# Crate and potty training



## GPHusker (Mar 14, 2013)

We just got our Zoey last Friday and she was 8 weeks old. So I started working on potty and crate training right away. I have been feeding her in her crate (which is partitioned off to only be big enough that she can comfortably lay down. I also have been getting her to go into her crate on command with a treat. I am at the point where I am closing the door while she is in and giving her treats and telling her good girl. In a matter of seconds after doing this she starts getting figity so I have been opening the door so she doesnt think this is a bad place. I don't feel like I've been making progress increasing this time. Any suggestions? I dont want her to think its a bad place, but also want to make progress.

Now to my other question. We have her closed into our kitched with baby gates so if she does have an accident its easy to clean up. We feed her 3 times a day and take her out at least every couple hours during the day always saying good potty when she goes outside and petting and praising her. We leave her uncrated in the kitchen for the time being at night until we get her comfortable with the crate. We take her out around 9pm then its bedtime. She usually cries around 12:30-1am and I get up and take her out. She most always goes potty, but very rarely poops. I get up at 3:45am to go to work and I take her out again. The last 3 nights I have been finding poop in the kitchen when I get up at 3:45. When I take her out at 12:30-1 I always am out there awhile hoping she poops, but she doesnt seem to want to. For example yesterday. She didnt poop all day even though she spent a long time outside at least 5 times during the day, but went on the floor between 1 and 3:45 and then again between 4:40 and 6am this morning. I am open to any suggestions.


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## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

I would hate waking up to that every morning! 

I never did crate "training", the first night Hank was home I put him in his crate and that was that. The crate we have is the ex-large airline-type, so there is no partition. I used it for 3 puppies and never had an issue with them pottying in it. Maybe she feels anxious because it's too small.

I would crate at night.


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## girlie723 (Mar 14, 2013)

We got our puppy right at 8 weeks. She was used to the kenneling right away from her breeders so I just continued. 

The first couple nights she did cry. We had bought a fabric crate that unzipped at the top for easy travel so I would leave the top unzipped with a towel draped over it. When she cried I took her outside until she went potty and put her back in. Sometimes I would sit by her crate and pet her until she calmed down and then left. It was about a week before she started sleeping through the night. 

We did not leave her out in the kitchen while we left for work or overnight. She sleeps in her "night night" whenever we're not home. When putting her in her crate, we never use loud or stern voices. We lead her to the crate and say "time to get in your night night" and she usually goes right in. 

She was potty trained in three weeks, but we watched her like a hawk for three months with occasional accidents because she just got too excited and forgot 

We also put bells on the door in the kitchen for her to ring when she needs to go outside. Every time we took her out, we would have her nudge those bells first. Now she knows how to get our attention and has not had an accident inside in 5 months.

She is just under a year now and she still goes in her crate every time we leave the house and all night. We do leave her out while running movies back to the store or super quick errands and come back to find her laying in her kennel  so it must be working. She is also now in a metal sturdy kennel. She does go in her fabric zip up one when we travel and does great.

I also bought a nice bed from petco on sale and cut the foam to fit her kennel once she was potty trained to make it more comfortable. 

We only feed lilly two times a day. And religiously walk her after work at about 6 and thats when she poops. She probably just needs to get on a more steady schedule to help.

Hope this helps!


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## GPHusker (Mar 14, 2013)

The part that makes me nervous about just putting her in it and leaving her is that she starts standing on her back feet and pawing at the wire door. I dont want her to freak out and hurt herself and I want her to want to be in her crate. Since we have had her less than a week I am sure there is some seperation anxiety.


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## inge (Sep 20, 2009)

Have you tried putting her inside the crate every time she falls asleep somewhere in the house? When I got Tess, I had the whole day to play crate games with her, I just left it open and put treats and toys inside under her mat. When she had found the treat, she could just walk out again. After a while she would get tired and fall asleep, so I would pick her up and put her in her crate, again with the door open. After a few hours she was starting to go in and out of the crate, looking for treats or toys. That was the moment I would sometimes close the door for a few seconds. If she didn't cry, I would open the door and give her a treat again (usually her kibble, those first days you need a lot of treats). Etcetera. After a while I gave her a small kong with some banana in it, with some kibble on top. That kept her busy for a while, all the time with the door closed. I think that did it, I left the door open and she would even go in on her own to lie down. 
Liza I got very late at night, so I basically put her inside the crate with an ice cube and left her. No problems at all.
The pooping at night is probably because she has too much room. As long as they sleep and don't move, body systems slow down as well. She will get a real rhythm soon enough, just encourage her.


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## solinvictus (Oct 23, 2008)

" I am at the point where I am closing the door while she is in and giving her treats and telling her good girl. In a matter of seconds after doing this she starts getting figity so I have been opening the door so she doesnt think this is a bad place"

Take it in smaller steps. When you close the door open it immediately, say yes and give the reward immediately inside the crate. After doing this the next step is to close the door wait one second open door say yes and give the reward inside the crate. Then 2 seconds, then 3 seconds. As you progress if the pup fusses do not open the crate door until the pup is giving the behavior you want. (if you are opening the crate while the pup is fidgeting you are rewarding the pup for that behavior) You now know that you upped your training a little to far and go back a step where the pup isn't fussing and work at that level a little bit before moving back up.

Susan Garrett has a DVD called Crate Games that works the owner through the steps

" We have her closed into our kitched with baby gates so if she does have an accident its easy to clean up. We feed her 3 times a day and take her out at least every couple hours during the day always saying good potty when she goes outside and petting and praising her."

You are not taking her out enough. Every couple of hours is way to long. For young puppies you need to go out after every feeding, after every nap, after any play, after they take in some water, every time they come out of the crate and about every 20 or 30 minutes otherwise unless she is in the crate. They can last longer in the crate because they are not as active during that time. 

In the beginning they need to be taken out on leash, be rewarded right after they eliminated (at the spot of the elimination). As she gets older the time span will be able to be adjusted adding more length between all the potty breaks. 

The reason behind using the crate for potty training is that puppies do not like to soil the area that they sleep and eat in. The crate is a small confined space that doesn't give the pup the room to move far enough away if they soil their space. The confinement in the kitchen is to big of an area and gives the pup the opportunity to soil an area and still feel they have a clean area for sleeping and eating.

By taking her out more often you are giving her less opportunity to eliminate in the gated off kitchen.

Every time the pup has an accident in the house it sets back your training and will take longer for her to understand the behavior you do want.

I would just stop using the kitchen/gate and put her in the crate at night. And practice the crate games throughout the day and evening.



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## GPHusker (Mar 14, 2013)

I think with Zoey it may be a little more than she has too much room. I had her in a larger box at night for the first couple days with toys and a blanket that had her mother and litter mates scent on it and she pooped on the blanket and had it all over her. I didnt want her getting used to being in her own mess. 

I think some of it is stress because her stools are loose. I get the sense she is starting to understand when she has an accident that we dont want her to do that by her body language.


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## GPHusker (Mar 14, 2013)

My wife just called me and Zoey has gone poop like 5 times since 7 am, she also threw up. There was a chunk of a green leaf in her vomit I guess. I called the vet and am going to take her in. Hopefully its nothing serious.


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## girlie723 (Mar 14, 2013)

I understand that. They're tougher than they look and if she falls once, she won't do it again. 

We caught ours climbing the baby gate and she fell once and it must have hurt because she has never touched it since. I felt horrible, but it seems to be a blessing in disguise. 

Give her time.. she'll adjust. The more consistent you are, the better.


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## girlie723 (Mar 14, 2013)

Ours did that too a couple times in the beginning. Part of it is new house anxiety.. you might want to try to only feed her twice a day too. Lots of cuddles


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## GPHusker (Mar 14, 2013)

Update: Since Zoey was throwing up I decided we needed to take her to the vet right away. Once I got to the vet they checked her for Parvo and gave her an antibiotic shot of some sort. They then told me about 2 different medications I needed to give her. So Parvo came back negative (not surprised since she had been vaccinated for it) and left the vet $130 later. The vet suggested I should call my breeder. So I called me breeder to give her a heads up on what was going on with Zoey. I wish I had done this first. She asked me more questions then my vet did, and immediately told me she was 99% sure that she had a UTI. The UTI can cause a fever, which will cause loose stools and also vomiting. So she asks me if she can call my vet. Apparently my vet got mad at the breeder for even questioning anything he was doing but sort of sounded like he realized he messed up not checking for a UTI. It turns out one of the medications he gave me was a broad spectrum anti-biotic and it will take care of the UTI. So I think I need a new vet. I dont mind spending the money if its what they NEED. But throwing medication at things without even really doing much testing, or asking me hardly any questions is not right. My breeder agreed. Zoey began feeling better and acting more herself a couple hours after giving her the antibiotic. Last night my wife got up to get a drink of water and Zoey ran to the door to want to go out! So she went potty right after going outside. No other messes etc. So it looks like it was other issues effecting things. Thanks for the advice.


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