I have a Great Dane puppy that will be officially 6 months old in a couple days, and is still not housebroken.

A) She is crated frequently, and is on a long line when loose in the house. (In addition to housebreaking, she is not trustworthy with the cat yet.) She has never had an accident outside the crate without getting caught in the act. When we catch her, we say "No! Outside!" and rush her outside as fast as possible, where she usually does have more to do.

B) She will pee/poop in her crate, and then gets very upset and barks until you come clean her up. We take her outside, where she sometimes has more to do, put her back in a diffrent (clean) crate and then clean up the dirty crate. She has two crates, one of wich is really too large, but she will pee/poop in the small one as well. (Small being relative, she's 85 lbs and has a 48" crate for her "small" crate. She's only left in the 54" crate when we're home.)

C) Her ability to hold it seems to vary greatly by situation, indicating this is a behavior problem, not a health problem.

At night she goes 8 hours with no problem, she's even now starting to be able to wait for me to get dressed instead of just throwing something over my PJs. When left home alone, she goes 4-5 hours with (usually) no problem. When we're home though, we need to take her every 2 hours when in the crate, every hour when outside the crate, in order to avoid accidents.

Is it unreasonable for me to expect her to be able to hold it for 4 hours when we're home? Would tethering be more effective than crating for such a pup? Any other suggestions? I have Ed's 8 weeks to 8 months DVD, where he said that even the piggiest puppies should get it by 6 months, so I just kept cleaning it up and not worrying about it until now.

When did she last have a urinalysis/culture and physical done?

 Quote: Denise Skidmore

Is it unreasonable for me to expect her to be able to hold it for 4 hours when we're home?

How many hours is she crated at a time, per day?

Do you feed raw or kibble.
I ask because bowel movement timing varies depending on the diet.

 Quote: Denise Skidmore

She will pee/poop in her crate, and then gets very upset and barks until you come clean her up. We take her outside, where she sometimes has more to do, put her back in a diffrent (clean) crate and then clean up the dirty crate.

So, when she pees/poops in the crate and barks, you take her out?
I wonder if there's any chance that she's associated soiling her crate w/ getting you to take her out of her crate?

If she mostly does this when you are home, my guess would be yes. Or, she's just more active in the crate when you are home and that gets her digestive system/plumbing moving.

At 6 months I still took my pup out every hour or so, if I was home. Why not, if I'm there to do it? I also implemented the practice of taking the pup out to do her business right when she woke up (even from a daytime nap), after eating, and after playing (and also, right before I put her in her crate, and right after I let her out of the crate...you get the picture! ). This prevented many accidents from occuring.

I would start tethering her to you instead of allowing her to run around the house with a long line. This way, you can watch her every move and if she does try to "go" you are right there to take her outside without her even getting the chance to get started.

Are you allowing her access to water in her crate? If so, I would stop this. I am too also wondering what you are feeding and what the feeding schedule is.

Puppies are usually really easy to get onto a schedule of when they eat and when to take them out.

I usually follow the rule of "potty breaks after eating, sleeping and playing."
For example....potty..come inside and either take a nap or play outside.....potty again....

It is really important IMHO to instill a "go potty" command as well as waiting the pup out when you do go out.
When I take a pup out, no matter what the weather, I wait as long as I need to for the pup to do one or the other or both and it is a HUGE party when they finally go.

Walking briskly, play or running around will help to get the process started quickly. Nothing sucks worse than trying to get a pup to go potty in a snowstorm, but I do what I have to.

When you are home and she is crated, does she settle or raise a ruckus wanting to be out with you? If she throws a fit, I would first assess that I was giving enough exercise for her to be tired and then also try covering the crate.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

When did she last have a urinalysis/culture and physical done?

She had a physical yesterday. Although hubby took her, I did not speak with the vet myself. Apparently there was a mix-up at the front desk and they didn't run her stool sample, so we'll be going back soon to talk with them. She does have loose stool issues we're also trying to solve with the vet, but the vet is frustratingly unconcerned. (We switched vets when the first was unconcerned, and now the second is also unconcerned.) We feed raw, we may have to switch to kibble before we can get the first (very competent but anti-raw) vet to look seriously into the problem.

We have not had a uralisis done. The fact that she has no problems at night makes me doubt this is an infection or the like.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

How many hours is she crated at a time, per day?

She gets a lunchtime play break, and evening family time, but spends most of the day in her crate except for potty walks. So, 2 hours at a time, with brief breaks, 4 hours between longer breaks.

For exercise she scooters about 1 mile per day. (She runs averaging 5 MPH while pulling a lightweight vehicle, rider assisted on starts and hills. She'd go further if we'd let her, but I don't want to overstress her growing joints.)

 Quote: Alyssa Myracle

Do you feed raw or kibble.
I ask because bowel movement timing varies depending on the diet.

We feed raw. We have more problems with pee than poo. She will bark to go out when she needs to poo, but does not bark until after she pees.

 Quote: Lynne Barrows

I wonder if there's any chance that she's associated soiling her crate w/ getting you to take her out of her crate?

Possible, but I like your second theory better. She seems legitamately upset when she messes her crate, and does not often try to fake us out with the same kind of barking without actually peeing.

 Quote: Lynne Barrows

Or, she's just more active in the crate when you are home and that gets her digestive system/plumbing moving.

Quite possible. I think she sleeps when we're not home, as she has much more energy to burn in the evenings when she's not had someone home all day with her.

 Quote: Lynne Barrows

At 6 months I still took my pup out every hour or so, if I was home.

That is what we did to solve nighttime issues, we can go back to that I suppose.

 Quote: Lynne Barrows

I also implemented the practice of taking the pup out to do her business right when she woke up (even from a daytime nap), after eating, and after playing (and also, right before I put her in her crate, and right after I let her out of the crate...

Yes, we do these things, although I think hubby often does not notice when she wakes from a daytime nap. (Hubby is home with her during the day right now. The schedule change amplified the issues we were already having.) I usually try to take her whenever she stands up in the crate.