Too much time in the Crate?

[purplerayne]

Hello all! I have a 5 month old boxer girl who I am trying to housetrain. I don't know if I'm doing this right so please help if you can. My schedule for the day goes as follows:

10am Take her out side

11am Feed her and give water

12pm put her in crate

1230pm take her outside

I then let her run around the house for an hour or so and then

130pm back in crate

330 take her outside

let her run around the house for another hour or so then

430 back in crate

530 feed her and give water

630 take her outside

let her run around the house for an hour or so then

730 back in crate

usually my boyfriend comes home by then and he takes over the walking/feeding duties although he can be kinda inconsistant. She eats agsin at about 10-11pm, goes outside and then she in the crate until about 3-4 am when boyfriend takes her out again.

I'm not sure if she's spending too much time in the crate but when we let her out for longer she poops/pees on the floor. She gives no signals, she just goes. She poops and pees everytime I take her out and there are no accidents during the day (only at night when boyfriend takes over). Also, she goes the whole night without accidents. I'm wondering if I'll have to always keep her in the crate to avoid accidents but what's the point of having a pet if you have to always keep them locked up? Am I doing the right thing?

 

[Jan]

It sounds like you are doing fine, since she is not having any accidents when you are watching her. It would appear that it is the boyfriend is having the problems. It does sound like she in in the crate a lot at night from 11 pm to 10 am with only 1 potty break. It sounds like your BF needs to have her out a little more.

Good luck!

 

[boxbud]

Toby is in his crate from 7 am to 6 pm while I am at work.
It took him until about 10 months old to be able to go that long. I did not have much of a choice about it. He is just fine.

He was not completely housebroken until about 9 months old. Took him awhile. I assume because I could not be home much during the day.

When I was home I took him out almost all the time. After he ate, after he drank water, after we played, after he woke up from a nap. He finally got it.

Now he is such a good boy. I love him to death. I was at a point at one time I was not sure it he was going to figure it out.
Hang in there. I'll all work out.

Some say the crate time needs to be one hour for every month they are old. So 5 months old, only 5 hours at one time.

 

[purplerayne]

Thanks everyone. I just want to make sure she doesn't feel like she's not part of the family or something because she is on her crate so much. I started the bell training so maybe she can finally tell me when she has to go when she's outside of the crate. Is my boyfriend undoing any of the training I have accomplished by being inconsistant?

 

[cwc_boxer]

i think so. consistency is key when training a dog. when i moved in with
my mom temporarily, webber started jumping on the counters which he
had never done with my fiancee and i when we lived in our condo. ok,
maybe he did when we weren't home but defininately not when we were
looking! now he jumps in my mom's house because they always leave
food there that they sometimes give to him so he thinks it's ok to help
himself. try to be as consistent with him as you can. what might end up
happenning is he will always follow your command and not your boyfriend's.