5 month old puppy peeing in crate

[Neil Todd]

Shea is coming up to 5 months now and generally is well toilet trained.

However, now and again, he will pee in his crate when we put him in it to sleep at night. Each night we have a routine of letting him out in the garden for him to 'go toilet' before taking him up to bed. Most nights he does his thing and goes to bed happily enough. However, occasional nights he will go outside, start sniffing around in the air, get distracted, sometimes pee/sometimes not, then be up and down the stairs or whining in his crate for us to let him out.

Sometimes, we have been up and down the stairs with him and letting him outside 2 or 3 times. But still he gets into his crate and pees...even when he's already peed outside just minutes earlier!

I have to admit sometimes I feel like he's peeing out of protest! It's so frustrating!

What are we doing wrong???

Should we be taking him for a short walk every night before bedtime? Will he 'empty out' properly then?

Debra

[Sue and Cash]

Cash is 6 1/2 months and he gets up usually about 4am and has to go pee. He goes out about 10:00 before we head to bed. He sleeps in our room on his bed and at 5 months more than once had peed on the rug by our back door because he is very quiet when he gets up and we slept through it. He is better now and hasn't had any accidents since. I have now closed the door so he has to let me know and can't go down without one of us waking. Since he sleeps in here he won't go. I think you will see improvements soon. I know my dog is exhausted before bed. It helps if they are very tired. Maybe that short walk before bed is a good idea to empty him out. And try to take the water bowl away an hour or two before bedtime. Mine is allowed to drink before bed since i don't mind him waking me up. But that me! I know people would like them to let them sleep!

[Neil Todd]

Fran
We usually wait at the door and watch Shea too, although I must admit there have been times when we haven't because he's taken so long! Like I said, sometimes he gets distracted - either a sniff up his nose or a noise or the cat or just general nosiness - then sometimes he pees and sometimes he doesn't. What would you do then? Not let him back inside until you're sure he's peed?

The thing is, once he's settled in his crate for the night, he sleeps right through (8-9 hours most nights). The only accident he has ever had through the night was 3 days after we got him. Since then, nothing.

I'm guessing now that last night might well have been that he got stressed that we were going to get mad at him for going up and down the stairs, so he just came up and went in his crate and then peed. Like I said before though, he has done that even when he has definitely already peed outside minutes earlier. Could this be because he hasn't fully emptied? And, if so, what can we do to ensure he has fully emptied?

I don't know if he has separation issues because in all honesty, so far he has never been left on his own. We are both based at home and when we go out he comes with us. Sometimes, if he's awake, he will whine if one of us goes upstairs etc. Is this a sign of separation issues? If so, how do we handle it?

Nutrition-wise, he's on Royal Canin Junior Maxi - three times a day with a spoonful of minced turkey/beef/lamb. This was under the breeder's advice when we got him.

He tends to drink quite a lot of water at night time. But like I said, most nights he'll do his toilet thing and go to bed and sleep through with no problems. It's just the nights that he doesn't that are baffling and frustrating us!

Debra

[Louise Perry]

Hi Debra, sorry that I can't answer your wee in crate query but just to say alarm bells started ringing in my head when I read that you have never left Shea alone. You definitely will have seperation issues (if not already) if Shea does not get use to being left alone from a pup. I would say that Shea whining when you go upstairs is a possible seperation issue sign and maybe in some way it is connected to the peeing in crate.

Sorry I can not be of help as I am still learning myself with Reuben who is 10 months. I hope someone can advise you and good luck!

[danielle rowles]

I agree with Louise that you need to find time to go out and leave him at home by himself as this could certainly cause major issues when there comes a time when you do need to leave him home alone.

Is Shea shut in his crate at night or is the door on it left open, if he is shut in it then is this the only time he is shut in it? If he is shut in it, albeit in your room with you, and this is the only time he is shut in, they I would say this is a possible seperation issue, while he is still in the room with you he is in fact seperated from you by being in a crate.

I learnt my mistake many years ago about allowing the dog in the bedroom, Elise was a cute puppy who shouldn't be left alone and was much happier cuddling up to me in bed, how foolish I was, once allowed on the bed I could never get her off, it was no longer my own!!!
Now with 4 dog they are not allowed in the bedroom, though we did cut the doors in half as I hate being shut in a room.

I would seriously suggest putting the crate downstairs and giving him his space and you your own, he may well whine about it but you have to be tough, it will stop after a couple of nights, he needs to learn to cope on his own and have his own space a little as since he was born he has never been on his own. The pee'ing in his bed will stop, as no dog like to sleep in there own pee, just like children they go through a bed wetting stage but it doesn't last forever and you start to count the dry nights!!

Hope this helps, I'm sure lots of other people will have idea's and advice too that will be usefull.

[Ilona & Gina]

Sue, I agree with you. We shouldn't expect too much from a pup. And the key is to never tell them off. According to my experience with other dogs, telling them off makes it worse.

We were surprisingly lucky with our two. From day four or five, they were clean, no wees in the house, but I guess it's an exception. I really expected it to be more messy (being used to other dog breeds).

On day one, we introduced a strict before-bed routine, that says "Let's go wee". It was like yet another command - they wee on command and don't go to bed without. When they did their wees, we gave them a treat and said "Good Wee" (sounds so funny, but that's what we did). It worked well. Of course, now they don't get treats for their wees:))

In the first two or three weeks they woke me up at "wee hours",say at 4 or 4.30, but bit by bit we could extend our mornings. At the age of 12 to 16 or say 20 weeks they still need a little "potty" training. They can't wear nappies like kids.

As to separation issues: From the first two weeks we made sure we leave them alone. First it was 15 minutes (just a walk around the block), then half an hour, increasing bit by bit. Dogs are said to have no sense of time (who knows...), but the slow extention made us feel easier. Now we leave them for four hours a day without trouble. We asked neighbours to tell us whether they bark, but all seems to be ok. I personally wouldn't leave them for longer than four hours. If I didn't work from home and had to leave my pet for the whole day, I would have two cats, and not two dogs. But that's my personal view.

[Angela Roberts]

I agree with Ilona's comments entirely. Don't expect too much from your youngsters but added to this I also leave mine when they are quite young pups and tired for short spells in a crate in the car while it is parked in the drive and I am around outside doing things as it gets them used to being left for short spells in a car for when I go to local shows. I have also said this on a previous post if you ever have to leave your dogs at the vets they will be crated and away from you so if they are used to a crate and being seperated from you they will find the experience much less stressful.

[Ossian]

Agree with Fran on the points she raised. Would also say - how long did it take you to get out of nappies and how long did your mum spend with potty training. It was a "habit" that you were taught calmly. you went to the same place and you hung around there til you had "emptied"
Is that not how you can approach the toilet training with puppy. designate an area of the garden (confine it temporarily) and dont stand at the door waiting go out onto the designated space and keep the puppy on the lead walking back and forth in that space. when puppy does pee use a command like "busy" and tell the puppy how clever it is.

all calm, no cross patch and then into bed.
BTW make sure puppy is not hungry and above all warm. Have a smaller bed space which is cosy and a front space which has newspaper on. That way if he does get up through the night he is still stepping away from his bed.

But five months is not a good time to get cross with a piddly puppy

[Neil Todd]

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts/advice.

We now make sure that Shea has a good long pee each night before we all go to bed. And he's not allowed back in the house until he does. If he starts faffing about outside and encouraging him to 'be quick' doesn't seem to be working, I've decided to pop his lead on him and take him for a short wander down the lane until he does pee (did that last night and it worked).

We're also trying to be mindful of not getting wound up with him if he takes his time getting into his crate some nights. So far, so good. No accidents since last time (yet!).

As for the separation thing, we'd actually started talking about leaving Shea on his own for short spells only days before I started this thread. We're just collecting another crate today to use with him downstairs (his other is upstairs). We'll start him off with 15-20mins and increase it from there on.

Debra

[Louise Perry]

Glad to hear things are improving for you Debra. These beautiful dogs are little monkeys hehe!