We have had our 9 wk old boxer puppy a few days now. The first day was awful, poops and wee everywhere!! I just think we werent used to looking for the signs!

At night he is crated from about 10.30 pm to 5.30am. Myself and my husband have been setting our alarms and waking every two hours during the night to wake him and let him out. He doesnt soil the crate and we seem very lucky that he doesnt cry either. We always have to wake him as ive read that you shouldnt wait till they cry to let them out. He does toilet when we take him outside. Im sure we could leave him longer but i dont want it to get to the stage where we dont wake and he wee's in the crate or starts to cry.

Now the problem is we have over the last few days had to leave him in the crate downstairs for a hour whilst our shifts overlapped. As ive read, we left him in a crate with just his bed and ensured he was "exercised" ie played with in the garden first and toileted. However when we return he has pooped and wee'd in his crate on his bed and yesterday was covered in it, it was everywhere even outside the crate!!  We watched him through the window and he was just howling.

We tried today putting him in a larger crate with some newspaper at one end and his bed the other. He poo'd and weed on the paper but then dragged it all over and sat in it and then on his bed and covered his toys with it. His second bath in two days!

I know hes young and weve only had him a few days but we wondered whether we were just doing something wrong. We want to try and stop this asap. He is fine when we are there, although we havent crated him other than at night when we are home. But as soon as he is left alone its the problem.

Are we doing this right, IS this to be expected? can anyone offer some advice please to help us?

I would suggest that you have his crate open all the time with his bed in it so that he sees it as his safe haven,all day and night and not just when you are going to leave him. It will become  his area of the house, perhaps feed him in it for a while and when he goes in offer treats. Occasionally during the day close the door. to begin with for just a few minuites and then extend it while you are in the house. Always let him out before he starts to make any noise and give him more treatsand praise him

I have now used a crate with 3 different dogs from day one and I think they are a godsend , all three dogs loved them going to them for a nap or maybe taking their toys in there and it helped with any possible chewing an house training.
Good luck

Hi.
I am by no means the most experienced person to give advice, but I have had a boxer before and have just gone through crate training with the new pup. Firstly, the crate should only be big enough for him to stand turn and lie down confortably in. If he has more room, he will try and use a corner to do his business and then if he gets excited he will spread it round the crate. If you have to partition off part of the crate until he grows a bit then that should be fine.

Secondly, getting up every two hours at night seems very excessive to me. It means he doens't learn the feeling of holding in his wee's etc which is the point of crating. I know there will be people who disagree, but I would keep him in there until he cries. At least then he learns that crying will mean he is taken outside! This should also help if he is not in the crate, ie, he will cry at the door to be let out. The only thing you have to watch is that he don't just cry for the sake of it so you take him out. What I do is take them out until they do their business, crate for as long as they will, if they cry then pick them up, put them outside (no playing, cuddles, talking...) until they do their thing (then they gets big cuddles and praise) then straight back into the crate and hopefully straight back to sleep!

Remember that he will be more upset if you leave him by himself, so maybe try and get him used to the crate while you are in the room... like when you watch tv/read a book! Just lock him in there so he can see you so he gets used to the idea of his little 'den' which doesn't always means he will be alone.

Hope this is of some use to you.. I am sure many others will have some more advice!
Goodluck!!

> I know hes young and weve only had him a few days but we wondered whether we were just doing something wrong. We want to try and stop this asap. He is fine when we are there, although we havent crated him other than at night when we are home. But as soon as he is left alone its the problem.

No you aren't doing anything wrong - and setting your alarm at night to put him out before he cries is good, just remember that you want to set your times to his though and not the other way around.  If you 'train' him to pee every 2 hours it's quite difficult to move on from that so you'll find you will be adjusting times for a few months yet!!  Also some pups learn very quickly not to mess in their crates, others don't really care.  Choose an easy to clean bedding material and expect some accidents.  Once your pup gets into a rhythm of feeding you'll soon learn how long it takes between input and output so you can manage it better.

If you know there are times when you want your pup to go in the crate during the day it's a good idea to practise all through the day too,  just pop the dog in at regular times - whether you need to or not.  Even 10 minutes here or there makes a difference.  There are people with a lot of experience and some good suggestions on here and you will probably find using all of them will de-sensitise your dog but here are a few others you might try.

- If you go out; never say goodbye to your dog and do not say hello or greet until you've been home a little while - your dog shouldn't be able to tell the difference between you at home in another room or out of the house.  Also gives you time to unpack shopping etc without a bouncing dog!
- Pop your dog in the crate and leave thru the front door, walk straight round and come in the back - all the time ignoring.  If he is still barking just wait in the room til he pauses then let him out - still ignoring.  Repeat as many times as necessary over a week or two
-  If the crate is in a room where you regularly do activities such as loading the washing machine - pop him in when you're sorting the laundry and let him out again when you've finished
-  If you have special treats that you like to give, or chew activities, let him do some of these whilst in the crate then take the toy away when he comes out, he'll soon learn that the crate is his 'camp'.  We trained our pup to always eat his bigger treats, pigs ears etc in his crate so that we could be sure our other dog wouldn't steal them - he still carries any trophy off to bed!

The howling when left is very common too - no puppy enjoys being excluded so if you and your husband are normally around a lot during the day try and get the pup used to some alone time by using the crate and by shutting doors behind you.  They soon learn that a closed door is normal and that you will be back.  Good luck

Hi
I pretty much second everything everyone else has said - I think crates are brilliant and so, it seems, do my dogs.

Nightime - if you're really happy getting up every 2 hours, that's fine, so long as you don't set the stage for your dog to get up every 2 hours ... for ever!  Personally, I wouldn't.  Pups can hold themselves through the night. At 8 weeks if I was off to bed around 10.30 then I set my alarm for 5am for a couple of days and gradually extend it, so that within a couple of weeks I'm onto my normal getting up time.

Size of crate, as others have said, needs to be just bed area. I don't like a bigger crate with space to toilet it as it's not what I want them to do in there eventually.  If you're really worried about him toileting in it then I would put the crate in a small penned area so that crate is still bed and if absolutely necessary there's a small area beyond the crate to toilet in.

An hour is a tidly amount of time in our timescale, but a new pup to a new household, etc, it's a very long time.  Again, just endorse what others have said ... pup in crate with door shut and you out of room for small amounts of time.  I always feed my pups in crate with door shut - they never come out when they're making a noise only when they're quiet.  They have stuffed kongs and chews in crate, again with door shut, and if they fall asleep outside crate I like to put them in if I can so they sleep and wake in crate - with door shut.

What you want to avoid is your pup getting anxious about being left alone, which is what it's about really, not the crate.  A friend of mine has a really neat trick which although I haven't needed to use, I know it's worked for a number of dogs, especially adults being introduced to a crate (she works with rescues).

Trick is:

Whenever you leave dog in crate with door shut, place a tin of baked beans (or any other tin - has to be the same one every time though) in a place where it can see it, ie on work top.  So, when you go out the room you place tin of beans, when you return you put beans back in the cupboard.  Dog then always knows when beans our out you'll return!!  Honestly, it does work.  This is a build up for whenever you need to leave the house. So if all else fails, I'm sure it wont, try this.

Finally, never, ever put your dog in his crate as a punishment.  It's got to be his den and a nice place to go to.  My 3 dogs have their crates in the kitchen (it's not huge!) and each is covered with a blanket.  They have vet bed inside and a water bowl (sort to bolt on to side).  Although they rarely go in with doors shut now - only if I want to do stuff without them helping me :-) - they go in to sleep, to chill out, they always still get fed in crate ... it's brill, as soon as I start rattling dinner bowls I hear this scrum behind me, turn round and dogs are all in their own crate, heads pointing out asking if their nosh is ready yet!

Good luck, I'm sure you'll succeed ... they really are the best things since sliced bread!

Sorry, just to add, I think the shutting doors bit another poster said is brilliant - it stops you having dogs following you from room to room to see what you're doing, or for a bit of a stressing out reason, but also you could try leaving a radio on low when you leave him.

Just a though and echo everything previously said - how does your breeder train her puppies to be clean. As its only a few days since you got him he may be looking for paper (if he was paper trained) or looking for the relief area he was used to.  Putting him straight into a crate will not re train them over night.  Do you have an area when soiling isn't too much of a problem, as he is such a baby to much change in routine too soon can be disastrous to any potty training your breeder did. 

Personally at his tender age I would be working as the others have said with getting him used to the crate during the day with the door shut for short periods.  At Night I would leave the door open and get up maybe once through the night to take your puppy out.  Yes crates do speed up potty training but you have to crate train first.

Thanks everyone!

I started yesterday after posting and we moved the small crate downstairs. I put him in for half an hour whilst i was still in the house and he was fine, went to sleep no crying. Then later on in the day i left him alone for an hour, no goodbyes, no greeting and only let him out on my return when he stopped crying ( only took 2mins! ) We had NO poops and NO wee!!!!! I looked through the window and he was happy playing with his toy.

Today he was left for 2 hours ( i was stuck in traffic ) and he was asleep on my return, again NO poops and NO wee!!! Im so happy!!! Im sure well have some accidents but my return home yesterday and today was so much more pleasurable!!!!