I'm currently fostering a 5 month rescue puppy (large breed cross breed)

I've had this puppy 2 months, and I'm making absolutely no headway with
housetraining her.

Here's the problem....she has always appeared to think that her crate is the
place to go...and I don't mean for sleeping. So obviously the
'crate-training' ideas are seemingly irrelevant as she has no concept of
keeping her bed clean. I'm changing her bedding upward of 6 times a day and
spraying the base tray of the crate with Pet fresh, so there's no residual
smell in there.
The crate door is open all day long. In fact its only ever closed at night
(11pm to 6am) or if I go out during the day (I work from home so this is
rare...and if I'm out for more than an hour I drop her off to the OH so he
can amuse her at work)

She goes outside, and receives mucho praise for this....but she also go
inside, and is not bothered by this. My way of dealing with the *daily*
indoors accidents...and by this I mean the house and not the crate (I'll get
to the crate later)...is to verbally scold if I catch her in the act and
clean up straight away, and if I find a 'present' (be it solid or liquid)
somewhere after the act, then I just clean up as normal.

Now for the crate....she will willingly go into the crate (door open) to wee
or poo. I should reiterate, she'll actually make the effort to *go in to*
the crate to do this, and then come back out of the crate when she's
finished. To add insult to injury if I'm not quick enough she'll eat the
poo.. She'll hide 'nuggets' in her bedding, so she can have a feast when I'm
not looking. if she has an 'accident' outside the crate, she'll pick up the
solids and take them back to her crate for a snack...if she poos outside
she's not interested in it, hooking up with her mates to play (I have 4
other dogs) is more important, but indoor poo is manna from heaven.

She has done this since she arrived, so its not something she has learned
since being here...but I am stuck for ideas to break her of this habit.

What can I do to teach her that her crate would be nicer for sleeping if she
didn't pee and poo in it?....my theory being, if I can crack the crate
problem, I can make more headway with the 'normal' housetraining. I have
honestly never come up against this problem before, and I have had dogs all
my life.

From: "caroline"

Here's the problem....she has always appeared to think that her crate is the
place to go...and I don't mean for sleeping. So obviously the
'crate-training' ideas are seemingly irrelevant as she has no concept of
keeping her bed clean. I'm changing her bedding upward of 6 times a day and
spraying the base tray of the crate with Pet fresh, so there's no residual
smell in there.

Get rid of the bedding. She doesn't need it and it becomes something to absorb
urine.

What can I do to teach her that her crate would be nicer for sleeping if she
didn't pee and poo in it?..

She should be fed all of her meals in the crate. No bedding. Toys and food
only.


Janet Boss
http://bestfriendsdogobedience.com/
http://photos.yahoo.com/bestfriendsobedience

"J1Boss" wrote

From: "caroline"

Here's the problem....she has always appeared to think that her crate is
the
place to go...and I don't mean for sleeping. So obviously the
'crate-training' ideas are seemingly irrelevant as she has no concept of
keeping her bed clean. I'm changing her bedding upward of 6 times a day
and
spraying the base tray of the crate with Pet fresh, so there's no residual
smell in there.

Get rid of the bedding. She doesn't need it and it becomes something to
absorb
urine.

So no bed at all for her?

What can I do to teach her that her crate would be nicer for sleeping if
she
didn't pee and poo in it?..

She should be fed all of her meals in the crate. No bedding. Toys and
food
only.

Thank Janet...just wanted to clarify, that I give her no bed at all to lie
on anywhere?


http://bestfriendsdogobedience.com/
http://photos.yahoo.com/bestfriendsobedience

"J1Boss" wrote

Thank Janet...just wanted to clarify, that I give her no bed at all to lie
on anywhere?


You may try a bed elsewhere for her, but NOT in her crate. If she
eliminates
on it outside of the crate, she doesn't get one for now.

Ok, makes sense. Thanks....that's a link that hadn't occurred to me.

Will let you know how it goes. ;o)

J1Boss wrote:

From: "caroline"

Here's the problem....she has always appeared to think that her crate is the
place to go...and I don't mean for sleeping. So obviously the
'crate-training' ideas are seemingly irrelevant as she has no concept of
keeping her bed clean. I'm changing her bedding upward of 6 times a day and
spraying the base tray of the crate with Pet fresh, so there's no residual
smell in there.

Get rid of the bedding. She doesn't need it and it becomes something to absorb
urine.

What can I do to teach her that her crate would be nicer for sleeping if she
didn't pee and poo in it?..

She should be fed all of her meals in the crate. No bedding. Toys and food
only.

And I would add that if she's urinating or defecating in the crate
overnight as well (which I assume she is) STOP locking her in it
altogether at night. An ex-pen or gated area with papers down is a
better alternative to crating when accidents are "inevitable".

I would exercise the heck out of her (outside) to get her nice and
"empty" and have her explore the crate for only minutes (or seconds) at
a time. As Janet said, mealtimes are good for this. The rest of the
time, its a management problem. If somewhere along the line she
*learned* to go in her crate, its not weird at all that she would seek
that out. I would close the crate and prevent her access to it for those
moments when you can't supervise her.

I would also stop correcting her immediately for accidents. That's not
going to help the overall anxiety level in relation to her
housebreaking. If it hasn't worked after all these months of it, then
its probably making it worse. Please stop doing that.

Tara

"Tara" wrote
J1Boss wrote:

From: "caroline"

Here's the problem....she has always appeared to think that her crate is
the
place to go...and I don't mean for sleeping. So obviously the
'crate-training' ideas are seemingly irrelevant as she has no concept of
keeping her bed clean. I'm changing her bedding upward of 6 times a day
and
spraying the base tray of the crate with Pet fresh, so there's no
residual
smell in there.

Get rid of the bedding. She doesn't need it and it becomes something to
absorb
urine.

What can I do to teach her that her crate would be nicer for sleeping if
she
didn't pee and poo in it?..

She should be fed all of her meals in the crate. No bedding. Toys and
food
only.

And I would add that if she's urinating or defecating in the crate
overnight as well (which I assume she is) STOP locking her in it
altogether at night. An ex-pen or gated area with papers down is a
better alternative to crating when accidents are "inevitable".

There's no x-pen or puppy gate invented that can contain her...she climbs
like a monkey**, to confine her with anything other than a gate would mean
behind a closed door. She can't run loose in the house overnight, because my
male would have her in pieces (He's not a puppy-fan). The other option is
to lock her in the bathroom. Not sure I like this idea much.

But thanks for trying. maybe with another dog it would work like a treat,
and something worth remembering.

**It really *does* need to be seen to be believed.

caroline wrote:

There's no x-pen or puppy gate invented that can contain her...she climbs
like a monkey**, to confine her with anything other than a gate would mean
behind a closed door. She can't run loose in the house overnight, because my
male would have her in pieces (He's not a puppy-fan). The other option is
to lock her in the bathroom. Not sure I like this idea much.

But thanks for trying. maybe with another dog it would work like a treat,
and something worth remembering.

**It really *does* need to be seen to be believed.

Not really. Its not something many of us here haven't seen at least once
before.

With a dog like that, then Jack's idea of tethering is really the best
solution. That's as long as your male won't use it as an excuse to
attack her (wasn't sure what his threshold was from your post). But you
need to stop using the crate asap. Every time she uses it as a toilet,
the behavior is simply reinforced. In its barest form, its that simple.

Tara