I have a miniature dashound that is now peeing in his crate. He was doing fine but has recently started peeing in his crate BUT only if we put a blanket in with him. I decided to try taking out his blanket and he can go the whole night without peeing. I hate crating him without something for him to sleep on. Normally his crate door is always open other than when we go to bed at night. We were not shutting his door during the day but had to start because he began to go get in my older dogs crate and peeing on his blankets too. His crate is much larger because he is a choc lab. Once he started peeing in his crate we had to crate him (dashound) when we could not be with him. He does not ever pee in his crate if there is not a blanket it there. I feel like a terrible person by making him sleep on the hard plastic... what do I do?

May I commend you on your crate training efforts, blankets are never a good thing anyway, they can be *the very item if you have a chewer or boredom, that they decide to take their crate time out on* and therefore swallowing pieces, possibly causing blockages. I always cut small pieces of hard broadloom carpet 1/4" thickness is good, to the size of the crate, exact fit, this is what my dogs were used to, and it also padded their bones that tend to stick out a little more when laying down therefore putting a little more pressure on them, and making sore spots. Also easy to clean and vacum.

The carpets cannot be bundled up, they are too stiff, and generally they do not bother too much with them, and worth a try. It does not sound like a cannot hold it anymore type of problem, sounds more like a territorial competition to enable his scent to be noted by others.

Crates larger than the dog while crate training, allow an area to go to bathroom and an area to move away from where they pee or poop, so they are not directly in it, and in the wild, dens are only the size of the body so that anything else has to be done outside of the den.

Just some suggestions that worked well with my dogs and pups.

Canady
Where the greatest wealth is health

Thank you. I will definitley give it a try, hopefully that will work :)

Here's what I'm thinking the dog can smell urine off the blanket an continues to pee on it. If it is possible try a new blanket. While housetraining my dog I was always told to clean the spots where his mess was extremely good to take away the scent, cause if he goes back there and smells it he will only pee there again and again.

I washed all the blankets in bleach to get rid of the smell. I have even done so with his crate every time. At night when I have felt bad I would just throw in a towel and that had nothing on it and he will pee. He is a stuborn little bogger! I love him to death and will deal but I just want to make it a better environment for him too.