puppy peeing in crate

[Miranda]

Hi all,

I searched the site for this topic but I think my situation is a little different...so I started my own.  

I have a 13 week old goldendoodle female named Sandy.  Ever since we got her she never really took to the crate..she would bark and cry constantly whenever she was put inside.  I've been putting peanut butter filled kongs in the crate with her and some chew toys...which apparently work until I leave, but the neighbors have been saying that she barks for about an hour after I leave for work (we live in an apt bld).  We took to just leaving her out with our other doodle, (Cali) at night because our neighbors were getting a little annoyed about the noise late at night. 

Anyway, Sandy has peed in her crate pretty much since the day we brought her home (give or take 3 or 4 good day :P).  We made the crate smaller, but it didn't matter.  This girl rolls in it.  She is completely covered in her own urine by the time my boyfriend gets home from work.  I take Sandy out at 215, leave at 230, and DB (dear boyfriend...lol), gets home at 630pm.  I thought that maybe t 4 hours was just too long (I take water up at noon on days i work!)...and that eventually this would stop...until this week when I went to run a few errands.  I  took Sandy out to do her business (which she did!) and then put her in her crate and left for 1 HOUR.  I returned to a wet, disgusting puppy.  She did it again today!  We both clean the crate out really well with some arm and hammer oder destroyer thing...but I think that this might be anxiety?  She must pee in her crate everyday within an hour of me leaving...and then lay in it for another 3 hours.  I feel so awful.  I just want it to stop!

I've thought about putting her in the kitchen with a baby gate....but if she has issues with confinement...isn't that practically the same thing?  Also, Cali has pretty much free access to everything but the bathroom and closets....so is the issue that Cali is allowed out and Sandy is stuck in her crate?  And she will still probably pee on the floor at some point.  I'm at a loss.  Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated!  

[Sofie, Maggie, and Luna]

Our puppy would pee in her crate when she got worked up in there too. She is now 13 weeks old and we haven't had an issue for about a week and a half. I think she just got worked up and couldn't hold it. I don't know if they'll work but here are some suggestions. Get her used to being in her crate when you are home. We put her crate next to the couch and when she's sleepy we put her in the crate and close the door and we are right next to her on the couch or moving about the apartment. She began to realize the crate wasn't a horrible thing. We also feed our puppy in her crate. When she was really little she would cry at nights, so I got a nalgene water bottle and filled it with hot water and put a sock over it, I think the warmth helped to calm her and put her to sleep. We also played quiet music to help drown out the noises of people and cars outside our apartment building since the noises seemed to wake her up. Also, our puppy will get all worked up if she's in her crate and our older dog is walking about outside the crate. She stays much calmer if she is in an area that our older dog can't get to while we are gone so she doesn't see the older dog moving about. Hope she gets better...I know it is a very frustrating problem.

[Lynne B]

I would take her to the vet and have her checked for a urinary tract infection before I assumed that this is a behavior issue. UTI's are common in female puppies, and can make them unable to retain their urine. If she doesn't have a urinary tract infection, then I would talk to the breeder and find out how this puppy ended up being content laying in urine, it had to start when she was with the breeder, it's an unusual situation for a dog to willingly pee in a place where they have to lay down in it.

Crate training at 13 weeks can be tough, I would start by leaving the crate open and tossing little tiny treats in to it. When she goes in to get the treat, praise her and allow her to come back out. Then try putting a chew toy or bullystick in there and don't let her take it out of the crate, if she exits the crate, just take the treat away and toss it back into the crate. When she starts to understand that's the only place she can have it, she will remain in it until she finishes it, then you can start closing the crate door when she is in there & occupied but try to let her out before she starts carrying on. If she does start barking/crying do not open the crate door until she stops, just turn your back on her and ignore her until she quiets down, even if she only quits fussing for a few seconds, when she does, praise her and open the crate door. .

Tethering to a confined area works well too, I never give a dog that is not 100% housebroken free access to the house, they are always tethered to me or to some fixed object near me, by being able to observe them you learn the 'signs' of when they need to go potty and you can just pick them up and take them outside.

[Miranda]

Lynne, I should have mentioned that she holds her pee from midnight until about 7am....so that's why I didn't think it was a UTI. She also goes out about every 2-3 to pee at this point as well. Sometimes 4 if she is really sleeping. Although I guess it's something to look into as well.

She also isn't exactly content. I think she's covered in it bc she's trying to move away....there's just no where to go. Sometimes she's barking when my DB get's home from work...but not always. She was quiet when I got home this afternoon. I'm not sure if she just barks until she's exhausted or what.

Also, we never had this problem with Cali and we got her from the same breeder.

SML, I have tried putting her in her crate while i'm home...she just barks at me until I let her out, but I could always try that again. If I had a house I think I would have more will power to just let her cry a little longer....but with neighbors...I just can't :(

[Lynne B]

Usually when dogs bark, it seems like it's non stop, but if you pay close attention there will be breaks in the barking, it's just that they are probably very short breaks lol. So try to let her out the second she shuts up. If you let her out while she's barking- then she just figured out that barking means mom opens the crate, so you have reinforced the barking.

We just got a new pup, an 11 week old labradoodle who is not crate trained, he's doing fine in the crate for an hour or two during the day (I feed him in the crate and give him little pieces of bullysticks), But to be honest, I'm just not in the mood to listen to him scream in that crate at night, so I tether him on a short lead to our headboard at night. He just goes to sleep there and doesn't pee or poop until we get up in the morning and take him outside. So, that is working out for us- I think you just need to adapt to your particular situation and do what makes sense. We were lucky with our other doodle- 13 month old Beck, the breeder crate trained him before he arrived so that made it really, really nice!

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

This is what our trainer told us also - wait until that short break to let them out of crate.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Do you have the crate covered (even partially)? Have you tried a sound machine? We found this really helped Peri with her crate training. I still leave the sound machine on during the day while I am gone - during lunch I changed it to "Summer Night"...I think it really calmed her in the beginning and now she really likes her crate.

For the first 2 weeks of Peri being home, neighbors said she barked when we first left for 30 minutes. She grew out of that. I think she peed once every other day in it for the first week or so also. We used a towel instead of a nice cushion so we could wash it frequently. 4 hours is pushing it for a girl her age, but 1 hour is certainly not. The fact that she can make it all night probably means it is not a UTI - she is more comfortable at night because you are home.

Try changing up the crate. If that still doesn't work, I would next try leaving her in a confined area - not the crate. And they say they can be left without potty time for 1 hr/1 month in age (obviously that caps out around 7-8 hours when they are an official adult). I would say around 4 months old, we could leave Peri for about 4 hours. Now we can leave her around 6 and she is 10 months old. She could do it longer, but we don't like leaving her and her big bro alone that long anyway!

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I should also add that Taquito has had free run of the house since Peri came home.

[Miranda]

Thanks for all the advice! I'm going to try some of the techniques you all listed and hopefully something will work out! Thanks again!

[Kyoko]

She may be still too young to hold it for 4 hours....

[Kathy]

Thats too bad cause then you get discouraged,From the time I brught Cheech home and that was 1year ago he had maybe 8 accidents and never in the crate.But my crate was very small and as he grew I would buy another crate,But from day 1 we took him ouside every2to3hours and yes even in the middle of the nite,he was housebroken in a few weeks,hard at first But so well worth it.Thats how i trained all my dogs.Try it you have nothing to lose and give a treat after shes done ,soon she will get the hang of it.Good Luck!!!