clarkvstewart

I screwed up my dog! We bought Maggie last July. She's now 9 months old. At about 9 weeks we put her in obedience training - which was great for some things and awful for others.

Well it broke my dog. Per my genius trainer's instructions we trained Maggie that she would get a pretty stout correction for barking in her cage. This was, I thought, the I don't want to be in my crate barking so let's see how aggravating I can be at 2am about it, when in fact it was probably a combo of that and the, please let me go outside and pee barking.

Well we broke her of that bad habit! So now when she pees in her crate she has no problem with that, but she draws the line at poop and will bark about being in her crate with it. I also bought the crate to match how big she would be instead of how big she is. So tonight I dropped 65$ on a smaller crate to fit her. Now she will pee in this crate but bark about it since she can't lay down.

I've "trained" the I have to pee bark right out of her, now I have the "Hey, it's a mess in here" bark instead. How in the heck am I gonna swap it back?

She has no problem going in the crate and will do so willingly. And when she's out of it she will hop off the couch and head to door or stand up on the bed (wife doesn't like to share bed with her and our son too) to let us know she needs outside. But she's gonna pee in the crate. I don't know if she'll poop in it now that shes run out of real estate.

I'm at a loss. She ought to be able to hold it for 8-9 hours at this point. Tonight we put her in there at 11pm and at 2:55am she started barking telling me to bring a mop! I took her outside and she pooped, but I had the joy of pee tracks and puddles in the crate and on my hardwood. I'm losing my mind over this.

How in the world am I gonna teach her to hold it in her crate?!!!!


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clarkvstewart

And yes the vet has ruled out specific gravity, diabetes, and UTI's. They say be patient with her it's behavioral.


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Breezygirl

Ok.. urghhhh I would love to meet your trainer.. Ok so at nine weeks old what exactly did your trainer have you do when your pup was crying at 2am?

In the first few months they cant hold it for the entire night (well there are exceptions) Whats happened is your pup has been forced (in a sense) to use their crate and have now basically formed a habit. I would like to know how that trainer would now tell you how to fix the problem they have helped to create.

When crate training you are right .. they only need a small space big enough to stand and turn around in. That is what your trainer should have told you. It is hard at first to know when to and not to take them out of the crate.

Is there anyway that a dog bed next to yours maybe an option at this point, rather then the crate? Sometimes thats all it takes to fix it. Depending on how she was "corrected" the issue maybe related to the crate all together now.

Here is what I am thinking may have happened...

Puppy cries for one of many reasons fear? or needs to go outside?
Pups gets a negative correction on top of the fear? or need? she was trying to communicate.
Crate = bad things

__________________
Mandi ... mom of fur kids.. Breeze, Bentley .. and new baby Winter

Laneysmom

Poor little girl... Don't crate her at night. Give her a doggy bed by yours.

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Laneys Mom,
CAROL

Gypsiemouse

My suggestion may be tiring (to you) , but it might help in the long run.
Set your alarm for every 3 hours and get up and take Maggie out - treat and praise if her crate was clean.
After a few days of a clean crate- set your alarm for 3.5 hours or so - keep increasing the time between your alarm until she is holding it all night.

__________________
Lynne- Owned by and Slave to Maggie and Mongo

BobsBoxer

Completely agree. Monitor when she is currently going, then set yourself up so that at the same interval you get to her first. Dog's are pretty cluey, especially Boxers , so don't worry too much. With persistence you will get her back on track. You just need to give it a 110% for a while to ensure you don't give her a chance to go in the crate.

Harserider

I agree with the above. I've also found that by not allowing the puppy to drink water or eat food after a certain time helps too. I don't let mine eat or drink after 7:30pm. I let her out one last time at 11 to potty. Every morning I am up to let her out a 5am as well and she can eat/drink then. My Eva did the same thing when I was first training her. She never understood to bark and let me know she had to go...instead it was to alert me that she had an accident. I got her to stop all of that in no time by combining time interval potty breaks and limiting water intake at night.


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BobsBoxer

Yep Def, agree with cuting down water. You've almost got to look at it as starting again. Pretend it's pups first night home, and look into crate training infor for night 1.

I've been extremely lucky in that from day 1, my pup has held it all night. At 6 months, he now goes to bed in his crate around 9:30pm, we're up at 6ish, but he's happy to sit in his crate and slowly wake up till around 7:30am. Have not had a single night where we have had to take him out. But in the begininng i was very vigilant and made sure he could not have an accident and did not put him down to sleep until i saw he had gone one last time before bed.

Serena

I agree with the others. You will have to start all over. When we first brought Serena home at 8 weeks, we set our alarm to take her outside to go potty several+ times between the hours of midnight & 6 am. As she got older we gradually increased the length of time between potty trips overnight. But it took time and a lot of patience. We also bought a large crate that had a divider which allowed us to adjust the size as she grew. Serena will be 6 months old next week. We take her outside for potty one last time around 10:30/11:00 pm, then crate her for the night. We are lucky in that she loves her crate and curls up in it to sleep right away. My husband takes her out at around 6 am the following day. She hasn't had an accident in her crate in several months.

Good luck.

clarkvstewart

Started setting an alarm for 3am and giving her treats for going outside. Two days with no accidents so far! Thanks for all the help. Hopefully we can start pushing the potty breaks further apart. She's 9 months so surely she can hold it 8 hours if she wanted to. Also moved her smaller cage inside her play pen in the den so if we're awake she's with us. Also letting her spend most of the time out on the couch.


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