I have a nine week old puppy who is reasonably good at going outside. She has a crate which she hates so I put her bed in there and leave the door open she sleeps in there without a problem. To start with we left the door open with no bed and she used it to poo in. If her bed is in there she won't poo in there Overnight she gets let out once at around 2am - she gets let out at 11 just before bed and I get up around 6 to let her out and feed her etc It seems that between 2am and 6am she poos sometimes on a pad sometimes on the floor. Last night she was really unsettled and so I moved her bed out to where it was before but forgot to shut the door She poo'd in there between 5am and 7am I let her out at 5 am and spent about half an hour outside with her - wees but no poo My question is, would it be bad to let her poo in the crate and keep her bed out? She seems to prefer pooing in the crate I don't think she had any training before we got her at just before 7 weeks (we didn't know she was that young until halfway through her first week with us.) Not my first time living with a puppy but my mums dog seemed to be much easier to toilet train than she is. I don't mind either way but don't want to create a rod for my own back. If I shut her in the crate she whines and screaches which then brings up the problem of I don't want to go let her out whilst she's screeching as don't want her to associate crying with being let out eventually. The one night I shut her in she cried literally all night. With about an hours rest
She is still very young. She has recently lost the world of Mum and litter mates that she has known all her life. Of course she is unsettled and protesting. With Molly I put her bed in the crate and dropped kibble through the bars. Very soon she decided the crate was a good place to be and would trot in and sit waiting for her kibble. You are quite right. If you let her out when she is hollering you will be making a rod for your own back. If Molly was fussing I would wait outside the door until she drew breath then bounce in all smiles and "good quiet girl" coupled with a couple of bits of kibble she soon cottened on that this was the way to go. I should add here that if she was in real distress I always went to her. She is very young yet to have control of her bladder and bowels, so no matter what you do you will have accidents. At 10 weeks my trainer advised me that by putting a pad in her crate I was giving her permission to wee in the house. With great trepidation I stopped doing so. Next morning all was clean and dry. I now hold the world record for getting a puppy out of the crate and through the back door into the garden
I really don't mind the accidents - they're part and parcel of puppies. I was just wondering if it'd be easier for her to poo in crate or to carry on as I am? Our bedtime routine is: Play Garden Radio on Small handful of kibble on bed Lights off Sleep Last night was the third time in two and a half weeks that she's fussed. She cried all night first night because I shut her in her crate - understandable Second night she cried for half an hour After that up til last night not a peep I wonder if she's a bit put out because my daughter is at her nannies for a couple of nights so it's just me and the pup, My partner works away a lot and although she's happy to see him she's more bothered by me hehe To be fair I'm pretty lucky with her really
Hello there Some dogs are fine with being put in a crate from the get go, others are not. It's wise, I think, to plan a proper programme of crate training - having a properly crate trained puppy (and then dog) is very, very helpful. It takes about a week of many short sessions to crate train (there are instructions in the Happy Puppy Handbook and also here: https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-behavior/weekend-crate-training Having your puppy poo in a crate seems rather counter productive - one of the main uses of a crate is to assist with toilet training by having them learn to "hang on" while they are in a crate (obviously, not hang on too long!). So, if you want to use a crate to assist with toilet training, but your puppy isn't happy to be in the crate with the dog closed, I'd say you should go through a programme to train your puppy to be happy in the crate. In the meantime, there is no reason why you shouldn't leave her in the kitchen, or in a puppy pen, overnight with her bed in the crate and allow her to leave the crate if she needs a poo or a wee (obviously on a hard washable floor for hygiene reasons). Lots of people do this with a puppy and still manage to toilet train them - it does mean that you have to be super diligent in toilet training efforts the rest of the time though. But if you still plan on using the crate then it probably won't take long for you to get her to be happy in it. Although it does seem to be the case that some dogs never really take to being in a crate at all. Best of luck with it.
My Gypsy hated her crate, I tried a very gentle programme to get her used to it - it simply didn't work. That was when we got the puppy pen, we haven't looked back Gypsy was out of the pen at 5 months and in a normal bed, Twiglet at 4 months. Both have been just fine in a safe kitchen with baby gate when left alone. Twiget was put in a normal bed sooner as she climbed out of the pen lol!
Nothing to add to the good advice already given, but want to say welcome to the forum from Fred and me.
Hmmm. If she doesn't want to sleep in the crate at night but does want to poop in it whether you have a pad in it or not then what about no crate at night? Shut the door so she can't get into it? Are you positive she doesn't sleep in it at all at night? First thing though, I'd try to thwart that extra poop at night entirely by taking her out twice. We had to get up twice a night with our current boy and he did have to potty each time. Yep, our first was far easier too. She slept through the night from the first night. Why did the one who needed out twice a night out have to be the cold, snowy winter puppy? LOL
Can I just add.....be very careful how you clean up her accidents. Use a purpose made enzyme cleaner like Simple Solution to clean up. No matte how hard you scrub with a normal detergent there will be, for the dog, that lingering smell that says "This is the place to pee". I am not casting aspersions on your skills as a cleaner. A dog's nose is many, many times more sensitive than a humans and dog wee carries quite strong messages to a dog. On the up side. I didn't need to use it very often and although I bought a second bottle I never needed it.
Thank you for all of your advice She does sleep in the crate with the door open only at night though she never ever looks to go in it in the daytime. Her last meal of the day is 7pm. I feed her 4 times a day - she's nine weeks now so do you all think I could drop her down to 3 times a day making her tea a bit earlier? We go to bed between 11pm and midnight and the last thing we do is go in the garden and I get up at 6am so she gets fed around 6.30am
Give your vet a phone call and ask what they think. I would feed my puppy 3 times a day and make her tea a bit earlier, but would let her have her water later than her tea. We use to let Fred out at midnight and I would get up at 6 in the morning and he was OK, but every puppy is different. She is still a baby. Try and read the Happy Puppy book by Pippa, I am sure you would find it very helpful.
With Juno she had water available up until bedtime when she went in her crate after toileting so around 11:00.
