Placement of Crate & Peeing in Crate
Sky is 15 weeks tomorrow. We have her in a crate in the family room on the first floor. Our bedrooms are on the second floor. She has been peeing in her crate since we got her at 9 weeks. For the first 2-3 weeks one of us stayed in the family room with her at night and let her out when we heard her moving around. When we decided to both stay in the bedroom and wait for her to bark, she would bark and by the time we got to her she had already gone. But lately she barks, we get to her, the crate is dry and we let her out and she goes. Now, the problem we are having is that we are up with her every 2-3 hours. The first time she barks we let her out and she goes. The second, third, fourth, etc. times she doesn't go when we let her out. We think she's barking because she's lonely or she can't get comfortable in her crate. Is that a possiblity? We still have it partitioned off because every so often she does still go in her crate. Tonight while we were out at our girl's softball game she even pooped in her crate - a first! I'm wondering now if maybe she hasn't been improving, we were just catching her in time. Another possibility is that it has been 95 degrees here and she lays on our AC vent all day and is up all night. Maybe she's not tired enough. I can't exercise her outside like we use to because it's so ungodly hot! She won't even go outside. I open the door and she runs to the AC vent. My question is this - Should we move her crate into our bedroom on the second floor, remove the partition and see if letting her out the first time is enough and she calms down the rest of the night because she is with us and she has plenty of room in her crate? I guess I'm just wondering if trying different sorts of solutions will just confuse her or if we should keep experimenting until we get her sleeping and not peeing. I just know that I have to get some sleep! I can't keep going like this or I'm going to self destruct. I really love her lots and I know all the little things she's doing are mostly puppy things, but this sleeping thing is huge. I need a lot of sleep and I'm getting none! Any suggestions. |
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| Clyde was a pee dog too! He had accidents during the night until we brought him upstairs with us. Then everything was fine. I think a lot of it is because she just wants to be close to you and she knows you come when she barks. I'd leave the partition in though until you really feel like she's ready for more space, like after there haven't been accidents for awhile. Clyde is 10 months old and I still leave a partition in his crate (which we only use for when we leave the house for over a few hours). If I take it out, he pees on one side and sleeps on the other. He actually seems pretty anxious when we give him too much space. He likes the smaller area. He was a monster to housetrain so we tried all sorts of tricks! |
| Your idea of moving her into the bedroom is a good one I think. I would first try removing her water earlier in the evening. Don't let her drink anything for about 2 hours before you plan to go to bed, and take her out a couple of times before bed. If she seems to need to go out during the night I would take her, once, but she should be fine after that. I would think at her age she should be able to hold it all night if she is not getting water too close to bedtime.
Good luck!  |
Our Rufie was a stinker to housebreak... He cried and wet his crate at nite. We too spent many a nite sleeping next to his crate. We finally got another crate for our bedroom and had him sleep upstairs with us. We used a code word "sleepytime" each time we put him in the crate. If he cried during the nite, we took him outside. If he did his business, I would give him a treat and return him to his crate saying "sleepytime". If cried again, I would just kept repeating "sleepytime." He finally would go to sleep. I honestly can't remember how long this went on... as a new mom tends to forget (Rufie is only 1!) It finally worked and now the he sleeps at the foot of bed -- if not in it!  |
| I have a OES puppy and what I'm doing is working, but I suppose that can change (knock on wood).
I don't give water after 8pm. He goes into the crate at 11pm when we go to bed. His crate is in an enclosed garage where it is cool (we're still having 89 degree days) with a giant comforter on it. I go to bed so I can't hear him in the night as we are upstairs - I take his collar off also. I let him out at 7am. I listen sometimes after I put him (outside the door where he can't see me) in and his whining stops after about 3-5 minutes. He has a few toys and I exercise him before bed so he's wiped out. He holds it each and everytime. I guess the fact that I don't give him attention for whining, or tiny noises may help. When I put him in, it's matter of fact, no big show of sympathy or love or excitement like I am moving to China or something - and believe me that's harder on me than him. I give him some tasty snacks and out the light goes. I don't hang around to get him all anxious and it works. During the day he goes out after naps and meals. He goes out every hour also. Having tile and wood floors helps. We have one tiny carpet space in a living room downstairs and he has pee'd on it even after going out every hour. I am seriously considering ripping it out for more wood. For old pee'd on areas I have read that Poop Off for dogs works best (it's for dog odors, not just poop, but pee too) - the other brands don't contain as many enzymes and you need tons to make it work (more money). You usually can only find poop off online though. I am going to try that on my carpet today to keep him from smelling his old scent. http://lifesgreatproducts.com/ Good luck! |
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