Hi so I got my puppo at 8 weeks and decided to not use a crate for him. I bought one to use at first but he didn’t take to it so I chose not to move forward with the whole crate training thing. I know it can be helpful and there are ways to get him to like it but it just doesn’t resonate. Now, he is 12 weeks and so far I think he is doing well? I feed him on schedule and take him out regularly and he usually only has accidents in the day when/if he is overly excited. At first I slept out on the couch with him and he would sleep through the night no problem but now he is getting eager to sleep on the floor with my cats + I think he prefers to lay on the tile. Is it possible to let him sleep overnight on the floor without a crate and no puppy pads without completely derailing the potty training process?? When I leave for a couple hours during the day I give him free roam of the kitchen/living room area and he generally doesn’t have accidents, but now that he’s been sleeping on the floor the past couple nights he seems to not be making the effort to hold it and is having accidents. Am I making a mistake? Is he is on the right track? I don’t want him to learn that he can just go wherever. Also, I originally used puppy pads for the first two weeks but took those away as I learned it can confuse him? I’m honestly just a nervous new dog mom and want to know what is best to do for him without using a crate while still ensuring he’ll get housebroken eventually? Thank you!
Hi Sarah, Don't worry, 12 weeks is still very young you wouldn't expect a puppy to be fully house trained by this point. I've never potty trained a puppy without a crate myself, but we've got a big guide to house training here that looks at it from this perspective too that might be helpful: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/house-training-your-labrador-puppy/ Let us know how you get along!
Hi Sarah, I didn't use a crate to toilet train my Ella. She took a little while to fully train but whether that was due to not using a crate or just her personality is anyone's guess. The positive was that I didn't have to get up in the night to toilet her as a puppy but, of course, the negative was that I had a period of time where we had to clean up the floor in the morning (we had a small, sectioned off area for her to sleep overnight - similar to a puppy pen). We initially tried newspaper and puppy pads but it didn't take long for Ella to find these perfect for shredding across the house. Hang in there, continue taking him out regularly, reward him when he toilets outside and it will come together before you know it
Willow was confined to the kitchen and has a basket to sleep in. She had puppy pads and sometimes newspaper down. She quickly started going outside in the day to toilet it took a bit longer at night. We got up at 5am to let her out and she was dry the rest of the morning until we got up at 7am. She did shred the puppy pads at night. We left them down in the day but she stopped useing them as we let her out when she went to the door.
Thank you! I appreciate the reply and validation! I guess I’m just confused because it seems as if he’s picking and choosing when to hold it? He’ll hold it throughout the night and while I’m away for a couple hours (even though he’s not crated) but when I’m home it’s like he’ll pee right in front of me even though I just took him out or something.
It's not really possible to fix toilet training problems without the use of a crate. Full stop. You might get lucky and not need one, but there's a reason so many people use them and find them indispensible. Rather than just concluding that he didn't 'take to it', it would be much better to learn how to crate train, how to make the crate a positive place so that you can use this valuable tool. Believe me, toilet training will be the least of your problems - he is only 12 weeks at the moment, you have adolescence, chewing, trashing the house, jumping on kitchen counters, raiding the bin and everything else to look forward to without a crate... A little bit of effort now, pays off exponentially in the long run.
Eek, please don't take this as argumentative, I just wanted to offer some anecdotal evidence to support alternative options. Just incase the OP really doesn't want to persevere with a crate. We chose not to crate train and used a few baby gates instead. We had a sectioned area for puppy to sleep and a couple of other gates to separate different parts of the house (this was especially important as we had a newborn child when our puppy was nine months old). We did hit a snag with toilet training when we made the mistake of just leaving the backdoor open for her to take herself out. Then, when we shut the backdoor, she started having accidents inside. We just went back to basics, took her out regularly, and we had success quite quickly. I will say though, I am actually quite fond of crates and ended up crate training Ella when she was about 18 months old. We ended up using the crate as I started doing obedience trials so it was quite important that I had somewhere to put her when I was at a trial. Ella has just turned four and we still have the crate up as I still find it really handy. I guess I'm saying that, while I think crates are fantastic, I do think you can make it work without a crate if you want to.
Emily, it really depends on the dog - on them as an individual and on their prior learning and whether there are problems. Often it really is impossible to fix problems (nb - I said 'fix toilet training problems' - not 'train in the first place') without using a crate. Simply because unless there really is one person supervising the puppy literally 24/7, you can't implement prevention properly...
We used crates at night with both of our Lab pups, but in the day time they were in a puppy pen in the kitchen when they were not closely supervised. We only used the crate and pen for about 4 months IIRC. Our biggest problems were not toilet training, but chewing up things they should not. That was pretty much over by 12 months.
I would never do without crate. Even now at 4.5 months it is still an important aspect of raising Perci. It helps in so many ways just not toilet training. Home alone, better resting, chewing, learning to stay calm etc. No surprise all the experts recommend it. If it would be up to Perci she would not take to anything incl. crate, leash, staying of furniture, etc. Personally I think it is a mistake to raise a puppy without crate. It makes the whole process so much more challenging which stresses both owner and dog...
@sarah m I’ve had dogs all my life and have never used a crate for the sole purpose of potty training. I just take them out a lot. However our dogs are all crate trained. They sleep in their own crate at night and go in for a few hours on the weekend when we do errands. Crate training is valuable. When your dog goes to the vet, groomer, daycare/boarding crates are often used. It’ll be much easier on your dog if he/she is already accustomed to it.
