Hi. We need some advice please. Yesterday just after 6am Jake pooped in his crate for the very first time, he never made a sound until he'd already did it. So outside no fuss, he pee'd, he got fussed and he came back to bed with us for an hour. OH stripped his crate while we were outside, and washed his blanket and Vet bed straight away with Persil, no conditioner. Forward till tonight, 2:15 he does exactly the same thing! What are we doing wrong? His last meal is at 6pm, and he's out every 20 - 30 minutes until bedtime at 10:30. Tomorrow I'll set the alarm for 2am, it was set for 2:45 tonight. Why does he seem happy to poop in his crate? Shouldn't he be making a fuss before going in there? He's snoozing beside me now, just going to pop him back in his crate and go back to sleep myself
That must be frustrating.... Was it a normal looking poo? How big is his crate? Any recent change in diet?
From your description , it looks like he has not yet considered the crate his den. Rocky had his famous runny poo episodes for a month or more , waking up atleast 5 times at night, even in that urgency , he cried loud for us to get him, never went inside crate. Is he getting enough time in his crate? ( all naps, night tome sleep, food , happy things in crate) . And of course, size of crate matters a lot.
At the moment he's in a 24" crate, so no extra room. The twice he's went in there he went in the back and was sitting in the front when we got to him. His poo is formed, a little on the soft side compared to my adult dog, but not runny. He came from the breeder's on Purina Pro, I'm desperate to change it, but am wanting him settled. I'm wondering if we haven't built up his crate as his den enough. With having the crate in the pen, he's in his pen, but we haven't been putting him in the crate and closing him in there. He is fed 3 out of 4 meals in his crate, the other he gets from a great ball in the kitchen. He goes into his crate on his own when I bring his bowl out, and we have been treating him in there, but I'm thinking he's not been in enough!
I would say always make him sleep in the crate at 1st never anywhere else. Also I would only feed Jake 3 times a day or less amounts.
I think putting him in more, closing the door during naps and night time should help. I do not have experience with using puppy pen when I am home, I popped him in crate if we needed a break. He went to puppy pen only when we went out. I hope he gets the idea of crate as his den soon , the more accidents he has there, I am afraid it will be harder to break it. I am not aware if 24 inch is small enough for puppy, I used divider , only enough space was given to sit and lie down, he could not move around . I am sure, you will get better help from others here . all the best on getting this sorted
A 24" crate should be fine. We used one that size for Juno from the time she came home, at 10.5 weeks, until she was 4 months old. Have you got any other bedding you could use just in case Jake is detecting the poo smell on the vet bed etc. even though it's been through a wash. If he can smell anything it will encourage him to poo there again.
As he's only 9 weeks I feel that the four feeds a day are best at the moment tbh. Can you explain why I should feed less? In the week we've have him he's went from a chubby puppy, to a longer, leaner boy with a waist. He's certainly not being overfed. Rocky-mum We've taken his crate out of the kitchen and his pen, and it's in the living room today. I think we've been a little bit stupid tbh. We were so focused on having him get used to his pen, that we forgot about the crate during the day. We're never really in the kitchen, so having the crate in the living room with us today has meant that anytime he's sleepy we've placed him in, closed the door, and he's settled right down. Also if he's focused on chewing toy I'm taking it off him and placing it in the back of his crate, after a few times he's been settling down and chewing it in his crate too. While he's quiet I'm treating and praising. I really don't know why we didn't have the crate in the living room to begin with! When I go back to work I want his crate in his pen, in the kitchen as it's tiled, where as the living room is carpeted, but at the moment he's better in his crate in the same room as us. Geez, we can be really stupid sometimes. MaccieD We have two vet beds, the one he pooped on top of on Monday's wee hours was different from the one he went on this morning
When we took our puppy home the breeder said we could switch him to 3 feeds a day so we did.... I'm a new owner so I just did as I was told! When you switch to 3 you don't take away any food- just more per meal. He did well with it though, we had him on a pretty solid poop schedule within a week. This is just my own experience, but we also had a point between 9-10 weeks where Otis pooped and peed in the crate a few times. I remember they were (for the most part) completely random and I was terrified that I'd be cleaning poop out of the crate every day. I made sure to use an enzyme cleaner every time and cleaned the crate thoroughly as well as made sure he wasn't in his crate during likely times. after a couple more weeks there were no more accidents (fingers crossed). He's now 19 weeks.
@PaulaG: Don't beat yourself up, we all have done things which we felt stupid later having a lab puppy is a learing experience. Now that you have him in living room and he is being in his crate often , I guess he will learn soon. But, having the crate in carpeted area is a big responsibility, I watched Rocky like hawk day and night for a month Since we do not allow him in kirchen ( only tiled place in the house) , I did not have any other option than keep him in living room. " If I do not watch him I have to clean his mess from carpet" was the best motivation ever
Newlabpup It's okay I misread Mr Grumpy, when he said "less amounts" I thought he was suggesting I feed Jake less I may be tired
Rocky-mum yes, if he's not in his crate he's beside me or OH, or playing with one of us. Crating is a learning curve for us and him, with our last two dogs they were in the kitchen, no crates, and never chewed, except a small corner of a cupboard. I seem to spend my time worry that we're not doing it right, and that we're setting him up to fail. I'm a worrier
: I may be tired [ You have a new puppy WILL be tired. Molly came home on 4 x 60g meals a day until 12 weeks. Then she went on escalating amounts nominally three times a day. However, for the first year or so she had just about all her food either in treat balls, Buster Cubes, Kongs (my skirting boards still bear the scars) or hand fed during training. He is still very young and accidents do happen. Make sure you clean them up with a proper enzyme cleaner like Simple Solutions. No matter how well you clean with other detergents etc there will be for the pup a chemical message that says "This is the place to pee and poo". You won't be able to smell it but with his magnificent sense of smell he will. You are making all the right moves - it just takes time. Like everything in dog training.
Thanks Tina. We are using Simple Solutions, we've found it a very good product as Misty is prone to urine infections. We're actually off to the vet today with her as she had a couple of accidents last night, so looks like she has another So would it be best to spray the vet bed with Simple Solutions and then wash it? I just popped it in a 60 wash with Persil. Jake had no problems last night, despite having his routine way off with Misty being up and down
If I remember correctly it says something on the bottle about giving it time to work. Sorry to hear about Misty. Molly had a urinary infection when she was very young, due to the good advice I recieved from this forum I whipped her off to the Vet's pronto and the anti biotics got on top of it very quickly.
Yes, it's 10 minutes after saturating, I just never thought to use it on the bedding, just accidents on the floor Unfortunately Misty has around 3 Uti's a year now, as she's on a long term low dose steroid, and it seems to be what causes them. She's on antibiotics now, the hardest part is trying to catch a urine sample, I swear she knows, and moves off both I can catch any.
Yes I should of said keep to the same amounts 3 times a day. Every dog/animal is different so just try and see.
