New Puppy Home at Last

[Pandora]

I finally got my new baby! His name is Odin and he was 10 weeks old this past Tuesday! He is adapting very good in his new environment!! He only cried once last night in his crate and had NO accidents! He is such a good boy. The only issue I have right now, and I am hoping someone can help me, is his larger crate that he goes in when I leave my house. He wants to use it as a liter box!
He does this throughout the day when I am home, just walks in it and relieves
himself and comes out. I dont want him to pick this up as a habit.

 

[lmfoltyn]

He is adorable...no advise for the potty issues...sorry...

 

[Jeannie]

If the crate is too big the dog will use part of it for potty and the other for sleep. If possible block off part of the crate. If it is wire slide a board through it. The dog only needs enough room to stand, turn a circle and lay down. Or you can just leave him in the smaller crate. don't feel bad about leaving him in a smaller crate. They are more cozy and the dogs feel more secure.

 

[Pandora]

Yes, I do have a divider for the larger crate. I have put it in so lets hope this helps!
Thank you!

 

[Jentarin]

Congratulations!!! he certainly is handsome

 

[Finny]

Sharp puppy, he already wants to keep it in one place. That's a great foundation to build on.

The fix is simple in concept - assume walking into the potty crate is his signal that he needs to go. Every time he goes to the crate, take him outside to the place you prefer right away. Now that he's decided that is the bathroom he is unlikely to be going there for any other reason and false alarms don't really matter anyway. The trick is being fast enough to get him outside soon enough. But potty training is always a test of human attention span. Don't fail him. And don't crate him there anymore either. It's too big even if he didn't now think it was the bathroom. Just use the smaller crate you already have. Partitioning him in the big crate could just confuse him unnecessarily. Edit - partitions are great but you have something even better at this point; a properly sized crate that he hasn't used as a bathroom.

While you are at it, pick one distinctive place for his outside potty. It's super easy to teach this to them as part of initial potty training. Much harder to add later. And you'll love not having yard mines and dead spots scattered randomly everywhere.