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Old April 15th, 2013, 09:47 PM
sgrey sgrey is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 3
housebreaking/crate training conundrum

I have a 6 month old female cairn terrier and we're trying to train her to do her business outdoors. We've been sticking with the crate training method and she seems to adapt well to it (no excessive whining or complaining about the crate). I've been walking her every hour or two, leaving her in the crate in between so she can't make any mistakes in the house. She will pee outside just fine, but doesn't seem to understand that the outdoors is a place for her to poop.

According to much of the crate training information I've read, consistency is key. If she doesn't poop outside, she goes back in the crate. My concern however, is that I don't want her to be confined in the crate all night if she has managed to hold her poop all day.

My soft side is telling me to allow her free in the house to poop (on newspaper, which she's always done well with) so that she doesn't have to hold it all through the night and possibly into the next day. However, I wonder if this would totally defeat the efforts of the crate training?
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