Tried everything - Still peeing in her crate

Issue with this post - fixing. - thx - Marko
Posted by marko for TankandLily

Hey guys-

I joined this forum to seek your help. My wife and I have 2 frenchies. Tank is 2.5 years old, and Lily is 7 months. Lily is the topic of discussion today. We lover her to death. Here is a picture for reference:

Lily pees in her crate. There's a lot of information that surrounds this scenario, so I'm going to try to sum it up quickly, but it might be hard.

To start - we got her at four months and immediately started crate training. The crate we use is adjustable, so we made sure it was small enough so she didn't have room to pee. We always monitored her water intake, limiting her water before crate times, and always took her out to pee before she was going to be in her crate.

In the beginning, she was occasionally peeing in her crate. Maybe once every few days. We felt this was normal and didn't think much of it.

But about three weeks into this things got worse. She began to pee more often. We started leaving her without any bedding in the crate so she would have to lay in her mess which didn't work. She would still pee. So I took her to the vet to find out she had a bladder infection. After two weeks of Clavamox, things got better. I think we had a couple weeks after that of no peeing in the crate. Awesome.

Then all of the sudden, like a switch was flipped, she started peeing in her crate EVERY TIME we would leave her, and no matter how long. One hour, pee. Four hours, pee. We tried different bedding, a different crate, no bedding (she will drink her pee if she pees in the crate with no bedding...no joke), limited water, etc. We even took her in for more tests to see if she had a UTI, but these came back negative.

One thing I will add is she is fully house trained. She uses a doggy door and always goes outside to pee. We have no issues with this. It's just the peeing in the crate thing.

Does ANYONE have wisdom they could throw our way? Any tips or hints? We feel we have exhausted all options and don't know what to do at this point. Someone told us to use an expen with pee pads. We tried this, but she ripped the pee pad to shreds. We then realized we were going to have to train her to use the pads, thus going in the house, so we decided against it.

HELP!

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c198/beradical/011709.jpg

Could it be that your pup has crate issues? My Eskimo does - came with them at 13 weeks from the BYB - confirmed by vet. If he needs to stay at vet's overnight - e.g. when he was neutered and night before he had his teeth cleaned - he coped, but vet said his face as absolutely pathetic. But because he was not a home, he managed. At home, he would wet in crate and bark, scream and try to eat his way out of crate. X-Pens were pointless because a 22 lb. Eskimo can jump a 5 ft. fence from a standing position (and break his neck). At the BYB, he was always just tossed in crate and left there. They told us this as we were leaving with him saying that is where dogs belonged - as he was fighting tooth and nail to not go into the crate. We too ruled out bladder infections and he is pretty good about letting us know when he has to go out. He is about to turn 5, but will always be a puppy - who likes to eat snow - which does not help with water. He loves to chew - especially anything paper - so puppy pads, forget it. So could you trust your dog to be left loose in the house at this point? Or in a room - anything but the confinement of a crate. Or is there a spot where your pup would have access to the doggie door but the rest of house could be gated off. I don't think your breed is a serious jumper or climber - if so - 2 gates on top of each other.

Is she over 5 months old? If so, I would try blocking her off in one part of the house. We used to block our off in the kitchen using a child gate to keep them in there. Leave her crate there, but the door open so she can go in and out as she pleases and see how she does during the day. Could just be getting locked into the crate that's doing it.

Cindy

Is she over 5 months old? If so, I would try blocking her off in one part of the house. We used to block our off in the kitchen using a child gate to keep them in there. Leave her crate there, but the door open so she can go in and out as she pleases and see how she does during the day. Could just be getting locked into the crate that's doing it.

Cindy

Yes she is 7 months old. We are going to try some new thing this week. But I can tell you there's no doubt she is going to pee wherever we leave her. If it's an expen or bathroom, she will pee.

I thought that was the whole reason for crate training - dogs are supposed to have the instinct to not pee where they sleep. Without that instinct, what do you do??

I had my husband read your post last night and the first thing he wondered is if, like our American Eskimo, your dog has crate fears.

Yes she is 7 months old. We are going to try some new thing this week. But I can tell you there's no doubt she is going to pee wherever we leave her. If it's an expen or bathroom, she will pee.

I thought that was the whole reason for crate training - dogs are supposed to have the instinct to not pee where they sleep. Without that instinct, what do you do??

An expen or bathroom are still rather constricted. I would try a larger open space preferably with a window and see how she is with that. Is it possible for you to block her into the kitchen or another room with a tile floor and windows, not quite as small as a bathroom?

Cindy

I had my husband read your post last night and the first thing he wondered is if, like our American Eskimo, your dog has crate fears.

Whenever we leave, she goes right in to her crate at her own will. I don't think she minds it at all.

An expen or bathroom are still rather constricted. I would try a larger open space preferably with a window and see how she is with that. Is it possible for you to block her into the kitchen or another room with a tile floor and windows, not quite as small as a bathroom?

Cindy

I've actually considered this. I could lock her into the kitchen. That is actually where the doggy door is. I would have to lock my older boy in there as well so they could access the outside. Here's the catch to that - she's already chewed a leg to our brand new kitchen table. We also have a hutch in the kitchen as well. There's no real way for me to block her off from these pieces of furniture, and she's not done with the chew stage yet. She also likes to go outside and find rocks, sticks, and leaves to bring inside and chew...