This is not the first puppy that I have trained..I have trained 4 puppies in the last 2 years.

So my new GSD pup Friday is doing very well housetraining...I think it is finally starting to click. She sleeps tethered to my bedpost at night, and has been flawless there. We are getting up twice at night, which is reasonable. She is 9 weeks today, I have had her for 1 week.

My problem is that she is peeing in her crate nearly every time I leave the house, regardless of how long I am gone.
I am gone no longer than four hours each time, and usually only about 2. She still pees. I have a divider in the crate and I have made it ridiculously small, to no avail. Bedding- no bedding, makes no difference. I get home and she is spraying pee everywhere with her tail. I have had to hose her off every day, almost twice a day, and she actually stands to be hosed off now. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> She is getting better about crying in the crate as well...so I doubt that it is an anxious behavior. She has our other dog Tyranny right next to her in another crate at the time.

I dunno what else to do except wait it out. which I really dont want to do, because I am taking a job next week which wont allow me to come home for lunch (too far) and my husband is going to have to come home to having to hose off puppy and clean up pee every day. Yay. I'll never hear the end of it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

What do you think? No water an hour before leaving the house? Only giving minimum water amounts neccessary? She seems awful thirsty..But I do not suspect any bladder infection at all, because every other aspect is normal.

Any suggestions? Puppies arent supposed to smell like pee. I guess it could be poop. that would be worse. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

To add to this, she gets plenty of excersise, and water comes up at 8:00 at night, even though night yeilds no problems.

So, in a week, she is going to be alone the whole day? Can you build a small run in your yard & put the crate in it? It just has to be big enough for her to go out eleiminate & then get back in the crate. At 10 weeks, she will still be too young to hold it all day! For now, cut back the time she is in the crate to even less than an hour. Take her out every hour to the place you want her to pee, when she does, tell her good girl & put her back in the box. Keep repeating this all day, every day until she gets the idea that outside is the pee place <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />. Also, at night let her sleep in the crate & see if the crate is dry in the morning. If it's not dry, then get ready for a few nights of the same routine. She has to learn the crate is not for peeing, but for sleeping & she will, if you stop it from going any further. This shouldn't take too long, prividing she has plenty of time outside of the crate for stimulating play.

no, no. Not in the crate all day, sorry if I was unclear. He can come home for lunches to let them out, I just cant. so about 4 hours in between visits, definitley do-able.

When we raise a pup it spends a lot of time in the crate. Our interaction is done outside and when we are finished it comes in and stays in the crate,

Anne (a lady on our kennel staff) is raising a male from the last litter right now. She did something I really like. She took a 12 inch square peice of cow mat ( anything would work) and used a clicker and food to train the pup to run over and stand on the mat. Once it did that she put the mat inside the crate. The pup caught on and thought it was a game to run into the crate - turn around and get a treat.

The result is this pup is not stressed about being in a crate.

With that said - people who only put pups in crates at night have a more difficult time in house trianing puppies.

I am going to video tape this and add it to our puppy DVD.

Erika,

Put that crate by your bed at night. Leave the door open so your pup can go in and out as it pleases.

Otherwise, you risk the pup only associating the crate with you leaving.


ED'S COMMENTS EDITED IN:

The only way I would recommend this is if the dog is down the road a ways on house training and if its tethered to the bed by a leash. If the dog is not tethered you will find poop in the closet

I guess I didn't read Susan's post carefully enough! I agree completely.

IMO, if you want the pup to learn to be loose at night and the pup is doing well tethered, then why stress it with closing the crate door? Put bedding in the crate - I'd be surprised if the pup didn't choose to sleep in the crate.

OTOH, I feel it is safer to have the pup in a crate rather than tethered at night. I sleep like a rock and would never wake up if the pup got tangled badly or chewed the tether and got loose.

Thank you for your responses!

I did try the click/treat thing initially, and she didnt give a hoot about it. Good Natural Balance turkey sausage treats too. Now that she is getting a bit better and will take cookies in the crate, I may try that again.

I DO crate her when I am here also! I do that at least once a day!

I am sorry if I was not clear before, the puppy would not be home alone for a regular workday of eight hours. My husband would be able to come home at lunch to let her out, so only leaving her for a period of 4 hours.

I take her to the front yard to potty almost all the time. The back yard is reserved for playtime and she is never allowed to play unsupervised, so I know if she has peed or not.

I leave the house at least once a day, ususally twice. I always put her in her crate at least once a day when I am still here. She will cry a little, but has lately responded to a shake can with pennies to stop the initial cry and responds to a "good girl" periodically when she is quiet. I am never in the same room with her to reinforce her, I am usually in the shower or cleaning or something. I also will just ignore it about half the time, and she does settle down within 10 minutes unless she has peed, which has only happened once when I am here.

I take her out at night usually within 4-5 hours the first time, and 3 hours later the second. I do not allow my dogs to be loose in my house when I am gone, or at night. I have too many antique furniture and other valuables that I dont want to lose. At the most, they are restricted to be loose in the spare bedroom where their crates are located.

The dogs crates are located upstairs in the spare bedroom. My bedroom is next to it, along with a bathroom. A point with possible relevance: I have noticed that is where some pee "accidents" in the house have been, the spare bedroom. (my fault for not supervising) Perhaps she does not think that room is used enough?

I think I will try to limit her water intake...no water an hour before leaving. I will also make her crate a bit bigger, and feed her in there-hopefully building an association to not pee where we eat. What do you thing about leaving her empty food dish in with her? It is very large, heavy ceramic, she cant destroy it.

What are your thoughts on moving her crate to my bedroom? My bedroom is hardwood floor, no carpet (unlike spare which is all carpet). Perhaps she will feel more of an association with my bedroom because we spend more time in there?

Again, thank you so much!

About tethering at night..I am a very light sleeper, so I wake up often. I planned on eventually having her sleep in her crate at night, but I dont mind if she is in the bedroom either. I think she could be loose at night and still stay next to the bed, she does not like to lose sight of me!

Hi, I'd like to add a few things that worked for me and my 2 GSD's.Both were crate trained in the same manner.I too work all day and getting home to let them out has been difficult at times. My pup is now 5 mos. old. He sleeps in the bedroom with us unteathered and is great about it,maybe I'm just lucky,but he does wake me up at least once early a.m. for a bathroom break.Initially while at work he was crated and believe me coming home was not always something I looked foreward to.(pee and pooh -yuck)so he got used to daily baths.All I can say is that he now is able to hold it .Unfortunately it had to be that way as it was for the older dog (now 3yrs.old).I didn't like the idea of him sitting in his own stuff but what was the alternative?He eventually learned to hold it and believe me I tried everything. Now at 5 mos. he can hold it while were at work and the daily baths are over.Both dogs are well adjusted and in good health.I just chaulked it up as something you have to go through if you have a dog and work.As far as crating,the older dog has the run of the house while we're gone and the pup is crated.It seems to be working so far.I'm sure there are different ways to do this and until the pup is trustworthy,he'll stay crated while I'm gone.The older dog is well trained and has never been a problem.I only hope the pup turns out the same.