Help -- Puppy issues
 

My dog is almost a year old. She has done AWESOME with her house breaking and knows not to go anywhere inside my apt.

Up until recently she had a smaller "house" (crate) because she was a lot smaller when I first got her.

I have recently (2 wks ago) moved her to a slightly bigger crate, because it gives her room to get up and turn around and lets her lay more comfortably. I hate leaving her all crated up when I'm at work, but she will get into EVERYTHING if I don't (I've tried ;))

She recognizes that this new crate is her house. She stores her favorite toys in there, and sleeps in there even when I don't have the door closed.

My problem is that recently she is havng issues holding her bladder when I'm at work so I clean it out every day (I even use the enzyme spray).

Last night she went in the middle of the night- which she has never done before - and didn't even bark or anything to let me know she wanted out of her house.

What am I doing wrong?

I don't want to put her back in her old house because I know that she won't go potty during the day, but it can't be comfortable for her because she can't stand up and move around like she used to when she was smaller.

I considered hiring someone I knew & trusted to come during lunch to let her out, but everyone I know & trust already has a daytime job that isn't close to my apartment.

Please help!

Are you crating her all day AND all night?

Not quite 20 questions, but:

Have you changed her diet recently?

What about her general schedule? Has your work schedule changed so maybe she's crated a different times or longer than she's used to?

Do you always walk her in the morning and night if she is crated all day long? If not, that's the first change I'd make!

Have you bought new food and water bowls for her recently? Or maybe just moved them from where she used to eat/drink?

Do you leave the door to her crate open when you are home so she can come and go out of it as she pleases? If you do not, I recommend doing so.

Whenever I have a history of inappropriate urination I recommend ruling out medical problems first before jumping to behavioral causes. You may want to get her checked to make sure she does not have a urinary tract infection or some other problem which can lead to "accidents".

I so wish I could help you! As you know, Buffy was rescued, and even though he is 6, he still has bladder issues. We've been able to nail his down to two circumstances:
1) He needs to go out, and no one is there to let him out. (Please don't suggest crating him - he becomes completely hysterical and whimpers for days afterwards. Remember, Buffy was abused in many ways, including 3 broken ribs.)
or
2) As he was the stud in a puppy mill, he still "marks". He especially feels the need to mark my things, so I keep my bedroom door shut.

We're having a little bit of luck with getting him to keep his accidents in either the kitchen or laundry room, which aren't carpeted - now, to keep it up! He's going to be evaluated for becoming a therapy dog soon, so we're hoping that they'll be able to help us. Otherwise, there's a "binder" (diaper) for male dogs who still mark. I'd rather not do that to him.

Are you saying that you leave her in the Crate (with the door closed) when you are at work?

I know with my puppy, I leave his crate open, and just put a couple of puppy pads in the area around his crate and then have his food in a place where he can see it. So when I leave for school, I just close the door to my room (which is where everything is at) and he will just eat, play, sleep and poop. It has worked pretty good.

Maybe you should just leave your puppy in a room, and have everything around it. Crate (with the door always open), puppy pads (or whatever u have), and food. Your puppy should be fine like that when you aren't around.

That is asking for her dog to chew, eat, and get into things. I'm a big fan of crate training, though.

I concur that you should check for medical issues with your vet before jumping to behavioral issues.

Other than that, dogs usually will not mess where they sleep, that's the whole principle behind crate training. Did you change the bedding/pad in the crate when you changed crates? If you did, the change in smell could be the reason. Dogs also are simply resistant to change. Maybe try putting her smaller crate in the larger one for a few days?

I can't believe you're crating your dog all day while you're at work!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's sick!

You say it's because she'll "get into" things if you don't. But that's why people train dogs.

What you're doing is awful! Shame on you.

Oh that's not sick, get over yourself. Many, many people do that, especially when they're puppies and making a mess around things and chewing on thing, etc.

Do you leave her food in the cage when you're gone? If not, do that. Have you ever heard the phrase "don't shit where you eat"? It applies to dogs. Totally serious. When my dog was still young, we would put him in his cage (an oversized one) when we were at work. He was known to chew anything that he could get to including shoes (a new pair of Ferragamo's had to be thrown away...sad day), toilet paper, clothes, and furniture.

It was only for 8 hours that we'd be gone but he would still use the bathroom in his cage as a way of telling us he was upset for leaving him. As soon as we put food in there with him, it stopped.

Now that he's older, we leave him out when we're gone since he's fully potty trained and he doesn't chew things up!

No, it is not awful or sick. It is a humane and responsible thing for a dog to be crate trained. Many breeds of dogs, especially puppies, are curious by nature. They also have an inherent need to have their own secure space. A crate provides them such a space, as well as restricts movement as needed--for the dog's safety. In general, houses with a puppy need to be puppyproofed, just as you'd babyproof a house if you had a baby/toddler.

And while I'm on a roll, the concept that puppyhood is only a year long, then they're an adult dog after their first birthday is so wrong. Puppies=babies, 2-3 year old dogs=toddlers. Would you let your toddler run free throughout the house? Same goes for your dog.

More information on crate training can be found at:
http://dogs.about.com/cs/basictraini...e_training.htm

Someone didn't go to church this morning, obviously. It's it a little early in the morning to be so nasty and hateful toward everyone?

Being that aggieAXO posted in this thread with advice, and that aggieAXO is also a VETERINARIAN, i'm sure that if crating was so horribly evil and wrong, she would've pointed that out.

Puppy training is like child rearing. There are many opinions on what should and shouldn't be done. And don't different breeds take to different methods in different ways?

Just because someone doesn't practice the same methods as you do doesn't mean that they are "sick", "awful" and that they should be "ashamed".

I have a black lab and a catahoula leaopard hound, both for hunting, that I raised myself...at a very young age from the breeder.....5 weeks.

I never kept them in a cage.....even when I was at school or at my internship last summer. I took them out early in the morning, before I left for school, during the lunch break or sometime in the afternoon, and then at night. I also made sure that they had their toys and dental hygeine chew bones so that they wouldn't "make a mess of things." They were potty trained very quickly and I never had a problem going in the house.

The only time I have ever put them in a cage is when I go hunting and I put them in the dog box in the back of my truck.

Cages are restraining and not very good for young developing puppies.

If your dogs are pissing in the crate and you don't discipline them, they will continue to go in the crate becuase they don't think anything is wrong.
Take your dogs snout, stick it in the area that he went and tell him no and give him a little swat. They will soon learn after a couple times what they are doing. I would lose the cage, let the dogs roam around in a room, and then train them by discipline not to go in the house....but you have to take them out 4,5,6 times for it to work.

....this is perfectly good obedience training, don't think i'm a dog beater or anything...I love my animals.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Violet is a VERY curious dog, and she also has a ton of toys, but no matter how many toys she has, she will sometimes want to chew things that are not her toys which is why I choose to crate her when I can't be home to watch her. Not only is it because I don't want her to chew something that isn't hers, but I also feel better b/c I'd hate for her to do something to hurt herself while I wasn't here.

We have been going on long walks in the evening, and she gets plenty of exercise/play time when I'm home.

Her diet has been the same - I even keep her on a regular eating schedule. I will try putting her food inside her crate and see how that goes. There is plenty of room in her new crate.

When I mentioned that she sleeps in there even when the door is closed, I meant afternoon naps on the weekends b/c I'm home all weekend so I don't crate her w/ the door closed during the day. When she's ready for a nap she will get into her crate and sleep.

Her bedding has changed. In the smaller crate she had a very fluffy blanket. In her new one, I have been using regular bed pillows and put her blanket in there w/ her. (I figured it would be more comfortable). I've bought several back-up pillows in case she has accidents so she won't be in there with a dirty one.

I've scheduled an apt Monday w/ her vet to get her checked out for any medical things that may be causing her problem.

saetx - I will NOT hit my dog, nor will I take her snout and shove it into her mess.

Good luck :) We crate trained out puppy, and it's worked wonderfully. If the weather is nice, we leave her in her large kennel outside when we're at work. If it's not, she has her cage inside large enough for her to move around with plenty to do. Crate training isn't cruel at all. It works well, and the dog isn't kept in the crate 24/7. She spends the rest of the time out with us. It's just her nature to want to chew. We've tried puppy school and all sorts of books; she's just a chewer, and I don't want to let her run around and chew everything in sight when we're not around.