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Patience wearing VERY THIN!!

4790 Views 18 Replies 14 Participants Last post by  SophieB
I got my Bella when she was 8 wks, and she's now 16 wks. She constantly pees in the house, we've been trying to crate train her from day one. Outside for an hour, inside for 5 min...pees!! Too add to my frustration, she won't sleep through the night either and I've tried everything. Hot water bottle, ticking clock, blanket. Here's the deal. In her crate by 10, up at 1..out to pee & clean her kennel because she's peed in it. Repeat at 2, and again by 5. I'm exhausted and frustrated. She sleeps when she's out of her kennel with my 3 y/o mix breed but I can't leave her out at night until she's trained!! YIKES!! HELP ME PLEASE!!!
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How big is her crate? They recommend that you give them barely enough room to get in and turn around, if she has a bunch of extra room she will keep peeing and sleep away from it. At 16 weeks you can probably expect having to get up overnight, their bladders aren't very big.
sounds like you need another basset! Just kidding

I use a puppy crate at night for my 2 problem children. The floor is raised 5" so if they can't hold it (And I am not able/willing to get up in the middle of the night) at least the pee-pee falls down to a drip pan lined with piddle pads. You may also want to try placing a blanket over the crate at night.
with puppy so the do not learn that it is acceptable to pee/poo in the crate and I tend to be a heavy sleeper I set an alarm for the middle of the night that way I maintain a schedule.


So what you have not done is explain what you are doing to prevent accident with out some detail it is impossible to quess where the break down is. but here are some guideline.


You are never going to be able to anticipate when the dog need to go unless it is on a schedule. This schedule includes acess to food and water, exercise and sleep times. Giving the puppy unfettered access to the adult dog may be part of the problem. The puppy is going to want to play, What people do not realize, and it actual is quite simple. Activity level dictates how often the dog needs to go. If the dog is active up and playing every 10-15 minutes is typica.l You take a puppy that is playing outdoors and bring hin inside and it is still active it going to need to go 10 -15 minutes from that last time it went. If it was five before it came in from outside that means within 5 minutes of comming in the dog will need to go again. It is rally that simple if the dog is active it need to go out every 10 minute until you do that you are going to make it extremely hard because the dog is learning all kinds of bad habits with every accident that you then have to unteach the dog before you can even start to teach the correct behavior slowing the whole process to a crawl. '


With unrealistic expectation you are setting the dog up to fail. You need to become a realist and understand the basic need of your dog once you meet and anticipate them the accident go away. Start off taking the dog out every 10 minute when it is active every 4 hours when it is sleeping a hour to 1 1/2 hours if the dog is not active nor sleeping say just resting but awake. If the dog is still having accident in the house make sure you are being consistent with those times and if you are that simply means you are going to have to shorten then even further till you no longer have any accident. Keep in mind house training is not about preventing accident no Preventing accidents is just the first step toward housetraining. It is just this simple, you can not house train a dog if it has accidents. If the dog is having accident you are not ridged enough in the schedule or are allowing too much time to elapse before taking the dog out. It does not natter that AuntMary's boxer could go 4 day's without peeing when he was 16 week old. You have to work within the limits of the dog you have. Keep in mind every accident has nothing to do with the dog and everything to do with you not managing the dog as well as it needs to be managed. You need to step up to the plate and accept responsibilty for the dogs behavior. until you do that nothing will change.

SAY YES TRAINING REMINDERS
Whenever frustration sets in remind yourself that “YOUR DOG IS A MIRROR IMAGE OF YOUR ABILITIES AS A TRAINER”. Only when you take ownership of your dog’s shortcomings will you be able to turn them into attributes.
Housetraining Your Puppy
Do not rely on a puppy to tell you when it's time to go out. That is expecting too much responsibility and communication at too early an age. It is up to you, the adult human, to know when he needs to go out. Watch his activity level and the clock.
A 12 wk puppy who is busy playing may need to urinate every 15-20 minutes, whereas a resting puppy might go for an hour, and a sleeping puppy can go 8 hours at night. Activity makes urine! Activity makes urine! Repeat this 10 times, slowly. This is a very important lesson for new puppy owners.
Creating a Nighttime Ritual
In the middle of the night, it's not quite that easy. When she wakes, she'll need to go potty. Pick her up and carry her outside -- don't talk to her or pet her or otherwise interact with her. Put her down, and as soon as she potties, pick her up and carry her back to her crate. Do not talk to her or pet her -- she needs to be stimulated as little as possible, and she needs to learn that the middle of the night is *not* for playing.






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Not to mention the other half of the equation, showing the dog what behavior you DO want. Which means TAKING her outside, staying with her and rewarding/praising her when she does pee outside.
We had the same problem with Kenna at that age! Over the last 2 years, I have found the best thing for Kenna was a strict eating and drinking schedule! Kenna only gets a cup of food in the morning, usually around 5/6 depends on when she gets up to potty, and then again at 6pm when I get home from work. She is able to have water through the day, but I do not let her have it after 7. If I do, she is up ALL night! Proven fact, it happened last night. We took a late walk, so of course I felt bad she was thirsty. I let her have water and we were up 3 times last night to pee! On a normal night if we are able to stick to her eating schedule, she will only get up once. I am fortunate because my husband is a county deputy and works 3rd shift, so he always lets Kenna out when he gets home around 3.

I know that your pup being so young will have more feedings, but Kenna is 2 1/2 so, she only gets 2 cups a day. And no human food! Ok, well she sometimes will get a little, like an edge of pizza crust, or if she "sneaks" it off the counter! LOL :) :)

Kenna was never a fan of the kennell. We had one that was a perfect size for her and she would poop and pee in it. We decided it wasn't worth the clean up to put her in it.
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16 weeks is still young. It's took the best part of 6 months (!) before Opus was house trained. The only thing I can say is that ONCE house trained he was brilliant and would often go to bed at 11 at night and need to be woken at 11 the next morning. Stick at it, the early days are the hardest but you're nearly there.
I agree with Opus! It is still early and they have such small bladders! It will be a little while yet, but if you stick to it you will have success! :)
My little Bella is improving!! Well, WAS improving! She would get up around midnight and again around 4 with a dry kennel so YAY!! Sadly with no change in schedule, feeding, outside time, play time, weather, kennel time, walks, she's gone back to being up almost every hour on the hour for 1/2 the night and every 2 hrs for the rest and completely SOAKING her kennel each time. :( Back to square one. I get that they have small bladders, but with nothing to drink after 7pm, how on earth is she peeing so much?? I called the vet and was told to just keep an eye on her, if it goes on for approx a month, then bring her in.
It can be frustrating. I trained Molly without a crate and I do know the frustration and the sleeplessness. As soon as she was reliably going the night without issues, she was put on Prednisone for Addison's. She's still really good at night and I take her out frequently during the day, but sometimes it sneaks up on her and she can't hold it or fails to show her usual signals. We are still working on it too and she's a year now.

Good luck and be patient. They are so worth it!
Time for a new vet! A sudden increase in urination suggests a medical issue such as a bladder infection. The possibility should at least be checked out, not allowed to continue for a month(!).
Absolutely, get her checked if you can rule out a urinary tract infection,then you know it is behavior orented.Don't bother getting up set at her she must learn, which means, she needs to be taught, and you cannot teach if you are upset.Keep her with you when she is not in the crate. Where is the crate being kept? Do you hear her at night if she has to go out? If not the crate needs to be closer to where you are. I'm training a 15 week old and she is picking it up fantasticly but I have her set up differently than most.She is in an excercise pen,actually ,2 hooked together,so there is enough room for her to move around and play,there are minimal amount of newspapers down in case of an accident,a large crate keeps the exercise pens from moving when she jumps up at the sides.She is in there to eat and sleep at the moment.When she is let out she goes right to the door(a bit of a trek from the family room) where I put on her leash and collar we go outside if she has to go she does if after a few min.she hasn't gone we come in but stays where I can see her.In about 10 min.we go back outside and she will usually go. Then she is good for thirty min.or so,she plays,then I might put her back in the pen to take a nap so I can get something done around the house.That is how it works all day long ,so far no bm's in the house one accidential pee,since she was 13weeks old. A Labor of love.
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Everyone else is saying it so I might as well too. Patience. Rosco had accidents well into his 2nd year of life. Keep on being consistent, reward her when she does the right thing, etc. etc. and things will start to work for you. And yeah definitely get the UTI/bladder infection possibility checked out. Layla had one of those earlier this year and she went from being very well house-trained to peeing about every five minutes wherever she happened to be.
that's pretty young to expect perfection! still a baby. Mine didn't learn to ask to go out until about 7 months old..and he just woke up one day and understood. Took a long time for him to sleep through the night too, and they do need to drink a lot of water so it can't be helped. Just remember she's a baby still. also try the smaller crate, and good luck!
Still definitely a baby so just lots of patience as everyone else has said. We got Doppler when he was about 4 months old and he picked up on house training pretty quick. Virga we got at like 8 weeks old and she's still not 100% house trained even though she's a year old. She had an accident the other day because I wasn't paying attention. No choice but to clean it up and move on. Just stick with it.

Is it possible to move her crate into the bedroom with you? That way you'll hear her when she starts to move around and can take her out immediately. We crate trained both of ours from day one as well and Virga had accidents in her crate but that was only when we didn't get up in time to let her out.

Also, as for the vet. I would also take her in to get her checked out because if she's got a UTI then you're getting frustrated over nothing because you can't train her if she can't control when she goes. Good luck with everything!
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ARGH!!! Last night was probably one of the worst in months!! Not only was she up 5 times, she not only peed in her kennel, I'd go as far as to say she FLOODED it! I can't comprehend how this is possible when she was out 3 times between 9-midnight and hadn't had anything to drink since 7pm!! Her crate is just on the other side of the wall from my bedroom so I hear her as soon as she starts to make any noise. Putting her in the room with me is not an option as it's way too small. I'm not expecting perfection at all, (I've got 3 kids, I know that doesn't exist :p) She very rarely has any accidents in the house when she's not kenneled since I keep a close eye on her, the problem only seems to be at night???????
Please please please consider getting her checked out for a UTI. Make sure there is nothing medically wrong, first.
Totally agree-- need to rule out a UTI.
My family have had Bassets for 'ever' and rescued quite a few of various ages over the years and when we have had a new young puppy whilst already having an older Basset or two in the house, puppy has learned very quickly about toileting outside as they have followed the older Basset, so it's a pity you don't have an older one for your puppy to learn from. Hopefully you will check that she doesn't have a urine infection!

I think Bassets are not as quick as some other breeds when it comes to toilet training and you just need to be very patient and keep calm, and from your messages, I wonder if you feeling stressed and losing patience is sensed by your puppy and it's making her feel stressed too!

I had two sister puppies together to house train three years ago and that meant double the work but thankfully they were pretty good and we always praised them for being good. They seemed to learn from our older dog as well as us getting up during the night to let them go outside and very often if they can smell where one dog has had a wee, the other will go in the same place.

Be patient and try to keep calm because dogs can sense our moods and perhaps them being stressed or worried from your mood/feeling won't help!
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