Ask Me Help Desk - Crate training a mini daschund

I have a 16 week old long haired mini daschund, and I can't crate train him for the life of me. I put him in his crate and leave him, he pees and poops on himself. I have tried to use a baby gate to confine him in the kitchen with his crate wide open, and I have tried to put him in the bathroom. Nothing works. He manages to pee and poop on himself and then escape to roam throughout the house. Does anyone have any special tips? I don't know what else to do, and I don't want to have to get rid of him because I can't leave him alone.:confused: :(

This is a difficult problem. If he was confined to a cage all the time and forced to live in his filth before you got him, he maybe content to continue. Breaking him of it will be more difficult if you leave him all day. If you can't give him a break over lunch, try to find a neighbor or professional dog walker that can.

If you check the housebreaking sticky, it describes using a grid in the crate to help keep the puppy out of urine and stools, https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/i...tml#post251809

If he is opening a wire crate, try securing the latch with a snap from a leash.

Obedience train him, see the ''What does a puppy need? Section of the sticky.

Are you in the Kitchen with your dog? I think you need to take a few days off to get to know your dog and get a routine down. I ended up taking a long weekend myself to do that with my puppy. I also keep a treat bag with broken up bit size treats in my pocket, so every 15-20 minutes I would take her outside and she got a treat for going peeing or pooping. Watch the walk and the look in her eyes while she is going, our dog doesn't run for the door all the time but when she starts pacing and walking funny I know and we go outside. It's hard work but you have to keep your eyes on them the whole time to catch them in the act and say No, outside Let's go do that outside and take them out, so they understand. I also figured out my dog was punishing me by pooping in her crate, an extra walk and treat traing goes a long way, now we get a full 8 hours of sleep every night with no accidents.

Quote:

Originally Posted by naz1173

I have a 16 week old long haired mini daschund, and I can't crate train him for the life of me. I put him in his crate and leave him, he pees and poops on himself. I have tried to use a baby gate to confine him in the kitchen with his crate wide open, and I have tried to put him in the bathroom. Nothing works. He manages to pee and poop on himself and then escape to roam throughout the house. Does anyone have any special tips? I don't know what else to do, and I don't want to have to get rid of him because I can't leave him alone.:confused: :(

I am afraid my daschund is 8 months old and almost as bad. Daschund's take a lot of training, I am also almost at my wits end with my baby daschund, my female is really good, but my male not so, unfortunately they take lots of time and patience. Also if your daschund is on its own it will go to the toilet, they love human company and to be left alone is torture, he will have accidents when he is on his own, I think you need to newspaper train him, leave his bed alone in the crate, newspaper (you can use puppy toilet spray on it) towards the door. A lot of newspaper at first and then reduce it, this will teach your dog to go to the door to the toilet, they will not poo by their bed, do not scald him for going on the newspaper, praise him up, and as it gets less and less he will learn to go to the door, confining him to a crate will worry him.

Hi

We have a 7 month old mini that we had crate trained in two months. We took her out every 30 minutes and made sure to tell her "Good girl" whenever she did her business outside and give her a treat EVERY time. She ony had ONE accident in her crate when we first started and will not pee or poop in her crate at night or in her play pen during the day. She now barks when she needs to go potty and has only had two accidents. The praise and treats are very important per our vet. I am sorry to hear that you are having problems. You may have a much harder job if your poor puppy has not been properly trained up to this point, but you can do it.

I agree with the take a few days off, and spend it all with the puppy. It took me less then a month to train my dasch/mix to use the outside for potty time, never used newspapers or training pads. She hates to be left alone, but I can leave her in the crate for a few hours as needed. I took her out every 30 minutes with LOTS of praise every time she went to the restroom.