How Can I Get My Dog To Stop Peeing In Her Crate?

302 Comments

1. I have a one-year-old multi poo who is very hyper! He has been neutered and I keep his food and water in his crate with him. He sleeps on a blanket because he tears a bed to shreds. I am home with him all day and we take him out regularly and he even tells us when he hast to go. But it seems that when he gets upset if we leave and sometimes overnight he will pee in his crate. He does not poo just pee. I change his bed and clean his crate regularly with vinegar but yet he still does this. What can I do to keep this from happening?

2. If she’s having accidents in the crate you should first thoroughly clean the crate with an enzymatic cleaner to remove all smells. I’d remove any type of bedding you have in the crate too. Second, try working on leaving her in her crate for short periods of time so she’s successful without having an accident. Slowly start increasing the amount of time until she can spend the entire evening in the crate without having an accident. Third, it’s also possible she has a medical condition so you might want to have her get checked by your veterinarian.

3. I am fostering a 5 year old owner surrender rat terrier. During the day she poops and pees when put outside. But when putting her out before bedtime she will not pee. If put in her bed or a crate overnight by morning she has peeped in either. How do I train her not to peep overnight in bed or crate or on floor?

4. Thanks for sharing your tip. How large is your crate? Puppies usually don’t like to pee where they sleep so when a crate is too large they will potty on one side and sleep on the other.

5. My puppy is a little over 3 months old. She is still peeing in her crate during the day while I’m at work. I have someone come over to take her out at noon, and she has already peed. I spoke to a trainer who told me to start feeding my puppy in the crate. Not in the bowl, but scatter it about, and let them eat with the door open. After you’ve taken them outside to do their business, put them in the crate, and leave. They will not pee where they are fed. AND, the trainer was right!! No pee in the crate for 2 days now!!
   Note: I have another crate in my bedroom, and she hasn’t peed in that one for days, so I really don’t know what the difference is from the one in the living room I leave her in during the day.

6. Brittany we are going through the same thing with our Rottsky. We will take her outside to potty for up to 30 minutes and she won’t pee, but once we crate her to take a shower/use the washroom she whines and pees. It is so frustrating because she is not taking the opportunities to go outside. Let me know if you have managed to break this habit.

7. Hi my 9 week staffy puppy sleeps in his crate at night, put him to bed at 10 ish come down around 6.30/7.00? His blanket his wet where he has wee weed, is he being left too long? He is in a large crate with blankets us that too big ?

8. Here’s a post we have on potty training that might help: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

9. I have an 3 year old australian terrier I’ve been trying to potty train her for 3 he she still less in her crate I need help…

10. Congratulations on your new puppy! It does sound like your puppy may be waiting to potty in his crate. I would try starting over with his crate training. Try to make every interaction with his crate positive. Also, you want to make sure he’s always successful in his crate. To start out I’d thoroughly clean the crate with an enzymatic cleaner. Then try crating him for only 5 minutes without and accident, let him out, praise him and bring him to his potty spot. Try doing this and gradually increasing the time he’s in his crate. Here are a couple articles that might help you with crate training and potty training:

    https://puppyintraining.com/crate-training-puppies/
    https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

    Good luck with your training!

11. Hello,
    I just brought home a dog from an animal rescue yesterday. He is doing really well and has seemed like he has really warmed up to me. But despite me taking him out on multiple walks now he has not peed in front of me. He has gone 3 times now in his crate when he has only been left for a short time (2 hours or less). The foster mother told me that when she caught him peeing in her home she would put him in his crate and only took him out to go outside to pee or poop and put him back in until he learned that doing it inside is unacceptable. Which I feel like I’ve heard that that is the wrong thing to do. I have barley had him in his crate since I got him and have been with him all the time his is out. So it’s like the is holding it until he’s alone in his crate, so I can’t even reward him for doing it out side. Any suggestions on how to handle this?

12. Congratulations on your new puppy! We try not to crate our puppies for more then 2-3 hours during the day. You’re puppy could be experiencing these behavior problems because he’s spending too much time in his crate. If you can try getting some help from friends, family, neighbors, or a pet sitter to come over to walk your dog and play with him during the day. You could also look into bringing him in to a doggy daycare where he can interact and play with other dogs during the day. Here’s a post that might be helpful: https://puppyintraining.com/what-do-you-do-with-your-puppy-when-you-work-full-time/. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy.

13. I have an almost 6month old shihpoo. When we first got him (4 months old) he was doing great with crate training. But now he pees everyday almost in his crate. His feeding schedule hasnt changed or anything. His crate it small enough that he can just turn around and lay down but he still will pee so everyday he has to be washed up since he has long hair. Me and my husband both work 8hrs so he is in the crate for roughly 8hrs. He has done great before but idk what changed that he keeps peeing in there now. How can I get him to stop?

14. It’s tough to tell without actually being there to witness the behavior. You might want to consider bringing in a certified professional dog trainer for an in home training session to work with you and your puppy. That being said does she do this every time you take her out to potty? If so, then you may have inadvertently trained here to pee in her crate. A few things I would do. 1. Thoroughly clean the crate with an enzymatic cleaner like Rocco & Roxie and remove any absorbent items like blankets or beds. 2. Every time you take her outside to potty make sure she empties her bladder in the same spot every time. 3. Try to make her have small successes in her crate by only putting her in the crate after she’s relieved herself and monitor her to make sure she doesn’t have an accident. When she does well make sure to praise and reward her good behavior. Good luck with your training!

15. I bring my puppy who is now 6 months old, back in from outside and she pees in her crate, while no attempt to pee 2 minutes beforehand while outside. She has moved into a smaller crate as recommended. She is outside per her regular schedule and old enough to hold her bladder. What next?

16. Our puppy is 14 weeks old today, she was doing really well when we first brought her home with not weeing in the create during the night and we got up three times in the night, the last two weeks even though we get up she is still weeing, we have taken the blankets out and the crate is the right size but she doesn’t seem bothered to lie in it. we have a three year old daughter as well who gets up early so the lack of sleep is becoming to become really frustrating when you feel like your not getting anywhere. It’s our first puppy 🐶

17. How did you get your Husky to stop peeing in the crate??? Our dog is 8 months old and she still pees in the crate during the day, if she’s left in it more than 2 hours. She does perfectly at night but during the day has been our biggest challenge. She also pees if my husband is sitting at his computer or we are in the shower and we don’t take her in the bathroom with us (even if we just took her out). But she’s not afraid of the water at all. In fact, she will crawl in the shower with us. We’ve been doing our best to stay calm and consistent but man it can be frustrating. She is a fantastic dog otherwise!

18. Congratulations on your new puppy! The best thing to do would be to contact a certified professional dog trainer to assess your situation and give you recommendations. Based on what you’ve written your puppy may be experiencing some anxiety in the crate. As a general rule of thumb I would expect most 4 month old puppies to be okay for 2-3 hours in the crate during the day. However, every puppy is different and she may be in the crate too long during the day. A couple things I’ve done with my puppies that may work for you are shorten the amount of time she’s in the crate during the day by having a friend, family member, or pet sitter let her out and play with her. Try using the crate for short periods when you are home. This way she will know that going into the crate during the day doesn’t always mean she’s going to be left home alone. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy!

19. My puppy is dry of a night & generally doesn’t goes through for 5 hours (I’ve set my alarm for half four so she doesn’t have any accidents) sometimes more.
    My husband only works part time and our grown up son is usually home before my husband so our puppy is only left for 2-3 hours but she goes to the toilet in her crate. She is and has always been regularly taken out to go to the toilet and gets rewarded for it every time she goes outside (even if it’s a tiny wee), she will take herself outside to go to the toilet while we are here and knows where to go. Her feed before my husband goes to work is 2&1/2 hours before he goes and her next is when he gets back ( she has three meal times a day as recommended by our vet). She is played with and taken out for a walk before he goes as well.
    She is four months old, we need some advice please. What can we did to help her to manage herself while he’s at work?

20. 4 hours is the max that the puppy can be left alone in crate. the crate always helped me with my puppies. I have 4 dogs as of now. The husky I have made me work hard the most with crate training. But now everything is settled and going smoothly.
    All the best to the dog lovers out there with their training sessions 🙂

21. My puppy is 4 months old. I was reading a good way to crate train is to feed the pup in the crate. FYI Just got him last week and I’m pretty new to raise a puppy alone. Well, he peed in his crate literally seconds after eating in there. I was shocked! He did near the same thing last week when he ate out of a bowl in the kitchen and ran over to his big boy bed in my bedroom (just for lounging purposes now until his potty trained). I take him out A LOT. I got home today and took him out to his normal spot just under 3 hours from his last visit then we went to the dog park. I’m thinking maybe after his nap he needed to release again but that was under an hour too. Any ideas folks?

22. I have a 10 week old husky. She is doing very well with very few accidents in the house but every time I put her in her crate even for just 30 minutes she pees and lays in it. When I got her she was in a kennel with 4 other puppies and they were all covered in pee. How can I break her out of peeing in her crate?

23. I have had many pugs over my life time and they all have potty trained in a timely manner. Last September I got my first girl pug and it has been a trial to potty train. At about 8/9 months she stopped having accidents in my condo. But she still has them in her kennel. We could be outside 20 min and nothing come in and she runs to her kennel to pee. Or she pees or poops in her kennel while I am at work. She will be 1 years old next month. What can I do to help speed this along. I walk her before I leave for work but she still has accidents. And the kennel is the proper size so she has no issues sitting in it. She goes when ever we are on a walk so I don’t know what to do. Also I have a dog camera on her to see if she is stressed. She is not it never alerts to whimpers or barks. And any spot checks she is fine. Please advise.

24. We have a 5 month old labradoodle. She was doing just fine in her crate. Wouldn’t have accidents, until our scheduled changed a little and now she pees and poops and has no problem laying on it. She is hardly in her crate because we got passed to hard crate training. But it feels as though we are back to square one! 😕

25. It’s tough to tell. If she’s doing it every time then I’d guess she’s having some anxiety in her crate. If this is the case then you’ll have to step back and work on her crate training. Here’s an article that talks about stopping barking in crate, but some of the suggestions may help with anxiety: https://puppyintraining.com/crate-training-puppies/ Good luck with your puppy!

26. My puppy will go outside and do her business. There has been a few occasions when I let her out, which she goes then I put her in her kennel so I can go to town quick. In a half hour she has pooped and made a mess. What can I do? It is driving me nuts. She sleeps with us at night and can hold it for about 6 hrs and then wakes me up to go potty. Is she doing it to get back at me for putting her in the kennel?

27. We usually work with puppies and don’t usually crate two in the same crate. That being said a few things I’d try are first try separate crates. Second, try removing the bedding. Third, I wouldn’t allow the dogs on the furniture until they know the rules of the house. Fourth, even if they were potty trained when you got them I’d put a little bit of work into teaching them exactly what you want them to do by starting from the beginning with potty training. Here’s an article that might help: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/ If they were already potty trained they should pick it up pretty fast. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

28. Thank you for rescuing. Your dog probably needs more attention throughout the day. Being home alone from 9am to 11pm is a long stretch especially for a puppy. You might consider getting help from friends, family, neighbors, or a pet sitter to hang out with your puppy during the day. Here’s an article that might help: https://puppyintraining.com/what-do-you-do-with-your-puppy-when-you-work-full-time/

29. I rescued a 4 month old male blue nose pitt & honestly I’m starting to regret it . I’ve tried every method of crate training but he still poops in his cage & he has no problem of laying in it , which stresses me out . He is outside all day from 9am to 11pm & is taken out every hour after . But I am becoming exhausted & it’s showing in my face iWork from 11 am – 7pm .. am I doing something wrong ? Help meeee 🙁

30. I have a 7 year old cockerpoo that I adopted along with her 7 year old brother (havanese). They are used to being crated together by previous owner so i also crate them during the day together. Not to large of a crate, but I believe it is the cockerpoo that has decided to urinate both at night and during the day while we are gone. I do have soft bedding (what I would want) in the crate. Should i have no bedding to prevent these episodes? She also has urinated on the sofa twice, while we were home and door is open for her to go out anytime. I feel bad for her brother in the crate, should i separate them? All advice appreciated.. Brian

31. Congratulations on your new puppy! You might want to consider bringing in a certified professional dog trainer to work with you and your puppy. One thing you do want to avoid doing is putting your puppy’s nose in his accidents. This doesn’t help with potty training and it will have a negative impact on your relationship with your puppy. Here are a few articles that might help you with your training:

    https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/
    https://puppyintraining.com/my-puppy-pees-outside-then-pees-inside/
    https://puppyintraining.com/crate-training-puppies/

    Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy.

32. Hello my name is Glenn and I have 5 month old Tri color American Bully, and since day one that I have had him he pees and poops in his kennel everyday no matter how many times in let him out. Also he doesn’t like to get out of his kennel, you basically have to drag him out of the kennel and if you try to take him out of his kennel he pees while doing so. I’d pick his up but he’s 50lbs and I have a terrible back condition so I can’t. I put his nose it and tell him no but he continues to do so…

33. Congratulations on your new puppy! How long is she staying in the crate during the day? Yes, if my puppy is having accidents on the blankets I will pull them all out. As one of our old trainers used to say: “Play Makes Pee!” We’ve noticed that when puppies are playing they sometimes pee about every 5 minutes. Most puppies will show signs before going potty, but it can happen so quickly that we miss it. If you’re puppy is playing you might try being proactive and getting her out before she has the accident by taking her out every 5-10 minutes. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy!

34. Thank you for rescuing your puppy! Something you might try is shortening the time she spends in her crate so she doesn’t have a chance to have an accident. Over time slowly increment the amount of time she spends in her crate until she can successfully stay in her crate for a longer period of time. Good luck with your training!

35. Hopefully your dog is doing better now. Sometimes it’s tough to tell. I had a similar story with Stetson. He was on prednisone for his allergies and started drinking more water and started having accidents in the house. When we took him off the prednisone he stopped having accidents so he didn’t get into any habits off peeing in the house. Hopefully you’re dog is doing better now too.

36. Smaller Dog = Smaller bladder. Generally it takes longer for smaller puppies to potty train. If she’s having accidents at night you might try setting your alarm to get her out at scheduled times until she gets better at holding it in. As for your other dog you might check to make sure you’re thoroughly cleaning up all accidents with an enzymatic cleaner like Rocco & Roxie Stain and Odor Eliminator. If your other dog can smell the accident there’s a good chance he will want to mark that spot. Good luck with your new puppy!

37. My 16 week boxer pup keeps peeing in her crate when we go out. She has no accidents at night. I wake up at 8 every morning to take her out and feed her and she’s great on that schedule. And for a while she was getting better and better at home. Having one or two or sometimes no accidents. And now the past week or so she’s getting worse. At first when I would leave her in her crate during the day when I had to go out for a few hours she wouldn’t pee. But now that I’m trying to potty train using the crate (i walk and play with her before putting her in there), she will always pee. She pees on all the blankets I put out for her. She pees in her crate during the day. Should I just never keep a blanket in there? I want her to be comfy. And she’s great at night. But during the day should I only leave her in her bare kennel? It also seems the older she gets the more active and the more she pees. So many accidents a day. And never any warning. She can just stop in the middle of playing and squat and pee. I’m getting exhausted. We’ve had her for 5 weeks now and it’s not getting better.

38. My puppy is about 10 months old, a rescue. She will pee in her crate and lick it up. She loves water, almost as much as food. So i feel shes peeing just to drink something. Do you have any suggestions?

39. My dog is 2.5 years old, we rescued her a year ago so I have no idea what her past was. I have crate trained her and have had great success. However, recently she’s been on an allergy dry food diet for 2 weeks which has made her SO thirsty. She is outside during the day when we are at work then she comes in when we get home. I let her out several times before bed to pee and again right before I go to bed. She has been drinking after each pee and has been having accidents, which initially I thought was to be expected but now she is going twice a night. I have taken her off that food 2 days ago but still peeing. Do I need to be more patient, or is this a habit now? Have I not been thorough enough in cleaning?

40. My 9 week old terrier mix is a tiny girl. Tonight was the first night she’s slept in her crate (we just adopted her from the shelter). I was awake at 1 am and the second she whimpered I took her outside only when I picked her up, I noticed she had fresh pee all over her. Sure enough she had peed in her crate. Same thing just happened 2 hours later(now). She’s only 4 pounds. She doesn’t always give cues as to when she has to pee. She’ll just instantly go. She’s only 4 pounds. She’ll pee while you’re holding her. I am frustrated that I’m doing something wrong. I used your method with our 5 month old lab/hound. Now he’s seeing what she’s doing and he’s gone in the house too! Help!

41. Congratulations on your new puppy! One thing we’ve one when we’ve had issues with our puppies having accidents in the crate at night is we set are alarm throughout the night to get him up and out before he has an accident. Then as he gets better at holding it increase the amount of time between wake ups. One of our friends was raising a German Shepherd for the Guide Dog program and was having such a problem with accidents at night that she started by setting her alarm clock every hour at night to let her puppy out. As her puppy was successful she reduced the number of alarms per night until her puppy could sleep through the night. Her’s was an extreme case, but it goes to show you that every puppy is different. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy!

42. I know this sound repetitive… But our 3 month old St. Bernard just can’t hold it…. I feed him same time every day. No water after 6 pm. We take him out every 15 minutes…. I am not kidding. We take him out at 9:30 -10:00 and put him in the crate for the night. 6 AM he starts barking, I get up to take him out and he has peed a river. He is wet and splattering pee all over me. I get him out side and he pees for at least 40 secs. another river. And then a bath for him. He has a small crate. no blanket, no toys. This isn’t every once in a while, this is every night. He is vet checked and nothing is wrong with him…. Do I put him in bed with me?? Do I try the belly band?? He is soooo cute and he is smart…..but this momma is tired…please help!!

43. It sounds like she may be spending too much time in her crate during the day. Take a look at this article when you have a moment: https://puppyintraining.com/what-do-you-do-with-your-puppy-when-you-work-full-time/ Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy!

44. Congratulations on your new puppies! It sounds like you’re keeping a good schedule with your puppies. I think the solution to your after dinnertime accidents is to shorten up your times so your puppy doesn’t have an accidents. The three things I use when managing my puppies are the leash, crate, and tie down. Containment and management are important at your puppies age, but it’s only for a short time until your puppies learn the rules of the house. Most of our puppies seem to have things figured out and we start giving them a lot more freedom around 4-6 months. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppies!

45. It’s tough to tell without actually seeing what’s going on. How long are you leaving your puppy in the crate during the day? 14 weeks old is still very young to be crating a puppy for any long period of time. When we’re having troubles with crate training we try to make sure our puppies are always successful. Something we do that you might try is having your puppy stay in his crate for a very short period of time so he can be successful. It could be as short as 5 minutes as long as he’s successful. Then slowly increase the time he stays in his crate making sure he’s successful every step of the way. If he has an accident in his crate then step back to a time he can be successful again. Also, make sure your puppy’s crate is in a low distraction area. This will help him stay calmer throughout the day. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy!

46. One thing that has worked for us at night with young puppies is setting our alarm clock several times so we can get our puppy outside before accidents happen then as our puppy has better bladder control we start using the alarm clock less often until we don’t need it at all.

    During the day we recommend getting help from friends, family, neighbors, pet sitters to let dogs out if you work a full day. Here’s an article we wrote about working while you have a puppy: https://puppyintraining.com/the-ultimate-list-service-dog-schools-with-adoption-programs/

    Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy!

47. I have a 5 month old German Wirehaired Pointer puppy female. She is great in her kennel at night no accidents and if we run errands on the weekends no accidents. She is great in the house she is house trained and lets us know if she need to go out by whining. Our problem is when we leave for work we get up at 5am in the morning take her out then we feed her I walk her and let her out several times before I leave and every time she has a accident in the crate. What would you suggest we try she only does this when we work.?

48. So, if we only have a new puppy in their crate for 3 hours per day, what else can we do with them if we’re busy with other tasks? I do use a leash at times, but we have 2- 11 1/2 week old puppies and it’s hard to get things done around the house if they aren’t in their crates because we can’t take our eyes off of them or they might pee and we’d miss it if we weren’t watching them. Our girl puppy is great in her crate until the evening. I set my timer after they go potty (right now, it’s set for 2 1/2 hours between potty breaks.), but she doesn’t do well after dinnertime, when I’m busy cleaning the kitchen. She’s peed in her crate a couple of times and it’s always at this time of day. She sleeps for awhile, then wakes up and pees.
    This is usually at about 1 1/2-2 hours after her last potty break.. Her crate isn’t too big and I don’t have a towel or bed in it at this time. I will once she’s completely housebroken. Help!

49. Hi!
    We have a 14 week old French mastiff and started crate training immediately at 7 weeks when we brought him home. He is quite good during the night and doesn’t go in his crate holds it all night but when we leave the house it seems he doesn’t even bother to hold it we could be gone for a short while or several hours and we always come back to a lot of pee in his cage. I’m going to try to make his cage smaller and take out his blanket but what other things can I try? He knows to go outside he rings a bell when he has to use the bathroom while we are home. He’s quite big compared to my 11 week old schnauzer who does not pee in her cage no matter how long we are gone during the day and her bladder is so small! So I get frustrated that he isn’t doing the same! Any help you can send my way would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

50. I have a 3 month old german shephard – Ive had him for 2 mnths now and hes pretty good at potty outside but at night time when i put him in the crate he tends to cry in the middle of the night when i go to let him out he has already pee in the crate. I take him out before putting him in the crate at night. I also work 3 days out of the week and keep him crate for those hours there are times when his crate is clean and then there are times where he has accident – what can i do to prevent this.

51. A few things I would try if this were my puppy are remove both the bedding and towel from the crate. I’d try leaving one chew toy that is not digestible so he doesn’t choke on anything while I’m gone. I’d start from the beginning with his crate training by crating him for a short period of time so he’s successful then slowly increasing the amount of time he spends in the crate until he can stay in it during the day for 4 hours without an accident.

52. Congratulations on your new puppy! One thing I always say is a new puppy requires patience, persistence, and consistency. At 8 weeks old most puppies don’t have full control of their bladder and can have accidents because they don’t know they have to go or they didn’t “get it all out”. Regarding the crate, if your puppy is consistently having accidents in her crate then you’ll probably need to re-train her by using the crate for only short periods of time making her successful and then slowly incrementing the amount of time in her crate until she can stay in it for 3 hours when you’re out during the day. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy!

53. I have and 8 month old beagle who does great in his crate all night but when I have to leave to run errands during the day he never fails to pee in his crate. I am gone no more than 4 hours and replace his bedding with a towel and leave a couple toys for him. I also take him out prior to me leaving, any advice please?

54. I have an 8 week old puppy , I got her 4 days ago. Fortunately she doesnt poop inside the house but she seems to have no control over peeing. I have to leave her in her crate for 2-3 hours while im gone to work in the morning and afternoon even in that time she pees in her crate even if I get her to relive herself right before putting her in the crate (her crate is just enough for her bed and a toy- i do leave blankets and towels , I will start removing those). I got sitters to come walk her in that 3 hour duration too but she had peed in her crate already. Can you please suggest how can I curb this? Am I expecting too much of an 8 week old puppy? Is it just that she needs more time?

55. Here are a few more articles that might help:

    https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/
    https://puppyintraining.com/crate-training-puppies/
    https://puppyintraining.com/what-do-you-do-with-your-puppy-when-you-work-full-time/

    Hopefully those articles help. Good luck with your training!

56. I have a dog that just turned 1 & is not potty trained. I can’t keep living like this.! I work & am gone 8 hrs. My dog is a boy & he pees outside his kennel & on the edge of his it. (So I either clean it up there or wherever he goes in the house.) He is an emotional dog & my husband says he does it when he hears me come in, but not sure about that. I will start practicing leaving him for a few minutes & then letting him out &!see if that helps. But I feel like I need to start at the beginning with him. We quit putting him in the kennel at night because we could not deal with the crying. Do we just ignore it? I feel terrible when I hear it & cant sleep. What should I do?

57. That’s probably an emotional pee, she’s probably happy you’re back and pees… she’ll grow out of it eventually but to make it quicker, I advise you don’t celebrate too much when you come back, maybe after you walk in the door, do some stuff and only after 5/10 minutes you go in the room where the crate is, so she doesn’t get to anxious and has the time to calm down before you greet her.

58. My 4 month old puppy keeps peeing in her crate every morning. I take her out at night before I go to work and she is fine but every morning when she hears me come home from work she will whine and pees in her crate before I can even get to her. She splashes her urine everywhere and gets all dirty. I come home everyday at the same time to take her out but she can’t seem to wait til I get there and makes a mess in her crate right away. Please tell me what I should do.

59. Take her water away 2 hours pior to bed time. If she goes in the crate at 10pm, remove the water at 8pm. Then right before putting her in the crate, walk her so she can eliminate. When you wake up, quickly remove her from the crate and walk her. Sometimes dogs will eliminate bc we don’t take them out fast enough.

60. I am having the same issue with my puppy and she is 14 weeks. Did your puppy ever stop, have you found solutions?

61. My 9 week olds pee in the crate intentionally. They literally stand up on their hind legs and pee all over everything almost as if they are marking their territory.
    They know they get rewarded for going outside and we don’t let them ever go more than 3 hours unless they are asleep. They go out the minute they wake up or bark but sometimes they just stop playing to stand up and pee without warning.
    Help!

62. My 15 week old male, wheaten/poodle mix is able to sleep through the night and keep his crate clean. However, he cannot keep it clean while we are out at work, for the same amount of hours during the day. He also has random accidents inside at other times. We have shortened the crate and taken out soft padding. He definitely knows that outside is where he gets rewarded for making. Please help!

63. Hello!! I have a 7 year old dog that we adopted (he was house trained) and we have had him since March, then we moved across country in June. He kept his house trained mode when we brought him home but since we have moved he has been peeing and pooping in the house. (We showed him where to go potty when we moved there and how to use the new dog door.) So now we leave him in his crate and he is peeing in his crate when we are gone. We took him potty before we left and then came home to a mess so we crate him. We take him potty before we leave and put him in his crate. We are gone for an hour or less and come home and he has peed in his kennel. He knows how to get outside to go potty because he does it when we are home, but when we are gone is when he goes in the house. When we leave he comes out of the dog door too, so I know for sure that he knows how to use it. He gets to go through the garage to get outside and before we crated him we have come home to pee and poop in the garage, feet away from his dog door that leads outside.What do I do?

64. Our puppy is doing the same thing – she goes overnight with no problems but as soon as we leave the house for work in the morning, right after she’s been outside to potty, she pees in her kennel. Would love to hear suggestions, as it sounds like separation anxiety more than bladder issues.

65. I have a one year old Wheaton terrier and every time we leave the house he pees in the cage no matter if we take him out right before he goes in the cage. If I’m gone one hour or four hours, he pees. He is never in there more than four hours a day. What do I do?

66. I just rescued a chiweeni.not sure of her age,she was rescued by someone else from a drug house,but she around 9 to 11 weeks old.i have had other puppiws before and I’m usually pretty good at house training and kennel training.she has the kennel training down until the morning.she screams like a banshee when she hears us moving around,but I like to keep her on a schedule of being out of the kennel at 8:20 am every morning.during the day I put her in the kennel just to keep her used to it and she has no accidents.at nigjt she goes pee and poop in their,without a sound and does not care about laying in it.im having to bathe her everyday.and I have a small kennel with the divider in place,does not help.shes a white dog,until morning,then shes yellow and stinks.i had a chichi before and never had this much trouble.but this is the first time ive had a dog from a bad situation like a drug house.plwase help.

67. I have a two-year-old Shih Tzu Maltese He never peas in the house he never pooped in the house he PEE at night in his crateWhat should I do

68. My 16 week Chihuahua mix puppy is peeing and pooping in his crate as will. I have the puppy pads out the crate but he wants to go in the crate. Please help to stop this

69. I don’t understand why the author is not talking to these people about the dangerous and idiotic things they are doing. Limiting your dogs water is not ok. For any reason. That is not going to suddenly make your dog house trained. You wouldn’t limit your water what’s the difference.

    Your dog pees when you go out because they are scared or anxious it’s really simple. Start on going out short times. When you return don’t make a big deal immediately take outside and praise. Then after a few days go longer and longer until they stop.

    If your dog is peeing or pooping in the crate and doesn’t care it most like came from a shitty home beforehand and didn’t get much space or had to go to the toilet In its sleep space. As mentioned above your dog kennel should be quite small like a den which is what we are trying to create.

    Stop expecting a puppy to be experts at going outside. It’s like expecting a 2 year old baby never to have accidents and praise your dog consistently

70. we Are having this issue with our one-year-old golden retriever. we have 3 dogs, so we crate them overnight or when we leave the house. our older two are absolutely perfect, but the younger will pee in her crate without fail. The worst time is first thing in the morning, she will hair a wake up and will pee in the time it take us to walk downstairs take her out. Even if it is only an hour or so she has the left, She will still managed to go. She holds most of the day while we are out at work, And doesn’t go in the house while we’re with her, but if she can hear us moving around upstairs then there is no stopping her! My gut instinct is that it is an attention thing… Anyone else had this?

71. I agree! That is what I did. My baby now sleeps through the night .

72. I have this problem also, did you find a solution?

73. My 5 month English Bulldog puppy has the same issue. Her crate is the correct size, I only close the door when she is relaxed, but she still pees multiple times in it overnight but mostly right when she comes back from just peeing outside multiple times. I’ve tried removing the towel and pee pad but then she just lays in it and sleeps in her pee. I think she came from a very irresponsible breeder, but there’s nothing I can do about that now, just trying to look forward and find an answer to correct this ASAP. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

74. Let him cry!!! It hurts you more than it hurts him. The first night he’ll cry all night, 2nd night will be less and so forth. Our boxer puppy didn’t make a sound on the 4th night and slept thru 😍

75. Hi, I am fostering 4 stray pups for the first time . They are appx 3 months old..sincr they are not immunized completely they are inside. I have a separate room with their crates. Usually after every meal they poo on the newspaper spread in a corner of the room. But now they can’t stop drinking water due to the scorching summer heat in India and constantly pee including when I put them back into the crate. I usually keep a paper in the crate. But I end up changing it several times. How do I stop them from doing. I can’t drasticslly reduce their water intake Becos when I tried to reduce it earlier they became dehydrated. so I had to switch back. Plse help me wid a solution.

76. I have a 6 month old terrier mix that I rescued 2 months ago. They said she was crate trained and 90% potty trained. I only feed her twice a day and take her out early in the am before her food and then 10-15 minutes after she eats. She’ll pee and poop both times. She’s pretty good in her crate when I leave her for work but when I get home and let her out she’ll pee right away and not poop. I take her to the same spot. She is easily distracted . Sometimes right after we come on she’ll go poop again in a corner or on the rug. Not sure what to do. I praise her and give her treats and make a big deal about it.

77. my dane does the same thing. Every day. It’s so frustrating.

78. I have a 7 month old terrier/chow. She is completely housebroke. Wakes one of us at night to potty. She has separation anxiety and gets stressed easily. We had to start crating her when we leave the house because she would destroy everything in sight while we were gone. This last couple of days she has started peeing in her crate while we are gone. I’ve tried removing her bedding, I put toys in there for her, I’ve given her a treat to go in by herself. I leave the door open all the time for her and continually put her toys in there so if she wants to play she has to go in and get them. Which she does with no issues. She is also in heat at the moment. Is that why she started peeing her crate? She has never done this until this week, which is her week to except males. Please help me, I don’t know what to do for her.

79. I am having the same exact issue with my 6 month old male pit bulls. I too am seeking a solution for this ongoing issue!

80. Must be a bulldog thing! My 4 month old bulldog will go pee pee in his crate during the day and occasionally at night. We just started to give him treats opposed to praise when he goes potty outside. It’s only been a day so we will see if it works!

81. I am having the same problem with my dog .going to try not putting any blankets in the cage and see if she pee on hard create floor

82. I recently went on a vacation left my puppy with a friend i explained that he is to be crated at night and that he has never went in his crate I got him back last night he now urinates in his crate I was informed she never crated him .I hope all of this is fixable ,I had him almost houstrained

83. Hi I have a 3 year old pit and she peeing in her cage almost everyday. We tried everything and she is still doing it. We got her when she was almost 1 years old and we don’t know what more to do. Occasionally she poops in the house too. Please help, running out of options

84. Joanne I just rescued a 5 month old Maltese;/Beagle and I’m having the same exact issue! It’s been a few months since you posted, are you still having problems?

85. I have 2 small dogs (male pekingese 10 years and female Shihtzu 5 years). The male Pekingese I found him a good home last May 2017 because peeing everywhere in the house (unusual behavior). Almost a year later my female Shih Tzu starts peeing everywhere on the rugs sometime late at night asking us to send her out to do her business outside. Then, I decided to put her back on crate like her used to when she was a puppy for potty training.
    The scariest things is she peed in her own crate.
    Please help….

86. My BULLDOG has been peeing in his crate since I got him as a puppy. He is now a year old. Not a day goes by that he doesn’t pee in his cage. He also poops in it as well and will lay in BOTH! I’ve never seen a dog do this before … doesn’t matter is we take him out every 30 minutes he will still come back in and pee. It’s like he punches it off and saves some specifically for the cage … some say anxiety … this is so frustrating

87. I have a 5 month old papillion he has puppy pads and i take him outside..when im at work he pee and poop in crate and will eat poop at times. I have tried leaving crate door open and put him on a leesh and his puppy pads are in the area where they normally are he will bypass the puppy pads and still pee on the floor. If i take him on his leesh cause he is super energetic he will not eat pee or poop if im trying to keep him from running off. I need help with my stubborn attitude pup..

88. I have a 13 month Boston Terriors/Male. We keep him on the same food,quantity and schedule. Take him out after breakfast only because while we slept he pees before we have a chance to take him out. When I get home for work he again has peed before I can take him out..but, after dinner I take him out ofcourse. I wonder if I should be rid of the crate as that’s what he uses it only gets on the carpet because he hikes up his leg so it sprinkles the carpet. I read the article before posting this ..so I took him out again before we go to bed so I’m hoping his crate is dry in the morning. Should I be rid if the crate? As we do have a bed just for him..

89. I have a 3 month old husky that won’t stop peeing in his creat. I take him out every time before butting him in his creat. But when I have to leave somewhere I’ll take him out to pee and put him right in his creat, I’ll go and be out for like 2 o 3 hrs. As soon as I get home he is peed and laying on his pee. His creat is just his size not to big not to small just right. Iv tried to do everything to stop this. He won’t go during the night only when I’m gone. I just can’t stop him from peeing in his creat. And I know huskys cant be getting bathed so many time. I need help I don’t want to keep him in his creat because he’s all peed just because I can’t shower him everyday. Can anyone help???

90. I have a similar problem. My dog never has accidents while we are at home. He can hold it for up to 10 hours at night if we sleep in on the weekend. The only problem is when we go to work, he pees and poos, eats it and vomits. He literally turns himself inside out, convulsing and crying. I’ve heard people say that he has separation anxiety, and I totally agree. I just don’t know how to cure it, and as it’s getting worse, I’m becoming concerned for his health.

91. I adopted a rescue pup when he was about 5 months old…I don’t really know his story. But I’ve had him about 2 months now. during the day he stays in his crate/kennel while I’m at work. At nights, he sleeps in my room, on his bed. I take him out in the morning before I leave for work and when I get home. He usually does a good job of holding his pee until I get home (although he has had a few accidents)…unless I’m gone for super long time. But in the evenings, if I put him back in his kennel if I leave for a meeting or to run errands, 9 times out of 10 he will pee in his crate/kennel. Even if I take him out right before I leave. It’s becoming so frustrating. It seems as if he does it on purpose. How do I break him of this?

92. WE have a 15 week old puppy ( mini Aussie ) brought him home at 8 weeks…. we are create training , he has been doing great but pass 3 night when he goes to bed in his create he will just whine like he has aniexty….how can I make him not cry when he goes in his crest at night…….he never did that before. Thank you

93. I have a 5month old puppy that pees & poops outside all day long and sleeps 6 hours at night with out any accidents. However when we leave the house and come back after 2-4 hours she has peed in her crate even though she went before we left the house…Please help we are at out wits end

94. I recently got a 4 month old chiwini, I’m not experienced with training dogs. So I’m trying to crate train him, I’m doing everything it says to do when training but at night he is going in his crate,I caught him pooping on my couch I had just taken him out & he didn’t go,so I caught him going on couch & immediately took him out again. Stayed out for about 15 minutes, he kept trying to jump up on me so I’d pick him up.. Again he wouldn’t go so finally I brought him in.Ive had him a week now… Does anyone have any suggestions ? Is it just a matter of time & consistency in taking him out? I have to clean his crate everyday & wash his blankets. I don’t want him to think that the crate is a place to go…

95. I rescued a 4month pitbill gave her. Her first shot micro chipp she lovable and awesome but i tried to train her to ise the bathroom ourltside sometimes she goes outside and sometimes inside

96. John – we have the same problem with our 4 month old bulldog! She doesn’t pee during the day but at night never makes a peep but pee pee pee. Have tried all the tricks and tips. We are also lost.

97. I have a small puppy 5 months old with pee issues in crate and inside house
    Tried everything from limited her space,using pee pad limit her water treat when she pee outside. Even used a rolled up newpaper to spank her so every few hours in the day I take her out does go outside at times but still goes inside

98. Awesome article
    My bulldog 10 wk always pees in her crate overnight so I have pee pad in her crate just overnight. It’s a metal crate so I need to put blanket on top. She never pees in there during the day but overnight yes and she doesn’t whine or anything during the night. Please help

99. Thank you, thank you, thank you (a million) for all of this information. My husband and I have been trying to train our little 10-week old pup and it’s been so difficult. Tips from others haven’t helped and we thought that it was either us or we had a puppy that is rebellious (she’s actually really sweet besides training and the puppy crazies). I’ve been in total sobbing tears the last few nights thinking I’m a horrible dog mom. We are awake every hour in the night and still wake up to a completely poop covered kennel and her lying in it. We’ve given so many baths in the wee hours of the morning. We are exhausted! I came across your blog tonight and it feels good to know that it’s all normal and that it does get better. Thank you for the piece of mind.

100. I have 2 11 week old puppies. The male is potty trained whereas the female is not. She potties outside when we take her but if she needs to go in between times she goes to her crate and pees. She will even do this 5 minutes after peeing outside. We take them out every 1 1/2 to 2 hours but she will still go to her crate to pee. What can I do?

101. I just recently started crate training a 5 year old Maltese. She does not pee or poo in the crate on purpose but when I come home from being gone, for usually anywhere between 1 and 3 hours, she pees a little in the crate because she gets excited. She doesn’t pee before then, only when I come home. So how do I stop her from peeing in the crate? I am in the process of taking her out of the crate already. Our other dog, a Maltese poodle, has no problem waiting until we take him out in the morning and at night. But with the Maltese I’m constantly changing the soiled bedding in the crate. I’ve been rewarding her for eliminating outside and I take her out frequently, and I’ve been trying to make my homecomings very mellow but she still struggles to control her bladder. What should I do?

102. Our pup is 5 months old. She has some sort of kidney issue (vet has done lots of tests) and drinks massive quantities of water then pees everywhere. She goes pee every time we take her out. Same place, lots of praise. She just can’t hold it very long when tethered near us. She holds it longer in the crate but will pee in there too. I’m so frustrated because it seems to be a medical issue so what do we do?

103. Hi, so my friend rescued a 4 year old dog that she was able to potty train and everything. She just recently rescued another 4 year old male boxer mix and the female dog they have has regressed completely. So she has both dogs pooping and peeing in their crate, in the house and outside. She has gone to experts, friends and family as well as vets. She’s tried everything from putting them on a schedule, measuring their food(which they eat twice a day), making sure they go outside. Their crates aren’t big enough for them to have room to relieve themselves on one side and sleep on the other. They will actually sleep where they go to the bathroom. We know they have anxiety so that may be an issue but other then that..shes been trying to get them potty trained for a good month now. I know it takes longer but having them both go at the same time everywhere..we are at a loss here. She’s tried everything..please help.

104. My puppy is 4 week old and he use to bark at night. also he use to pee every where in the home and also in his crate .. what should I do to stop him from doing that

105. I have a 23 week old husky. We’ve had her since she was 8 weeks old. Her breeder had her and her 3 siblings in a pin with a puppy pad. We have had problems with her peeing and pooping in her crate since the first night we brought her home. Her vet finally suggested an adaptil collar. We would get her a new one about every 28 days. It worked great for the first 2 months. Now all the sudden (on our 3rd collar) she is peeing and pooping in her crate again. She doesn’t seem to mind her being in her crate as we will find her laying in it playing with her toys or just to take a nap. She did just get spayed a week ago today. So I’m not sure if that has anything to do with it or not. We also just moved so she has a new vet. When I asked her about it the only answer I got was “she’ll eventually grow out of it” It’s getting really frustrating and I’m tired of my house smelling like dog poop all the time.

106. First of all, you have to remember that every dog/puppy is different. My dog Linus would never pee in the house or in his crate no matter how long we left him in the house. On the other hand, Stetson who is also potty trained will pee in the house if you don’t let him outside in a timely manner. If you can you might look into having a certified professional dog trainer visit for an assessment of your puppy. Since he seems content to potty in the crate you might try starting over with his crate training. First, thoroughly clean out the crate with an enzymatic cleaner. Then start by making your puppy successful and maybe only crate him for 5-10 minutes then take him immediately to his potty spot. Praise him if he goes pee in his designated spot without soiling his crate. Keep increasing the time making sure he’s successful every step of the way. As I said it’s tough to tell without actually seeing what’s going on at your house, but there’s also a chance your puppy is experiencing anxiety in the crate. If this is the case then you also might want to take a look at this article:

     Crate training your puppy

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

107. Hi. My German Shepherd puppy is 11 weeks old. He has peed in his crate now 6x. Today being the latest time and I was only out of the house for 3hrs. He had been let out to pee 2x before I left. And I monitored his water intake. He will lay in it without a 2nd thought. This is disgusting to me and not okay behavior. He’s taken out to pee on a regular basis, he’s praised for it and he has siblings who all both housetrained, so no excuse for this behavior. He has no bladder infection, we’ve been to the vet. So, please tell me what is wrong with this dog.

108. Congratulations on your new puppy! You should limit the amount of time your puppy is in the crate during the day to no more than 2-3 hours. Also, because your puppy has learned that it is okay to pee in her crate you will likely have to do some re-training so even 2-3 hours may be to long for her to stay in the crate at this time. Take a look at this article when you have a moment:

     What do you do with your puppy when you work full time?

109. I just received a 12 eeek old Newfoundland puppy. Potty raining is going good so far but crate training has been crazy bad. She never poops in her cage but she pees. We are gone 8 hours a day so when she goes it’s then but the problem is she not only pees but she lays in it and is complete soaked in pee and we have to bath her everyday. I have no idea what to do about this.

110. I have a year old sheltie and she just started peeing in her crate, she’s only in there at bedtime and it’s not a long time as someone’s usually up in seven or eight hours. You know the usual sleeping hours, she’s potty trained and fixed. I don’t know what’s wrong. We don’t have any other dogs just a cat that She loves so? Is it a territorial thing?

111. Question: We have a puppy that is about 6 months old. It became obvious after we got her home that the breeder must have kept her in her crate for extended periods of time and she now thinks it is acceptable to go inside the crate. We have worked with her and when she is outside the crate she does not have any accidents and will go to the door when she needs to go out, so she is very capable of learning, however, every time we come home and go to take her out of the crate she urinates inside the crate before you can get her out. She intentionally squats and pees and it appears she feels that she is supposed to do this before she comes out of the crate. We always take her outside immediately after we take her out of the crate and she knows this routine. How do we break her from this peeing in the crate when we get ready to take her out?

112. I left a comment, received email and I guess it was accidentally deleted. Please resend.

113. Hi! I have a 4 mo lab male, we are crate training him and he is doing well. However, we take him outside and he does his business, them he may come inside and pee on the floor. We can stay outside for 1-2 hours letting him and my older female lab play, we go inside and he pees, the will go down the hall and pee again. Ugh!!! Sometimes he will whine to let us know he needs to go out and others he will just pee while walking down the hall. Please help!!!

114. Hi, my Aussie has been doing really good with the crate training for night time. Doesn’t mess and cries every morning at the same time to be let out to pee or poo. She will go all night without messing but always messes during the day. She spends about the same amount of time in her crate during the day as she does at night. Any ideas on how to get her to stop messing during the day?

     Thank you

115. We have foster to adopted a 3.5 yo boxer male, unnuterued (going in on Monday). He has “marked” the corner of our bed and seems to be peeing in his crate when my wife leaves to get daughter from daycare. His blanket was dry but it smelled bad. Any advice as would like to try to work with him before deciding on him. Thanks

116. I have a German Shepherd who turned 1 year old in January who is still not potty trained and I think it’s rebellion!!!! He can go all night being in crate without going potty in it yet he will go potty in crate after being taken out just a hr or 2 ago. And if it snows forget it,he eats it and I’m stuck cleaning his crate all day and night. And he destroys everything in site still!!! I have had dogs all my life and this issue is the first,it’s VERY STRESS FULL!!!!

     First dog that has had to be left in crate. Oh we also have a labradoodle same age,does not have this problem but has to be in crate or she will destroy things. HELP!!!!!!

117. hi I had a female beagle: i adopt this beagle since she just 2 months and now she’s 3 months.
     she start to understand about crate and not cry but she always pee/poop in the crate, everytime i bring my puppy outside she’s never poop/pee then when come back to crate she poop and pee.
     she always step on the poop too and sometimes she eat that poop. she sleep on the pee, and had alergic. im so confused. what should i do?

118. I have a 8 month old Great Dane that I potty trained with ease and also crate trained with ease but lately she pees in her crate every time I leave the house even if it is only for a couple of house. I think she is suffering from seperation anxiety. It’s as if she pees in her crate for revenge for leaving her alone. She pees a lot and her feet and legs are covered in pee. She goes bat crap crazy when I leave which has only started recently. What can I do? Please help!

119. If you have the right sized crate and he’s still always peeing on the blankets then I would remove them from the crate. If he goes several weeks without accidents in the crate you might try slowly re-introducing the blankets to the crate if you want him to have a blanket when he’s crated.

120. We have a 4 month old lab/shepard mix. He doesn’t have any accidents during the night or when we are home. Plus seems to love his crate when we are there but does however pee on any blankets we leaving him when we go to work. He will also pull in any blanket cover the crate and do the same. We have a walker come twice a day so he isn’t in there for more than 3 hours at a time. When we remove the blankets he doesn’t seem to have any accidents but will bark and cry for longer duration (an hour to hour and a half). Does anyone have any suggestions or is this something common we have to work through during the teething and adolescent age?

121. We usually do not have two puppies at the same time, but the last few weeks we’ve had two of our little Golden pups at the house. As you said I take both puppies outside to potty at night.

122. Here’s an article on how to potty train a puppy:

     How to potty train a puppy

     You might want to get a vet check to make sure your puppy doesn’t have a bladder infection. Also, if your puppy is left alone for long periods of time she may be developing anxiety. Here’s another article that could be helpful:

     What do you do with your puppy when you work full time?

123. Hi! We recently got 2 rat terrier pups. One pup is doing great during the night but the other will go potty outside, then go potty in her crate right after. It’s very frustrating :/ So I’m going to try the alarm and see how that goes. My question is how do I not get one puppy unsettled by taking the one with the issue out? Or do I just have to take them both out to keep the other calm?

124. Hello!
     I have an 11 week old female pupoy that I’m having a lot of issue potty training. We’ve had her for 3 weeks, and the first week and a half were great, barely any accidents. At that point, we were taking her out every hour or so and after a few days she started whining when she had to go. She is kept in a large play pen during the day with toys and her bed and is crated at night. It seems as though she doesn’t alarm us anymore when she has to go, but instead just pees and then whines for us to clean it up. We’ve tried taking her out every 30 minutes, but for some reason, that is still happening. She does the same in her crate overnight. We try to take her out every 2-3 hours at night, but have taken her out every hour without any real change. My husband and I are at a loss as to why she keeps doing this after having done so well. I am constantly bathing her and washing her toys and bed because they smell like urine. It seems as though she doesn’t care that she is sitting in her own pee. Any suggestion?

125. Take a look on this article on potty training when you have a moment:

     How to potty train a puppy

     When we bring home a puppy our older dogs schedule is usually interrupted while we work on potty training our puppies. However, it doesn’t usually effect their behavior since all it means is we go outside more often for potty breaks. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

126. Sometimes dogs develop behavior problems (like potty accidents, anxiety, barking, etc) when left alone in the crate too long. We try not to crate our puppies for more than 2-3 hours during the day. Here’s an article that has some tips on how to care for a puppy when working full time:

     What do you do with your puppy when you work full time?

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

127. I have an almost four month old boxer/lab puppy at home with my established 5 year old pit/lab mix. Our puppy will pee in his crate nightly and will have random accidents (at least once, up to 5) accidents a day in the house. My husband works from home so the puppy has free reign of the house when he’s there. He’ll close the bedroom door and other rooms he doesn’t want him in, but he still has access to majority of the house. I don’t want to put him in the crate because it’s in the living room where he will see the older dog roaming freely and cry but I’m not sure how else to make him stop peeing whenever he wants. Sometimes he’ll just start to pee while looking at us, like he has no care in the world that he shouldnt be doing it. I guess my question is, how do I train him to be on a normal puppy potty schedule while having my older dogs schedule unharmed?

128. My dog is 5 years old, I got him from a rescue in October, he was a stray before I got him. When nobody is home he pees in the house so he goes in his crate while I’m at work, which he has been doing since I got him, the last few days he has started to pee in his crate, which isn’t like him, why would this be? I have taken him to the vet and there is nothing health wise wrong.

129. That’s a great tip. Thanks for sharing!

130. I kept a tiny soiled corner of one of the pads(literally cut it out) and put it with the new pads, so she can smell her scent and it has worked and now she uses the pads.

131. If you are going to leave your young dog that long invest in a outside kennel with a roof. He cannot get the exercise, mental stimulation and potty he needs in a crate all day! Puppies need to potty more in the day because they nap and then play. If he is left alone for that long and then all night in his crate, why do you want a dog in the first place? This is not a quality life, he is miserable. If you cannot find someone to give your dog potty breaks and exercise in the MIDDLE of the day then your dog will continue to be miserable and stressed…

132. A 9 month new rescue should NOT have an opportunity to soil the whole house. You are giving him TOO much space and freedom! Restrict his freedom and space for safety and comfort. Expand it as he gets more comfortable and better trained.I have learned when the puppy has an ongoing problem, it is ALWAYS the owners not meeting a need. He is NOT doing it on purpose. Scolding him will only make him more scared of you and of pottying in general and he’ll start to hide his accidents from you. Take him out every two hours, so he starts to learn what his bladder feels like. Don’t leave free standing water out all day, pick it up after meals. For a week literally tether him to you with his lease. You bond and his trust of you will have a chance to develop and you will learn his potty body language and can quickly take him out. Poochie Bells or Potty Bells are amazing! My lab learned to use them in less than a week.

133. That is too long for a puppy to be left alone ! You need to have someone let him out for a pee and some exercise! You would never expect your 3 year old to hold it for almost 6 hours, your puppy age is now a toddler!!!

134. If nothing has changed except for her going into heat then you might consider taking her to the veterinarian for a health exam.

135. I have a 7 month old Australian Shepherd who just recently started peeing in her cage. She just went through heat and now that she has stopped she has peed in her cage every night for the past week. She has never ever peed in her cage before, even as a puppy, she has slept through the night and waited till morning or woken us up in the middle of the night to take her out. I have no idea what has happened, maybe her going through heat messed something up in her bladder that now she cant hold it? But even while going through heat she did not pee in her cage. I’ve sanitized her cage and given her a clean towel every night and given her a bath every morning to get the pee off of her. I keep the ground around her clean so it doesn’t smell like pee. I’ve tried limiting her water and taking her out every 4-5 hours as I can. I have no idea whats going on. Help!!

136. Here’s an article on crate training:

     Crate training your puppy

     We work on crate and potty training at the same time. If our puppy is having accidents in the crate then we work on getting him not to have accidents in the crate by only crating him for short periods of time. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

137. Congratulations on your new puppy! Here’s an article on crate training that might help:

     Crate training your puppy

     You might want to bring in a certified professional dog trainer for an in home evaluation. A few I’ve done with my puppies is taken a step back and reduce the amount of time they spend in the crate as our pups sometimes get anxiety when spending too much time in the crate throughout the day. We also try to make as many positive associations with the crate like feedings in the crate, giving favorite toys and chews when in the crate, as well as throwing treats in the crate from time to time. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your new puppy!

138. I have the same problem, I have a 3 month old golden retriever, we take him out to potty, he does nothing, when we put him back on the crate he poop and pee. Sometimes only poop, some other just pee. even if he goes outside he still goes to his crate and poop. and he ate his poop all the time.. I don’t know hat else to do with him.

139. We just adopted our new puppy 3 weeks ago. She is now 12 weeks old. She is doing great, every time we take her outside she is successful going potty. However, she is constantly peeing in her crate. We’ve tried a bed, blankets, towels, nothing. Every time she pees. She has a few accidents in the house but not bad at all. We do not let her out of our sight. A couple days of the week I do have to work, but I never leave her in there for more than 3 hours. But even if it has only been 30 minutes she still does it. I’m nervous to let her sleep outside of the crate or in a room bc she is still a puppy and teething quite a bit. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

140. How long does your boxer stay in his crate? Some dogs have stress and anxiety issues that could cause behavior problems and accidents in the crate. When you have a moment take a look at this article:

     What do you do with your puppy when you work full time?

141. Congratulations on your new puppy! Most 8 week old puppies do not have full control of their bladder yet. There’s a chance that he’s going out to pee and doesn’t get it all out. You might stay outside with him an extra 5 minutes after he goes potty. If he drinks water or eats when you get up with him this could also trigger him to have to potty sooner than normal. You could also try taking him out 20 or so minutes after you crate him at 5:15am. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

142. We have a 2 yr old boxer, she was the runt of her litter, her mind set has always been more immature than her brothers which is a litter mate. We are having issues with her peeing and or popping in her kennel while we are gone to work and at night. We have started making her stay out to potty longer then the others because we noticed that she is always playing when the others are out. We feed on a schedule. Do you have any suggestions?

143. Hi! We have a young puppy (~8 weeks old, but not positive on the age). He does great during the night (we let him out once during the night, never seems to go in his crate). I then let him out around 5:15 am and he goes, but then he always seems to go in his crate between then and 6:30 am, when my girlfriend lets him out. He only seems to pee in his crate. My guess is that maybe it has something to do with him hearing me move around the apartment while I get ready? I’m not sure why he can hold it for 4+ hours and then not hold it for an hour. He has an adjustable crate so his space matches his size right now, and we will thoroughly clean the crate with the enzyme cleaner. Do you have any further suggestions that may help?

144. Congratulations on your new puppy! Unfortunately, it’s difficult to say what is going on without actually witnessing the behavior. You might want to consider bringing in a certified professional dog trainer for an in-home training session to assess your situation. Based on what you said it sounds like your puppy does not know she’s supposed to potty on the pads. If you want her to potty on the pads then you might try working on it with her when you are at home. We stick to routines with our puppies and when working on potty training we take them out the same door to the exact same spot to go potty. You might try the same with your puppy when you’re at home and take her to the exact same spot where her potty pads are located. Here’s our article on potty training:

     How to potty train a puppy

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

145. take the bed out, she is getting confused w the pads and bedding

146. SO discouraged with potty training our 11 week old lab mix pup. We’ve been house training using a crate + supervision since we got her 3 weeks ago. I’m happy to say that we have very few accidents in the house anymore, and she has been sleeping through the night (at least 6-7 hours) since the first week, thank goodness. She has only had 1 accident in her crate kept in our bedroom at night, and that was when my husband accidentally left the water down before we put her to bed. I think she actually went in her sleep that time. But no accidents overnight since. The problem we are having is during the day. We work full time, and have older kids in middle and high school. We’ve set up a play pen with a small crate inside in our mudroom where she goes in the morning just before we head to work. Plenty of opportunities to potty and play before we leave (and she goes outside at least 2-3 times between when she wakes up and we leave). The crate is not too big, and the door is propped open so she can come out if nature calls. We have hired someone to come twice per day, to play with our puppy and let her out to potty first thing each visit and before she goes back into the play pen. She successfully potties outside each time, but also has been urinating INSIDE her crate on her bed, even though there is a potty pad in the play pen. Yes yes, I know pads are not ideal, but we felt like it was more humane while she’s little, so at least she would have somewhere to go if she needed too. Our plan was to get her to 3-4 months, then remove the pen and just use the crate (and no more pad), as we felt like her bladder would be mature enough to hold it a few hours by then. I WISH she’s use the pads to pee on, but she pees in her bed, and sleeps there. We’ve removed the bedding, but she just lays in her pee on the plastic tray. So I’m pretty much doing daily baths :(. I’ve used an enzymatic cleaner and scrubbed every surface (and used a black light to make sure I haven’t missed anything), but this has now turned into an every day event. She’s pooping on the pads, so I’m at a loss. Again when we are home, she’s doing great. And I don’t think it’s anxiety… she goes in happily in the morning and doesn’t whine or cry anymore when we put her in the crate or pen. On the weekends when we are home, we put her in the crate in our bedroom to nap, and no accidents. I’m so frustrated because we are spending $100/week having someone come to let our puppy out every two hours, but she is still having accidents. Help! What’s a realistic solution for a family that works full time?

147. Congratulations on your new puppy! Some puppies will have accidents when they get excited. If this is the case with your puppy then you’ll want to do all you can to keep your puppy calm when exiting the crate. A couple things I’ve done with my pups in the past are:

     1. Make sure that I’m as calm as can be anytime I take my pup out of the crate.
     2. Desensitize my puppy to the crate by having specific training times where I will put my puppy in the crate, close the door 5-10 seconds, then let her back out.

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

148. Hi,

     I recently adopted a black lab mix puppy, she is 12 weeks old. She doesn’t pee in her crate until I let her out, she’ll walk out far enough to get the front half of her body out and then pee all over the entrance and sometimes outside on the floor. It doesn’t matter how short a time she’s been in, or if she peed before I put her in. I’ve tried picking her up so she can’t pee but she usually manages to get some out before I can. Why is she doing this and how do I stop it?

149. You might let her be successful for a few days then if she’s still doing well try pushing the length of time. Good luck with your puppy!

150. Thank you! We switched to every 2.5 hours and have had no accidents! When we go to take her out during the night she is dead asleep at all hours when when we take her out she does potty. Since she’s asleep still does this mean we could maybe test pushing the length of time? Or stick with it since she’s been successful? Thanks again!

151. Congratulations on your new puppy! It sounds like you’ve ruled most things out that might be causing her accidents. We’ve had similar issues in the past and if our pup is having accidents in the crate then our goal is to make sure she is successful every time she goes in the crate. In order to do this we reduce the amount of time in the crate. For instance, we’ve gone so far as to set our alarm every hour at night to let our puppy out. Then as she is successful we increase the amount of time between alarms until our puppy can successfully sleep through the night. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy!

152. We have a 8 week old lab and she has been fantastic to potty train! We got her at 7 weeks and she hasn’t had any issues in the crate until the last 3 nights and she has peed in her crate. We tried taking out blankets each night, checked with our vet to make sure she didn’t have a bladder infection (all clear), and we take her out right before bed and again every 3 hours (which she potties every time we take her out). I am worried this is now becoming a habit and wondering why she is doing it? Her crate is not too big either. Any thoughts and should we be concerned?

153. I think the issue is he was still so excited and not calmed down before he was put in his crate, and still getting acclimated to his new surroundings. He hasn’t done this in awhile now, and crossing my fingers he doesnt regress. Now to figure out how to stop him from taking toys, blankets, pillows etc…that is a much easier issue to tackle. Thanks

154. Every puppy is different. Here’s another article that might help you:

     My puppy pees outside then pees inside

155. Our pup is only 8 wks old and we have only had him a wk. However, he has peed in his crate several times and this happens RIGHT after he has peed outside. Crate isn’t too large, he has water an hr or more before going into the crate and pees several times outside and minutes before going into the crate. Tonight he peed within 30 seconds of being in the crate! Ive never had this happen with a puppy-what is the problem?!

156. for those of you with constant crate peeing and/or constant peeing in the house please please have the dog checked for an ectopic ureter it is rare but does explain peeing without an UI being present. Bully puppy has it…irritating as breeder should have caught it but what the hey.

157. Six hours during the day is probably too long for your dog. Take a look at this article when you have a chance:

     What do you do with your puppy when you work full time?

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training.

158. Sorry for the late response. Here’s a post we wrote not too long ago that might help you:

     What do you do with your puppy when you work full time?

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training.

159. I rescued a 7 year old yorkie. He pees in the crate. We only create him 6 hours during the day and not at night. I removed the soft blanket and he eats all his meals and treats in it to remove some of the fear. I’ll try cleaning with the enzyme. Is there anything else that I can do? He needs to be crated or he eats any fabric that he find.

160. I took my puppy from a dog foster home about a year ago. I love him to bits; he has a great personality, and I feel that he loves our family so much. BUT, whenever I leave him at home he pees in the house: on the carpet, on the bed, on flowers..
     My husband and I were thinking about taking him to ‘doggy school’, but then again, it’s extremely expensive, and the nearest ‘doggy school’ is far away from us. Maybe you have some advice? THANK YOU!!!!

161. Hello! I recently got a 16 week old German Shepherd/Boxer mix puppy. Potty training has been frustrating so far. Sometimes she will give signs that she has to go and other times she’ll just squats down out of nowhere and pee. For the past couple of days she has actually slept through the night in her kennel with no accidents (yay!). My main concern is that when I open her kennel door to take her outside in the morning she will immediately start to pee. I take her outside and she will pee at that time too and I give her treats for positive reinforcement. I got her from a questionable breeder and am pretty sure she was neglected and abused because she would pee and poop in her kennel and lay there. But now she pees in there when I think she knows she is going outside. Is this something she will grow out of or will it one day click for her to only go outside?

162. You might try starting over with potty training. Here’s an article on how we potty train our puppies:

     How to potty train your puppy

     It’s very different because we use crate training as a major component when teaching our puppies not to potty in the house. A few things I’d consider doing in your situation if you don’t plan on using a crate are:

     1. Don’t give your puppy access to his regular potty area.
     2. Try using an ex-pen as a confinement area.
     3. Try to shorten up the amount of time you leave him at home until he understands his new potty training place/schedule. If you do have to leave him at home for long stretches then take a look at this article:

     What do you do with your puppy when you work full time?

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

163. I have a nearly one year old male mixed breed dog. I live on the 8th floor of an apartment building and work during the day so I trained him to pee on a certain spot. I am currently abroad and due to return home in which my family have suggested training him to go by the door now so it is easier to us to train him to go outdoors once im home. I have tried doing this but where he pees now is in a spot of his room which he is in for no more than 5 hours at a time, im trying to train him to hold it. Would it be a good idea to start rom scratch using paper or puppy pads and moving them a bit at a time until theyre eventually out the room? Im struggling how to get the message across that he much hold it.

164. When I’ve had pups with similar problems it’s usually been one of three things:

     1. My puppy doesn’t understand that she’s not supposed to pee in the crate/ex-pen. I take a step back in training and start from the beginning by making her successful in the crate and ex-pen every time. Here’s an article on crate training:

     Crate train your puppy

     2. My puppy has anxiety. A slower introduction to crate/ex-pen. I don’t have an in-depth article on this one, but I’ll see about putting something together in the coming weeks.
     3. My puppy has a medical issue like a bladder infection. I take my puppy to the vet.

     Also, I’ve seen/heard people having similar issues when overusing the crate. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

165. I am interested in this as well. We have a 5 1/2 month old Chow Chow female. She was immediately converted to outside when we brought her home and we did not have issues then but now the little potato will pee in her day time crate within 20 minutes of being brought inside from her half hour potty break.(And Yes, we do monitor her pee time, we do the one-one thousand count to be sure she has at least a 5 second pee and a couple of 3 second pees). We thought maybe she was rebelling against the crate but there are other times where she’ll finish her outside business and come into her day time crate and not pee for hours. We do also have an indoor pen, She does exactly the same thing in the indoor pen which we assumed was due to the fact that she had more room but then again, she can be in her indoor pen for hours without peeing at all. We have tried taking away her dog beds/blankets as someone had mentioned but then we just have a dog covered in dog pee. She does sleep in a crate for 8-9 hours with no issues at all. It does seem like she is just being a little jerk.

166. @Cindy, did you try any of the suggestions made in this article? If so, what were the results. Please send me more details on what you’ve tried to alleviate accidents in the crate and I’ll do my best to give you more suggestions/tips.

167. Hi…I recently adopted a 6month husky shepherd mix. She doesn’t seem to go pee/poop outside. So far the only accident she’s been having is in her crate. How can I get her to stop that?

168. It’s difficult to tell what’s happening without actually witnessing your situation. However, in our experience we’ve had puppies have accidents in the crate because they were excited when the owners arrived home. If this sounds like your puppy you should try being as calm as possible when letting your dog out of the crate. Good luck with your training.

169. Hello! I have a 4 mo. old pitbull mix who is house broken for the most part, only having one or two accidents a week. The problem is she pees in her crate every single time I go to take her out of it, regardless of amount of time spent inside. . She won’t pee in her crate while I’m away, but literally waits until I’m unlatching the door. We go straight outside to potty, and have been doing this since I got her so she’s familiar with the routine. She goes in her crate willingly and even hangs out in it on her own. Not sure what to do and running out of paper towels quickly. Thanks for your help!

170. Congratulations on your new puppy! Thanks for including a detailed schedule. It sounds to me like you’re overusing the crate. Take a look at this article when you have a chance:

     What do you do with your puppy when you work full time?

     I’d consider cutting back the amount of time your puppy spends in the crate during the day. Try to cut back to about 2 hours twice a day at the most. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

171. Hi! My 4 mo. old puppy is having a lot of crate and potty training problems and I can’t find anything online to specifically help me. Here is her schedule: Wake up at 5:30 and potty (pee), breakfast at 5:45, potty at 6:15 (pee/poop), potty again at 6:45 (pee), crate at 7:00, potty and play time at 11:00 (pee/poop), crate at 11:30, potty at 4:30 (pee), dinner at 5:00, potty at 5:30 (pee/poop), play and various potty breaks (pee/poop) until bed time at 10:30. The issue is that this is on a good day. Many times, she will go potty, always pee and sometimes poop, in her crate – every time! Her crate is medium size but we have it partitioned to a much smaller size. We also leave a towel and 1 toy in there. Also, during the night she wakes up at cries twice! The first is at 1:45 and the second at 4:30. We let her out and she does go potty and then comes right back in her crate but even with letting her out, she’ll still pee in the crate. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong!? Help!!

172. You might look into bringing in a certified professional dog trainer. It could be that she is having some separation anxiety. You might try crating her for short periods of time while you are at home this way she’ll see that you don’t always leave when she has go go in the crate. Take baby steps and work towards leaving her home alone in the crate. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training.

173. We have a 4 month old golden doodle puppy who is not yet entirely house broken or crate trained. She is able to sleep the night in the crate without any accidents but if we leave her in there and leave she pees. It doesn’t seem to matter if she is in there for 1 hour or 5 hours, she pees every time. We’ve made the crate smaller, deep cleaned it with pet odor removers and sanitizers and even leave her with a bone to keep her occupied. She doesn’t seem to dislike her crate as it isn’t a struggle to get her to go in it but still, pee, every time. We never had a problem with our older dog and i’m at a loss for what to try next. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

174. I understand that people have to go to work, but the crate is not meant as a place for a dog to stay during the entire day. My best suggestion is to consider having a friend, family member, neighbor, or pet sitter come by to give your dog exercise and mental stimulation throughout the day. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

175. So, this is going to I am sure sound like everyone else who has this problem. We just cannot find out what the issue is with him. He at 8 months old can hold it all night outside of the crate while sleeping. However when we put him in the crate he pee’s at some point while we are at work. We cannot leave him out during the day when we are not there in fear he will eat something. We just had to have emergency surgery at Cornell as he had a object blocking his small intesting. He at some point got one of my fleece running gloves out of the hamper. So, we do fear that he will get bored and want to eat something. He is not a shoe, furniture chewer, just toys or gloves I guess. So, crate is what he will be having while we are out. We had his urine tested at the doctor. No issues or illnesses. Everyone we ask says he is being a jerk puppy and being mad cause we leave. Well that’s reality and we have to go to work everyday. But also I must mention that we are the most routine people. We have no kids, we get up at 4am 6 days a week, feed him, take him out 3 more times before we leave for the gym. I come home after the gym to shower, let him out 2 more times before I leave again at 7am. So our mornings are the same everyday. We also feed him in his crate. He does not see it as punishment at all. He goes in their willingly.

176. I would try starting over with your crate training by only associating positive things with the crate and never forcing your puppy inside. You want to try and be successful every step of the way so you might try leaving him in the crate for only 5-10 minutes. If he does well in the crate then try increasing the amount of time from that point. If you’re having problems with him having accidents at night try setting your alarm clock throughout the night so you can let him out to his potty spot before he has an accident. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

177. It’s difficult to pinpoint what the actual issue might be without actually experiencing your situation. You are probably best served by bringing in a professional dog trainer for an in-home training to assess your situation. If everything had been going well until recently with her house training then you might try to think about what might have changed in her routine. Change in routine can often cause behavior problems. Ripping the stuffing out of beds in crate are often signs of boredom. Something we try to do before putting our dogs in their crate is get them exercise and mental stimulation before their longer stays in the crate. Also, you might consider removing bedding from their crate altogether. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

178. Hello, I am having the exact same problem with my 8 month old german shorthaired pointer. He pee’s out of the crate by lifting his leg, we even put plexi glass on the crate in hopes he wouldn’t like the pee on him. But he keeps finding a way to sneak the pee out somwwhere. We now have moved to a cargo carrier type crate that you use to ship animals with very small slits on the sides. He is still peeing out the sides somehow and getting pee on him also. He can hold it all night long not in the crate sleeping on the floor in our room. I think he is just being a jerk but how do you get him to just stop. We have raised several dogs from puppy age and never had this issue. Please help! running out of paper towels these days.

179. I have a one year old Doberman dauchsand mix, I got him when he was ten weeks old and can not get him to stop pottying in his crate. I let him out before putting him in it and going to bed and I wake and there is always pee, no matter what time I wake up. It seems when he hears me going down the stairs he just lets it go. I don’t know what to do. I feel like some days he does really good and then other days he just regresses. Lately for the past month he has been peeing in his cage everyday. I don’t know of he just doesn’t like the cage, if he does it to spite me, but I just need it to stop. I need help.

180. Hi,
     I have a miniature Australian Shephard and she will be a year old in May this year. We had a hard time getting her house trained but we finally were able to. We are now having the problem of her wanting to pee on our other dogs bed inside the crate. She also keeps ripping the stuffing out of the beds in the crates. I do not know what to do to get her to stop doing this. They are only in there crates at night and maybe a couple hours during the day. My husband farms and takes them with him most days or they will stay at home with me. They are let out pretty regularly and she will whine at night when she has to go out. I am 9 months pregnant so I don’t know if she is acting out because of that or not. We could really use some help!

     Thank you

181. Take a look at this article:

     How to potty train your puppy

     One of the most important things we do when our puppies do not understand potty training is restrict their freedom by keeping them on leash and by our side when in the house. This helps us keep a close eye on them and catch them (circling, sniffing, etc) before they have an accident in the house. Good luck with your training!

182. Help we recently rescued a 9 month old yellow lab he was never worked with for anything he was doing going outside to pee and now he is releaving himself in his crate and through out the house I will have just taken him outside and he will have gone I bring him in and he will pee again he is neutered and I am about at wits end not sure what else to do I scold him when he pees in house or crate and praise him when he goes outside I swear he does it on purpose. Any suggestion would be great.

183. It sounds like she could be having some anxiety. You might try crating her for shorter periods of time and then increasing the time as she becomes successful.

184. We shared most of our tips in this article. Did you get a chance to try any of the tips? Have you found anything that works?

185. I’d recommend looking into getting a professional dog trainer to do an in-home evaluation with you and your dog. That being said based on what you’ve written it sounds like you may be overusing your crate. When our puppies are having training problems we take a step back in their training and start over from the beginning. When you have a moment take a look at our article on crate training:

     Crate train your puppy

     Also, it sounds like your puppy is not yet fully potty trained. When our puppies are still having accidents in the house we limit their freedom and keep them on leash by our side at all times. Again it’s a good idea to take a step backwards in training and make sure your puppy is successful with the basics. When you have a moment take a look at our article on potty training a puppy:

     How to potty train your puppy

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

186. My rescue is 4 years old. She is crate and potty trained. For the last three times she has been left in her crate while I run errands, she pees in her crate. I take her out before I leave and I am gone no longer than one hour. We rescued her two months ago. She was fine while we were gone until about five days ago. Is this separation anxiety? How do I handle this?

187. Hello we have a 6 month old female beagle and just keeps peeing in her cage and i dont know what to do to stop her from this

188. Hi. I hope you can help. We have an 8 month old dog that does not pee or poop in the crate at night but pees in the crate when we are gone. It doesn’t matter if we are gone 4 hours or 10 hours. Today we were outside working on a project and we put him in the crate and he pooped and peed. We had just taken him out to pee. He will also walk around the house and pee if he feels he is not getting enough attention. Not sure how to stop this.

189. You might try starting over again with her crate training and potty training. Take a look at these two articles:

     How to potty train your puppy
     Crate train your puppy

     Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

190. We got a 5 month old puppy 4 days ago who was trained by her breeder to go potty in the crate. She will sleep in the crate at night and do fine. If I leave for 3 hours she goes poop and pee every time. I put her in today just to rest and quit following me around while I got some housework done, 5 min poop and pee everywhere. She will also poop and pee on the floor upstairs and downstairs, not main level tho (tri-level) so we put a gate across the steps and that is helping but if I go up or downstairs she cries, then barks then howls. Im so frustrated with her. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 🙂

191. If my puppy is having accidents in his crate then I do what I can to make him successful. In this situation I’d shorten the amount of time I leave my puppy in the crate and I wouldn’t use the crate unless I knew my puppy would be successful. I would start by only leaving him in the crate for maybe 10 minutes then letting him out to do his business. From there I’d work on increasing the time he is in the crate making sure he was successful every step of the way. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training.

192. It sounds like your puppy may have some anxiety. You might want to have a professional dog trainer come in for an in home evaluation. God luck with your puppy.

193. Every puppy is different and will adjust to the crate at different rates. Of course if you have a younger puppy then you don’t want to leave her alone in the crate for long periods of time. Some pups we start by having them in the crate for only 10 minutes and then work from there.

194. The best thing to do if your dog is having problems with dandruff is to consult your veterinarian.

195. Hello,
     We have a 5 1/2 month old puppy and he is still peeing in his crate every single day! When we first got him he always peed and pooped in his crate and then the pooping stopped after a while but now is constantly peeing in his crate. He is alone for about 5 to 5.5 hours before being let out and he pees every time. The crate we have for his in a wire crate so if I make it smaller, he just lifts his leg and pees outside the kennel. I do put a towel in there fore him (I don’t want to buy a bed and spend a ton of money if he is just going to pee on it the first day and it is so much harder to clean). I have tried not putting anything in there, just letting him lay on the plastic tray that is in the crate but then he pees on that and there is nothing to soak up the pee other than his fur so he gets covered in his own pee. I am not sure what to do about this. I think that he absolutely hates his crate. We have also tried getting a baby gate and locking him in our mudroom in the house but he managed to climb over the baby gate during the day so that didn’t work.. Is there something I am doing wrong? I feel like he should be able to hold it!

     Thanks!
     Chantal

196. Hi, we have an odd situation. We have an 11-week old frenchie. She doesn’t have any accidents in the crate at night. We wake and take her out every 4 hours. Easy. But during the day whether she’s in the crate for 30 minutes or 3 hours she urinates in the crate. We’re trying to train her for when we’re at work so we are not in the room when we practice crating her during the day. We make sure she’s gone out a few times before we put her in. We also tracked her potty habits and she wouldn’t have to necessarily go at these times. Could it be anxiety?

197. Hi We got our puppy from the pet store which of course, is why she’s used to just peeing and pooping where she sleeps. She even steps on the poop and jumps all over her cage! Oh no! We have her in a smell kennel, but that obviously doesn’t matter! I will try to keep her in for a short period of time and continue to potty train her outside. She’s doing great with house breaking but the crate is always a problem. She’s been sleeping with me for a while as I was off work. Now I need to have her in her crate and wanted to know how long I should keep her in for a small amount and then start to leave her there longer? Is it possible to crate train her even when she’s made it a habbit? I’ll definitely get the cleaner to wash off her potty odor! Thanks for this post!

198. Hey

     Your blog is great. But, I have a problem that my dog has a lot of dandruff.

     I really feel very worried about him and I have a different types of dog shampoos and baby shampoos but still there is no effect on him.

     I am very confused that is I am doing right things for him to remove dandruff. Also, he get very irritated and put a scratch which leads to the bleeding.

     Help me out friend.:-)

199. Hi Crystal, I’m not sure what question you are asking. Are you wondering about feeding and over eating? If so, then you are on the right track. We generally feed our puppies 3 times a day until they get older. If he is a fast eater then check out this blog post: https://puppyintraining.com/does-your-dog-eat-too-fast-our-top-3-slow-feeder-dog-bowls/ Good luck with your training!

200. Hi! I got my cc mastiff Bout 6 weeks ago. He could care less about pee and poop. He is 5 months old. He will just lay in it after going to the bathroom! We were told he was crate trained but this is not the case

201. hi I got a shepherd dogo. who is now 18 weeks old. when we go him he was skin and bones and they gave me a cat kennel the said they kept him in in the day time I put him in it the night I got him and took hi me right back out because he couldn’t stand up turn or even lie down and stretch and I couldn’t do that to him. he is doing good now except he pee’s. in the place he likes to hide and sleep on my carpet . I have a new kennel and he peed in it once then I emptied it
     now he don’t. I all ways have water down but not food. do little bits of food 3times a day because he will eat till he gets sick. do you have any suggestions for me to help with either one of my problems. thanks for your time

202. You might look into having a professional dog trainer come over for an in home evaluation. Something we’ve done with our puppies is set an alarm to go off throughout the night and over time extend the time between alarms. When training our young puppies we’ve gone as far as setting the alarm to go off every hour to let our puppy out to potty. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

203. It’s difficult to tell without actually witnessing the behavior. You might check with a professional dog trainer to get an in home assessment. Has anything changed in your dog’s life that may be causing anxiety to your dog? Has anything changed in the health of your dog? If anything has changed then you should look into seeing if that is what is causing these problems. You might also consider setting your alarm in the middle of the night so you can let your dog out before she has an accident in the crate. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

204. My doxie 10 months old eats in her kennel pee and poops in it. Im getting really tired of it we let her out at 11pm by 4 am potty in kennel i dont know what to do no feeding or drinking after 6 pm what should i do hubby wants to rehome her but she so sweet just so tired of it i have NEVER had this problem small kennel too

205. I need help!

     I have a 4 year old bulldog who has only.these past few months have been pooing and peeing in her crate through the night which is unusual as she hasn’t done it before.
     Since she started I can’t seem to get her to stop and I’m currently cleaning out her crate?

206. You might try bringing in a professional dog trainer to evaluate your situation. It could be that you are over using your crate. During the day we try not to use our crate for more than 2-3 hours. If we need to use our crate more than this we ask for help from a friend, family member, neighbor or we get a pet sitter. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training.

207. I have a 5 1/2 month old blue heeler, I got him at 5 weeks and he did Excellent with potty training, would run for his puppy pad every time he had an urge to go. The last few months though as he’s gotten bigger he will Not stop peeing in his crate, he does poop in there also but very seldom, I know when he does that it was purely an accident and he just couldn’t hold it anymore. I have him on a set potty and feeding achedule, exact same one I’ve had him on since I got him. He’s so big now that the once tiny accidents are becoming huge and unbearable. I’m not sure what to do at this point. And advice?

208. Congratulations on your new puppy! Are guide and service dog puppies are never allowed on the furniture. However, when we work with our personal puppies we do eventually allow them on the couch and bed, but not until after they learn all the rules of the house including potty training. I’ve had a few foster puppies that would pee while lying down and in both cases it had to do with the foster pups having some anxiety. In those two cases it took about a month for our puppies to get used to their new home.

209. Congratulations on your new puppy! We do not recommend crating a young puppy for more than 1-2 hours during the day. I understand people have to work and if you can’t be home with your puppy during the day then you might try getting a friend, family member, neighbor, or pet sitter to come by to let your puppy out of the crate and give him some attention during the day. Good luck with your training!

210. Hi Everyone, my husband and i just aquired a 4 month old female shepars mix on New years eve, she is a gorgeous little puppy, and were giving her attention and making sure she gets a little used to us because it will take time being shes 4 months old already. But were having the issue that she is peeing laying down, as most dogs they squat to urine, she urined on the couch, on our bed, no signs at all. But we took her outside at 3am today because she got off the bed, she went #1 and #2, but the other times she wont get up. She will just stay laying down and urine, how can we break her from that habit?? Also, how long will it usually take for puppies her age to get somewhat used to their new families? She looks depressed, and doesnt do anything, but just lay on the floor. She will wag her tail sometimes, but other than that, she doesnt. How can we tell if she will get used to us? Shes a gorgeous puppy, and we want to keep her. It hurts us to see her depressed. Her original family was just 2 older ladies, that kept her inside, and had her go to the bathroom inside but on newspaper. Any advice please?

211. Okay, so I have a full blood German puppy. She’s 9 weeks old and I put her in her crate when I have to go to work. The first day when I got home she never peed in her crate, but soon after that she started doing it over and over. I’m a hot mess because I don’t know what to do. I have to work! No doubt about that, but I can’t come home to let her out. I don’t know what to do. Someone help!!

212. Your puppy is still very young it’s likely he won’t start prompting you on a regular basis until he’s older. We take our pups out through the same door to the same spot every time and after a short while they start walking over to the door, sitting, and waiting for us to take them out when they have to potty. As I mentioned your puppy is very young and will likely pee at seemingly random times until he gets older and has better control of his bladder. If you’re allowing your puppy to eat and play in his crate with the door open then you want to keep a close eye on him as you would if he were out and about in your house so you can catch any signs that he may have to potty. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

213. Hi, I have an 8 week old puppy we are crate training. He has been doing great going to the bathroom outside. Have only had a couple accidents in the house the first couple days we brought him home and hasn’t had one since. At night he will wake me up from his crate to let home out to do his business. During the day however we’ve had a couple issues. Usually after he eats/sleeps/plays/drinks we will bring him out to go to the bathroom without him prompting us. Sometimes he does but not usually. I’m wondering if this is because we bring him out before he has a chance too? Also two days ago he randomly pee’d in his crate while he was chewing on his toy once and then did it again today right after he finished eating his food(we feed him in his crate). Both times the door was open and he was hanging out and did not attempt to go to the door or warn us. I just don’t want this to become a habit were he randomly feels he can just pee in his crate when he wants to. Its sized for him to sleep and lay in, he doesn’t have room to go to the bathroom and then sleep away from it. Any advice?

214. Sorry I’m just noticing that I didn’t answer this question. I’m sure bailey Mooney has solved this problem by now, but just in case others have the same question. The crate we have at home is large and has a divider that allows to make it smaller or larger. However, we’ve also had large crates without the divider to help make it smaller for our puppies. In this case we added a couple of large pillows to the back of the crate to make it a smaller for our puppy. Hopefully that helps good look with your training!

215. That is quite a problem not dissimilar from the one we are having with our pup. Would love to hear what Colby has to say about this circumstance

216. That’s interesting. When we start crate training our puppies we feed them all of their meals in their crate so they can associate the positive act of eating food with going into their crate.

217. Someone told me dogs won’t go where they eat. So when I watch a dog that is in a crate I make sure to put a snack and a chew stick in there! Guess what…. They don’t go in the crate

218. If she has never done this before you might get her a vet check to make sure she is okay medically.

219. Hello! I’m after some advice, my 9 month old puppy. She has been house trained and Crete trained and everything was fine but the last 4 nights she has been weeping in her Crete at night? She has never ever done this even as a tiny pup! I wondered if you had any advice of what to do?
     Thanks
     Jen

220. Hi Sam,

     To answer your questions:

     1. It would be best if you had a professional dog trainer come by to see exactly what is going on with your puppy. It sounds like your crate may be too large. Also, I usually remove everything from the crate except for sometimes an indestructible dog toy.

     2. You might start by having your puppy sitter come over when you are at home to take your puppy outside together. I’d also consider working with others to take your puppy outside for potty breaks so she gets used to doing her business with other people around.

     3. The earliest I wean my pups off the crate is at about 12 months. However, every puppy is different I currently have an 18 month old puppy that wasn’t ready to be weaned off the crate.

     Good luck with your training!
     Colby

221. Hi Colby,

     I have a 5 month old Pomeranian who I bought from a pet shop.

     She can sleep all through the night in a crate next to my bed. I take her out first thing and she pees and poos in the garden – so no problems there.

     My daytime routine is (fairly) similar every day, but she will be in a crate for 2-3 hours a time while I am out. Sometimes I’m not back for 5 hours, which means someone else lets her out and about until I’m back.

     For her house breaking training I am only allowing her to run around the kitchen with me after she has just done a pee or poo in the garden. One hour later I will put her back into her crate in the kitchen.

     The problems are:

     1) While she is in the kitchen crate she will yelp and bark and I will try to ignore her for her to settle, but she poos or pees in her crate. I have removed all blankets from the crate. I’m not sure whether I should get her out and take her to the garden every time she yelps/barks to try to stop her going in her crate? Her crate is filled with goodies and a water bowl.

     2) If someone else lets her out her crate while I’m away and takes her to the garden she won’t do her business in the garden for them. She will only do her business in the kitchen – on the floor or in the crate – even if she’s just been taken outside.

     Finally, can you please advise when I should start to wean her out of sleeping in a crate in my bedroom? I don’t want that to be forever!

     Many thanks,
     Sam

222. Most of what my experiences are already written in the article. As I mentioned remove all bedding and clean the crate thoroughly. Also, shorten the time you leave your pup in the crate. Keep a potty journal and include times your pup eats, drinks, poops, and pees. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy.

223. Also he now wants to just play outside not pee

224. Colby, my puppy never peed in his crate. We left him with another family for two days and now it’s his regular spot! How do I get him back on track?

225. Congratulations on your new puppies! Whenever I have two puppies at the same time for an extended period of time I try to keep them separate as much as possible. The reason being is they tend to grow a very close bond to each other rather than bonding with the humans. When I have two puppies I keep two separate kennels and keep them separated by having one on one side of the bed and the other on the other side. Kennels are essentially my night stands. Good luck with your training!

226. I have 2 puppies right now. 1 is 12 weeks old, the other is 9 weeks old. I am kennel training both. They absolutely love each other and cry if they aren’t in the same kennel, however I’m hesitant to keep them in the same kennel as they are both struggling to potty train and have accidents in the kennel. What are your thoughts on this? Is it better to keep separate kennels so that they can potty train at their own pace? I wake up in the middle of the night to take them to the bathroom, and my daughter helps to keep tabs on them during the day to scout for possible signs that they need to go potty. I’m figuring the struggle is because of their age, but any suggestions regarding kennel training 2 puppies would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

227. If you’ve tried the suggestions in this blog post and your pup is still having accidents then you may want to contact a professional dog trainer for an in home evaluation.

228. It might be a good idea to have a professional come by for an in home evaluation. That being said, I recently took in a 1 year old Golden Retriever that is not house trained or crate trained. When I’m home with her in the house I keep an eye on her 100% of the time so I can catch her before she has any accidents. As far as the crate goes you might take a step back and shorten the amount of time you leave him in the crate until he can reliably be left in the crate mistake free. Good luck with your training!

229. Hi Louis, I just responded to a few comments that might help your situation. Please review those comments and let me know if you have any other questions.

230. If you’ve already checked off that it’s not 1. Crate size to big or 2. Bladder infection, then something you might try is setting your alarm to go off once or twice a night so you can let your dog outside to potty. Good luck with your training.

231. We have 6 month old lab mix. Cannot potty train this puppy. This is our 4th puppy to housebreak and we have never had the issues we are having now. Puppy knows to pee outside. Every time he is outside, he will pee. If he goes one minute longer than he feels he should inside, will eliminate, pee or poop in house. Will actually hold his poop if we don’t watch him and pass on pooping outside to sneak off and poop inside. Has begun peeing in crate every time we leave him there, even an hour wait. At night, he sleeps under our bed for EIGHT hours with no mistakes. Every night, he sleeps for eight hours with no mistakes and crate free. He knows his basic commands, is leash remained and walked regularly. We have two other dogs that he is socialized well with. Ideas?

232. I have a 8 month lab and she is constantly peeing her bed /crate even though she asks to go out to toilet I am at a loose end and dont know what to do

233. Thanks

234. My puppy was doing great but then in the last few day started peeing in her crate over night,she is eating and drinking fine and acting just as normal .

235. I have a 1 yr old mixed dog I adopted from the shelter. She is used to going in her crate. But mostly she only pees in her crate overnight. How would I address the problem. She’s doing good about going outside during the day while she’s not in the crate but at night she goes. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

236. Congratulations on your new puppy! When puppies are young they tend to pee every few minutes when they play.

     If your puppy is having some issues holding it when in the crate you might need to take a step back and shorten the amount of time you put him in the crate both at night and during the day.

     If he has had a parasite, bladder infection, or UTI then this could be causing problems and you should take him to the vet. Sorry I don’t have any home remedies.

     “He can fit in it lay down/stand but not much else.” – That’s exactly the size you want his crate to be.

     Here are a couple other articles that might help you:

     https://puppyintraining.com/crate-training-puppies/
     https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

     Good luck with your training!

237. Forgot to add that he is 15 weeks old.

238. We’ve had our male Labrador retriever for two months now and he has gone through many stages- both good and bad.

     Let me start off by saying the first week we had him, he might have had two accidents in the house. That escalated as he got more comfortable in his environment, but we worked diligently to get him motivated to go outside. When he needs to poop, he sits at the door (and I am very happy for this), however he does not go to the door when he needs to pee– I take him out every sign he gives that he may need to pee (sometimes I don’t even get a sign but rather just guess) however he typically will be playing with a toy and randomly get up and walk a few feet away and pees in the floor. I don’t understand it.

     Recently he has begun to pee and poop in his crate (both overnight and while we are away). He is getting over a parasite where I don’t think he could hold it well. Now he is better, but continues to have accidents regularly. He is also peeing very frequently (every ten or fifteen minutes and in very small amounts).

     I’m not sure if his habits have just gotten out of control or if he has a UTI or bladder infection. Are there any safe/natural remedies for him if he does indeed have an infection? Vets bills are racking up and I’d prefer not to take him to get more medication if it can be treated naturally.

     Also, I do believe he has too much room in his crate, so may try to put him in his travel crate for a while. I am just afraid it is too small for him. He can fit in it and lay down/stand but not much else.

     Any advise woule be greatly appreciated!

239. Congratulations on your new puppy! We’ve had some of our puppies have the same problem. When our pups have accidents out of excitement we do our best to remain as calm as possible when getting up in the morning, when coming home, or anytime where our puppy might get excited. The more excited we get the more excited puppies get and then accidents occur. In our experience remaining calm helps, but also it takes a time for your puppy to mature and gain better control of her bladder.

240. Hello, my puppy is around 9 weeks old, she does fine overnight her problem is when I come home or wake up and she’s in the crate she starts peeing (I think from excitement) I take her out immediately but she continues to do it. Suggestions?

241. As I’ve told others you can try taking a step back and starting smaller. Maybe just get your puppy to stay in her crate for 10-20 minutes without an accident, get her to her potty spot, and if she potty’s give her tons of praise. Once she’s mastered 10-20 minutes increase to a longer period of time. Good luck with your training!

242. Sorry for the late response. If he’s in a large crate I’d get a smaller one just large enough for him to stand up and turn around. Also, I would take a step back and work on shorter time periods in the crate getting him in and out without an accident. Try to have small successes with your puppy then increase from there. Good luck with your training!

243. I have done all of these things and still my 10 week old continues to pees in her kennel. Every morning I wake up and she is sopping wet. I have confined her to a very small.space in her kennel and she doesn’t stop. It’s becoming very frustrating and I am running out of ideas.

244. My puppy is 10 weeks old and we will take him out, he won’t do anything, and then pees in his crate immediately when we bring him back in. How do we break him of that? He is in a large crate, but he is peeing in the same place as he sleeps. I’m totally frustrated.

245. One thing you might try is asking a friend, family member, neighbor, or dog sitter to come by the house to let your puppy out of the crate for a walk/play time. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

246. I have a very similar situation with just a few different details. I just got my pup about a month ago. He is a year old. Before he came into our family he was often left in his kennel for long periods of time and didn’t get much attention. Here, at our home, he is very loved and has plenty of attention from my children and I. He sleeps outside the crate in my bedroom. He’s always outside the crate except for when we leave or I go to work. I don’t work long shifts. I let him out in the morning, again late morning, and make sure hes out just before I go to work about 12:20pm. I only work until 5. Often it takes me until almost 6 to get home. So he’s in the kennel 12:20-5:45 ish. He almost always pees in his kennel/crate. Then I have to immediately take him outside let him pee again and take him inside and give him a bath because he sat in pee and his white fur is full of yellow nastiness. Then I have to brush him because he’s maltese/poodle and doesnt shed so has to be brushed, then I have to clean the crate with disinfecter. When we are home, he can go hours and hours without going outside to potty. Couple times I was sick and slept for almost 12 hours and he slept with me and would only go out when I had to get up to do my business. He lasts 8 hours a night without going to the bathroom. So it’s only in his crate from those time frames. Its such a hassle, so annoying to me that I have to go through bath, brush, clean crate almost every day. I swear he just is mad that we are gone. This really is his only problem. The first day he was with us he did mark his territory around the house a few places. Since then he has not he felt remorse and stopped doing it – plus I had him neutered pretty quickly which may have helped. I could get a smaller crate but I feel so bad that he has to be shoved in a tiny kennel for 5/6 hours. I do no put anything in there. I once tried a potty pad and he shreds anything possible if near the crate or in the crate.
     SO FRUSTRATED! Love him, cannot ever get rid of him, wish I had a solution.

247. thanks, but I have already tried evrything, as well as took her out 5 times during the night and she still peed and pooed and just laid in it. no thanks, I had to give her 2x daily baths for a month straight this has been happening. I limit water and did everything I was supposed to. Oh well.

248. You are exactly right that every puppy is different. We’ve raised mostly Labrador Retrievers for the guide dog program and even within the breed they are all very different. I currently have two dogs at home and one can hold it all day the other one I worry about when he’s home alone for more than 4 hours. Every dog and puppy is different.

249. Congratulations on your new puppy! Something I’ve recommended to others is to take a step back and start over on your crate training. First, make sure your entire crate is clean by using an enzymatic cleaner like Nature’s Miracle to remove any scent of urine. Second, put her in the crate for short periods of time and let her out for her potty breaks before she has a chance to have an accident. In the evening you might try setting your alarm to let her out several times in the middle of the night to relieve herself. Good luck with your training!

250. my 1 year old boston terrier never once went in his crate. we got him at just over 8 weeks old. me and my girlfriend are away from home 10-12 hours a day for work. even at 8 weeks he held it in 10-12 hours in the crate no problems. my dachshund on the other hand is 9 months old now and still every now and then goes in the crate. i would suggest that every puppy is different with how long they can hold it.

251. I am at my wits end and was wondering if anyone else had ever had this problem… I got a GSD puppy at 8 weeks, she is 12 weeks now, if someone is home she goes to the door and sits and waits to be let out to go potty. At night/daytime crate times it is a different story…. she used to pee every night on her blankets, I bleached and washed them and she still peed. I removed the blankets so let her sleep on her hard plastic bottom, she still pees and lays in it no matter how many times I take her out at night! Before anyone suggests crate size she barely has room to turn around… I limit her water through the day and no water now 4 hours before bedtime, nothing works and obviously you can imagine that scent in that room, she howls to let us know at night for pooping but not peeing, just lays right in it. Help!

252. One thing we do when training our puppy is always try to make sure he is successful and then let him know. When working with the crate if our pup is having accidents then we take a step back and shorten the amount of time we leave him in his crate. Maybe start as short as 5-10 minutes. After that time we take him out and take him directly to his potty spot. Plenty of praise when he goes in his regular potty spot. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training.

253. My five month puppy is peeing in her crate. She only seems to do this when we’re home and stands over it and waits for us to clean it up. We’ve tried making it smaller, removing bedding, and she has been to the vet. She’s never in the crate too long when we’re home. She just doesn’t seem to be making the connection. Help!

254. Hi Joyce, thanks for sharing your story. I’m glad you found a solution to your puppy’s behavior problem.

255. I read this article with interest. Here is my opinion. I have a rescue pup who is approximately 3 years old. I have no idea of his past. He has a pretty good life now. We have a doggy area all fixed up for him and he has a doggy door so he can go outside to our fenced backyard anytime he wants. We, too, had problems with him peeing in his nice soft bed. It was annoying. I was washing his bedding every day. Recently, I decided this had become a situation that was causing me extreme stress. I decided it would be best to figure out a solution I could live with. Our pup peed in his crate if we tried to crate him. If I took his bed away and put a blanket on the floor, he peed on the blanket. Our pup has regular Vet appointments. He does not have an infection. He does have a behavior problem and we can’t seem to stop it. This is his ONLY annoying problem. Other than this he is a wonderful little pup and we love him to pieces. I am retired and home all day. He is rarely left alone for more than a couple hours a day. When we are home, he has access to the areas we are in. Here is what we did to help our own frustration. We went to the store and bought a kitty litter box, just the bottom. I bought plastic zipped pillow covers and put one over a pillow. I put a pillowcase over that. I put the pillow in the plastic litter box. Now, instead of a whole dog bed, I only have a soiled pillowcase to wash every day. It has saved my washing machine from the stress of washing his dog bed and the problem has now become only a minor annoyance. I can live with this. I don’t understand this behavior but he is a dog and we love him and we simply tried to figure out a way to live with him in peace. Sometimes that is all you can do; figure a way to live with a problem the best you can. 😀

256. Congratulations on your new puppy! It sounds like you’re doing everything correctly. You might consider bringing in a professional dog trainer and possibly have your puppy checked over by your vet. The only other thing I’d consider is keeping his entire day on a strict schedule as well as keeping a potty journal.

257. I have a 12 week old Newfie pup. He has had crate/seperation anxiety since he came home 4 weeks ago. He has gotten much better with it but he will urinate in his kennel & in the house. He has only pooped in his kennel when he had diarrhea but has never alerted us to having to go out. He is not showing any signs of house training or getting better about wetting in his kennel. He is on a leash by my side at all times or in his kennel if I’m not home or cannot watch him. Other than night time the longest he is in his kennel is no more than 2 hours but will still have accidents. He has just enough room to comfortably turn around with no pillows or blankets. He is also on a strict food & water schedule.
     I have had several dogs/puppies but have never had this much trouble house training ever! Any advice?

258. If you haven’t had a chance take a look at this article on potty training your puppy: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

     I usually keep my puppy on leash by my side at all times in the house when he is not yet potty trained. It gives me a chance to keep an eye on him 100% of the time.

     If you’re having issues with your puppy having accidents in the crate you might consider letting her out more frequently during the day and evening.

259. I recently about 2 weeks ago adopted a puppy from my local county animal shelter. She’s believed to be between 4-6 months I think around 4 or 5 they said 6 months but she a shepard/rott mix and was only 28 pounds when we got her, anyway I’ve been trying to work on potty training and commands she stubborn and smart but has caught on fairly fast with commands when she’s not being stubborn but the potty training has been horrible when I first got her I was a vacation from work for about 5 days so it gave me time to get used to her and she had just got spayed the day we got her so I was able to monitor her recovery those days were great then my sister in law and her dog spent the night and things were fine but she had a accident and snuck off I ignored it and have had her on a schedule to help with the potty training but she’s still having accidents and we take her out often and control her food and water intake and when we can’t keep a eye on her she goes in the crate, bedtime while at work etc but the problem is if she has to go potty she’ll be anywhere in her crate even thought she’ll have to lay in it to do so, or just go when she wants on the floor. I have a routine, I take her out every 2-3 hours when home or she’s in the crate potty training. I don’t know what to do, she’ll go outside if she has to immediately if u take her, and she understands house and go potty or poo poo and I never can tell if she’s peeing until she starts cuz she pees so low to the ground it’s like she’s sitting really, she won’t alert me just go help?!

260. Hi we just got a westie puppy about 3 weeks ago, she’s now 12-13 weeks old and we’re trying to potty train her. we take her out every hour, right after she eats or drinks, and after she wakes up. We’re trying to crate train her but she still goes in the crate. she doesn’t go outside, she just waits till she’s inside to go

261. @Ed, we keep our puppies in separate crates when crate training. Good luck with your training!

     @kathy smith, it is possible that Lily is having anxiety. You might consider having a professional dog trainer coming by for an in-home evaluation. Our Linus has some anxiety and we’ve had some success with the Thundershirt.

     You also might try taking a step back and start working on potty training from the very beginning: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/

     Best of luck with your training!

262. Every puppy is going to be a little different, but we usually wait until our puppies are closer to a year old before we gradually start allowing them to sleep outside of the crate at night. Good luck with your training!

263. Hi, my 5 month old puppy Honeybear is very slowly getting the hang of toilet training, but she always poops and pees on the puppy pads I have laid down by the door in the night. I put her to bed at about 10:30pm, and take her out in the morning between 8:30am and 9:30 am – is that too long?

     How do I get her to hold it in throughout the night without going back to locking her in her crate all night?? I feel terrible doing that to her.

     I don’t want to leave her doggy flap open all night because there are dog nappers in the area and possums that can be quite aggressive.

     Thanks so much for any help!!

264. I have a 6 month old Brittany, Hannah, who doesn’t potty in her crate. I now took over caring for her sister, Lilly, since her owner works 12 hour shifts. I am trying with no success, to get Lilly to not potty in her crate. I have tried everything mentioned in above posts and more, nothing works. She potties in her crate soon after I bring her in and she has pottied outside minutes before. I have had her at the vet to make sure it’s not medical. Vet said yesterday, maybe it’s anxiety… I need help!! Lilly’s a great little dog, just like her Hannah, who isn’t perfect. Hannah potties mostly outside but if she does inside, it’s on the puppy pad. Did I mention Lilly also potties on the rug and or floor if she’s not in her crate? HELP!!!!!!!

265. Hi, I just got two shih tzu/daschund mix puppies(14 weeks old) and we have them share a 36 inch crate. Both of them are about 9lbs. Is this crate sharing ok or do you think is better to keep them separate?

266. If he’s peeing in his sleep then he may have a bladder infection. You might want to take him in for examination with your veterinarian.

267. Hi thanks for your article. We have a 5 month male dachshund puppy. After over a month of having him we have finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with getting him to pee and poop outside -he now waits by the door if he needs to go. But we still have accidents when there’s chaos in the house (we have 3 toddlers).

     My question is how to stop him peeing in his bed at night. I think he just does it while he sleeps. As I don’t hear anything -he sleeps in his bed by our bed.

     We didn’t have this problem before started leaving him in his crate when we would leave for errands and such and he would stay home. Sometimes for a good 5 hours. Of course he couldn’t hold and would pee in there. We had to do that because the little pen area we would leave him in would turn into the most horrible mess to come back to to clean because he would go and run around frantic in it. Keeping him in the crate solved the mess issue and he’s a lot calmer.

     BUT now he pees at night. Because he sleeps in the crate too. I recently changed him sleeping in his bed in the crate at night to just his bed in the hopes it would stop the habit but it hasn’t. I know his bladder is small but he used to hold it for a good portion of the night before so I know he can. I also know he hasnt been getting up at night because I can hear him. I’ve been waking up to take him out throughout the night but it’s not helping.

     It appears he just pees while he sleeps. The bottom of his bed is all wet underneath while the top where he is is all warm and dry and again he’s not getting up.

     Thoughts? The washing and cleaning is getting very frustrating.

268. Congratulations on your new puppy! I would try keeping the blanket/shirt out of the kennel when you leave your puppy home alone and make sure you have the proper sized crate. Also, make sure you’re not leaving your puppy in the crate too long during the day. A 9 week old puppy shouldn’t be in the crate more than 2-3 hours during the day time. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

269. Hi,

     We have a 9 week old goldendoodle and love him to pieces. His name is Buddy. I’m not sure why he is having accidents in the crate during the day. We believe it was the blanket that he pee on so we removed it. Thought it worked but we felt the hard surface in crate was not homie so we put a tee shirt in there. Well he pee on the shirt. During the night we take him out every two hours and he does a good job with going in the yard. Could it also be that he doesn’t like us leaving?? seperation anxiety?? Oh no, does my puppy need a psychologist?? Any advise would be appreciated. 🙂

270. Eight hours in the crate during the day is a long time for a lot of puppies/dogs. For instance, my dog Linus can easily last 8 hours without having an accident in the house. In fact I don’t think Linus would have an accident in 24+ hours. On the other hand 8 hours for my other dog, Stetson is stretching it. If I leave him for more than 8 hours I’m definitely risking an accident. The point is every dog will be different. Some have rock solid bladders while others do not.

271. Congratulations on your new puppy! 8 week old puppies don’t have the best bladder control. It’s not uncommon for them to potty several times in a short time frame or to potty once outside then come right back in the house and potty again. Good luck with your training!

272. Hello, We have a 10 month old Viszla who is trained to go potty outside however, our problem is while he is crated during the day. After an 8 hour day – as we approach the kennel to let him out – he starts to urinate. We have tried everything and just don’t get it.

     We do not speak while approaching, we try to move the kennel near the door so when we open the door – out he goes. And he still manages to urinate on the way.

     Do you have any suggestions, or is this a common behavior? We’ve raised Weimaraner’s, and small dogs and never experienced this before.

     We are tired of always having to face the big clean up upon arrival and always having to launder the towel that resides in his kennel.

     Signed, frustrated Mom 😉

273. We just got an 8 wk goldendoodle male about a week ago. He doesnt seem to mind his crate, but consistently has potty accidents in the crate. I bring him out at regular intervals, I set the time for 20min after he eats, plats, etc. He will go potty and poo almost everytime he goes outside which is great. However, 5-10 min later or at random intervals, he will piddle again. One time, he piddled 3 times in a 20 min time. Is he marking his territory. Theres no warning when he has piddle accidents, and he hasnt pooped in the house yet.
     Thanks!
     Ashley

274. I have a boxer that is 18 weeks old now. I’ve had her since she was 6 weeks old. I am handicap & in basic training right now. She has just been registered for Emotional Support Dog. I can’t get her to stop peeing & popping in her cage. she had a bladder infection, I have her on antibiotics, but this was happening well before. HELP!!

275. Hello, my boys are 7 and 5 years old. Their. Names are Bronx and Harlem. Bronx is doing well with not soiling his kennel but Harlem is doing it daily. And has from day one. I have had them both since they were 8 weeks old. Should I make his space smaller in the kennel? I would love to leave them out at night or even when we work but they both would not only chew up everything in site Bronx would poop in the house.
     Thanks Diva

276. Hi my obi is a springer special he will b 1 on the 21/01/2015 he still wees what is your advice on it x.

277. Hi Colby! I have a 6 month old boxer still peeing in its crate. We’ve not done most of this stuff but some. His name is tucker. He’s good in the house; not in the crate. We have 2 of them, 1 of them Is to big for him. The other is to small, what would we do with a puppy in a to small of a cage?

278. We have an 11 week old Golden Retriever who we’ve had for 5 days now. We’ve been trying to crate train her, which has been going well at night time. However, the day time is going badly when she is being left on her own. It seems her natural response when she’s anxious is to poop and wee, and then because she gets so worked up, she tramples it everywhere and gets completely covered. This is usually within the first 5-10 minutes of being shut in her crate. Instead, I’ve had to allow her roam of the kitchen with her crate to go to sleep in, but she still poops and wee’s when she’s left alone – though less trampling occurs because she’s evacuating on the puppy pads on the other side of the kitchen. She’s only left on her own for a max of 2-2.5 hours at at a time

     I don’t know what else we can do to try and encourage her to go before we have to shut her away. We take her outside as soon as she’s awake, we take her outside before we leave her, we take her outside after she’s had a play, we take her outside shortly after she’s eaten, and we take her outside whenever we think it might have been a little while since she went outside. Sometimes she poops and wee’s outside, and we shower her with praise for doing it, but sometimes she decides she doesn’t want to do it outside, will come inside and then promptly do her business in the house!

     I read the part of your blog that said “Make sure you take your puppy out to potty (and make sure she goes) right before you put her in her crate for the night.”
     But how do I make sure she goes? I’ve spent up to an hour outside with her, and sometimes she just refuses to do anything but nibble on grass and deweed the patio, but then as soon as I take her indoors, she poops or wee’s in there instead!

     Any suggestions?!

279. We’ve had puppies with get bladder infections which makes it difficult for them to control their bladder. Also, as dogs get older they may have more difficulty holding it. Finally, we’ve also seen dogs have bladder problems when experiencing separation anxiety. Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!

280. My eight year old Miniature Pinscher is driving me insane and to tears. About a year ago he started peeing in his crate, not a lot, just as if he were marking. I wouldn’t notice because the smell was never strong enough to sense and there weren’t signs because he was always going potty before and after being in his crate. Lately, he has been doing it so often I honestly feel like giving HIM up. I removed his blanket a couple weeks ago because he would soil it immediately. He receives more attention and affection than he has ever before, so I don’t think he is upset or jealous. I have had him since a pup, he has done this before, he stopped on his own up until this last year. My boyfriend is starting to think that he just likes one to two baths a day and an extremely clean crate. I’m at the highest level possible of frustration and really need help. He only does this when we leave, even for twenty minutes, or during the night he will whine- we let him out- he pees in the bathroom.

281. If your dog is having accidents in your crate you should also consider a waterproof, washable crate pad so that you can eliminate any odors that may be triggering your dog’s urges. At Teton Dog we sell a crate pad that is 100% waterproof with a removable cover that you can wash in HOT water to eliminate any trace of urine, as well as allow you to sterilize the cover to help reduce infections

282. Hi Ashley,

     10 weeks is still pretty young and I would expect him to still have accidents around the house. If you have a potty patch I would keep it outside and if you haven’t had a chance check out our article on how to potty train a puppy: https://puppyintraining.com/how-to-potty-train-a-puppy/. Good luck with your training!

     Colby

283. My pup just turned 10 weeks yesterday. He does go when ever I take him outside. I feed him twice a day as far as his feeding schedule goes. Maybe I’m still not taking him out enough because he still pees inside, without warning. He only sniffs around when he needs to go poop. I bought a potty patch to try to help catch those “accidents”. Do you think that’s hurting the situation?

284. Thanks Alana for sharing your experiences. Yep, every once in a while it isn’t a behavioral issue and your pup could just have a bladder infection. I’m glad yours is doing better now after getting treatment from your vet.

285. Thanks Shannon! We crate train all of our guide dog puppies. It’s definitely a great way to potty train. Even today my 6 and 8 year old dogs will go into their crate on their own just to take a nap.

286. Hi Colby,

     I used to have this problem with my dog, and just when I was about to throw in the towel out of frustration, a neighbor told me to take her to the vet. I found out that she had a bladder infection which got promptly treated by antibiotics and fluids. Sometimes, the problem isn’t behavioral so guys might want to pay attention to that. Great blog!

     Alana

287. As a pet sitter that specialized in pets with behavioral problems, medical needs & senior pets, ( http://www.shannonspetsitting.net ) I see crate training done improperly A LOT!! A crate is supposed to be a puppy/dogs safe haven. Not a form of punishment. I see many pet owners who are under the assumption that their dog can only hold it for 2-4 hours. REALLY!? they never give the dog a change to grow & Strengthen their bladder muscles. EXCELLENT article! Lots of great information!

288. Hi Jessica!

     I get so many questions from my readers I’m not sure why I didn’t do this long ago. I’d have to agree with you on your assessment of Chester and his accidents in his crate.

     Thanks for stopping by!
     Colby

289. If you’re having any problems with crate training please take a look at this article: https://puppyintraining.com/crate-training-puppies. There are lots of great tips on how to ease the process. Good luck with your new puppy!

290. I think that is great that you are turning fan questions into a resource for all. Chester sometimes pees in his crate now but I think it is because he is old. He A) doesn’t care anymore or B) Can’t hold it as long as he used to.

291. Very useful information. We’ve just got a puppy and have crate training at the moment.

292. Hi Snoopy!

     Good job convincing Mum and Dad to let you out of the crate. All of our guide dog pups have to learn to use the crate and in the end they love it. Linus still goes in his crate just to hang out. I don’t think I’ve closed the door to his crate in several years.

     Thanks for stopping by!
     Colby

293. Hi Colby

     Great advice!! I never wanted to pee in my crate, I just wanted to get out, it took me a while to convince Mum and Dad I didn’t need a crate, but I got there in the end – Tee Hee

     Hope you’re having a fun day 🙂

     Your pal Snoopy 🙂

294. We never had this problem, although Abbey is vocal and would whine to wake me up to take her out. 2 or 3 times a night when she was little, got down to once a night and now is rare. (she is 7 months) No dawdling, no playing no loving. Just do your business and get back to bed.

295. We learned quickly that it was us, the humans, that needed the training. I always feel bad when Lily (2 mos old) has an accident because I either missed the signs or lost track of time. We too had to learn to be consistent and find the more diligent we are sticking to a schedule, the quicker she progresses. We ALWAYS take her out immediately when she wakes up including naps, and every 2 hours. She has an accident every once in awhile after playing with Levi, but we are learning her signs of sniffing but it takes constant observation. We never leave her out if our site. We also keep a bell hanging on the door and ring it every time we take her out. Eventually she will learn to ring the bell when she needs to go out as Levi does today. Good luck!!

296. We regulated the water and food and kept an eye on them after they would eat and/or drink. With such little bladders, they can only hold it for so long of a time. We’d wait about a half hour and take them outside. If they didn’t go at that point we’d take them out every 10 minutes until they went. They got the idea very quickly and accidents were few and far between.

297. Hi Melissa,

     Thank you for sharing your story. I usually notice my pup’s hovering around the front door at around the same age. Puppies are pretty smart and figure out where they are supposed to potty very quickly. The only problem is pups don’t have much bladder control at 9 weeks and if you don’t see their signal they will have an accident in the house.

     If you’re working on potty training your puppy it’s definitely a good idea to keep a close eye on your pup when he’s in the house.

     Thanks for stopping by!
     Colby

298. Hi Jodi,

     I’ve heard the same thing about pups being able to hold their bladder about an hour for every month.

     If that method of crate training worked for you then I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. In my mind your method of crate training would be similar to using an X-Pen to contain your puppy in a specific area like the kitchen and put paper or potty pads down inside the X-Pen. Puppy will potty in one area and sleep/play in another.

     Every situation is different and my answer is definitely not the only one. I appreciate everyone sharing their experiences so we all have a better understanding of how to better raise and train our puppies and dogs.

     Thanks,
     Colby

299. If you’re working on conventional crate training with your puppy then you want to make sure the size of your crate fits the size of your pup otherwise he may potty on one side and sleep on the other.

300. When I got my lab he had a couple of accidents in his crate the first few weeks and it was just as you mentioned – he was too young to hold it overnight. I got up in the middle of the night for a few weeks and took him out and the problem was solved. They grow fast and it didn’t take long before he could go all night with no accidents. It took until about 6 months before he would vocalize wanting to go out but I noticed that he would try to tell me by hovering or sitting by the door from as early as 9 weeks old. If your puppy isn’t vocal right away then you will definitely have to be extra vigilant overnight as you won’t see their physical cues to go out.

301. You won’t like this answer. 🙂

     I heard puppies can only hold it an hour for every month old they are. (A 2 month old puppy can hold for up to 2 hours) when we got Sampson we knew he was going to be a big dog, so we bought a big crate. His blanket was in the back of the crate and I put newspaper for him to potty on in the front.

     As he got older, I put less and less newspaper in the crate, once he stopped pottying on the paper I took it out.

     That was the advice I was given at the time and it worked for us.

302. I always thought having a big crate would be better for the dogs so they can run around and not be cramped, but it makes sense to have a smaller crate if they are only in there to sleep. I guess it’s the same as having a huge bedroom…not necessary if all you’re going to do in there is sleep. Thanks Colby!

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