Dog Crates (merged)

Bromley86

Stopped crating her when she stopped pooping and peeing on the floor .

Should have kept a diary, but that was after only something like 3 months (and she came from a barn setup).

suki1964

Stopped crating mine as soon as they stopped needing to go out in the night - around 6/7 months old

suki1964

Dexter08 wrote: »

Hi,
We have a 11 week old Cocker Spaniel and he constantly messes his crate, we have been washing the contents for the last three nights non stop, bothe faeces and urine. We have tried all new bedding and also tried getting up in the night and through the day with him to get him out and about every 2 plus hours but he still continues to go in the crate.

We are at our wits end with the situation, it's not nice to come home to a house that smells of faeces.

Please help us, any details you want please just ask.

Cheers,
Dexter

" hours is way too long to be leaving him between toilet breaks at that age. Its everytime they wake up - straight out, soon as they are fed - straight out - every hour of being awake - out - Untill pup gets the idea and you get to understand his toileting behaviour.Be prepared to be getting up twice a night at this age - and at least once a night till hes 6 or 7 months old (perhaps longer depending on pup)

Everytime pup goes outside - you praise him. When he goes inside - you clean up and say nothing


Can you explain what you are doing with the crate? I mean how long is the pup in there at anyone time and how much of the day and night is he there for?

zebidee1

There was I thinking crates were used all the time and not just for training.

Harley seems to have been ok last night although I'd love one of those ctv cameras in my living room to see what he actually did all night, lol.

He went into his crate himself last night so we just left him there with the crate door open. He was behind the living room door this morning and I think I heard him whine when he hear my OH getting up (which he never did when he was in his crate).

He must have thought it was his birthday. Thanks everyone.

smileypigface

Just thought I'd add another view - as the general consensus so far seems to be to give up on the crate after a while.

Roly is 11 months and his crate is inside a 'playpen' so he has space to lie on the floor if he wants a change from his fluffy bed in the crate.

We intend to keep this set up indefinitely - he chooses to go in his den for peace and quiet sometimes and is asked to go in there (encouraged by a biscuit sometimes) while we are eating; if we have visitors/small children around; if we go out and at bedtime.

We have noticed that he has his favourite spots for snoozing around the house - and after a long walk (for example) he will happily settle in one of those spots or in his crate - BUT - if he's not in his crate he sleeps quite 'lightly' and rouses at the slightest noise or movement in the room (even if it's just me and him in the house and I'm sitting reading quietly). However, if he is in is crate in exactly the same circumstances he totally zonks out and snores for his country - completely asleep - rolls onto his back with legs in the air, the works!!!! And he doesn't rouse unless I go over and open the door to wake him.

My conclusion is therefore that when he is in his crate he knows he can totally relax - that we are in charge and we will tell him if he needs to 'worry' about anything.

For this reason we are going to keep his den going as he obviously feels totally safe and secure in it. It works really well for Roly.

Just another viewpoint - appreciate different things work for different people/dogs!

MrsTinks

I don't think I would have a problem with that smiley, I just don't have room for a huge dog crate (and I mean HUUUUUGE) in my tiny house
If we had the space to have it somewhere I'd not think twice of leaving it for Kira as a "hideaway" - not that she has any issues sleeping LOL although regardless of where she is if I move she either keeps an eye on me or follows me... hey I MIGHT go to the kitchen after all...

Bromley86

Ditto on the space issue. Our girl has her bed under a part of my wife's desk, so it's still pretty den-like.

OverAwy

Everyone has given great advice, my only other thought is what food he is being fed on and how much. Could also be anxiety, and as others have said the dog needs a positive association with the crate for any of this to work.

One last thing is that if the puppy does mess in his crate try removing him from the area before you clean up and use the pet odour spray things to clean up to remove the smell.

It has been known for some dogs to take pleasure in people cleaning up their poop, in a attention seeking way (as in if i poop mommy/daddy will come clean and give me attention)

its hard going but rewarding once it kicks in and they start to understand they need to do toilet.

happytails

Some great advice already given.

cannot stress how important praise is when they do it outside, and no telling off inside unless you catch them in the act and then its just a loud noise to startle them then straight outside to finish - and then praise!

if it tends to be just when you go out, try putting pup in crate and leaving the room but look through the crack in the door for tell tale signs (sniffing, circling, squatting), when you see her doing this immediately let her out of crate (ignore her otherwise she will sniff/circle for attention) and take her straight outside and wait. when she toilets - PRAISE. do this various times of the day. Also crate here whilst your in the same room too so she doesnt learn crate = you leaving.

Also have a key word to use when she toilets outside, we use 'be clean' others are 'wee', 'toilet', 'quickly'- anything really as long as you are consistant. This is great because if your in a rush you can eventually say your key word (when the dog is toilet trained and understands the command) and the dog will perform quickly and you can get on with whatever you are doing.

Never get angry with your dog, she is only doing what she thinks is right it is up to you to teach her right from wrong and how to do things the right way. GOOD LUCK

magicalmilliecat

Our 8 month old Westie, Ruby, has had a crate since we got her. Up until the last week or so, we'd been closing her in there at night, 'just in case'. We'd tried letting her roam the kitchen (where her crate is) at night before but, we'd always wake up to 'accidents', even when we would get up to let her out every few hours, or ripped-up lino!

The past week or so we've been leaving the crate door open overnight and so far Ruby's been fine - no mess or destruction! Normally she's happy enough going in to her crate (goes in herself when she's tired during the day)... of course, we still get the sad face at bedtime!

I think you need to decide whether you think your room is safe with Harley roaming around or not. It sounds to me like he'd be okay, and if you have another bed for him in the room, I might consider getting rid of the crate and freeing up a bit of space! So long as he has a little space of his own, I think Harley will be fine.

If Ruby needs to be in the crate for any reason now, I just throw a tasty treat in there... I feel a bit guilty but, it works every time!