:rolleyes: 

He's quite happy going in there, doesn't seem to mind being left, and will sometimes go in to lie down.

But he will sometimes go in and wee - today I'd put a freshly washed piece of vet bed in there, he ran in within moments of putting it in and weed on it.  Only a drip, but now it has to go straight back in the washer.  The other vetbed is already in the washer.  We seem to be permanently washing vetbed.  The tray is always washed thoroughly with soap and water and then a smear of that simple solution odour remover, allowing that to dry naturally.

He went in it for a sniff and look the day we got it, and had weed in it within 10 minutes of ownership on the bare tray.

He seems quite happy lying on bedding he's peed on, as he'll sometimes trot in there and lie down or to chew a toy seemingly oblivious to the fact he widdled on it.  We've tried feeding him in it a few times, and he still pees.

He can hold it quite a while, but if we go out for an hour he'll almost certainly have peed before we get back.

He doesn't seem to be too stressed when we leave him - he'll whimper for a minute, then settle and sleep.  He's very very vocal most of the time, so will be talking to you, whimpering and whining for no apparent reason when standing next to you, or when playing.

He does have another bed with old quilt - should we get rid of this and try and use the crate as his only bed?  We can't squeeze the actual bed into the crate.  The crate is not in the most used room.

He's 13 weeks, GSD and the crate is 36" - is this too big for his age?  In every other respect he's a clever little man, doing very well with other training.

Suggestions please - or should we just get some cat litter?  :)

i have a 13 week old puppy who uses a crate . as soon as she wakes i put her outside to widdle. and every half hour, whle shes awake & playing. i do have a wee wee pad near to the crate which has a scent on it which is attractive to puppies , and she goes straight to that if she needs to wee. was your puppy paper trained ?

He goes out regularly (daytime housetraining is actually pretty good)

We go out when he wakes, and about every half hour.  He never poos indoors, apart from a couple of nighttime accidents, as he gives plenty of warning, pees are more frequent, but he often only produces a little.

Usual story of catch him sniffing indoors, take him out, and he'll get distracted by a twig or leaf, but we do ok eventually!  He just seems to think it's ok to go pee in the crate too.  So he'll dive off and either be in there cheing a bone, sleeping, or sometimes a quick pee.

He wasn;t paper trained - and his only reaction to the pee pad that came in the puppy pack from the vets was to shred it!  :)  His only interest in newspaper is shredding too - has only peed on some once, I think by chance.

I'd suggest if he's weeing on freshly washed bedding, and when confined when alone for shorter periods than he would 'normally' hold it for, then the first is probably reconfirming his scent - so don't wash the bedding so often, and the second is probably as a result of stress due to being left alone.  Mother dogs gradually get their babies used to being left alone, and ideally this is how owners should handle it too..

He seems quite chilled about being alone, at least doesn't go bonkers when he's in the crate with us in, and when we've been out there's no sound from inside, and he's mostly just sitting or lying nicely.

I did wonder about scenting - but assumed he was a little young for that yet.  It seems to only a wee drop, rather than a lake!

I'll try your suggestion - thanks.

I think what is meant is that it is a familair scent he needs, the fresh bedding smels too clean.  It is the same principle zs leaving a dog with an item of yoru very worn clothign for reasurance.  it is often also why a well housetrained dog may pee in somene elses house so that it doesn't smell so strange.

Is this the same for girls?

Seems to be he was/is getting stressed at being left.

He's happy with the crate as a bed, and is usually happy shut in when I am around - though sometimes not (only recently), and definitely not if he detects I'm going out.  Much howling and whistling when I open the front door, or get my coat.

When I'm out he still pees, but seems to be more stressed when I'm in and he's shut in the crate - if I leave the room, he makes more noise, and sometimes trys to escape.  He doesn't go bonkers, but you can hear him pawing at the door of the cage.

This doesn't usually start until he's finished his biscuit or kong however.  Though if I make a kong too hard he just loses interest, so it's only buying me a few minutes.

hi matt i have a gsd same age as yours ,and i cant get him to do any thing out side, so i no how you feel, sorry as its no help, but you will get lots of good advice on here

Hello,  try putting the bedding inside one of the  plastic beds inside the cage to make his space more confined,   it might  help.

I'd get rid of the vetbed. Partly because some animals seem to LIKE peeing on vetbed, and partly becase it is of course deigned to stay dry on top, so it won't FEEL wet like a blanket would do.

Oh really?

That seems a possibility too, so we'll try him with a blanket for a while and see how we go.

thanks for all the suggestions - I'll keep you posted!

I have a 12 week old puppy and the only time shes has peed in the crate is on newly washed vetbed!! Strange isn't it, we solved it by taking the vetbed out !! Sorry not alot of help really, but all the other behaviour is just as you are experiencing. Good luck

Harvey only ever wee'd in his crate when vetbed was down:rolleyes:infact, my 2 house bunnies are partial to piddling on vetbed too! I put 2 nice cosy peices in thier cage yesterday and they snuggled down nicely on it..............came downstairs this morning to a vetbed blizzardThe little critters had shreaded it to smitherenes and peed all over it!! (They are normally 100% reliable with thier litter tray) Don't think I'll bother replacing it somehow!!:rolleyes:

Hayley

Matt,

I've got a few thoughts about this...

You say that he gives you warning when he wants to poo and most of his poos are outside, and that when he wees it tends to be a bit of wee rather than a lake.  Well, I just wonder if he's got cystitis or some other bladder/wee infection, since this is one symptom of it (frequent weeing and frequent urge to go).  Cystitis is also a common infection in puppies, I'm not sure why - maybe their private bits are that much closer to the ground and more likely to get infected when they wee!  Anyway, it might be a good idea to get him checked out at the vets to rule that out before you think about any other reasons for this.

The other thing to say is - yes, your crate sounds too big for him, at 36".  You need to use a crate divider or manage to partition it off in some way.  The reason for this is that if a crate is too big, it gives the puppy enough room to toilet at one end and sleep at the other.  Although from what you say he doesn't seem to do that, but just lies in it.

Lastly, there are a few puppies who have low standards of cleanliness.  Sometimes these puppies come from "unclean" breeders or from breeders who didn't allocate them a toilet area and kept them too confined, so they just toileted everywhere and got used to that.  If you have one of these puppies, it can be very hard to housebreak them because they just don't mind lying in their own mess and so the crate fails to serve the very useful purpose it usually does in housetraining.  I'm not sure if it sounds like you have a pup like this, since you say he doesn't poo inside.

Make sure you are giving a treat and lots of praise when he goes outside in the right place, because this will make a bigger difference between the right place and the wrong place.  Keep a box of treats by the door to grab on the way out and give him one when he goes outside.

Don't know if that is any help, just some thoughts I had and no definite solutions really.

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Update for you...

It seems to be separation anxiety that's the cause, as he's changed his tactics  :)

He's 100% with the house training (no accidents for over a week), except when I've been out and left him crated.  He'll sit and whine at the back door when he needs to go.

He'll still pee when I go out for an hour or so - and vetbed seems to make it more likely, so we don't use that now - it's now an expensive chew/tug toy :rolleyes:

Where he used to whinge for a few seconds in the crate before lying down to sleep or chew a toy, he is now quite vociferous about it - even when I'm in the house.  This started a few days ago - he suddenly decided to make lots of noise.  If I leave the room, he cranks up the volume :rolleyes:, and if I open the outside door, he'll yowl.  He'll now often start the noise within moments of leaving the room.

I've been very careful not to let him out when whinging, or even go back in the room - though sometimes that is easier said than done.

But he still happily goes in the crate to sleep, and is *usually* ok shut in, when I am working.  (Crate is now in the corner of my office)

So I need to figure out how best to proceed.

Sometimes perseverance is the key - sometimes it can seem like you're getting no where and you see no improvement, but you keep on working on leaving him in there until it happens suddenly that he accepts it.

There are some good links on separation anxiety here so have a read and try some of the techniques mentioned there:

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/spt/SPT_Puppies.htm#Top

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002/sa.htm

This second link is intended for adult dogs with separation anxiety, so just ignore the mentioning of drugs etc, but look at the behavioural measures they suggest because you can do those with your pup for sure.

I forgot to say - it might be an idea to leave him with more than one kong in the crate.  You can also scatter treats around the crate before you leave, so he has to hunt around for them and this helps alleviate the stress of you leaving. 

Ignore any whining - you're doing the right thing there.