At my wits end today!!

animalvr32

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#1
Ok, so I put Riley to bed at 1100 last night - with a potty right before.
I get up at around 330 she has already peed in her crate.
Jesus, I just dont get it. She was doing so well. I can't take it. I am tired of cleaning up urine out of her crate. She was holding it all night before.
I dont understand. This is getting out of hand. What can I do?
 

Rubylove

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#2
Ok - this is your third separate thread about this so it's really troubling you!

You need to take a deep breath. It's not getting out of hand - puppies are just very hard work.

Basically, and this is very simple, you are leaving her in her crate for too long. Puppies need to go, on average, every hour to two hours. They can hold it for longer when they are asleep. Your puppy is not even five months old, she has had surgery, she has vaginal and urinary tract infections, she is not going to cope with four-and-a-half hours in her crate without a potty break!

Human babies wear diapers until they are at least two years old. AT LEAST two years old. They pee and poo in them for the first two years of their life, and toilet training takes a good six months.

Puppies are about the same size as babies and have very small bladders. She is not doing anything wrong or being naughty - she simply cannot hold it as long as you are expecting her to.

You don't get it so what you need to understand is that your expectations are too high. The more you set her up to fail, the more she will, and the more frustrated you will get. If you are tired of cleaning up after her - stop leaving her in her crate for so long she has no choice but to pee in there. It is your actions that are making her `fail' - not any inherent naughtiness on her behalf.

The major part of puppyhood is cleaning up lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of pee and poop. Her crate is a tool that helps you potty-train - the idea is to leave her in there for short periods of time, take her outside to potty and then praise very enthusiastically when she does. Her time in the crate should SLOWLY increase in line with how old she is, and how well she can hold onto her pee.

Trust me - this is not pleasant for her either. Not only is she sick and recovering from her spay, she is constantly stuck in a situation where she is trapped when she needs to pee, ends up peeing where she sleeps (horrid for anyone), and ends up being anxious and frightened because she knows you are angry and doesn't know why. Even if you don't show any anger to her - she knows, because dogs work on smell and body language, and she will be able to both smell and see your anger. That makes her anxious and that doesn't help with her potty situation. You are inadvertently making things worse and she needs to be relaxed and looked after at the moment.

Basically, it's simple. Don't leave her in the crate for so long. Watch her closely, time how long it is (roughly) before each pee/poop and don't leave her there for longer than she can manage. THAT's what you can do and you have to be patient.

You would not expect a five-month-old baby to be toilet trained, and you can't expect the same thing from your dog. Put yourself in her position and ask yourself if you were put in a cage for hours on end when you were a five-month-old, if you could prevent yourself from peeing in there, too.

This might sound a bit mean and I promise I don't mean it to, but as far as cleaning up after her, yes it's frustrating, but if you make it easier for her to succeed, you'll have less to clean up, and for what you DO have to clean up, well, that's motherhood, so you'll just have to count to ten, suck it up and get on with it.
 

animalvr32

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#3
LOL I know. Obviously my expectations are too high. I feel bad for getting upset but she was doing so well. Anyway, we shall see what tonight brings.
I was thinking that maybe she didnt really like her crate.
What do you do with your dogs when you arent home?
Thanks so much.
 
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#4
night training

Is the crate small enough just for her to lay down comfortably and be able to turn around? If it is any bigger they can pee somewhere and not lay in it--this is the reason crating usually works is that dogs do not want to go to the bathroom where they sleep. Also if you have any bedding in there I would take it out. Wrigley tried the trick once where he would pee on the towel we had in there and then bunch the towel to one side so he could still lay in a clean place. Make sure you are cleaning the crate with an enzyme cleaner (I found ours at Petsmart and it is specifically for cleaning up dog fluids). If she smells where she has went it will make her prone to doing it over and over.

Wrigley started sleeping a full 8 hrs through the night around 14 weeks. My husband generally has to get up early so generally at night--even now he only ends up in there for around 6 hrs at night.

During the day Wrigley is and was crated. He generally was crated at puppy age for no longer than 4 hours without a potty break--and that was generally only once in the morning (from between 8am-noon) and at night time. I would say in total he messed in his crate (besides the two times he was sick) around 6 times total--but all dogs are different so you have to keep that in mind.

Good luck--and hang in there!
 

Rubylove

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#5
LOL I know. Obviously my expectations are too high. I feel bad for getting upset but she was doing so well. Anyway, we shall see what tonight brings.
I was thinking that maybe she didnt really like her crate.
What do you do with your dogs when you arent home?
Thanks so much.
No worries - trust me puppyhood is HARD and we all lose it and despair from time to time! I remember once Chester had a particularly bad episode of diarrhoea on the lounge room floor. It took Max an hour - I'm not exaggerating - to clean it up, and whilst we were laughing our heads off, it was actually really gross... :D

When we are at work our doggies are playing together out the back. They have lots of interactive toys and I spend about 45 minutes in the morning organising treats, and games and things to keep them occupied. It's a long day, and there's very little interesting in our back yard, so we work very hard to make it fun for them. They also get a walk before we leave so they are nice and tired. :)
 

animalvr32

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#6
Please!!

Well, I called the vet today to let him know what was going on. She was just boarded this past weekend and he told me she didnt have any accidents. I know that wasn't right because one of the kennel techs told me she had 2.
Anyway, I am just annoyed. She still has 8 days of antibiotics left and she will be in the smaller crate. Could it be that this is a behavioral issue? I have experience with dogs but this was never an issue I have come across.
Thanks so much. Sorry for the ongoing issues.
 

animalvr32

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#8
Thank you so much. Yeah, he is kinda straight forward sometimes like I dont think he is listening to me. I really appriciate it. I am going to see how it goes tonight and post in the am. Thanks again :)
 

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