Accidents in the crate? Help

[Mom2Sadie]

Surprise! I have another question. Sorry to keep posting question after question.

Sadie has had accidents in her crate for the last two days. She's only done that once before and that was her first night home. I know it must be because her routine has been disrupted because of Gus being sick, but I don't really understand it. I've been doing the best I can to make up for the fact that she needs to stay in the kitchen while he recovers. We've done all kinds of trips to PetSmart and Petco and any other place that allows dogs. Plus she's had playdates with a couple of my neighbors dogs. I know it's not ideal right now, but I'm making up for it. I don't understand why she's doing that and I don't know how to stop her from doing it because I never see her do it. She went once last night overnight and once when I left for work today. I found the mess at lunchtime.

And the other thing is that she's so loud. She barks non-stop when she wants something that I won't give her. Like people food. I have tried ignoring her, I've tried telling her no.

What do I do to make her stop? I know she's probably acting out because there's tension in the house, but if anyone has any pointers, I would really appreciate it. I am having trouble dealing all by myself with a sick kitty and a problem puppy. Help?

[newflvr]

I think, as far as the barking, that you are on the right track.  Ignore her.  Turn your back and whatever you do, don't give in.  Just tune her out.  Chester did the same thing the first few weeks (maybe months) that he was with us and then he just stopped.  I was so used to tuning him out that I guess it had been diminishing and I never noticed  !

As far as the accidents in the crate, I'm not sure.  We have never used a crate with any of the newfs. I kept them with me almost ALL the time when I was home...on a kitten lead tied to my jeans and we went out for potty time at least once an hour, after every nap and would stay out after meals until the business was done.  At night, the pup slept on the floor on his bed next to me and if I heard him stirring at all, he/she was outside immediately.  It took about 4 months for them to be truly housebroken.  I do think, though, that the girl was much harder to train.  The boys are fastidious about going to their special places....Luci lle would squat crossing a street!!!

[chaos270]

Make sure you take her out right before you crate her and cut off her water about a half hour before you put her in if you know she's going to need to be in there.  As for the barking at you I don't know what to suggest because Kali does the same thing.  Whatever you do nip it in the bud because it's quite obnoxious I believe there was a discussion under bark/shock collars about different methods.  Some were a spray bottle, and our trainer suggested a waterbottle full of rocks or hard noodles to distract her....it didn't work on Kali but it might work for you.

And don't worry there are never too many questions...

[lins_saving_grace]

How much room does she have in her crate?  Too much room gives them room to mess.  Try making her crate smaller with a partition.  They won't mess where they sleep.    We did that with both Lady and Grace.  And you can put down puppy pads too.  Helps with the mess on them and the crate.
The crying...Grace is still a little like that.  she's like the baby child who needs to be the center of attention and whines when she doesn't get her way.  She's gotten better as she's gotten older though. 
Try getting a tin can...like a candy tin.  Fill it with change.  when she does something you don't want her to do...SHAKE IT!  Scare the habit away.   If telling her no and spanking her doesn't work maybe scaring her will. 
A bonus to the tin can trick is she won't associate you and getting scolding.

[Winslow 151]

Hi,

Yup partition the crate, Sadie won't go where she sleeps. Is she barking from in the crate or is she out and at your feet barking? If in the crate you might need to move it where you can hear Sadie but she Can't see you. Try the blanket or cover on the crate to make it more den like, and try not to be over affetionate when sadie is let out of the crate, this way the crate will just be a normal part of her life.

If she gets all loved on when she comes out of the crate she thinks she is being punished while inside, and wants the attention reward she gets when you open the door.

Rich

[RedyreRottweilers]

It would help me to know how old Sadie is, and exactly when she is soiling her crate, and how long she is left in the crate at a time.

For the barking, try this:

Get one of those plastic lemons that has lemon juice in it. Make sure you have some reallllly good treats ready, cut into small pieces.

When she starts barking, take the plastic lemon, and squirt some of the juice right into her mouth. The second she is quiet, say goooooood quiet, and start stuffing treats in her mouth, while you say goood. good quiet. Quiet girl,  Good quiet.

The next step is to touch her muzzle just before you squirt the juice and say quiet. If she is quiet, GOOOD GIRL, cookies cookies cookies, telling her GOOOD quiet. If not, squirt, and then do the cookies, good quiet, good girl.

Work on having her respond to quiet gradually without the lemon juice distraction.

[LuvmyMal]

Red, you have some of the best advice. I swear I could not have made it through Nala's crate problems without your advice. It worked like a charm.  I like this advice also I may have to use it for our obsessive barking.

[Mom2Sadie]

<Redyre Rottweilers - It would help me to know how old Sadie is, and exactly when she is soiling her crate, and how long she is left in the crate at a time.>

Sadie is 11 weeks old. She is crated overnight from midnight until 5:30/6am. She's also crated while I'm at work. 3 hours in the morning, then I come home for lunch, spend an hour with her, another 3 hours and I'm home at 4. The rest of the time she's with me, occasionally she goes in a playpen (if I'm cooking or something). The accident happened during the morning hours while I was at work. I came home at lunch to a mess.

<Winslow151 - If she gets all loved on when she comes out of the crate she thinks she is being punished while inside, and wants the attention reward she gets when you open the door.>

That might be part of the problem. I try not to love on her when she first comes out of the crate. But with kitty being so sick I've been giving her extra attention all around because she was being so good. I also tried the partition thing last night in the crate and she made it through the night with no accidents last night.

<lins_saving_gr ace - Try getting a tin can...like a candy tin.  Fill it with change.  when she does something you don't want her to do...SHAKE IT!  Scare the habit away.   If telling her no and spanking her doesn't work maybe scaring her will. >

I will give this a try. My mom used to do this with our old dog when I was a kid and it worked well with him. I haven't been spanking her though, should I be?

Thanks for all your ideas everyone. Sorry I'm all about the questions these days:)

[RedyreRottweilers]

NO, do NOT hit your puppy. This will not help anything, but will teach the puppy to fear hands, and mistrust you.

She is such a little baby, at 11 weeks, some accidents at times are to be expected. It's just an oops. If she's clean in the crate most of the time, she will learn.

Try the lemon juice and treats for being quiet trick for the barking. It works.

[Mom2Sadie]

NO, do NOT hit your puppy. This will not help anything, but will teach the puppy to fear hands, and mistrust you.

She is such a little baby, at 11 weeks, some accidents at times are to be expected. It's just an oops. If she's clean in the crate most of the time, she will learn.

Try the lemon juice and treats for being quiet trick for the barking. It works.

That's what I thought I read about spanking. It can make them aggressive too right? There's just a lot of information out there, it's hard to remember everything but that one always stuck out.

We tried the lemon juice yesterday, worked like a charm. She did very well yesterday. Once she knows what I want her to do she'll usually do it, she's very eager to please. Also tried the can full of pennies for jumping up. Man does she HATE that noise. But she did great yesterday. No accidents and very little barking. She's getting better about mouthing too - I tried the lemon juice with that yesterday as well. She's getting it.

I know she's a baby and I don't want to be too hard on her, it's just that she hasn't had an accident in the crate since her first night and it was odd. I think it probably has to do with the fact that there has been tension in the house with my cat being so sick and her routine changed slightly because I've had to be extra attentive to kitty. She's a good girl, it's just challenging right now. We're at that age I guess. Thanks so much for all your suggestions.

[lins_saving_grace]

<Redyre Rottweilers - It would help me to know how old Sadie is, and exactly when she is soiling her crate, and how long she is left in the crate at a time.>

Sadie is 11 weeks old. She is crated overnight from midnight until 5:30/6am. She's also crated while I'm at work. 3 hours in the morning, then I come home for lunch, spend an hour with her, another 3 hours and I'm home at 4. The rest of the time she's with me, occasionally she goes in a playpen (if I'm cooking or something). The accident happened during the morning hours while I was at work. I came home at lunch to a mess.

<Winslow151 - If she gets all loved on when she comes out of the crate she thinks she is being punished while inside, and wants the attention reward she gets when you open the door.>

That might be part of the problem. I try not to love on her when she first comes out of the crate. But with kitty being so sick I've been giving her extra attention all around because she was being so good. I also tried the partition thing last night in the crate and she made it through the night with no accidents last night.

<lins_saving_gr ace - Try getting a tin can...like a candy tin.  Fill it with change.  when she does something you don't want her to do...SHAKE IT!  Scare the habit away.   If telling her no and spanking her doesn't work maybe scaring her will. >

I will give this a try. My mom used to do this with our old dog when I was a kid and it worked well with him. I haven't been spanking her though, should I be?

Thanks for all your ideas everyone. Sorry I'm all about the questions these days:)

Oh no....Don't spank your puppy. 
Lady and Grace love their crates.  They both had a hard time learning to stay in them all night without accidents. and that's to be expected.  Lady learned fast not to mess.  Grace was slower....She was about 25 weeks before she stopped peeing in her crate.  I gradually moved the partition before I removed it completely.   Some times these things take more time than we'd like to see them take.  Grace just started sleeping till 6 am a month or 2 ago.  I thought I was bound to be up at 4am every morning until eternity...it's a wonderful change.
We have a ritual going into the crate.  It's called Bedtime.  When I say "is it bedtime?", "go to bed", or anything with the word bed in it the girls RACE to their crates, run in and wait....for of course the bed time bones.   
Teaching them things like crate training need to be really positive things.  Barking and whinning during the night when they should be sleeping should be discouraged with non evasive things like the tin can.  She won't blame you for the noise and should learn that when she whines or barks that awful noise is made (and if she can only hear it no one will catch flack for making it.)