Help with house training

[Chimichanga]

We recently got a new puppy from the humane society. He is about 12 weeks old and is an Australian Shepperd mix. Cute little guy! We also have a 2 year old lab.

Our problem is getting the puppy to not poop in his crate. The dogs are rarely crated since DH is home during the day. The puppy does have his accidents (usually peeing) in the house, but has gotten much better with this now that he's comfortable at our home.

But, he's constantly pooping in the crate. Even at night; he'll poop in the crate. The thing that "worries" me the most is that he'll poop right in the middle of his area, and then step/lie in it. Yuck!

He was only at the humane society for 2 days and he's been with us for almost a month. I am guessing he was not taught not to go potty where the litter is.

Any ideas for how to break this habit?

[j*east]

I haven't had this particular problem, but I've read that one way to combat it is to make the crate smaller, just big enough for your guy to lie down and turn around. Then he'll be less likely to have accidents in it. I don't know if lying in his poop is a behavioral issue, though. Good luck!

Oh, here's something I found that might help:
I have a dog who does mess in the crate where he sleeps and then walks in it. Any suggestions?

Chances are that you are not sticking to a realistic schedule for housetraining your puppy. Dogs are creatures of habit and will quickly adjust to a sensible schedule if you are faithful to it. Be a fanatic about the schedule! Dogs do have a natural aversion to messing in the area where they sleep (the den) that can be capitalized on when they are young by using a crate. However, you must do this intelligently. Simply keeping the pup in the crate won't stop it from messing if you keep it there for an excessive length of time. When that happens, many pups restlessly stomp in their own feces, and (if it happens regularly), they lose their natural aversion to soiling in the den.

Generally, we recommend gradually introducing the pup to a crate in a non-traumatic manner, then making sure not to have the pup spend more than three hours at a time in it without a break. Make sure that before you put the pup in the crate, that you have first given it a chance to do its business. Then, give it a toy to play with, and leave. When first housetraining the pup, keep the pup in the crate for shorter periods, then gradually lengthen the time as the pup is able to pass the time without soiling.

Source: The Monks of New Skete website, Dog's Best Friend (http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/puppies/dgqa.html)

[Scooter]

Making his area in the crate smaller is a great way to start, like j*east suggested.

How long are you leaving him in his crate at night between letting him out for a bathroom break? If he's only 12 weeks old, he really can't hold it all night. I seem to remember the rule of thumb is they can hold their bladder 1 hour for every month old they are--so he's 3 mos and therefore would need to be let out every 3 hours to pee.

The other thing is, how long after he eats does he usually poop? We kept a log when we first got our puppy--what time she ate, peed, and pooped. It made it easier to see the patterns and anticipate her needs. If your puppy is pooping at night, I wonder if you're not catching him at the right time after he has his dinner.

Also, is there an area outside where he's supposed to go? Have you thought about moving the poop & papers from his crate outside to that area? If he sees it and smells it out there, he might start to get the idea. And since your DH is home during the day, maybe he could set aside some time and after the puppy gets fed they could stay outside until the puppy poops--make a huge deal out of it, rewards, etc--and THEN let the puppy back in. They pick up on these things quickly, but it means spending a couple days being really vigilant about it.

[Chimichanga]

Well, his crate is just big enough to lie/turn around in. We successfully crate trained our lab so we followed the same procedures.

At night, he was maybe crated for 4-5 hours stints; still feasible since he's sleeping and not active. We'd go to bed around 10 or 11 and DH gets up at 3 for work.

And the thing is, he will poop before we crate him - we make sure he goes. And he still goes in the crate. Very frustrating as you can imagine.

I'll try these tips - please keep them coming. :)

[jajacobsen]

I've thought about this but haven't really known what to offer as it seems you are doing things right.

Well if the dog poops right before being put up in the crate and poops in teh crate at night, then clearly he can't go that long. It sounds like prior to teh HS, he was crated or left for long periods of time when he had no choice but to poop where he was and so has lost his "denning" instinct. So you'll have to work extra hard to retsore it.

Can you do a minight potty run? That woudl not be my first choice but it may be necessary. Wake thw puupy and take him out. Walk around with him. This usually stimulates the need to go.

Another thought is that he may be sleeping through teh nght but cannot hold it in teh morning, when your DH is getting ready for work. Let me ask you this, when your DH gets up, is letting the dog out of the crate teh FIRST thing he does? Like even before he (your DH) goes to teh bathroom, brushes his teeth, dresses, etc. I red his advice in one of my puppy trainig books an dit was really helpful.

The book said to make sure to always take the puppy out immediately upon rising. That as human adults we could control our bladder and bowels but they cannot yet. Because as soon as they hear any movement, they can't hold it even for a few minutes. I tried to be really vigilant about that and it did seem to help. Puppies don't wear daipers, so there is even less grace time with them than there is with human infants.

What ended up happening was that DH was one the one that had to get up early, but I would get up as well and just pull on a robe and take the dogs out while DH got dressed. Then DH left for work, and since the dogs had eliminated, eaten, and since it was still dark, would go back to sleep for a few hours, so I did as well. I can't say I wasn't tired but we did get them housebroken.

Just a few ideas.

[brandonsbride]

When we first got our dog, 6 months ago, he was in his crate at night, as well as during the day when I was at work. He pooped in his crate ALL the time. There were so many times I had to give him baths from him stepping in it.

All of a sudden, he just stopped going to the bathroom in his crate. I don't know if it was just because he didn't like sitting with it in there all day, or what...but because of that he is very well kennel trained. He still sleeps in his crate at night, but during the day he runs free in our basement and rarely has accidents.

Good luck-you are doing things right, and I'm sure once your dog learns, it'll stop!!