Hi I am crate training little frankie. He sleeps in his crate at night with a bed one side and a puppy pad the other side, should we not put a puppy pad for toileting in ? When we let him out he will use the pad on the kitchen floor but runs back in his cage to poo and wee if he gets a chance, think we messed up here. We also take him out in the garden too, but when he comes back in he wants to go into his cage to poo.any advice appreciated,

also he is still nipping badly followed the advice on the link to no avail. have resorted to spraying my feet with anti chew, in addition to doing loud ouchs and nos. To the point paying £35 for a ex police dog trainer to come in on tuesday to show us what we are doing wrong.

Frankie is 8 weeks old now and did habv a bad start being the runt of the litter but has put on a kilogram in his 2 weeks here.

I didn't think dogs were supposed to mess their crate ! Silly question but how big is the crate?

Hi the crate is approx 4ft by 3ft . And Frankie is not very big. He does not mess the bed side just the other side, Im not suere I have had conflicting advice, I think he is probably too young to go all night without a wee or a poo, if I compare to a human baby that is.

He is too young, unfortunately you will have to get up in the night just to let him out, as as long as he is allowed to mess in the crate the more he will do it! Thats a very large crate for a pup

Just an idea im not saying it will work! Take the wee pad out of the crate - spread out the bedding he has been sleeping on so it covers the entire floor of crate. Be prepared for a few nights of disruptive sleep - it really is like having a newborn. Say you let him out for his last wee etc at 10.30pm go and let him out again say about 1.30/2ish and again about 5.30/6ish just put him out don't make a huge fuss or he will think its playtime. It helps if you can get him used to a word like "wee wee" so when you put him out just say wee wee and thats it.

In THEORY this should work as he shouldn't want to wee on his bediing, but as he has been allowed to go in his crate he maybe a bit confused at first.

You will be very tired by the end of it, but it will pay off in the long run!

Good luck

Sam and Angel

If you can, divide the crate in two, he only needs enough room to sleep in, increase the size as he grows

Id be interested to hear what the dog trainer said..?

I was very concerned about Ghillie's nipping and dangling off my dressing gown activities but I kept on doing the ouches and walking away and it did stop.

No advice on the crate thing really. Just lots of praise when they go in the right place..

the crate has to be the size of the dog i was told. With plenty in to make them feel at home. Favorite toy ect. But they don't work for everybody. X

actually i was out on the cage measurement its 3.6 foot by just over 2ft! so much for hubbies guess.

Don't know how best to divide crate, but shutting crate door so when he is in kitchen so he cant run back in to go loo. will let you all know what trainer says.

good advice angel

The crate should be the dogs den and sanctuary so really small is best . Just a place to curl up in. My two were crate trained I put a cover over the crate. My two loved their den.
The crate has gone now we thought our girls didn't need it any more but we often find cassie curled up where the crate used to be..