The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

Hello ALL.

It's been a while since I last logged on. Sadie has been keeping me busy. She is such a joy to have. Last week she wasnt feeling well. She was a little sluggish, vomiting, and diarrhea. The doctor believes that she got a hold to something and ate it. Thankfully, once I took her to the doctor and gave her--her meds---she became back ACTIVE, lol.

One thing that I have noticed is that the crate training isnt helping her. When Sadie releases herself in her crate---she walks right through it. In which leaves her fur messy and dirty. Did any of you have problems with this??? Please advise.

I would suggest starting from scratch. Maybe tie her to you and take her out every 30 minutes to an hour. I know it is time consuming. Reward her when she does her business outside. I don't know how you break them of going in their crate once they don't think it is a problem. Maybe your crate is too large.

How long is she in the crate. Puppies can't hold it a long time. personally don't like crates for potty training. I like the old fashion way. puppy goes out about every 30 min. if she goes lots of praise. Puppy tethered to me by leash oo in close proximity otherwise that way I can see them and if they start clueing in to the need to go. sniffing, circling etc.
if you use a crate, still need to take the puppy out about every 30 min.

Go to the Training section of the forum. Kelly from KLAD cockers posted a guide for housebreaking your dog that is excellent. I have followed her suggestions with some of my fosters who needed housebreaking and have had great success.

Good luck!

If she can pee and poop in the crate and walk through it, the crate is too large for potty training her.

You are right Naomi Kelly wrote an excellent post on potty training. very clear to follow.

Jan,

the conventional wisdon is they pup should have only enough room to
stand, sit and lay down in the crate. i solved the too-big crate problem
by buying a roll of screen, like you'd use for a window. these days it is
fairly soft and flexible. and cheap at someplace like home depot.

i cut a piece slightly larger than the dimension of the crate and sectioned
off the crate to the size i needed. i secured the screen with those plastic ties
you have to cut off. when i needed to make it a bit larger, i cut off the existing
and repeated the process, installing a new piece of screen farther back in the
same manner. i had all of the plastic ties on facing out of the crate and then i
snipped them off as short as possible w/o undoing them. that way there was
nothing tempting to chew on!

good luck it and i'm glad Sadie is feeling better!

I agree, that's pretty clever. I just used a cardboard box covered with a blanket and kept putting a smaller box in as Shiloh grew.

Tina,
I started with a cardboard box in the back of the crate, but switched when
I returned home to a shredded, poop covered box! LOL!!