Crate problems
 

I have had Diamond since March now so it has been about 4 months. She is about 80% housetrained. She still tries to go poop in the house, I just have to watch her and quickly get her outside until she learns. The past few days we have been outside, she will play around in the grass and about 20-30 minutes later, she FINALLY goes the bathroom.

My question is I always try to get her to go pee before she goes to bed (she sleeps in the crate). She tends to pee sometimes in the crate on the towel. I find myself constantly washing the towels because she is always peeing on them!!! Does anyone else have this problem? She doesn't do it everynight but she does do it here and there.

Any suggestions? The towels are getting so worn out from the constant washing!:eek:

Try cutting off her water intake an hour before bedtime and make sure she doesn't have too much room in her crate.

If you're outside and trying to get her to go potty - walk her, vigorously. I've found it works wonders. Or, have an intense play session right before you take her out.

Her crate is pretty small to begin with, it's actually the size of a cat carrier...it's not a physical metal crate. She has slept in there since the beginning so she is used to it. There is no way for me to cut it off because it's plastic material...I do have a metal one but it would be HUGE for her.

She is only a little over 2 pounds so the cat carrier is big enough. I could try walking her back and forth on the grass until she goes. She will also only go the bathroom when we are out on the grass and when we are on a walk, she NEVER goes.

Well, the only other thing I can think of is scheduling. Make sure she's eating, sleeping, and walking at similar times every day. That's the one thing all the books promote - getting on and staying on a schedule. My little guy is on a schedule because of my work schedule and he goes potty like clockwork... well, just about- he is a puppy after all. Good luck!

My guess is that she just can't hold it all night.

It's also possible that she's learned that the towel is okay place to go. I'd take away the towel and put something else down - maybe newspaper or a pee pad. She may be less likely to pee on a different substrate.

I second both of these. Loki is totally trained and over a year and a half old and he still has to go out at night sometimes. I know sometimes I wake up at night to go to the bathroom! It's normal for a dog too. When he was smaller I would just set an alarm for 2am and take him out to avoid the mess that I would otherwise have to clean up in the morning.

When we were crate training Loki he would pee on the blanket and then shove the blanket under the divider so that he didn't have to sit in it. So we took out the blanket. Yes, several times we came home to wet dog. I think our record was 4 baths in one week. But then he figured it out. As long as you don't leave them in there longer than they can hold it, they will figure it out :)

As far as the diapers, IMO they are meant for incontinent dogs and bitches in heat, not for potty training. Many on here disagree. If you keep the urine close to the skin it can basically burn/irritate their skin. You also aren't really teaching the dog anything except that it's OK to pee in the diaper. I understand using them if you are visiting another person's home, but I don't get the purpose of every day use for a puppy. Many people suggested I put belly bands on Loki when we were housetraining, but he never marked (which is what they are for) and personally I'd rather clean up a spot on the floor than give Loki a bath. If he peed on the carpet it was my fault for not watching him. When we got Loki I had brand new white carpet. (It's still white...thanks to my spot cleaner, but I'd never recommend white carpet to anyone!)

I'm having the same problems with my Keelie pottying in her crate, and I know she can hold it in all night. She has held it in for 8-10 hours before. But lately, she's been going in her crate every night. I'm starting to get the feeling that she's thinking "Well Mommy's just going to clean my crate anyway... so why bother holding it?"

Anyone else have any ideas? I do take her out before I go to bed...

She's definately not thinking that. Trust me. Dogs minds aren't that complicated. If she is realizing she needs to go, she is not telling you. Just because she "has" held it, doesn't mean she can every single time. I would instead wonder why she's not telling you she needs to be let out. Loki used to scratch as the door of his crate and now he rings his bells at the front door.

I had to take Loki out in the middle of the night forever, sometmes I still do. I think it has more to do with when he last drinks water and how many times he goes out before bed. We always make sure Loki goes out an "extra" time. Meaning he last asks to go out around 9:00 and then he falls asleep. One of us is usually up until 10:30-11, so we take him out even though he doesn't really need to go. This tends to get us through the rest of the night. We also make sure he goes out 2 hours after we cut off water, even if we don't cut off water til 9:00 or whatever, we get up at midnight and take him out. Otherwise if he drinks at 8:45 and goes out at 9:00, he's not really empty!

The last she gets water is two hours before I go to bed. So that's around 8pm. She goes out right after. Then we take her out again at around 10:00-10:15pm. She doesn't tell me when she needs to go, but she'll bark right after she's gone, which isn't useful at all! :rolleyes: I'm not sure where she's getting all that water from because I have woken up to take her out at around 4am, and I'll still wake up to find that she's peed in her crate.

And she was doing so well before too!

I found 2am to be the time we go out most often. Not sure if that helps :-) How old is she?

They are little pee machines, aren't they?