Crate training was working now having problems? Help

[fish1219]

Hello,
We have been training are Chocolate Lab using a crate and she has been good. She is 5 months old now. All of a sudden she has decided to poop in her cage at night. We put her in at 10:30pm and let her out at 5:30am (7hrs). She was doing really well.
Any suggestions?

 

[durvish]

was she holding it before for 7 hrs? that seems kinda long for a 5 month old. have you changed her feeding schedule? or changed her exercise pattern?

 

[fish1219]

Yes she was having no problems at all going 7 hrs. When she started we moved her afternoon meal from 5pm back to 2pm. Since that has not made a change at all we have put it back to 5pm. Any other suggestions. when we go out for the day. 3-4 hrs there is no problem. looks like we may have to start getting up in the middle of the night to take her out. When are they normally able to hold it for 7 hrs?

 

[durvish]

Our new rescue dog is a Jack Russell, the vet thinks he is a year old but we think he is a little less maybe about 8 months old. We still sometimes have to make a midnight potty run. Someone on this board posted a good rule of thumb. Most pups can hold it in hours about equal to their age in months, i.e. a five month old pup should be able to hold it for five hours and so on and so on. So you may be doing the midnight doggie run for a few more months.

 

[Carmenita]

My dog also could hold himself for about 7 hours.

I suppose you should wake up at around 4AM and take him out, make sure he goes. Do that for a few days, then take him out and 5AM...wait a few days and wait till 6AM to wake up. This will slowly build him up so he can go all night without going in the crate again. It isn't bad that he's doing this, his bladder is just smaller and weaker at the moment. Give him some time and he will be just fine.

 

[Dixie]

At 5 mos, pup still cant hold it bladder for quite that long. Try going for 5 hours. When pup is closer to 6 mos of age, he can hold his bladder better for extended periods.

Try either crating him later at night or getting up a wee bit earlier to allow him to relieve himself.

Good luck.
-Dix

 

[Julie]

My choc lab Charlie was able to hold it for 7 hours at 5 months old, with no problems. Since your dog has showed no problems before now, I seem to think there is another reason. Did you change foods, or start giving a new treat, or anything different? Or even a new bedding or removed bedding.
Rawhides??

As a matter of fact Charlie was not using his crate anymore at about 6 months. And still never had a problem. Now my yellow lab Shiloh was alot harder to train, and used the crate until almost a year.

But since your dog showed no problems before this, I would tend to look at other things, although you may really never discover why.....

I cleaned my crates by soaking them in the bathtub in bleach water, then rinsing well. Maybe there is still a smell in there left behind???

Anyway best of luck, you already got some good advice.

Julie.