# Crate training with litter box



## MarkF (Nov 9, 2009)

So I have my new puppy 18 weeks old (got him today) in the kitchen. The kitchen is gated off from the rest of the house and the room is safe and secure. I also have a rascal litter box in there that Sammy has used 3 times today already. His crate is in there too, as well as a puppy bed.

Sammy will go in and out of his crate on his own and went in on his own for his afternoon nap (instead of the dog bed).

So my question is as follows: at night do I need to lock his crate? if I leave it open, he has access to the litter box nearby. Right now we are planning on doing indoor potty training, so if I had to take Sammy out in the middle of the night I'd be taking him to the litter box.


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## Jammies (Apr 4, 2009)

*I am no expert, but I would leave his crate door open since he prefers to sleep in there instead of his dog bed and seems to feel safe and secure in there. If the crate door is open, he is free to use the litter box whenever he needs it.
Other opinions?*


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## trueblue (Jan 22, 2008)

I'd leave the crate open too, especially if he's using the litter box to potty. Unless you REALLY want to get up in the middle of the night to open the crate for him


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

MarkF said:


> So I have my new puppy 18 weeks old (got him today) in the kitchen. The kitchen is gated off from the rest of the house and the room is safe and secure. I also have a rascal litter box in there that Sammy has used 3 times today already. His crate is in there too, as well as a puppy bed.
> 
> Sammy will go in and out of his crate on his own and went in on his own for his afternoon nap (instead of the dog bed).
> 
> So my question is as follows: at night do I need to lock his crate? if I leave it open, he has access to the litter box nearby. Right now we are planning on doing indoor potty training, so if I had to take Sammy out in the middle of the night I'd be taking him to the litter box.


The question is whether he is reliable in a space as large as the kitchen. At 18 weeks some puppies are, but especially after moving to a new home, he might have a set-back, and the idea is to keep him from having ANY accidents if you can. That may be unrealistic for most of us... the telephone rings, you take your eye off the puppy for a split second and...<g> But you want to keep accidents to the absolute minimum.

In general, when litter box training, you confine the puppy to a smaller area (like an ex-pen) to start with, and then allow them access to a larger area once they prove that they are reliable in the small area. I'm afraid that if you give your puppy access to the whole kitchen from the very beginning, you will find that he is having accidents, just because he hasn't developed the habit of using the littler box in his new surroundings yet.

Kodi is 6 1/2 months now, and while he reliably uses his litter box, he is still confined to his ex-pen with attached crate over night. He feels safe and secure there, and is actually happier there than in the larger area of the kitchen when we're not right with him.


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## MarkF (Nov 9, 2009)

Last night worked out fine, he was silent from 10PM until 6:30AM no accidents in sight and he used the litter box at 6:30. We fed him took him for a walk and he pooped and peed outside.

My expen should come today so I will used the open crate and the litter box in the expen.

Now I have to deal with all of the crying/whining of a new puppy totally attached to me


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## KSC (Aug 6, 2009)

Aw he sounds adorable - got pictures? He's doing well too! Kipling would never have willingly gone into his crate to sleep especially not that young. He's now just over six months and he sleeps in his crate overnight without a peep so the whining and crying should end.


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## Leslie (Feb 28, 2007)

Mark~ Here's a pic of the sleeping area we had for Tori when she was a pup. It worked very well for us. You could easily replace the pad w/a litter box. We never closed the crate door at night. She would just get up and "take care of business" then go back to bed in her crate, which allowed us to sleep all night


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## murphymoesmamma (Apr 1, 2009)

Glad to hear that you are litter training your little guy. I am convinced it is the way to go. Murphy was a year old in September and is reliable with the litter box unless I leave him alone. He then pees where ever he wants. I have been able to solve that by crating him when I have to go away and can't take him along. Good luck and you will love that he is litter trained especially when it rains or the weather is bad.


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## MyFreddie (Oct 25, 2009)

It sounds like you are off to a good start. Good luck.


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## MarkF (Nov 9, 2009)

3 day update - Not too bad, he pees in the litter box and poops outside. Haven't seen any accidents aside from in the car in the crate.

We have give him access to the first floor (except bathroom) and he is doing well. The first night he went to bed on his own and didn't make a sound. He found his voice the next day and the second night he cried for about 30 minutes before going to sleep at 10:30 I woke up at 1:30 and so did he and that took another 10 minutes of cring before he was back asleep. Last night he was crying from 11:30PM -12:30AM and again at 6:30, took him out in the morning for his pre breakfast poop outside.

I spray some urine scented spray in the litter box a couple of times a day too. So far so good.

Oh yeah - At night he is confined to the kitchen


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## leena365 (Sep 17, 2009)

I agree with Leslie. I use her method with my pups and they are now 19 wks and 18 wks. It works like a charm, they sleep through the night and if they have to get up they go on the potty pad or litter box but they are contained in a pen. I have not yet left my puppies home alone. Good Luck!

You can get urine scented spray?

Leena


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

MarkF said:


> 3 day update - Not too bad, he pees in the litter box and poops outside. Haven't seen any accidents aside from in the car in the crate.
> 
> We have give him access to the first floor (except bathroom) and he is doing well. The first night he went to bed on his own and didn't make a sound. He found his voice the next day and the second night he cried for about 30 minutes before going to sleep at 10:30 I woke up at 1:30 and so did he and that took another 10 minutes of cring before he was back asleep. Last night he was crying from 11:30PM -12:30AM and again at 6:30, took him out in the morning for his pre breakfast poop outside.
> 
> ...


 Congrats! He sounds like he is really doing well on the housebreaking!!!

Anyway you would consider letting him sleep in the bedroom with you? He is probably crying, because he wants to be with you. This breed really needs human contact. I don't know if you work during the day, but if you do, that's a long time for the pup to be alone, day and night. It would be nice if he could be with you in the bedroom to sleep. When my guys were pups, I put their crates up on a bin, so they could see me as I slept. It worked like a charm Now as adults, they sleep in my bed or in their beds which are along side mine.


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## MarkF (Nov 9, 2009)

We got Sammy on Thursday and today was my first day at work, so up until today he was never alone for more than 1 hour.

Last night he cried for 1.5 hours, but it was my fault because we let him take some naps too close to bed time. Tonight I did not let him take a nap, I kept waking him up. He cried for about 10 minutes and went to sleep.

Sleeping in our room is not an option as per my wife. Plus our room is too small and cramped to add the crate. 

Today he was left alone in the kitchen for 5 hours and no accidents. I watched him via a webcam and he spent most of the time lying in his crate. He did not touch any of his new toys which were packed with snacks and peanut butter.


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## leena365 (Sep 17, 2009)

Leslie, I am using your method for my pups while they are in the pen they are going to the bathroom on the potty pad. Once they are in the kitchen, I find only Kashi uses the potty pad and Miya pees on the tile floor. Someone told me that sometimes they will not use the same potty pad. She is seeing this with the introduction to her new pup in her home. Any suggestions?


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## MarkF (Nov 9, 2009)

With Sammy our litter box is in the Kitchen. When the baby gates are up and Sammy is contained in the Kitchen he almost never has accident (except if he is overly excited and needed to pee). He hasn't pooped in the box in a long time, he waits to go outside.

However, if the gates are down and he has access to the rest of the first floor, even if he is in the kitchen he will pee on the tile floor. If he is in the living room and has to go, he goes on the wood floor, he will not make his way back to the kitchen to pee.

Sammy is still young at 5 months, so we try to go outside every 2 hours when we are home. But if the weather is awful or too much going on to get him outside, we contain him in the kitchen and he always pees in the litter box.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

leena365 said:


> Leslie, I am using your method for my pups while they are in the pen they are going to the bathroom on the potty pad. Once they are in the kitchen, I find only Kashi uses the potty pad and Miya pees on the tile floor. Someone told me that sometimes they will not use the same potty pad. She is seeing this with the introduction to her new pup in her home. Any suggestions?


If your puppy is peeing anyplace but where you want them to, you need to go back to a smaller space to limit their options. However, if the problem is that she doesn't like to use a dirty pee pad, that's legitimate... If her breeder kept her surroundings nice and clean (as they should) she probably doesn't want to walk on something wet and smelly. In the long run a litter box or Ugodog (or similar device) is a much cheaper alternative than pee pads if you want a puppy to learn to go both indoors and out.


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## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

Use the search function and type my name in the box with "potty training" somewhere in here I went into detail about how we do it. We use the command "go potty" and I can have one of our puppies (as soon as I get one by itself when it's littermates have left) going on command the first evening. Soon they will even squat if they don't have to do anything. We start working on it when they first start sleeping in individual crates and when they first have to get up in the morning but it's hard when several have to get up at the same time which always happens.


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## leena365 (Sep 17, 2009)

Krandall, I do not use pee pads. I have four wizdog potty pad systems two at my place of work and two at home. I have ordered two more ugodogs in case as I said she may want her own potty pad. I am constantly asking her to go potty on the pad while Kashi listens Miya does not. Do I need to seperate them? That will be hard on them.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

leena365 said:


> Krandall, I do not use pee pads. I have four wizdog potty pad systems two at my place of work and two at home. I have ordered two more ugodogs in case as I said she may want her own potty pad. I am constantly asking her to go potty on the pad while Kashi listens Miya does not. Do I need to seperate them? That will be hard on them.


Sorry, when you said "potty pad" I thought you were talking about pee pads. But the same idea could also be a problem. How clean can you get them, and how often are they cleaned? Kodi doesn't like to use his box unless it is kept really clean.

As far as separating them is concerned, I have no first-hand experience, since I've only got one puppy. (my hat's off to you... I don't know how anyone would have enough time to train two puppies at the same time!!!) It does seem to me, though, that if you've got one who hasn't got the idea down pat, though, you've got to get that one back in a smaller area until she DOES get it. If that means separating them except when they have just pottied and can be closely supervised, maybe that's what you need to do.


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## leena365 (Sep 17, 2009)

Thanks Tom, I have printed your potty training method and I shall put it on my fridge in the kitchen as that is where they get most their playtime as it is quite biting cold here in Windsor presently.


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## galaxie (Dec 1, 2009)

MarkF said:


> With Sammy our litter box is in the Kitchen. When the baby gates are up and Sammy is contained in the Kitchen he almost never has accident (except if he is overly excited and needed to pee). He hasn't pooped in the box in a long time, he waits to go outside.
> 
> However, if the gates are down and he has access to the rest of the first floor, even if he is in the kitchen he will pee on the tile floor. If he is in the living room and has to go, he goes on the wood floor, he will not make his way back to the kitchen to pee.
> 
> Sammy is still young at 5 months, so we try to go outside every 2 hours when we are home. But if the weather is awful or too much going on to get him outside, we contain him in the kitchen and he always pees in the litter box.


Are you watching him when he has his accidents? Roscoe is 11 weeks, we have his ex-pen set up in our living room so that when we're not actively playing with him he can hang out in there, play by himself, and have close access to his potty. But, he's never far from us, so he pretty much never cries or barks out of loneliness or for attention.

They will generally need to potty immediately after eating and drinking. I find that he goes potty once an hour unless he is sleeping. We find that by keeping him confined while we can't be watching him every second it eliminates his accidents. Roscoe has only had one accident in the last two weeks, although sometimes when get gets up from his naps he is lazy and forgets to hop all the way into his potty, which causes a little pee to drizzle out.

If you have carpet and don't want him to go on it, we came up with a great solution. We purchased one of these: http://graphics.samsclub.com/images/products/0003040276730_LG.jpg
It's one of those plastic mats that you put down under a rolling chair in your office. Well, we put that down under his ex-pen just in case and it has worked out great! That way, he can be in the same room with us while we're not watching him and we don't have to worry about pee on the carpet!

Anyway, good luck with the training. From what you've said, my advice would be to keep him confined to the kitchen while you're not watching him so he doesn't have frequent accidents in other parts of the house. As he gets more reliable with his potty, you can slowly increase the area of your home that he has access to. Also, if you catch him making potty in the wrong place, just made a loud "SSSSSSSST!" noise, pick him up, put him in his potty, and tell him "GO POTTY!" It's a gentle way of correction and teaches him where the right place to potty is. GOOD LUCK!


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