How large of a crate is recommended for a miniature daschund? We are getting a 4month old next week and she will be crate trained.

My usual recommendation is just big enough for the adult to stretch out in. If there is ever a chance you might want to fly with her, try to find an airline approved one less than 10'' high, that she can still stand up in.

If you check the sticky at https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/information-articles-our-dogs-expert-labman-53153.html#post251802 you will
See a crate is at the top of my list of things puppies need.

At four months, the puppy isn't going to be fully housebroken, so you want the room in the crate to be just large enough for the puppy to stretch out. Once the puppy is fully housebroken, then the crate can be as large as you want, except for travel purposes as Labman mentioned. That's assuming you're going to be keeping up the crate training for housebreaking purposes.

A lot of people have two crates - one for around the house and one for travel. What you can do to keep from having to get more crates than necessary is to get a larger crate and block off a portion so that there's only a small area. Then as the puppy grows, you can increase the space available to the puppy without having to get another crate.

Puppies should be basically housebroken by 4 months, with only occasional accidents, mostly due to neglect. It is true many people are still struggling with a 4 month old. I feel there are two reasons so many people have so much trouble housebreaking puppies. Failure to use the proper technique is one. Much of the advice on housebreaking leave out parts of what works well for me and many others. This is part of the reason I was offended recently when somebody ignored my sticky and suggested Googling for housebreaking information. I have done that and all the top sites smell like the results Iexpect them to produce.

The other reason is failure of breeder or pet store to provide a clean environment for the puppies. Even my methods may not work as well on a puppy conditioned to live in its filth.

I think the size of the crate is over rated as a factor. I had several 7 week old Lab puppies do fine starting in a 36'' Pet Porter.

Correct. If your little one is potty trained place him in a crate that will be large enough when he is an adult to stand upright and turn around in. if you find that this is too big for him you can buy portion panels to block portion of the crate. This is much cheaper than buying multiple crates.

If you are still potty training my I suggest my method. Every 1/2 hour walk dog walk dog immediately after taking dog out of crate. Walk dog 15 min after feeding and when you can't keep your eye on him he should be in the crate.

Puppies should be basically housebroken by 4 months, with only occasional accidents, mostly due to neglect.

We've got different definitions of housebroken. I expect a housebroken dog to have free reign of the house and hold themselves I would not expect that behavior from a four month old puppy let loose in the house. What you call 'puppy broke' I call not housebroken.

Labradors and retrievers in general do have a reputation as being easy to train in that regard and for the most part, the reputation does seem to hold true. Particularly in your case where you are dealing with well bred dogs who have gotten a good start on housetraining with the breeder.

That does not however always hold true for other breeds. The toy breeds in particular have a reputation as being harder to housebreak. For a number of different reasons that seems to hold true, but part of the reason is that people do tend to give too much space in the crate and the dogs will quite willingly go in one end and sleep in the other end. As far as the dog is concerned there's no reason to hold themselves, so they don't.

For those lurkers among us (I know you're there, I hear you breathing), crate training a dog uses the dogs' natural den instict to keep their sleeping and eating area clean. You want to keep the crate area small enough to make the puppy do their best to hold themselves and then you take them outside and let them do their business.

Successful crate training depends on two things, having a small enough area that the puppies want to hold themselves and getting the puppies out on time so they don't go in the crate. Cause as labman mentions, that is a mess. If your schedule is such that you can't get the puppy out of the crate on time, then do it another way.



This is part of the reason I was offended recently when somebody ignored my sticky and suggested Googling for housebreaking information.

Yeah I know what you mean, people ignore me all the time.


The other reason is failure of breeder or pet store to provide a clean environment for the puppies. Even my methods may not work as well on a puppy conditioned to live in its filth.

Don't be so hard on yourself, of course 'your' methods will work. After all, your methods are pretty standard stuff, most competent trainers do the same thing. I've been dealing with a nine month old Bull Mastiff in that situation. The owner finally took my recommendation and had someone do a board-n-train. That seems to have done it. There's only one dog I've seen that wasn't able to be housebroken and that was a puppy mill Bassett that was kept in the crate for most of it's first six months. I was also the only dog that I think I could honestly say was retarded.



I think the size of the crate is over rated as a factor. I had several 7 week old Lab puppies do fine starting in a 36'' Pet Porter.

Labradors and retrievers in general do have a reputation as being easy to train in that regard and for the most part, the reputation does seem to hold true. Particularly in your case where you are dealing with well bred dogs who have gotten a good start on housetraining with the breeder.

That does not however always hold true for other breeds and other dogs. The toy breeds in particular have a reputation as being harder to housebreak. For a number of different reasons that seems to hold true, but part of the reason is that people do tend to give too much space in the crate and the dogs will quite willingly go in one end and sleep in the other end. As far as the dog is concerned there's no reason to hold themselves, so they don't.

For those lurkers among us (I know you're there, I hear you breathing), crate training a dog uses the dogs' natural den instinct to keep their sleeping and eating area clean. You want to keep the crate area small enough to make the puppy do their best to hold themselves and then you take them outside and let them do their business.

Successful crater training depends on two things, having a small enough area that the puppies want to hold themselves and getting the puppies out on time so they don't go in the crate. Cause as labman mentions, that is a mess. If your schedule is such that you can't get the puppy out of the crate on time, then do it another way.

If you are still potty training my I suggest my method. every 1/2 hour walk dog walk dog immediately after taking dog out of crate. walk dog 15 min after feeding and when you can't keep your eye on him he should be in the crate.\

Maybe that works for you, but it would have been a huge hassle a month ago when we took a 2 month old along to a convention.

I agree that would have been a pain it has worked for 5 dogs and now on the sixth we a currently working... boy oh boy big dogs are allot easier than the little guys.

I teach new students all the time, careful holding and hugging puppies, you may get wet!
Me telling new Vets the bladder and sphincter muscles aren't fully developed till usually 6mos. Is usually not as effective until they spend a few hours with a wet set of scrubs on that smell pretty. Some reason they remember that over my cautions verbaly.

Just food for thought...

Yes Doc. I carefully choose to wear a coat and a pair of slacks that matched fairly well to my one Presbytery meeting. I think that was the time Lucky managed to leave his yellow hair in 4 churches in one week. I planned to visit my friends and their month old litter on our way home. My friends lowered their eyebrows after I threw my coat and tie in the car and explained everything else I had on was washable.

Sphincters may be developed at 6 months, but I don't see much more ability to walk and hold it even as the puppies approach a year old.