. She's still not 100% comfortable with the crate but she's getting there! Hopefully I can report back in a few weeks with good news! She had two accidents yesterday one of which was my fault. I asked do you want to "go potty" Nellie. And she looked at me and just peed right there lol. I guess I should remember to use the command outside only.

davidh · May 25, 2016

Good advice above. Letting her stay in a few hours at a time help. As far as potty training, keep up what you are doing, she will learn in time. She is still young yet and will eventually get it.

HannahBanana · May 27, 2016

I had replied to your other post but I wanted to reiterate here that I can't recommend crate training enough! The advise above is solid and close to what we did with Finley. We would slowly increase the time he spent in his crate until eventually he was going in organically or when we asked him to "kennel up." Our big trick was to make his crate a treat palace. Any new treats or toys were always placed in there and not through out the day I would toss treats in there when he was not paying attention so he would eventually associate his crate with a place good things came from and very quickly he was going in on his own to see if the treat or toy fairy had left anything for him. He would till much rather be with us and, now that he's comfortable with hi crate, is only in there when we are out but have started to use it as a bit of a "time out" to correct some naughty puppy behavior. This is working well because l, while he doesn't want to be away from us, he also knows that his "room" is a safe and fun place that he can go to get his **** together when he's bad!
Best of luck to you! It was really hard on us when we first started but we stuck with it and I'm so thankful that we did!

MunasG · May 27, 2016

Thank you all for this great advise! I have started these tricks and i have to say its working so far. I have yet to lock her in the crate for longer than 2 hrs, i plan to start on Monday for around 4 hours... my petsitter comes in the middle of the day when we are at work. I'll be so happy if she doesn't have any accidents. She is now building a positive association with it. Every time its meal time she runs in there to get ready. And occasionally she'll go looking for treats. She still whines a bit when i leave her there and close the door but she eventually calms down. And as [MENTION=1737]HannahBanana[/MENTION] mentioned... she still prefers to be with us when we are around instead of being in her crate. She still loves bedtime at night. She no longer cries when am leaving her in the crate for bedtime. She just sit and stares at me and when i tell her goodnight and go to bed. She casually walks in and goes to sleep. It seems she is holding her poo through the night but gets up to pee during the night. The number of accidents are reducing. She peed on the floor yesterday about a heavy play session, but other than that she's been good at "going potty" when i take her out. I'm just trying to find a good cleaner to eliminate her urine smells in the house because i think that is still drawing her to pee inside. She's been doing it in the same general area. Any recommendations for non-ammonia based cleaners?