Molly HATES being confined/left alone and refuses to poo outside!

[LeahA]

Hi all,

 

So after Molly's homecoming was delayed due to a case of diarrhea, she came home with us Thursday night.  Her health is fine now - the vet says everything looks great.

 

CRATE:

Our major problem is that she HATES her crate and she HATES being confined.  Every night she's been home she whines/barks/digs at her crate when we put her in it for the night.  She'll eventually settle after 30-45 minutes.  She will nap in the crate during the day with the door open, but only if we're nearby. If we leave the door open, she comes to find us as soon as she wakes up.  If we close it when she's asleep she freaks out when she wakes up.  We have been waiting it out at night - just letting her out to pee on a schedule.  She comes out like she hasn't seen us in weeks - tail wagging and jumping on us.  After she pees she'll go back into the crate willingly if lured with a treat, so she doesn't seem to be scared of the actual crate, just being confined/away from us (she had to go on an airplane to get to us, so I was worried about this).

 

Its not just the crate - we've set up a pen in the kitchen. We planned to leave her in the pen when we went to work so she'd have a bit more room to wander around (based on Ian Dunbar's recommendation in his puppy training book).  However, she hates this too - she jumps up to try to get over the wire crate and I'm scared she's going to hurt herself.  She's in the pen now and just settled down after around 30-40 minutes of whining/barking/jumping on the crate.

 

Unfortunately, she is not interested in Kongs and won't chew them.  We haven't found anything yet that will distract her when she's in the pen and we're in the same room or another room.

 

Any advice on what we can do?  Anyone had a similar experience?  I really want to do what I can to avoid having a pup with separation anxiety!!!

 

POTTY:

She also refuses to poop outside.  She's peed outside twice, but she doesn't seem to get it.  She's 11 weeks old now and can hold it for a pretty long time, so just taking her out on a set schedule is not working.  She will just hold it until we get inside and go then.  We've tried taking her out for 10 minutes and bringing her back in if she doesn't go, and then trying again a few minutes later.  We've also tried just staying outside hoping she would go (stayed outside for almost two hours when I know she must have had to go this afternoon - didn't go).  There are dogs on either side of us that bark at her and i think it distracts her from doing her business.

 

She also does have pee pee pads inside, which I'm sure have confused her.  Part of Ian Dunbar's recommendation was that she have a pee pee pad in her pen along with her crate, toys and water for when we're gone a longer period of time.  She will use her pee pee pads, but not consistently.  If i catch her going somewhere other than a pad, I grab her and say "outside" and take her out, but she still wont go.  We had planned on taking her outside every time she needed to go, but we brought her home in the middle of two days of very low temperatures and pouring rain.  When we would take her out she would just sit in one spot and shiver/shake, but not pee!  I'd love to use crate training as a way to house train her as well, but as I said above, she HATES her crate.

 

Please help a frustrated doodle mama!  Advice from people with similar experiences would be great. I've never trained a dog before, and I feel like we're doing it all wrong! Its a good thing she's cute! haha

[Tina]

I would just keep taking her out and when she goes to treat her and give lots of praise. My Roger took a while to really get it. I used potty pads inside and in the pen too. I wouldn't praise him for going in the house on the pads but I didn't say "no" either. If he went inside on the carpet, I would say no and pick him up and take him outside. I had pads all over my house in the beginning in all the spots he seemed to frequent. People would come over and make fun of me LoL Now I just have them by the back door and that's where he goes if I don't get to him fast enough. he even got out one night while i was at work, and when i came home, he greetede at the door and i thought oh dear god, im goin to be cleaning crap for the next 2 hours after working a 12 hour graveyard shift imthe hospital. but toy surprise, he only went on the pads by the door. They eventually get it. It just takes some longer than others.

As far as the not liking the crate goes, I don't think most pups like it at first. Roger would cry and cry for about 30 minutes then again when he woke up. I just didn't give in and at night I moved the crate to my nightstand so he could see us and it worked like a charm. It's still newTo her and she probably has some anxiety with the change. It's only been a few days. I wouldn't give in to her crying and don't talk, look or even go by there when she's crying in the crate. When she simmers down and stops crying, them let her out. She will eventually get crying doesn't get me anywhere but if I'm quiet, then I get out. That's what we did anyway and it worked for us.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Sometimes I think its harder to transition a pup from pee pads to going outdoors. We never used a 'pen' and thus, no pee pads, and both doods did just fine figuring out where (and when) to go. Prompt words help too. We use, 'hurry-hurry' for pee and, 'busy-busy' for poo. We ALWAYS go out with the doods to the designated potty spot. With Lucy, who is 3-1/2 yrs., I go out without a leash and she knows where to go and what's expected of her. Oscar still goes out on a leash.

It sounds like Molly has separation anxiety, which can be hard to remedy. Start with very short periods (a few seconds to start) of leaving her and build on that. She's afraid you won't return and needs assurance that you will.

[NS]

I am sorry, the beginning can be challenging. I will say that the crate WORKS but it takes alot of patience and you have to be able to ignore her and leave her in there especially at night. Our trainer said that during the day you can leave a puppy in the crate a certain amount of hours based on their age -- so 1 hour for each month of age. Your puppy is 11 weeks so she should be able to be in the crate for 2.5 hours or so, then let her out, have her go outside to go to the bathroom, walk her, play with her and put her back in the crate. She said we had to gradually adjust him to the crate during the day. At night, a puppy's system shuts down when they are asleep so they typically won't pee/poop in crate when they are asleep. In the first few weeks we had our puppy we would take him outside let him pee around 9:30pm, put him in crate around 10pm, took him out around 1:30 or so then again around 5:30am. Now we take him out, put him in crate around 9:30pm and tak ehim out between 6&7am. Our puppy is 5.5 months old. Consistency is key, ignoring the barking/whining in the crate is key, if you look at her or acknowledge her you are giving her attention which is what she wants. She will realize that you will go to her, let her out  etc ONLY when she is quiet. We are still working on that over here, our puppy is persistant and can bark for a very long time. It is hard to ignore but I know it is important. 

Good luck!!

[kristine & Auggie]

It does and will get easier. I would be outside for ages trying to get him to go potty and it was freezing cold so it wasn't too much fun.  I always  kept him on the leash so I  would know where he was even in the house.  It was so frustrating but one day he just got it and rang the potty bells.  I couldn't believe it.  He was about 17weeks.  I never used the potty pads because he just ate the

The crate, we cover it when we leave and when he goes to bed at night and naps and he is fine. At first he whined but we ignored him and only let him out when he was quiet.  I would put him in for a few minutes and then let him out and then gradually  used  longer times so he knew  I was coming back.  We are lucky because he has always been a good sleeper in the crate usually 9 hours, pretty darn good.

It will get better, just be consistant and remember he is a baby and will get trained eventually,  Good luck

[Janie & Sadie Mae]

I agree it will get better. My dog didn't like the kong at first, but now she loves it at 7 months. Crating takes some time. One thing is not to approach the crate until your dog stops whining. If you open the door when they are whining you are conditioning them to whine so the door will open. Just stand there quietly and patiently and as soon as the dog gets quiet, praise it and open the door. I used to put a little kibble in the crate before Sadie went in. I had to push her behind in at first, but now she willingly goes in. My daughter has a 7 yr old lab and she goes in her crate when she gets tired at night and lays down. It is pretty funny. These little doodles are pretty smart. They pick up on things pretty quick.

[Katherine]

Regarding pooping and peeing outside, I've actually known people who house train their puppies by first teaching them to use the pee pee pad inside, and once the puppy knows that's an OK place to go, they place pee pee pads outside. Once the dog goes quite often on the pads outside, they remove the pads inside.