Hi Everyone -

We recently got a 5 month old Shih-Tzu from a breeder/show dog owner. She told us the puppy was used to sleeping in a crate at night and that it would go outside but wasn't fully potty trained and did occasionally have accidents.

The first couple of nights we had fairly good success with the dog, as it whined/barked for around 30 minutes and then would go to bed and sleep through the night. We would find some pee in there in the morning typically, but nothing too bad - and no poop. She pooped and peed outside with no problem (although sometimes we'd have to hide from her to make her poop...since she wouldn't want to go in front of us). That got better, though, and she started peeing as soon as I took her outside.

The third and fourth nights, however, she pooped in the crate and walked all through it and made a huge mess! We were feeding her at the same times as previously (twice a day), had taken her on a long walk both nights, and stood outside with her for about 45 minutes to an hour and she never pooped outside. It is like she got worse after the first couple of nights we had her (although nothing changed).

Day before yesterday she pooped outside in front of me and I praised her to no end...took her inside and played with her for a bit! That was the last time she pooped outside of her crate.

We're trying to modify her feeding schedule now, because it seems like she has to poop around 8 hours after she eats which means her evening dinner puts her at a 2am/3am poop time. Is that normal? I've always heard dogs poop around 15 minutes to 1 hour after they eat. She ALWAYS poops hours and hours after she eats...definitely no sooner than 6 hours after eating but typically around 8 hours or so. Should we look at changing her food? Should we continue revising her feeding schedule? Thoughts?

One thing to note...I work from home during the day, (have a job, but work out of my house), so I take her out a good bit (after she wakes up, after she drinks/eats, after she plays with our cat, etc). I'd say on average she goes out every 2-4 hours during the day.

Am I doing something wrong? Please let me know if you need additional info.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Melissa

It doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong from what you posted. It just sounds like she's not housebroken yet.

Make sure you clean the crate well with Nature's Miracle, which eliminates the potty odor. Since she's peed in there, she's starting to look at the crate as an OK place to eliminate because of the lingering odor, which is what probably prompted her to poo in there too. Nature's Miracle neutralizes the odor.

It may have to do with what you feed. Kibble takes longer to digest.

You may want to read Ed's article on housebreaking if you haven't already: http://www.leerburg.com/housebrk.htm

Make sure your crate is SMALL ENOUGH ... After cleaning and deordizing thoroughly with either White Vinegar or Nature's Miracle or an equivalent ... I'd start feeding her in there, on a regular basis.

I've got a six hour pooper too! So don't worry there ... the big thing is to make sure that she doesn't want to poop in there. I'd make sure that you rinsed her off and "deordized" her too, so she doesn't think she is supposed smell that way.

My pup is using the Medium Crate in our Kitchen and my Vehicle, as those are the two places that he tends to be crated when I'm not available to take him out and he NEEDS to HOLD it. If the crate is too larger, then they can try to go in one corner and lay down in the other corner. Our pup is a tad spoiled, and he gets to sleep in the XL one 'because he alerts me to his need to go outside at night, if he has one ... and most of the time he doesn't have one. I moved the 2nd XL one from my kitchen to my future storefront that I am working on opening, as again if he is there in his crate, I am with him.

I think you have the right ideas going on... Good Luck!