I have a big decision to make...Please Help!

[mocha2008]

Hi all,
I have a 5 month old yorkie poo who is 2.5 lbs. I have been crate training her during the day to go potty outside. At night, I have her in my laundry room with her crate door open and a wee wee pad away from her crate/food. From 2 to 4 months, she went pee and poop four or five times a night. Just recently, she has started to go only two times. I have always been afraid to leave her in the crate over night, because I don't think she'll be able to make it all night. She has had about four accidents in the crate during the day if she's had to hold it for five hours. This is why I don't think she'd make it at night. Now though, I'm thinking it might be time to leave her in the crate at night.

She is not house broken yet, and I think that leaving her to pee and poop on pads at night is confusing her. I have two concerns:

1. Can she hold it 8 or 9 hours through the night, and if she can is that asking her to hold it too long?

2. Will she be in the crate for too long then? I already feel so bad having her in the crate off and on during the day. I walk her in the morning before I go to work. My husband takes her out two times during the day to potty and play for about 15 minutes. We play with her about two hours at night. Other than that, she's in the crate. I've always felt good about her having free time at night, but I am concerned that she will not becoming trained if that continues.

Please help with any advice you have. I like the crate training for teaching her, but it makes me feel so bad to have her in the crate so much.

Thanks

[maxmom]

I wish someone can help you here, for my experience with Max, he started sleeping on our bed since he was 3-4 months old, going for pee around 10 or 11 and he has been able to hold it until 6- 6.30 am. with no accidents ever, so those are 7, 8 sometimes even 9 hrs.
Good luck with your baby

[Tammyh]

Originally Posted by mocha2008

Hi all,
I have a 5 month old yorkie poo who is 2.5 lbs. I have been crate training her during the day to go potty outside. At night, I have her in my laundry room with her crate door open and a wee wee pad away from her crate/food. From 2 to 4 months, she went pee and poop four or five times a night. Just recently, she has started to go only two times. I have always been afraid to leave her in the crate over night, because I don't think she'll be able to make it all night. She has had about four accidents in the crate during the day if she's had to hold it for five hours. This is why I don't think she'd make it at night. Now though, I'm thinking it might be time to leave her in the crate at night.

She is not house broken yet, and I think that leaving her to pee and poop on pads at night is confusing her. I have two concerns:

1. Can she hold it 8 or 9 hours through the night, and if she can is that asking her to hold it too long?

2. Will she be in the crate for too long then? I already feel so bad having her in the crate off and on during the day. I walk her in the morning before I go to work. My husband takes her out two times during the day to potty and play for about 15 minutes. We play with her about two hours at night. Other than that, she's in the crate. I've always felt good about her having free time at night, but I am concerned that she will not becoming trained if that continues.

Please help with any advice you have. I like the crate training for teaching her, but it makes me feel so bad to have her in the crate so much.

Thanks

That's a tough one. Our Bella was able to hold it all night from the time we got her at 3 months but she's not as small as yours, she was about 3 lbs when we got her. Is she in a small crate so that she only has enough room to stand up and turn around? Usually if the crate is small enough they won't mess in their crate but of course if she physically can't hold it then it's not going to matter. That's what you want to determine. When we were crate training Bella she did sleep in her crate at night. My husband would let her out when he got up for work (between 4:00am-5:00am) so she was in the crate about 6-7 hours at night and she did fine. Now of course she can hold it easily for 8 hours or more. We used to have her in an x-pen during the day (until she learned how to climb out of it) so she had plenty of room if she did have to "go" and she never had accidents in it. She would only sometimes pee when we got home becuase she was jumping up and down so much and got so excited she'd piddle a little. She's now 15 months old and has only been sleeping out of her crate at night for a couple of months. Even though she was completely potty trained by 5 months old I still waited a while before letting her roam free at night in our bedroom to be sure we wouldn't have any problems.

If she's in her crate and has to "go" does she whine to let you know? Bella did and there were times she woke us up and we'd let her out and then back to bed. If she'll do this you could keep her in her crate at night right next to your bed and maybe that will work until she can gradually start to hold it longer and longer. I know it's hard to have them in the crate both during the day on and off and then at night but it's only temporary until they're potty trained and I really believe in crate training if it's done properly. We timed getting Bella with my 16 year old (then 15 year old) son being on summer vacation so he could work with her crate training during the day and it worked great. It would have been harder if we would have had to train her during the school year while we're all gone during the day. Once she's potty trained she'll be able to stay out of the crate all the time other then when your not home so it won't be so bad. Remember it's only temporary. I'm sorry I've rambled so long. I wish you luck!