Dog Training & Health

[luckyheel]

Let me first say that, in general, the dogs are doing very well with regard to being housebroken. However, I would just like to get some advice on how to get them to stop peeing in their crate during the day.

Here are their backgrounds. Both puppies are 5 months old, one is a male Shih-Poo, approximately 10lbs, the other is a female Miniature Schnauzer, approximately 9lbs.

They both are kept inside in a 5'x5' pen during the day. Early on, we used puppy pads and they would pee/poo on the pad, but then they learned they could tear/rip the pads so we stopped using them. We have a pet sitter come out 3 times during the week at mid-day to take them out for a walk/potty. They both have learned to hold pooping until the pet sitter comes and then when we return from work around 4:30 or 5. It is the peeing that is the problem. They still cannot hold it during the day and almost every day we come home with 1, 2 or 3 pee spots on the carpet inside the pen.

We got two dogs so that they would be able to play with one another, so we don't feel like crating them during the day is best. We do provide a small container of water inside the pen during the day.

Outside of the pen, within the house, they are both pretty good about holding it. Occasionally, they will have an accident in the house. We have a dog door that they both know how to use and go inside and out frequently when they need to potty. We also praise them when the do go outside and we are with them.

I guess we're just trying to figure out how to get them to stop peeing inside the pen.

Any advice will be extremely appreciated.

Thank you.

[meezermom]

Hello Lucky and welcome to SeeFido!!

Getting two puppies at the same time is more difficult to deal with than most people imagine....They can be much harder to housetrain for one thing! Right now, your dogs are still puppies.... and like small kids, they need to learn the rules. The rule about learning to hold it and not soil is a big one. That is why a dog is crate trained! They are not ready to be able to be together all day long and play. They have to be able to go potty....and like little kids, when they play, they forget and then when they gotta go, they gotta go right now ! No time to go to the dog door or anything else... So for the time being, be sure to treat any and all accident areas with an enzyme cleaner such as Simple Solution....and then crate train them and in separate crates. They can see each other and that will be good enough for now.