Help me outsmart my puppy!

[Dugan's mom]

Has anybody's dog done this????

Dugan is now 15-weeks-old. When he is in his crate for more than a couple of hours he will get on his back legs and pee OUTSIDE of the crate (or on the side of the crate that is sectioned off by a divider). I would be mad if he wasn't so dang clever!! He gets to relieve himself AND stay clean (what a great idea)!

Oh the greatest was last week: He gets stressed out when we leave for work and so my boyfriend decides to give him an old shirt to cuddle with (thinking that the smell would comfort him). Well, I come home at lunch to find that Dugan 1)peed outside of the crate 2) pooped and then pushed it under the divider to the other side of the crate and 3)wiped up the mess with my boyfriend's shirt!!! This is not a typical occurrence but it does show how clever my little bugger is!

Any ideas to get him to stop peeing outside of the crate? We know he is capable of holding it.. he does it every night since he started sleeping on a blanket next to our bed. He hasn't had an accident in the house in over a month. The longest he has had to hold his bladder was 5 hours tops (usually 4 hrs though)..

I would love to hear from anybody who has gone through this.. even our trainer has never heard of this behavior!

 

[mmichaelson]

wow - our little bugger was never that smart. You may try feeding him in his crate - they won't usually go potty where they eat too. good luck!

 

[boxerchick12]

I can't help you, but thanks for a really great laugh. your baby boy is way too smart!

 

[sherri0121]

That is clever of your young pup. In some of the pet supply magazines I've seen doggie diapers for male pups. It's basically a piece of fabric that goes around the dogs belly/back to cover his little peter. That might make him hold it till you get home.

I've got a female that doesn't like to get her feet wet and sometimes will not pee. So to make sure she doesn't in the house I'll put a diaper on her. For whatever reason she's never peed in the diaper.

 

[Dugan's mom]

I'll try the diaper thank you!

 

[Lunasmom]

He is certainly smart huh!!! i agree with Mandi in that maybe if you feed him in his crate, then he won't use it as his toilet! Good luck!

 

[DeLong]

Rockne would reach outside of his crate and pull stuff in to chew on. I hooked plywood to the outside of the crate with some nylon wire ties to keep him from reaching out. This would keep your pup from getting pee outside of the crate.

We were trained not to feed in the crate.

 

[ldyjulia]

An idea I had was to hang towels or something like that around the crate so that when he pees it doesn't go away. He may get discouraged if he has to sleep next to the stinky towel.

 

[KonaKoffe]

Actually at 15 weeks I would not expect him to hold it from when you leave till you get home at lunch. Even tho he holds it at night I would not expect him to hold it for that length during the day. They typically can hold it longer at night because they are asleep. Until Kona got old enough we papered her entire crate so if she had to pee or poop before we got home at lunch she could and the paper would absorb it so she wouldn't have to sit in it. As she got older, holding it for longer lengths of time just came naturallly.

 

[nikemama]

What a smart little cookie you have. Cooper did that move when he had the runs. He got crap all over a white wall his crate was next to. I can relate that is a trick you want stopped sooner then later. I am not sure how to fix that problem cause Cooper stopped when this tummy felt better. The towel thing would help I would think. If nothing else to keep the mess from getting to far ie off the walls. Good luck on that one.