Puppy Pottying in the Crate...

Question: My family and I have had our 9 1/2 week old male dachshund puppy, Hershey, for a week and a half. We also have another 2 year old female dachshund, Holly, who is very mothering to Hershey. From what info the owner (not a breeder) had shared, Hershey had gone to another home for one day where he was crated for 12-15 hours without being fed or let out. This first home returned him that night because she knew she couldn't deal with taking care of a puppy. So one displacement already and leaving his littermates again, Hershey's a pretty stressed little guy and has lots of separation anxiety. He's a sweetie and Holly and he play great together, BUT... I've been trying to crate train him. Hershey does not like his crate at all, understandably so. I let him out in the late morning for potty breaks. This splits the time between us leaving and my oldest son coming home from school. Every time he is in his crate he cries terribly and urinates in the very little space available in his crate. I've modified feeding and watering schedules as needed this week to help.

After several days of continued crate urinating I spoke to my vet and and the original owner's vet. One suggestion was to crate him with my Holly, since she has been spayed and was mothering to him, or second to let him cry and ignore him. We tried ignoring him part of the night and we caved. We discovered he wanted to sleep with Holly in our bed. Okay by us and now we have a happy Hershey. The next morning I decided to crate him with Holly. Not a peep out of him when we left that morning or the late morning potty break. This lasted the rest of the week with no urinating in the crate. We went out a few times over the weekend and crated the dogs without any problems.

Now that we are back to the work/school this week, he cried just a little when we left, but when I went home this morning, he had urinated in the kennel again. He was crying and Holly was barking too. I threw the soiled bedding in the laundry and replaced it with clean ones. Both dogs were upset when I crated them again on my way back to work. I don't know what to do now and am hopeful for any suggestions. I'm worried Holly will not want Hershey back in her kennel, if it's still a good idea, and wondering if we are back to square one again. I'm hoping to find a workable solution for Hershey so he's a happy boy. Please any advice is appreciated.

Answer: Good for you for adopting this puppy. This sounds like a pretty straightforward problem to resolve. First, I would not recommend leaving a 9 week old puppy at home alone in a crate. Young puppies that age frequently have to go potty at random times throughout the day, if the puppy is in a crate he has no choice but to go in it.

It is not possible to teach puppies to "hold it". It's like kids, sometimes they hold it and sometimes they can't but it isn't something you are teaching them to do. You are simply teaching them the appropriate and rewarding place to go. If you aren't there to supervise you have no way of knowing when the puppy has to go and getting him outside.

I would also not crate an adult dog unsupervised with a puppy. This is not fair to the resident dog who deserves her own space and distance from the puppy.

You have some added history in that there is likely a negative association with the crate because he was left in it for a very long and inhumane length of time WHILE he was hungry. Not only has he learned that the crate is a scary place, but he also learned to go potty in there, because he was forced to. Don't worry! We can still fix this!

Here is what I recommend. I would not use a crate AT ALL when you are not home. Purchase an exercise pen which can be opened up into a pen area. In the pen put a bed, some toys, water and a potty area. Leave the puppy in the pen when you are not home and when you are home but can't supervise the puppy. All my puppies are raised like this and once you get used to this set up, it is really easy. The puppy IS going to have to go to the bathroom while you are gone. A puppy has to go when he has to go and expecting him to not have to go is not reasonable (please know that I'm not beating you up here, just explaining:) So, he needs to have a place to go when you are not home. I would put down some newspapers on one corner of the pen, or a piece of astro turf that you could clean off and hose off when you get home. Potty him before you leave and immediately when you get home.

Now, you COULD crate him at night if you want because at night if he fusses and needs to go out you can take him right outside. Or, you could put him in his pen at night. Frankly, because of the inappropriate use of the crate prior to him coming to you, I would wait a while to use the crate and reintroduce it once he is a little older and you have the housetraining partly under control. If you intend to let Hershey be a "bed dog" meaning that he will be permitted as an adult to sleep in your bed, then just let him sleep with you at night.

By the way, it is not a crime or a bad idea to have your dog sleep in your bed unless of course the dog has behavioral issues associated with the bed (such as growling at the owner or spouse when they get in bed, biting or growling when being asked to move or get off the bed, etc). Many dogs do just fine sleeping in the bed. I mention this because when interviewing clients they get very uncomfortable and feel badly when they tell me the dog sleeps with them and I always assure people that it can be just fine with many dogs.