potty training opinions please

hi, i'm new here and have surfed all over the web....this is one of the best areas i have found........ so here goes........

We Just bought a male cairn terrier…..12 weeks old…..had him for a week. He goes potty in his newspapered-crate everytime. So we put newspapers only in the crate and he never missed the crate! So he is papertrained. We keep him gated in the kitchen with papers in his crate and his bed and toys in the corner of kitchen. Every time he needs to go he runs for the crate. I like this idea since we can keep him in the open kitchen area for 8 hours while we are at work with no issues. We can't come home from work during the day.

Is this a good idea? We are on the 3rd floor of an apartment. I would like to crate train him but being gone 8 hours a day at our jobs, I don’t want to keep him in the crate...he couldn't hold it if he wanted to. If I leave him to roam the kitchen during the day, will that defeat the purpose of crate training in the evenings and weekends? Newspapers or potty pads on the floor outside the crate get shredded.....but not when in his crate. Not sure what to do. He does go potty outside when we take him but also goes in the crate on the newspapers.

I tried Crate training last night by removing the newspapers from crate, spraying with disinfectant to remove newspaper smell, placed his bed in crate, and put him in there. I had to hold him for 4 hours while on the couch to keep an eye on him. He fell asleep on my chest. I got nothing done last night………I can’t keep doing that. I woke him up at 5am to go out….he sleeps 6 hours no problems. But of course since there were no newspapers to use inside his crate this morning, he went #1 and #2 outside the crate. I managed to grab him and he finished outside.

So should I go back to newspapers in the crate OR crate him all the time with only his bed and toys in the cage ……. But then what to do when we are at work?

I crated my first Cairn who is 2 ½ now. I also worked 3rd shift close to home so I could check on her in the middle of the night and since I was home during the day, I could watch over her. She finally got it after about 5 months. I can’t remember the details, only that I was really frustrated.

Anyway, I appreciate your thoughts…….. thank you!

steve

 

Yes. IMO, I think you will confuse the heck out of him. Can't you just keep him gated in the kitchen evenings and weekends?
If things are working out well using the crate as the potty area I would just continue doing it. You really should decide wheather you want to use the crate to crate him or to go potty in quickly because you really can't successfully use it for both.
I did'nt use a crate for my dog when I got her. I kept her confined to the kitchen while I was at work, during the night or any other time I left the house. It worked out well.

 

I agree, if things are working out fine and you can contain him in the kitchen just leave things the way they are. It would be completely wrong to make your dog try to hold it for 8 hours. Sooner or later your dog will be trusted to roam the house, then it won't be an issue.

 

Have you concidered removing the crate and substituting a litter box or a tray with potty pads? Put the potty pads in exactly the same place his crate was, and maybe put some soiled paper under the pad, so it smells like someplace he should potty.

Once he's using potty pads faithfully, return his crate with bed and toys inside, so he can use it as a den.

 

I also agree with the others. If he is doing so well in the kitchen, then just use that. We did the same thing with our shihpoo. He was never crated and was potty trained quickly (with the same method of using the kitchen and the pee pads)

 

Don't mess with a good thing, if it's working out stick with it.

My first dog Max was a Cairn and a true terrier in every sense of the word. If he didn't want to do something it wasn't gong to be done :mrgreen: . The thing I found with him (as with most dogs) is consistancy, if you triend to change his routine it would throw him out of whack.

I'd love to see some pics of your babies.

Here's a pic of Max for you (he's the one on the right):

 

I leave my 2 month year old puppy in our empty spare bedroom during the day. Instead of closing the bedroom door, I put a baby gate there so I don't have to close the door. The room is big enough for him to run around and play all day.

I have a crate but don't keep him in it. I tried to keep him in there but he makes himself sick and ends up throwing up. I took the door off and he uses the crate to sleep him.

I put 2 puppy training pads in bedroom and he uses them to go potty on.

He likes the room and doesn't cry or bark when he is in there. At time I tell him bedtime and he goes in there and goes to sleep. He has lots of toys and loves to play on his own.

However, I plan to take him to Puppy training school and doggy daycare 1 or 2 times a week once he gets his 2nd vaccinations. I want him to socialize with other people and dogs since he is alone all day.

I would suggest trying the potty training pads. Perhaps you can put those in the crate and slowly start moving them away from the crate once he gets use to using them.

I have training pads near my back door because he is so young he pee's so much. I've been moving it closer to the door and will eventually put one outside once the weather gets better and warms out. I'm hoping this will train him to go outside. However, I still take him outside when it's warm enough to go potty about every hour when I'm home.