Our 5.5 month old female lab cannot seem to hold her pee for more than 3 hours during the day on most days. We try never to leave her in long enough to have accidents but she still seems to at least once a week. We have made sure the crate is not to big, control water intake, ensure she goes to the bathroom before going in the crate, tested for a uti, etc and are still at a loss. Some days she is clean, but often it is not. We never leave her for more than 3 hours(which means coming home multiple times during the work day) and sometimes she has already peed in the crate at that point. I thought by now we would be past this stage so it is very disheartening especially since we know people with puppies the same age that can hold it the entire day. Does anyone have any insight or gone through anything similar?
Sorry to hear you are struggling with this. Some dogs seem to take a lot longer than others. The only helpful thing I can suggest is about restricting her water. In humans. the more you restrict, the smaller the bladder becomes. So needing more frequent pees as the bladder won't hold as much before the urge to go becomes too much. NO idea if its the same for dogs. Being scrupulous about using non-ammonia based cleaners is the only other thing.
It is only during the day. She can go at least 8 hours at night. Also, we do limit her water consumption as much as possible and clean the crate with an enzyme cleaner.
Do you still feed her in the crate? I still give him Kongs and bones in his crate to keep the this is where I eat association and keep it clean fresh in his head. Now this is odd and I know my co-workers pup does the same also. We use a pen for Sparky during the day. He has a small water bowl filled with water for him to use. I noticed that he doesn't drink the water in his pen when he is home alone with my brother-in-law. He doesn't really care to play with the dog and just lets him out to go potty every 3 or so until someone else get home. When we are home, he drinks freely from his big water bowl in the kitchen knowing someone will let him out when he wants to go out. My co-workers little dog doesn't eat/drink during the day while she is at work. Her dog is home alone for up to 9 hours. She thinks that her dog knows she won't be home for a while so he won't touch his food/water because he can't get out. He never goes on his pee pad either. He doesn't have accidents at home when she is not there. I believe after a while your puppy will learn your routine and adjust accordingly when they learn their bladder control.
My puppy didn't fully house train until 6 months old and I thought I was going to lose my mind. Did everything "right," but never had one take this long! And honestly? I think a lot of it was a high frequency of needing to pee. She goes every couple hours during the day, even now. But now has developed the ability to hold it longer, so she can hold it and let us know (she rings doggie doorbells). For a few months she was peeing, then ringing the bells! Ugh! But I think she kind of couldn't hold it long enough to tell me. One time I was at a friend's so I had to take her on the leash, and after pawing at the door, she peed on the floor while I was putting on my boots. Confirming that she knew what to do, just couldn't hold it. Now, I am home with her most days, but we had accidents in the crate, too. I wonder if a pen with a potty pad in the corner might be better for her, in that at least she won't have to sit in her pee? Assuming you're also washing whatever bedding gets peed on with an enzyme cleaner? Also, which one? Nature's Miracle was not working for me. I switched to Simple Solution and it seemed to help her house train.
Thank you for the insight. I am hoping ours just a little slow on developing the bladder control. She is actually great about going to the door when we are home and never has accidents outside of the crate. She does pee on average probably 7 times a day which is probably a little high. We have just felt a little alone since everything we read and everyone we talked to seem to believe they should be able to hold it for much longer at that age. We have certainly considered getting a play pen for the day. We usually leave a towel(soaks it up well) in the crate during the day rather than her other bedding. (It was getting washed too much when we left it in during the day so we had to buy a new one.) I have had someone mention taking out all bedding because they won't want to sit in their pee but then it will definitely get all over her so I am not sure on that assuming it is to a point where she just cannot physically not hold it. We do use the Nature's Miracle so it might be worth looking into the Simple Solutions.
Quinn also wasn't fully house trained until 6 months - she did have 2 crate accidents, so not quite the same as what you are describing. I would try the pen and pee pad approach as well, and see how it goes. Quinn could not hold it consistently for more than 3 hours at that age. One of her two crate accidents was because the dog walker came late and she obviously couldn't hold it. At 5 months we actually resumed taking her out every 20-30 mins again, just like when she was tiny, as she started peeing more frequently, vet said it can sometimes be hormonal as they approach teenage stage/heat...don't listen to people who tell you that your puppy should be house trained by a certain age, they are all different and bladders mature at different rates! She will get there.
I would definitely try Simple Solution. I got it on Amazon and it was cheaper than Nature's Miracle, too! Bonus! I read that a few years ago they sold NM to a bigger company and the formula isn't the same. I could smell the pee in between my floorboards where she kept going, when I got down and put my nose to the floor. I wasn't sure if it was coincidence, but within a few days of re-treating the floors, crate, and washing her bedding in the Simple Solution, she was 90% housetrained. A major jump. Went from an accident per day to once a week or two - then within a couple more weeks, nothing. It might not be the only factor, but it might help if her bedding/towel/crate doesn't smell like her potty spot! Especially if she can hold it outside the crate.
I know this is an old post but hopefully someone is still keeping up with it! I am having the exact same problem with my 7 month old puppy right now. She sleeps through the night perfectly but still has to go out during the day almost every hour to hour and a half. She pees in her crate during the day. She is not left alone in there for more than 4-5 hours. It looks like it’s been a year since this was originally posted. How have things changed???
I forgot to add that she always asks to go outside when she has to go and when she can’t hold it any longer she leaks as she’s walking to the door. Uti has been ruled out and all urine tests and blood work has come out normal. I don’t know how to teach her body to hold it!!
Hi there, and welcome to the forum. Many young dogs need to pee frequently during the day when they are active even though they sleep through the night. The problem with bladder training (or re-training) is that for it to work, you have to stop putting the dog in a position where it pees in it's own crate. So it's about breaking the unwanted habit, and introducing good ones. You'll need to start with what your dog is capable of and work up from there which means you probably won't succeed if you keep crating her for up to 5 hours, because that way she is simply getting more and more used to wetting in her 'den' To break the habit you'll probably need to put her in an open room or large puppy pen with some puppy pads in one corner and let her pee on those. When she has got accustomed to keeping her sleeping area clean again, you could try shutting her in her crate for short periods of time (literally minutes) when you are home. And increasing the time gradually as her bladder control improves. Other options are to put her in doggy day care for half a day rather than crating her, or to pay a dog walker to take her out after a couple of hours. I've seen problems like this get quite entrenched if they are not addressed so it really is worth the effort changing your routine around in order to fix this issue I've had several dogs whose bladder control was quite poor up until they were around 9 months old and that would never have coped with a five hour stretch in a crate at seven months. So your dog's problem is not that uncommon. I know that is isn't an easy answer, but I hope that helps
I also failed to mention that she still has a lot of skin covering her vulva. Our vet believes this is a major part of the problem. We have postponed her spay until she has her second heat cycle as advised by our vet. We have done EVERYTHING we are “supposed” to do to get her housebroken and have better bladder control. I understand that 4 hours in her crate may be too long but there is nothing we can do about that. We had someone come over during the day for the first 5 months that we had her but he can no longer do this as his schedule doesn’t allow. Hiring someone is out of the question. There are days when she does not pee in her crate at all and then there are days when she does. I believe this is something that she will have to grow out of and hopefully waiting to spay her will help.
I agree with moving to a pen arrangement rather than a crate since you know she cannot hold it, and at least she won't be forced to sit in her pee and create a habit. We made a "pen" by using baby gates in a hall with crate at one end, door open and newspaper at the opposite end for situations we weren't sure she could hold on until we returned home. Remember that 7 months is still a puppy and sometimes there will be accidents, just like training overall is still a work in progress.
We had her in a pen for the first 4 months we had her. She is very large and can now jump over it. We cannot contain her in any kind of pen.
It doesn't have to be a pen. A room with a washable floor is fine. Put puppy pads down in one part of the room and let her pee on those. You need to break the habit of her peeing in her crate or you may end up with longer term problems. I appreciate that this is challenging for you, but a dog should never be shut in a crate for longer than they can retain urine. It is distressing for the dog at first, then eventually they stop caring.
I didnt read all he responses so... I would try feeding her in the crate for a bit. Associating the crate with food (food=Good!) might stop her from wanting to soil the place where she eats.
We are having that problem with our 8 mo old lab. He is pretty good when he is loose in the house and can scratch on the back door to do out, but when we put him in his crate even for a couple of hours, he will pee in his crate. He can go all night, but he still pees on a regular basis in his crate. It is driving me mad, because once he pees he will sit in it and then he smells to high heaven. If you find a cure, please share. Thanks,
I would be thinking about stress and anxiety as a possible cause for any dog which is able to not pee in a crate when you are home, but pees when left even for shorter amounts of time. I would set up a video camera on the crate when I went out and I would review the dog's body language and stress levels carefully. If the cause of the urination, is stress or separation anxiety, then no amount of toilet training is going to fix it - instead you would be looking at separation anxiety training and behaviour mod.
We have always had a dog door into a fenced back yard. Once the pups were house broken and could be trusted not to destroy the house (Too Much) They had the run of the house and could go out when every they needed too. Pretty much eliminated accidents in the house.
