bad idea? NEED ADVICE!
 

Okay, most of you know that Smokey has anxiety in a crate. He gets diaherria all over, so we've been letting Chip and Smokey free roam. No more diaherria, but our carpets need cleaned bad from Smokey pottying where ever he stands and all of our stuff is being shredded. Anyways, we discovered Smokey is okay with Chip in a crate, but because of everything he's been through, he thinks its okay to potty in a crate. So this morning I had an idea... what if I let him have a potty crate? I figure one day I'll spend monitering him in a crate. When he potties, I'll give a treat and clean it up. I'll repeat for a whole day. Maybe he'll get the idea? After that day, we'll watch him like a hawk. Everytime he potties, we'll put him in the crate. If he finishes there, then we'll treat. I have some of that spray stuff that you spray on the pee pads to attract them. I also have the stuff called No Go. It worked when he peed on our bed twice. What do you all think? Good? Bad?

My way of thinking is that if he already thinks its okay, then he'll get the whole potty training thing a lot easier. Also someone suggested me getting a litter box for him and put in the crate, then take the crate away and slowly move the box to where it needs to be.

I trained Cali in her dog playpen. I put her pad at one end and the bed at the other. When she was old enough I just left the playpen open on one side and kept the pee pad in there, then when she need to potty she would just hop in there. It worked well for us. Good luck

due to anxiety issues ive never used a crate because it just never seems to work. A lot of people have had success but id bet the failure rate is higher. using a playpen and pee pads and frequent trips outside seemed to be much easier and quicker in potty training my kids. Hope that helps

I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea. The only time you'd run into a problem is when you have to transport him and the only option is using a crate. However, the litter box/crate idea is probably a good solution to that.

Have you tried an ex-pen? We crated Franklin for the first couple of nights but we decided he needed more room to roam around. Ex-pens are perfect and he almost NEVER has accidents in his ex-pen. With pee anyway, we're still working on the poop. ;)

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I've just used the expen attached to the front of the wire crate and potty pad at the other end. I then took them outside about every hour. I'm in the middle of training another puppy now. Yes, this method seems to work so much better. I've never allowed a puppy to run loose in the house. Once they start to potty on rugs/carpets and floors, then it's nearly impossible to trust them even after they seemed to be house trained.