Going potty in the crate now..

Kyrie peed in her wire crate the other day, and I cannot make it any smaller. She peed and was just laying in it. I had taken her our one hour earlier, and when I went to get up and get her out, there was already pee everywhere.

Earlier that morning, in her smaller plastic crate, she pooped. There was no place for her to go, she pooped and layed in it. And she did it again this morning. Thing is, we take her out at 7:30 and she pooped while out, then when she was back in the crate about an hour later we got up and there was poop EVERYWHERE.

I don't know what to do! She's about 12 weeks now. I cannot make either crate any smaller, and it's not like she even has a lot of room where she could even think she could poop in the corner and then not have to lay in it.

At this age shouldn't she hold her bowels for up to 3 hours? I read that online somewhere.. We have to take her out every 30 minutes to an hour or she will just go. I have no problems with taking her out that much, I'm just wondering if it's normal at this age to still have to go out as frequently.

Yeah, I'd think she should be able to hold it for longer by this age. Sounds like a vet check-up wouldn't be a bad idea.

Are you feeding her in the crate? Many times this solves crate problems - dogs don't like to potty where they eat, so if they learn that they have to eat in their crates, they might try to keep them cleaner.

She was at the vet two days ago and everything was fine. What should my vet be checking for?

Yes, we feed her every meal in her crate!

Well, any health problems that would make it difficult for her to "hold it." Especially if the crate toileting is a new behavior.

Are you leaving a bed in the crate? Or water? Are you free-feeding her or giving her water freely?

Maybe it's time to try something different and lose the crate. I keep very young dogs on a leash attached to me and take them out every half hour until we are all good and then start stretching it out. I have never crated an animal and expected them to hold it and understand. I know it works for a lot of people but it is just beyond me why. WE have always gotten house breaking done and out of the way quickly. IF i have to leave her with another family member i literally hand them the timer set.

But that can only work if you are home all the time. What did you do at night?

Just one more thing to think about. What and how much are you feeding her? It could be the food isn't 100% agreeing with her or you could be giving her more than she needs. Think about how many treats/training bits she is getting as well. She's a bit young to start teething full out, but at about 16-18 weeks Pedro started pooping a LOT more than before. Once his teeth were all in it slacked off again. Vets and baby doctors always say that poop and teething aren't related, but too many puppy and baby mommies disagree LOL!

I just went back and re-read what you wrote. Are you sure she's getting "empty" when you take her out the first time? Could you be rushing her? I struggled with that some, especially the early morning/middle of the night runs.

Let me first answer some questions:
+I feed her 3 times a day at the same time everyday, and take her out accordingly.

+I do not with hold water from her and I'm not going to, however the water dish is right in front of my couch so when we are sitting here we seen everytime she drinks and take her out accordingly, and make sure we take her out every 30-45 minutes, sometimes to an hour(I watch her body language)

+There is no bed in the crate. She will, without a doubt, destroy it. And now Id also have the problem of her soiling it- and I do not own a washer- so it would be a youknowwhat to clean it.

+She's eating the most healthy food I know of and I will not change it. She's been on it for a while now and it's working really well for her. If it was the food, she would have had this problem when I started feeding it to her weeks ago. I started switching her food about 2 days after she came to me. I give her about a cup and a half, and she usually eats about a cup of that.


Gena that's a really good point, as I have seen her twice go outside and pee, then after 10 minutes of being out she pees again before we go back inside. I will consider this.. But let me just say, the morning when she pooped in her crate, she pooped TWICE outside. Then in about an hour and a half time period is when she pooped the third time in her crate.

Smkie, I am really getting sick of this crate thing. However she would pee just the same but on my floor at night. And TBH I don't crate her very much during the day as I simply don't like it(sorry but she doesn't either). But yeah, during the night she simply CAN'T sleep on the bed with me because:
There will be NO room for her in a couple of months & if she ever peed on my bed I would have a break down. I cannot handle things happening where I sleep.. lol. I also am going to need her to be crated while I'm at dog shows, in hotel rooms, ect. Not to mention I've already invested $150 on her crates. But please do explain what you suggest during the night


PS- She peed in her crate last night. That's the second time in about 5 days. She just had a bath yesterday.. *sigh*

If you're doing everything right (and it sounds like you are), then to me that means it's not a behaviorial problem, it's a physical problem. When are you taking her to the vet next??

honestly, at her age, some puppies still just can't "hold it".

What I would do is set up an expen, and make her a "potty area" of newspapers. You can get a cheap plastic tarp at Wally World or such to put under the pen, and then cover it completely inside with several layers of papers. Gradually make the paper area smaller.

You can put the crate inside the pen if you like, or not.

Then you can stop stressing about it, because the pup will surely feel this.

Make sure you are food rewarding all outdoor elimination, and making it an IMPORTANT FUN EVENT every time she goes. She is still very young for a large breed like a Newfie. Some puppies mature more slowly than others, so just brain storm a little and decide what will work to make both of you happy for the short term. She will grow up and stop all this quick enough, you'll see.

Agreed. Buddy and Emmy are roughly 4 months old now and are just now starting to have some success with housetraining. But their situation was different, they were locked in crates 24/7 and were used to peeing and pooping on themselves. With them, at first, the crates just didn't work. I kept them on a leash, attached to me or attached close to me.

Now, they're getting much better and can be in the crates without having an accident. It's just taken them a little extra time, but that's ok!

But she peed and pooped in the crate only an hour after she had pottied outside.... I don't think it's unreasonable to expect her to hold it for an hour in her crate.

Many puppies, unfortunately, are "taught" to mess in their crates and sleep in the mess - particularly puppies from BYBs, puppy mills, pet stores, and even shelters if they'd been there for a while. It's my understanding that this puppy did not come from any of those situations, right? Did the breeder do ANY crate training before you got her? Has this been a problem ever since you got her a few weeks ago, or has it just started?

We've been crate training her since the day she came home, and the problem with pooping/peeing in the crate is a couple days recent. She came from a great breeder(she had a great, clean facility) but she was only ever in a crate for car rides to the vet. So I got to start all over with her.

RR you always have good advice for me I don't expect her to hold it for ever, I never go more than an hour before taking her out- I always watch her body language to know when she's needing to relieve herself. I try puppy pads, but she drags it around and tries to eat it (sigh). I will try news papers. I do think she's just maturing slowly.

I'm going to take her back to the vet and see what's up with her. Maybe she does have something that's causing this since it's a new thing.

I mean, it's not a problem that she can't hold it forever, but I thought it was 'instinct' not to pee/poop where they lay.. I hope I find the answer soon. I'll make a vet appt. tomorrow.

a lot of puppies will play first afraid that if they relieves themselves right away play time will end. THen the owner figures out they are just goofing around and brings them in and now it is too late to go. Kind of sounds like the case here.

Whenever we take her out she usually pee's right away. The times she doesn't(which is rarely) she plays for about 15 minutes and if she still doesn't pee I bring her inside and wait about 10 minutes and bring her back out again, which is usually when she pee's. So I don't think that's really the case. Again, I don't crate her a lot, so when I do I'm always sure she goes before hand.

I think there are two separate concepts for puppies to "get" during house training. "Going outside", and "holding it". And certainly the second part requires more physical and mental maturity. Like others said, chances are she's just a late developer. Look at it this way, at least you have half of it down.