Puppy potty training/Whining

[HannahCarney]

I absolutely love your platform and it's so helpful with puppy training. 

I have a quick question. So our new puppy is very sweet and very new (day 4). We are working hard at potty training. However, I think it's hard to go about this correctly. Many people say to crate train them immediately (she is 8 weeks) but we can't keep her in the crate overnight without accidents (which we don't want her associating potty break with ehr crate). We would just hold off on the crate training until she has bladder control but the only way to keep her from whining at night. 

When we keep her in the kitchen alone she just whines all night. The only way we could get her to stop was to place her crate in our room near us then she'd stay quiet for the majority of the night. Would you have a recommendation for this? Typically the recommendation for reducing dog anxiety is a crate but she seems too young because of the lack of bladder control. It seems to be a cycle of contradictions with a tough solution. Any suggestion would be much appreciated. Again, I love your program and I can't wait to continue little Rhea's training and hopefully get her to be a licensed therapy dog. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Hannah Carney

[Adrienne]

Hi Hannah Carney, 

Welcome to the forums,

With crate training a puppy, it's sort of like dealing with a newborn baby, only than rather than getting up to change diapers, we need to get up to take our pups to potty. This can be quite bothersome the first few weeks, especially if we need to get good sleep. So if we can schedule a couple of trips outdoors at night, crate training works well because we are training our pups to go outside to potty and hold it. However, if we can't take them out at night for some reason or another, and the puppy has accidents in the crate over and over, that's not good, obviously because the pup will be soaked in pee or will have poop caked on his fur and going potty in the crate repeatedly defeats the purpose of the crate which is instilling a den instinct (the insticnt for pups not to soil where they sleep). 

So in order to start on the right paw, I would suggest either

1) using crate training and getting up those 2-3 trips outside a night (you may need to set the alarm for this to prevent mishaps, until your pup learns to signal a need to be taken out) or creating an enclosure where she can potty at night until she gains better control.

2) creating an area where she can sleep and potty at night as needed. In other words, you will have an enclosed area where your pup can pee/poop on pee pads in one corner and sleep in the opposite corner.  It sounds like you have chosen your kitchen as the designated sleep/ potty area, but she seems to be struggling with this as pups at this age are very prone to feeling lonely and scared after being separated from their litter mates and moms. So for this setting, you may need to find ways to alleviate her fear such as wrapping some warm bottles in a blanket to mimic the warmth of mom and siblings, wrapping a ticking clock in a towel in hopes of it reassuring your pup as it mimics mother dog's heartbeat or even better investing in a Snuggle Pup behavior aid which provides warmth and a heartbeat. However, not always these strategies may help with young pups who want to hear our voice, be touched and reassured that we are close. Fortunately many pups get better with time, but it's not good to cause them too much stress at such a delicate age. 

So I would think your best option at this point is the crate and taking her out as often as needed. It may be annoying at first,  but at least it sounds like you may at least get some sleep versus hearing her whine non-stop. It often helps to restrict some water before bedtime (like 3 hours prior) so that she has less accidents at night, but ask your vet first if it's OK to play it safe. It's also important to ensure the crate is of the right size so that she's can't pee in one side and sleep comfortably the opposite side but yet not that snug that she can barely move around and is forced to sleep on her mess. 

The good news is that the first 2-3 of weeks are the most challenging and gradually things get better.  You may go from getting up 3 times a night, to then two and then one eventually. You may find more tips on dogs who have accidents in the crate in this recent thread:

Let me know if you have any further questions!

Best,

Adrienne 

 

[HannahCarney]

Thank you so much! That’s super helpful. I actually got the snuggle pup last night before we put her down. That paired with the alarms to take her out went really well. She only had 1 accident right before bed which is awesome! 

[Adrienne]

Oh wow, that was quick. Last time I had young pups, it took Amazon to ship my Snuggle pup three days even with Prime. It was a good investment for me as I have used it with several generations of cranky, lonely pups.

I'll take one accident before bed over an accident in the crate any time. Those crates are such a pain to clean, not to mention bathing the poor pup in the wee hours. Hopefully, you'll see less accidents over the next coming days/weeks, although setbacks are not uncommon. It should be though an upward curve for the better. 

Keep me posted on your pup's progress.

Best,

Adrienne

[HannahCarney]

Hi Adrienne,

She is improving really quickly! We have it down to one outing/night and have avoided all accidents in her crate at night. For the most part she has potty training done but sometimes she has days where she seems to understand going outside to go potty but will sometimes choose to go inside. Sounds like more work and reinforcement? 

[Adrienne]

Hi Hannah,

Thanks for the update. It is great that you have it down to one outing in the night. Makes for a better nights' sleep for both you and your puppy! 

It is rather normal for some accidents to happen along the road before things are perfected, but it's a good idea to keep track of them. For instance, you can write down the times they occur and take a mental note to take her out the next day about 15 minutes earlier.

It would also be worthy paying attention what is happening when the accident occurs. This to rule out any submissive or excitement urination.

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/submissive-urination/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/urinating-when-excited/

If you notice any of the above patterns, you may need to follow the guidelines outlined in the guides above. 

It also helps to put the action of going potty on cue. It may take some time for her to associate the action of going potty with the cue, but it has a good return on investment in the long run. Here's the training guide for that. 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/potty-on-command/