Stealth Weeing - Help needed

[JoJo1974]

Hi

I am at my wits end and hoping someone has experienced a similar problem and can help or offer some advise.

Being an experienced dog owner our new Cocker puppy is causing me so many problems with toilet training that it has ended in tears on many occasions.

He is now 20 weeks old and we have had him since 12 weeks.  I have tried all the usual techniques but I just cannot get him to go to the toilet outside. I don't want to wail on about all the things I have tried but basically I cannot paper train him as he shreds the paper up.  I have tried keeping him in the same room and periodically taking him out but he just sits and looks at me and the minute I take him in he goes on the floor.

I have used odour eliminators but still he does it indoors. 

He always has access to outdoors as we have a dog flap.  I do not tell him off for going indoors and if I catch him I take him straight outside but he just holds on until we go back inside.

This came to a head last night.

I took him outside with my other dogs 30 minutes before going to bed.  He didn't do anything.  I went to bed but had to come downstairs to collect something 5 minutes later and he had peed and pooed on the kitchen floor.

I decided the best thing to do was to sit with him until he showed signs of needing to go.  So I sat there for an hour and he started circling so I took him outside.  We sat outside for 3 hours.  Yes 3 hours and he did nothing.  I eventually went to bed in tears at 4am this morning and got up at 6am to find 2 poos and 3 wees on the kitchen floor.

My husband has given me an ultimatum and I am at the end of my tether.  Please help if you can.

[LynneB]

Try crating him at night. He will not want to soil his bed so should hold on till he's let out. They are a great training aid.

[JoJo1974]

Will I be able to crate him if the German Shepherds I have are free to roam?

[JeffandAnnie]

Yes. I crated Annie when she was a puppy and had three collies loose in the same room overnight.

[*Marie*]

Crate training is brill, didn't have one for my late retriever at the time I thought they were cruel, he took 6 months to be properly house trained, Bracken was 12-15 weeks house trained, crated!

[JoJo1974]

Husband is concerned that he will just whine all night.  Is this likely?  Sorry for the silly questions but I have never used a crate as I have never needed to.

[JeffD]

Get a small sleeping crate,  dogs do not like fouling their beds put it in your bedroom at night so you will hear him whine when he needs to go, you can move it out later. They are about £30 delivered on ebay its worth a try.

[twiceover2]

When you first put him in he may well bark, scream and cry, let alone whine.  However, if you ignore him (steely will) he will settle down eventually (could be seconds, minutes or hours  ).  After he has settled, if he wakes up and whines or barks again, you need to take him out to the loo straight away - no cuddles/interaction at all and straight back to bed.

You might want to warn any neighbours for the first couple of nights but if you persevere he'll get the hang of sleeping in the crate and will probably get to like it.  It helps to put a cover over the crate to make it a cosy den and always give him a treat when he first goes in (bedtime gravy bone or similar).

[JeffD]

You might want to warn any neighbours for the first couple of nights but if you persevere he'll get the hang of sleeping in the crate and will probably get to like it.  It helps to put a cover over the crate to make it a cosy den and always give him a treat when he first goes in (bedtime gravy bone or similar).

Teal loves her bedtime crate and gravy bone I don't think I could get her to sleep anywhere else now

[airyfairy76]

Teal loves her bedtime crate and gravy bone I don't think I could get her to sleep anywhere else now

Lottie has the crate and gravy bone routine too!  She comes upstairs with me (she sleeps in my bedroom), I say "bedtime" and then she toddles in and has her gravy bone, before crashing out.

Actually, she's normally dashed in there before I can even say "bedtime"!  If I don't give her her biccie straight away, she looks most put out....

 

[Danielle]

Sorry to but in on this thread, but I'm having similar problems. I do have a crate and he goes in at bedtime and when I need to pop out, but i brought a large crate so he doesn't out grow it and use a puppy pads. If I leave out the puppy pad will he stop doing his business or is the crate to big to class that as his bed? (He has a bed and cushion inside the crate also) 

[airyfairy76]

I have never used puppy pads - I didn't want Lottie to think it was acceptable to go inside the house. 

She has a small crate in my bedroom, but the bigger crate downstairs which like you, I brought so it can be used when she is an adult if required, has been partitioned off.  She is nearly 18 weeks, but still a dinky thing, and has access to about half of it (it's a 36" crate) - big enough for her to stand up, turn around and stretch out.  She doesn't get left in it for more than a couple of hours at a time (and that's maybe happened twice) - she is in there for about an hour in the morning between me leaving for work and daycare picking her up, and again an hour (if at all) in the evening, if they dorp her off and I'm not home yet (most of the time our arrival coincides).  But she was fine for a couple of hours last week when I was held up returning from a meeting in London.  She just sleeps TBH!

I had a divider provided with my big crate, but you could do the same with a box.

[Newcockerparents]

I am new to being a puppy parent and at 13 1/2 weeks haven't cracked the day time toilet training, yet, but, things dramatically improved at night by putting Jake's crate in our room. He does wake me up if he needs to go, but, this isn't often and meant I finally got to sleep and didn't get up to carnage 

What I need to crack now is both day time toilet training and Jake being in the crate without us being in the room (goes nuts).

Good luck - sounds like you are having an awful time 

[airyfairy76]

What I need to crack now is both day time toilet training and Jake being in the crate without us being in the room (goes nuts).

In case it helps:

Daytime - I have just kept to a rigid routine.  When she first came home at ten weeks, I took her out every hour and a half.  At nearly 18 weeks, she goes out every two and a half hours.  99% of the time, she will go, and it's often enough that we don't have accidents (she's never had a poo accident so can't help on that one if that is the case).    In 8 weeks we've maybe had 7 wee accidents - the majority being when retrospectively, the signs were there and I was distracted by something else, and maybe a couple of times where she got so excited playing that she had an "Oh no, I need to go now!" moment...

 


And don't stress about the crate!  I was worried sick that I had this puppy that would always scream blue murder when she went in her crate.  When she started going to daycare at 13.5 weeks and having to be left in her crate for an hour in the morning,  I was still leaving the house to a screeching puppy and stressing about it.

Then suddenly, the last few weeks (since about 15.5 weeks), she goes into her crate in the morning and just goes straight to sleep!  I have not had a peep out of her when she goes in her crate for about three weeks now.  So please don't stress at this stage!

 

[JoJo1974]

One of the members has very very kindly offered me their crate to try Ozzi in.  So wish me luck. Not expecting any sleep tonight either but he is worth it.  I will keep you alll updated.