Crate Training @ night..HELP!

[Jenna B. & Chianti]

First off Hi! I am new around here...would love any and all advice.

We picked up our "Chianti" on Friday and had a great first 2 nights - out at night 3 times at about 1.5 hour intervals, she whined we took her out, she went and then went right back into her crate.

Last night however was a nightmare. We took her out at 10:45 right before bed, she woke up at 12:00 to go again. Then at 1:30 was up again, we took her out and she went pee, she did not want to go back into her crate at all (she laid down just outside the crate), so physically put her back in. At 2:00 she was whimpering again....we did not take her out given that it had only been 30 minutes. She continued to whine for the next 40 minutes, when I looked down and saw she had soiled her crate.

I guess my question is how do I know if she really has to go or if she is whining just to get out of her crate? and how do I prevent last night from happening again? Any thoughts or advice would be great! TIA

[Karen & Lucy]

I agree, it is probably the milk. Dogs like a small & clean "den".

[Jenna B. & Chianti]

our breeder had use put the deworming powder in milk for the last 3 days.
She is 8 weeks.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Don't feel too bad, my trainer who has trained lots and lots of puppies, spent five months gettting up in the middle of the night to a poopy puppy and pen. He was so at the end of his rope he asked me for suggestions. Just take a deep breath, relax and do the best you can.

Did you change foods from what the breeder was feeding? That will cause upset tummies and the runs.

Wormer meds also often give puppies the runs. Teething can cause the runs No more milk until the runs clear up. I think you get the picture, some puppies like some people have sensitive tummies, some puppies not so much. Have you had her to the vet for a check up? Puppies do get the runs very easily. Give her dinner and a drink and pick up her water 3-4 hours before bedtime. Unless you just get lucky, you won't get much consistency in nightimes until around 12 weeks. Just keep up the routine. No talk, just pee, no treats, just good girl if she pees. She'll get it sorted out sooner or later. In the meantime take a stool sample to the vet ( you must pick up the stool within 1 hour of her going and get it to the vet within three hours) and have her checked out.

If you get to 12 weeks and she is still pooping in her cage every night, I personally would switch to a very large cage so that at least I only had to clean the cage and not the puppy. This is what I suggested to my trainer as it had worked with one of my pups - it took until he was seven months old but least he stayed clean. It worked for my trainer too.She will stop pooping in her cage at night even if you give her room to stay out of it.

Enjoy your lovely girl, she will grow up sooner than you think.

[Jenna B. & Chianti]

Thanks for this I truly hope its not 5 months, but great advice if we get there! We did have a way better night last night. She did go, but we caught it pretty quickly so no puppy clean up needed besides some feet wipes. Hoping without the milk and dewormer all is fixed tonight and today. I am home almost all day with her today too so hopefully that will help!

Also I never thanked everyone for saying how cute she is, we love her, poopy paws and all!

[Denise & Hunter!!!]

Upset tummies are the worst!! Just to make you not feel so bad Hunter had an episode that brought new meaning to "s*** storm". We were camping about a month ago up at Lake Erie. I had taken Hunter to the lake to swim, had a great time, UNTIL the next day she was acting kinda out of it and not really eating. We had plans to go to one of the Lake Erie Islands for awhile so we put her in her crate in our camper (brand new camper I should add to make the story even better). Normally Hunter is just fine in her crate when we leave for a few hours. Evidently she had one heck of an upset tummy, she managed to bust out of her crate (which is soft sided and she had never even attempted before) and then decided to have 3 or 4 bouts of explosive diarrhea all over our BED and threw up. It was really nice to come back to, my husband couldn't even speak he just stared! Needless to say all the new bed stuff had to be thrown away and the mattress taken out and aired out for a few days. I later tried to figure out what in the heck she had gotten into. I really think it was because of the bacteria levels in the lake. Its not safe for people to swim in a lot because of the bacteria and someone at the park told me when it is really windy and the waves are high it raises the bacteria count super high. I read online to find out the level that day and what do you know UNSAFE for swimming/consuming for people and animals. NICE! Always a day late and a dollar short! LOL It always gets better :-) And Hunter didn't get shipped to Korea to become someone's dinner either :-)

[Jenna B. & Chianti]

I don't know whether to laugh or groan at this story!!!!!!! Thanks for the smile!

[Shannon Querry]

Ugh, I feel your pain! We were in your shoes a few short months ago! It does get better! Hope she's feeling better soon:)