Crate Training Problems
 

I have crate trained only one dog in my life (a Maltese), and it was so easy and successful. This time, it's proving to be a little more challenging :) Logan has pooped in his crate once and peed once. I have been getting him up at night every 3-4 hours to go outside to potty. If he continues to have this problem, what good is using a crate to train?

Also, I have a playpen that I keep him in for short periods of time after he has peed and pooped outside. It's where I keep his water and food bowls so that he can eat and drink but still be somewhat contained. This morning he peed and pooped outside; and when he finished, walked back inside the house. So I put him in his playpen to eat and drink. He pooped in the pen. I know that every accident a puppy has just sets him further back in housetraining. But if he has already peed and pooped and chosen to walk back inside, how can I prevent this from happening inside?

Should I keep him in his crate more often and only put him in the playpen long enough to eat and drink?

By the way, he never eats first thing in the morning. He still isn't eating much even though we've had him for a week now.

Hmm, the concept of crate training seems to fall short if he's going to the bathroom in his crate. My puppy never went in his crate, but he freely went inside my apartment, no matter how much I took him outside. After two months and no progress, i finally just decided to train him on pee pads. Things have been going A LOT better, he completely gets the concept of going on the pad, even though he had no idea what to do outside. Have you considered trying to pad train? Good luck!

training
 

i'm trying to remember...isn't he only about 9 or 10 weeks old? It's going to take some serious time for him to get trained. At that age, when he's gotta go, he's gotta go! I think he'll have fewer accidents in his crate as he gets older and can control things better. And when he considers the crate his bed. It will definitely take more than a week...more like months. (not trying to be discouraging!)

Hang in there... at least yorkies just have tiny poos and pees! Not like training a lab puppy....

deb

I have started to train the yorkie Scooby in the crate, the crate is just enough for him to sleep nothing more, no playing no area for pooping. So far, he has not gone in it, neither has he peed. he is let out each two hours with 1/2 break time and play or walking outside, then back in again, he makes no fuss. I dotn know at mine being 5 mths how long it will take but I guess 6 months?

Your puppy is a tinee weenie baby, he will make accidents. My Pom Bandit used to do this and pee like ever 20 minutes then he just got better and now that is no more, well providing I keep the two boys separated:D . Otherwise the baby will learn, dont put food or water in there for him. Are you doing that? So is he pooping immediately after coming back inside?

Rule of thumb is they can hold their bladder for an hour for every month in age they are, 3 mos. 3 hours, etc. etc.
The obedience trainer we had for our outside dogs, has 4 dogs of his own, he said they eat in their crates..I took my 12 week old in for her shots yesterday, I know the vet told me to make sure (with these dogs being so small) to have food down 24/7 for them until they get older..here's a website on crate training..good luck with your baby
http://www.inch.com/~dogs/cratetraining.html

I really don't want to train him to potty inside, even if it's on pee pads or paper. My in-laws, and anyone else I would trust to keep him, won't keep Logan if he's not house trained (defined as going potty outside). And I don't want to board him. I'm trying not to panic yet. I know he's young and we've had him just one week.

I don't put food or water in his care. Besides not being enough room, I won't be able to monitor when he's eaten or drank water, which will make accidents more likely to happen since they tend to need to pee or poop shortly after eating and/or drinking.

I have the smallest crate they make! When he peed in his crate, he actually slept in it. When I got him out, he smelled like urine.

He'll be 12 weeks old this Sunday. I'm just concerned that if he doesn't get the hang of this (and I realize it may be too soon to tell if he will), our family members will not babysit him. This could be a big problem for us.

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Potty training takes lots of time and patience.

You should expect to have accidents in the first few weeks. My little guy, Leo is 17 weeks and anytime he has an accident it is usually my fault...I missed his potty signal.

Leo is pad trained so somethings will be a little different for you.

Here are a few ideas to try:

**The first thing you have to do is make sure his crate is only big enough to lie down and turn around in. You can use boxes to fill up the extra space.

**I control all his food. I feed Leo every 4 hours during the day. I never let him have food and water in his crate. I believe the crate is only for sleeping and quiet time. *If you give them food and water in their crate they can't get out to go potty.

** keep a journal at first. So you can see patterns in his behavior.

** You have to learn his "potty" sign. For most it is sniffing around or running around in a circle... like they can't find something. I sat and watched my dog for the first few days so I could "watch" for his signal. Once you see it, you do not have a lot of time to respond. Their bodies are so small they can not hold it for to long. When they have to go...they mean right this minute.

** If you are going to allow him out in to house. Gate off a small area...for me it was the family room. I did not allow my dog any more space until we had a few days of no accidents. Then I added another room...the kitchen.

**Never leave your dog alone to have accidents. They have to be with you at all times or in their crate. For the first two months that we had Leo he was never left alone. Where ever we went, Leo did too. If he couldn't go, someone stayed behind.

** Do not put pressure on yourself!! You have to figure he will get it with time. He is a baby! You would not expect an infant to be potty trained!! Go into it with a relaxed attitude. Most yorkie's take a year to potty train. If family won't watch the dog until it is potty trained...find someone else. That is to much pressure.

** He will have to go potty in the morning. After play...watch for the potty signal. A few minutes after eating or drinking. After any naps, as soon as his eyes open and he startes to stir, take him out.

** Getting potty training down is a full time job, in the very beginning. But, so worth it! The more time you put in now the better. I would rather put all my energy into it now then to have a life time of troubles.

I hope this helps!

Thank you so much for all the tips. I hope I don't give the impression that I expect Logan to be potty trained overnight, so to speak. I have had experience house training a dog only once before, so that experience alone is all I have to go by. I'm trying to gauge the success I will have with Logan based on how well he's doing so far. Perhaps that is not a good thing to do.

I filled his crate with a baby blanket to help take up more space.

I do not keep any food or water in his crate.

So far, he has not given any potty signals (our last dog did). Last night he was playing and all of a sudden just stopped and peed. We caught him before he did much.

He has limited access in the house. After he has gone potty outside, we have on occasion let him exercise by chasing us around the family room. After awhile, we stop and take him out to potty again and to see if he needs a drink of water, which is kept in a play pen.

What I'm going to do differently than I have over the past week is not let him spend much time in his play pen. He will be in his crate, outside going potty, exercising, eating/drinking in his play pen (then back to his crate), or resting in our arms.

We have been taking him most places with us, even to restaurants (in his carrier). We do not leave him alone for more than 2-3 hours max.

Thanks again.

Wow, excellent advice! :thumbup: I crate trained Bella and she's 8 months old now and hasn't had an accident for at least a month or two. We don't use pee pads, she only goes outside. We got her at 3 months & it did take until about 6 months to get her trained to the point that she goes to the door and tells us when she has to go. I agree with everything Cindy says and watch him like a hawk when he's out of the crate. Bella never messed in her crate so I didn't have to deal with that, hopefully making the space smaller and or time will resolve that problem. Remember, patience, patience and then more patience. You'll get there. Good luck!:)

So far, he has not given any potty signals (our last dog did). Last night he was playing and all of a sudden just stopped and peed. We caught him before he did much.




Thanks again.[/QUOTE]

What did you do when you caught him peeing?

What did you do when you caught him peeing?[/QUOTE]

My husband picked him up and took him outside.

My husband picked him up and took him outside.[/QUOTE]

I was taught that when you catch them in the act, take them outside to finish (as you did) and if they finish outside, give lots of praise and they can stay out but if they don't finish outside put them back in the crate (which may be what you're doing).

I'm not sure how long your letting him stay out of the crate but the rule of thumb that we used was in the crate about 1 to 1.5 hours and then out of the crate for only about 30 to 45 minutes (they only get to stay out of the crate if they go potty outside when you take them out). If they don't go potty when you take them out of the crate they go right back in the crate for another 15 minutes or so & try again. It's a lot of work but the consistency and repetition helps them to catch on rather quickly. Also if you put him in an x-pen that should be counted as time outside the crate.

Another thing that's worked really well for us with Bella no matter what we're trying to teach her is praise. Any time we tell her to do or not do something and she listens she gets all sorts of praise and it really works well with her and it really helped with the potty training too.

You may be doing all of this stuff, I'm just trying to think of anything I can add to help you. I know how frustrating it can be.

Oh, goodness. This brings back memories. We brought Riley home at 11 weeks, 1.4 lbs. Until she was six months old I had to take her outside three times during the night, every night! Now she's down to once a night; she just can't hold it all night.

Both of my girls would mess in their kennels at first, even with such restricted space. Didn't matter to them. Your baby should outgrow this. Once he gets used to the kennel and start to feel as if it's "his" private little space, he won't want to soil it.

It might take awhile for you to pick up on his signals... and for him to give them even. Until he's fully trained, if his mind's occupied with something (playing, a bully stick, etc.) he won't want to stop and go outside.

Everyone has given some great tips. Good luck!!!

Lovely post and loaded with advice, thanks. How do we know when it is time to stop the crate? This is the question I would like answered?

I would say when he starts telling you that he has to go to the bathroom and doesn't have any more accidents. As he gets older and starts showing signs that he knows what to do (going to the door, etc) you can leave him out for longer periods of time until you're confident that he will tell you when he has to go. We never put Bella in her crate anymore (she's 8 months old now) except at night when we're sleeping or if we're leaving the house (sometimes in her crate, sometimes in the x-pen depending on how long we'll be gone). She's in the x-pen during the day when we're at work and she won't even go in that, she waits until my son gets home from school to let her out. Just be consistent. I eased up on Bella after about a month of crate training because she was doing so well and wasn't putting her in the crate very much during the day and she wasn't ready and started having some accidents and then I went back to the crate and had no more problems. I'd say by the time she was 6 months old we were able to stop using the crate. I still keep an eye on her and watch for signs and if it's been a couple of hours and she hasn't gone to the door I'll just take her out and tell her to go potty, she knows what that means and goes everytime. I still walk out with her to make sure she goes. Our Lab Lucee was a piece of cake she was potty trained in about 2-3 weeks of crate training. Bella definitely took longer.