HELP!! crate training issues!

[Chelsea and Bailey]

Hi all, we just picked up our girl Bailey (goldendoodle) on sat Dec.18th at 8 weeks old.  She is now 9 weeks 1 day.  From day one she has been a great puppy and has no issues with going pee outside, (even in the -30 degrees Celsius weather) but she has started having problems with going in her kennel!

 

From the first day we brought her home she went in there and she whined a bit but has gotten used to it at bedtime (still whines alot during the day) and I have been off work and will be until she is 10weeks old so I have kept her in a maximum of 2 1/2 - 3hrs during the day if shes sleeping and we always set an alarm at night to wake her up and take her out every 3 hrs ish.  She has never had an accident at nightime, but just over the past 3 days we put her in after she played and an hour after she ate and left the house to go see family over christmas, came home between 2 and 3 hrs  later and she peed in her kennel, rearranged all the blankets and went back to sleep.  I know pups have immature bladders, and we always take her out multiple times to pee before putting her in the kennel, but I thought it was natural instinct to not want to go where they sleep.  The first time it happened we blamed ourselves for leaving it too long, then the second I started to get way more worried, and finally the third time we were barely gone for 2 hrs and I am really scared that we messed something up!!!

 

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions?? Are we doing something wrong? and has anyone else had issues with this where they have grown out of it?  I can spend the time with her during the day now for the time that I have off but as soon as I go back to work she will need to spend 3-4 hrs in the kennel before someone can let her out, and lets face it, I just dont want to be washing her sheets and washing the crate out everytime we come home at lunch!  Please anything would help, even reassurance! I sometimes think that I am expecting too much because she is still only 9 weeks but I just want to get on the right track.

[BG and Gavin]

The one thing that come to mind:  how big of a space does she have in the crate?  It should be just enough for her to turn around and lay down.  If she has more space than that - block part of it off for now.  Also take the bedding out of the crate for now.  The blanket can absorb the pee and she can still be comfortable.  They should be able to last a bit longer in the crate than outside the crate because they are at rest.  Gavin never messed in his crate, but he was 10.5 weeks when we got him, so a fair bit older than yours.  Keep us posted.

[Kimberly Daisy Kalli]

I agree.  If she has too much space in the crate, then it's likely that she will use the extra space to go potty.  We had this problem with Daisy (who is now 2 years old).  As soon as I blocked off part of the crate - no more accidents.  We have a much smaller puppy crate for Kalli (12 weeks old) and she has not had any accidents in her crate so far.  Congratulations on your new puppy!  All these little challenges are so worth the joy she will bring to your life.  We love our goldendoodles!

[Chelsea and Bailey]

Thanks so much for the quick response. Actually the things you both listed were exactly what i have done, her kennel is just big enough to turn around and lay down and has been from day, which is why it really baffles me. Have you all crated your pups during the day about an hr or two after eating? Im really confused because she can stay in when im home during the day for 2 hrs but as soon as we leave it seems she pees.  Im more worried that since she did it once she is going to continue to do it.  I feel like I'm at wits end and it has been like 3 days of problems only, I think its so frustratiing because I just feel like I somehow was the culprit that has created this problem and im scared were going to continue to have the problem from now on...

[Adina P]

My pup always peed in his crate if there were any towels/blankets/stuffed animals...anything absorbent. Try removing blankets for a week.

[28m8zeod7x4sq]

Make sure your crate isn't too big.  Our puppy is only 5 months old, and at first he also peed in his crate.  I think our crate was too big.  If they have too much room, they will pee in one end and lay down away from it in another end.  Our pup did this for a while (about 2 weeks, I think) and then it just stopped.  He still goes crazy, however when we leave the house and puts him in the crate....  we can hear him even in our cars with the doors shut!  I don't think doodles like to be left alone very well.  Good luck.  I know it is not easy to come home to a messy crate.....  oh, and also, make sure you get it really clean, and free of the smell,  or he will want to mark it over and over again.

[Lynda Kamrath]

I don't use crates (except in the cars) but I would agree that you need to make the space smaller and take out all bedding.  Wash everything that could have a urine scent on it and then clean the crate with Nature's Miracle.  When the scent is removed, she should not be peeing in the crate.  I suspect (since she does not pee in the crate when you are at home) that it may be a little bit of anxiety that causes her to leak at first.  You might try putting in a nice blanket when she goes to bed at night and take it back out in the morning.  But do not leave any bedding in the crate when you are away.  Good luck.  I know it is hard to leave puppies at home alone.

[Carol]

Chelsea congrats on your new puppy! We just got our new pup on the 17th and experienced a similar issue. Our first doodle never did this so I was surprised too. I had a crate pad in there at first and then removed it and placed a sheet in there. Second, I made her space much smaller. Finally, we have her on a pretty good schedule of time in and out. If all of this sounds right then the last thing I would do is limit her water intake. Izzy gets no water after 7pm and during the day she gets water for up to 1/2 hour to 1 hour when she is out of her kennel for no more than 2 hours at a time. This has helped tremendously and since then she has had no more accidents.

Now my only dilemma is getting my husband to keep a better eye on her when she is out as opposed to Sports Center!

[Chelsea and Bailey]

Thankyou! This was great help.  We have the crate divider just big enough so she only turn around in it, the challenge is going to come when she becomes too long and can no longer lay width wise in the crate.  We limit water from 6pm and give ice cubes if really searching or after a big play. 

 

The whole idea of having her on a schedule of crate time is something I have wanted to try doing but I just dont know how to start.  SInce we both will be working in the new year (Jan 5th) I wanted to somehow get her used to being in the crate in the mornings, but she really has a problem with being in there when she is not tired and when we are home.  So with that being said, what are your tricks? we usually put her in from 9-10ish and then it varies throughout the day when she sleeps, It will have to start being 8-12 and 1-5 when we start working (which I do feel terrible about, but it has to be done), so would you start getting her used to that before or should I focus my time on getting the potty training really down before making her spend more time in the crate?

 

Also one other question is with the water.. so do you just leave it available during certain times of the day to develop a schedule? That is a really great idea and something I never thought about ..

 

Thanks!

[Carol]

Chelsea I'm glad I helped. With regard to the water we leave it out for about 1/2 hour or so from the time she comes out (depending oon how long she will be out) and then after that it goes away. Our trainer told us to work on taking her outside to go potty fewer times while she is out and during the night to get her to learn to hold it longer. We've worked on leaving her out for about 2 to 3 hours and began taking her out less and less during that 2-3 hour period. So for example, we used to take her out about every 20 minutes during that time frame and then we pushed it back to 45 minutes, and now we are at about 70 minutes so she if out for 2-3 hours she goes out 2x (this does not included the time she goes out after eating food). We did the same thing at night. She is basically on a 2 hours in the crate and 2-3 hours out of the crate (unless of course we have some other plans or things going on during the day and even then we try to work around her schedule) until bedtime. Izzy is usually tired after about 2 hours, but not always, and when we put her in her kennel she is not always ready, but we usually cover her kennel so she is not distracted by all the lights and noise and she usually quiets down within couple of minutes. We put her down at about 11p, take her out at 3:30 am, and then for the morning at about 7:30 am. So far, thank God, no accidents in the crate. We are also working on using Poochie Bells to train her to let us know when she has to go potty, like our older pup does. Our trainer did say that if she has any more accidents to remove her sheet altogether so there is nothing absorbing the urine. Our goal is by 10 weeks she'll be crated less and out more and will go to bed earlier (about 9p)  with the 3:30 am potty break being removed. 

 

For you, since your goal is 8-12 and 1-5 without potty breaks, you may want to build up to that. Crate her at 8 instead of 9 since that's what you will need to do by January.  Make sure she is always out and goes potty between 12 and 1p since that appears to be another crucial time for you and again at 5pm, maybe even feeding her dinner and her last bit of water at that time (depending upon when you finally put her down for bed). The rule of thumb my trainer told me was puppies hold it for about 1 hour per their age so a 2 month old should have at least a 2 hour time frame to hold their urine but that can be built upon.

 

I don't profess to be an expert but this has worked with our other doodle and seems to be working with Izzy. I do hope this helps! If you'd like me to send our exact schedule let me know. 

[BG and Gavin]

As far as crating her for the work day, a scheduled that worked well for us.

Up at 6:30 - pee break

6:45 - 7:15 - walk

7:15-7:30 - play time in the yard (with pee break)

7:30 - breakfast

7:45 - in the bathroom with me while I showered

8:00-8:45 - supervise pup and keep her moving through your morning routine.

8:40 - pee break

8:45 - into the crate

Our guy then would sleep well due to all the morning activity

Noon- out of the crate and directly to pee spot (in the early days we would carry him with tail tucked underneath him as he would want to pee the moment he got moving.

12:15 - walk around the block and play time

12:30 - lunch

12:45 - pee break and back to crate with a kong filled with kibble and peanut butter

Hope this helps :)

 

[Chelsea and Bailey]

This is an awesome schedule, thanks so much!! Its nice hearing what everyone does. 

So heres and update of day 1 of the new schedule:

woke up at 7 (which i have to say is very difficult when on holidays) took pee break and fed breakfast, played for an hr, at 8 took out for pee break and right into kennel.  My plan was for at least 2 hours, but she woke us up whining at 915. I really really wanted to ignore it, however she had messed in the kennel the last time we ignored the morning whine so we waited till she quieted down and took her out to pee. She played till about 10 then put back into kennel, again woke up at 11 whining.  I waited till about 1130 and took her out to pee. Gave lunch and now here we are...

 

So in all, Day 1 of schedule did not go so well, lets hope afternoon she can last longer in the kennel so she can get used to the new schedule!! Once I start up my 12 hr shifts and Kyle his 8hrs I dont want her to be in complete shock!

 

Am I worrying too much about the whining? She hasnt pee'd in the kennel for 2 days, which is positive, and has only had 1 accident in the house-which is amaziing! Should I just leave her for the 2 hours and hope with fingers crossed, even if she whines? I know we are supposed to train the bladder to wait and sometimes she can go 2-3 hrs holding it and sometimes its 20-30 mins.. here's to trial and error!

[Carol]

I would say yes, you are worrying too  much about the whining. She will stop when she realizes she will not get her way because of it. Izzy whined for about 20 minutes (on and off) the first couple of days she was in her crate, now she will whine for all but 1 minute before I think she remembers, "Oh right, that won't work I guess I will have to wait." My trainer explained to me that when you take her out more you are actually training her not to hold it because she will think, ok they will take me out when I need want go instead of when you are able to take her out. Does this make sense? I would say, the longer you leave her in the more she will begin to learn and depend on those scheduled times you take her out instead of more constant or sporadic times you take her out. 

 

And yes!  Here's to trial and error!  That's what it's all about because no two dogs are alike. Some of it is just about learning your dog and your dog learning you! Most importantly celebrate the fact that she hasn't pee'd in the kennel for 2 days!!!! YEAH!!! See, your plan is already working already!