Can he love his crate?

[cali baker]

[MENTION=6144]relayer13[/MENTION], i wonder if it's b/c he is so young still and he cannot hold his bladder for such long stretches of time. Since i really did not crate train my boys, i'm not sure about that though. I'm sure peeps who have crate trained can chime in and give you feedback. [MENTION=2014]JeannieCO[/MENTION], [MENTION=2071]Davidh[/MENTION]

 

[Davidh]

A pup that young can not hold it that long, just put a towel down and he will eventually hold it longer when he gets a little older. When we are at home we will put down puppy pads but if we are not home they well chew them up, so we use towels in their crates.

 

[relayer13]

Thanks Dave, I thought so.

 

[JeannieCO]

We've had Tater a week now, he barks for a little when he's put in the crate. He goes in at night and while we're at work. The problem we're having is he pee's in there. I took a suggestion from the site and put a divider up tp make the crate smaller since he's only 11 weeks. I made it small enough that his bed just fits in there but when I went home at lunch to let him out he had peed in it again, only once I think. I'm not sure if I can do anything about this or just accept that I'll be washing his bed every night. He hasn't pooped in it yet. He doesn't go at night either, my wife is up every night though and lets him out, during the day he does, even though I've been going home after about 4 1/2 hours to let him out.

Oh he's just a baby still. Wilson was 4 month at least before he was fully able to hold it all night. We generally would get up and let him out when we woke up or if he made a noise and he always went potty. Emma my 10 month old was much harder. She was 6 months before she was fully potty trained. Washing bedding is something I accepted every night too, welcome to most of our worlds who have or had puppies, lol. Sometimes with the little ones, heck the big ones too, you really gotta give them time to go (not your clock either). I would walk out onto the grass with each of them even if it was 3am to get them to go and would stay go potty in a cheerful voice (well as much as I could at 3 am). And some dogs are two time pottiers and some are two time poopers. Wilson's a two time pooper and Jack my non bully is a two time pottier.

For the crying at night, do this. It works like a charm and is in most training books. Put the crate as close to your bed as you can where you're able to reach down and touch Tater through the crate. What they want is to simply know that your there. I did this with Wilson and he would come and touch my hand and quite whining and then fall asleep.

 

[kazzy220]

Another question and may seem silly but do you think it's important that Tate uses his own crate and not go into Finn's? Finn occasionally uses Tate's crate and vice versa and I'm just wondering if that's a big deal or not.

It's only a problem if THEY think it's a problem. Mine switch around crates all the time, and the funniest is when Daddy and both schauzers decide they want the same crate!! Then it becomes VERY cosy!!

As for getting him to like it ... I can only repeat what everybody else has said ... make him associate it with fun and yummy things!

 

[relayer13]

Thanks Jeannie, Tater is usually a multi pottier and pooper. He's been doing really great, only a few accidents outside the cage.