chi crying

Funny thing about crate training with our pup... He was going good for a little bit, but then he started going to the bathroom in it. I know what your going to say.. the crate was too big, on the contrary, it was a crate from petco specially for "small dogs" chi's in particular. He had only enough room to stand up, and switch positions while sleeping. Since he started going to the bathroom in it he obviously won't sleep in it. On top of that he's grown considerably from 1.5 pounds to 3.8 in the 3 months we've had him, and I think he's probably uncomfortable in there.. But thats a whole other issue, we have a bed for him, that he occasionally goes to the bathroom in, its small so we don't know why he's doing it (I have my suspicions) but after we clean the bed he's happy to sleep in there again. I'm more concerned with the crying issue though.

i went through the exact same thing as you when i first got lola. a couple of things worked for me.

i bought a mommy bear for her. it is actual recorded womb sounds. i also got a big water bottle and would put hot water in it and wrap it in a tshirt or something that smells like you. i put her in her crate with the water bottle and covered up the crate with a blanket, and the bear on top, so she wouldn't chew it up. it worked amazingly well! the bear worked wonders! i was kinda suprised. also it helps that i can take her to my mom's house during the day since no one is home there and she has a big huge crate to stay in all day. (i should also add, i'm not supposed to have my pup since i already have a cat...one animal rule...oops)

anyway, just hang in there. you are definitely not alone....and your question is very similar to my first post on here....titled "WHINING" best of luck. they are worth the hassle!

i had/have the same issue with bobo. all the help sites/posts i read said to ignore him and let him cry! but the thing is that puppys poop when they cry (seperation anxiety) and i didnt want that. he was super horrible when i first got him. but what seems to be working is letting him follow me around the house, then going into the rooms and shutting the doors, while he's in the living room/hallway etc. say
no bobo then wait for 5mins and open the door.

it seems like he's getting better now, tho he still cries for me most of the time he's showing improvements. i had him for 3 wks and 5 days, he's 3 mo and 1 week old.

i only leave him home by himself in his crate/kennel if im gone for 5 hours
what i do is put him in (covered sides with towel so he cant see that im gone) turn the door to a wall and wait till he stops crying (when he cries i just say no or hey!) then i sneak out...lol..its the only thing that works for now. if im gone for 8hrs i find a babysitter or leave him with his daddy.

i would suggest a bigger crate? so your pup can lay down even if he potties in there. bobo uses either a med. or large, i cant remember.

hope this kinda helps

joel0078 said:

Funny thing about crate training with our pup... He was going good for a little bit, but then he started going to the bathroom in it. I know what your going to say.. the crate was too big, on the contrary, it was a crate from petco specially for "small dogs" chi's in particular. He had only enough room to stand up, and switch positions while sleeping. Since he started going to the bathroom in it he obviously won't sleep in it. On top of that he's grown considerably from 1.5 pounds to 3.8 in the 3 months we've had him, and I think he's probably uncomfortable in there.. But thats a whole other issue, we have a bed for him, that he occasionally goes to the bathroom in, its small so we don't know why he's doing it (I have my suspicions) but after we clean the bed he's happy to sleep in there again. I'm more concerned with the crying issue though.

Click to expand...

everythigny our say'n is just like jamoka, he did the same thing! so i got him a creat for a large dog and FILLED it with his toys and then i noticed that he lol didn't want pee on them but then he just started not careing and was peeing on the toys and bed. i still didn't understand why he was doing this so i was washing toys and his bed like everyday. the cry'n issue i know i caused him to do it, b/c the frist 6months of me haveing him i held him,slept with him and when i would go to work at night he would lose it. and woundn't sleep, so he would sleep all day. so that he could sleep when i slept. i just started to keep him active durning the day. and got a trainer. now he's fine and i alsso put a blanet over his cage and i don't have it next to the area where i have to leave out. Soorry guys got a lil carried away with the story. :roll:

You may also want to try and "reintroduce" the crate to your pup by making it a fun thing for him to get in and out. When I was crate training my chi, it was suggested to get a toy for the crate only, kind of like a teddy bear for a child.

Also, kongs are fantastic time-consumers and great toys for dogs. If you don't know what they are, you can find them at petstores - they're hollow so you can fill them with food, treats, whatever - and will give the pup something to do while he's in the crate. I fill our kong with kibble, a treat or two mixed in and a smidgen of peanut butter.

The suggestion of the hot water bottle is a great idea - you can also buy disks that you heat up in the microwave and they'll stay warm for up to 8-10 hours. Just slip them in the bedding and you're good to go.

Another thing is if he's 6 months old and you're gone for over 5-6 hours at a time, he can't hold his bladder that long, so he's going to have no choice but to go potty in the crate. If that's the case, he's got a negative impression of it and you may need to get a new one, different make and model so he'll "accept" it better. If he's peed on his actual bed, he may not want to lay on it due to that fact. Most people on the board with small pups confine theirs to a bathroom or part of the kitchen were there's plenty room for a bed, a potty pad and their food so one doesn't infringe on the other.

The main thing is you want the crate to be fun for your pup and, from what you described, it sounds like he's not looking at it that way. I'd try putting toys in there, a kong and maybe even turning on some soft music for him to see if that makes the experience more pleasant.

Good luck!!

Thanks for all the responses, but the fact is that he liked being in his crate when we first got it for him. He would go and sleep in there no problem (with the door open). But then one day (and we were home all day with him) he went to the bathroom in it. And that is disheartening for several reasons, the first being that we had been training him on "piddle pads" and he was going on them. The second thing, I know dogs naturally do not want to go to the bathroom in the same place they sleep. I'm confindent I know the problem with that issue. See, he has several options of sleeping quarters. He sleeps in the bed with us at night, due to the fact that he will cry all night if he's not in bed with us, he also has a little bed that we bought for him our first day with him, he also has a hole he hops into underneath the couch (no matter how many times we sew it he opens it up again). So I'm thinking he has too many places he likes to sleep, and he began pooping in his crate just to show us that he doesnt like it. I could be way off, and maybe we started off training him the wrong way from the beginning. As far as the heated bottle thing, yeah that worked when we first got him, Chewie's since decided thats not good enough for him. The little brat. Aside from that issue, we're much more concerned with him crying everytime he can't see us.

I am new to the whole dog owning thing especially a chi but this is what we do and it has worked for us so I thought I would share.

We have had Corky for a month and he will be 3 months on Monday the 15th. From day one he had a large crate. I know that some would suggest we don't do that, but it works for us. In the beginning, we put potty pads throughout our house to help him know to use them. We cover his crate in the back with potty pads and the front is his "house" with his food, babies, toys, bed, etc.

He has been on a definite schedule from day one because we both work full time. He gets up with hubby in the morning about 4am and goes potty and plays and goes back in his house. Then about 7 am he gets out again and plays and goes potty. When I leave for work (8am) he gets "breakfast" of wet food. This helps distract him while I get out of the house. (He has dry food and water in his house too.) I come home at noon and let him out and he plays and pottys. Then at 1pm he goes back in and my husband is home by 2pm and he out for the rest of the night. At bedtime he gets "dinner" of wet food and we put him to bed and we sneak off to bed and he doesn't cry. He just curls up and goes to sleep and we start over the next day.

He knows when it is breakfast and dinner and when he needs to be in his kennel. As far as pottying in the kennel, I understand he has to do it and do not care. He is in there for a long period in the morning from 8-12 so I know he will have to do. Now we don't have pads everywhere and he has a "litter box" which is a rubbermaid container with potty pads in it that he pottys in when he is out of his kennel. We chose to not potty train him outside because our our schedules and I live in Oregon and it rains all winter and part of spring and he is very picky about being outside. He doesn't want to be out there unless it is warm. We had a couple of cool days and he didn't like it outside.

It is working well for us because of our schedule and he gets into a routine. He is a happy well adjusted puppy. We will start taking him more places when he is fully vaccinated but until then he socializes with family and our neighbors and loves to play in the yard.

The point of my rant here, lol, is maybe if you can get him into a routine and give him a distraction when you leave that may help. Corky has not cried since the first week we got him.

Good luck.