We have a dilemma over what to do with Sasha, she sometimes sleeps in the kitchen, and sometimes sleeps in a crate in our room. If she sleeps in the kitchen then she often toilets on the floor during the night. We are having new floor fitted this week because the old one stinks and obviously would rather new floor did not get ruined!!! But we also only usually get 2 nights in a row where she will happily go into the crate and then she decides she hates it and will bark non stop for hours until you let her out (and we have to let her out due to not wanting to keep neighbours awake!!). If she sleeps in crate she will still usually want to go out once during the night, but we can hear her ask so can get up to let her out and she'll usually settle straight back in crate.
Admittedly I have never really properly crate trained her, but she will have a run of a couple of nights going in no problem, and then a week or so of refusing to go in at all.
I'm really torn whether to try to go back to basics with the crate and do crate games etc and try to get her happy in there, or whether to just leave her in kitchen and sacrifice my floors/put puppy pads down for her? In many ways I would prefer to get up during the night and let her out than have to spend every morning cleaning up poo and wee before breakfast, and my human brain says she would surely rather be in the room with is than alone downstairs, since she always would rather be with us when she's awake, but what's best for Sash is really what matters of course.
She's nearly 11, but has always needed the toilet at least once during the night, not every night, but most, and doesn't hold more than 4-5 hours during the day either so I think that's just the way she is. She gets an evening walk about 10pm and is let out in the morning about 7-8am
She would prefer to sleep on the sofa or our bed but we can't let her because she would wee on the carpet if left alone in living room, and can be aggressive if nudged/woken if she sleeps on our bed.
I can't give her a kong in her crate at bedtime as Poppy is in the room with us and it could spark issues, but if we leave her in the kitchen we usually leave her with a Kong so that might explain why she seems to like it down there!
What to do with Sasha?
Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost
Re: What to do with Sasha?
Is there perhaps a secret option C here...
Could you make a dog flap that let out onto a small, secure toilet area - im thinking without any real view of Things To Shout At In The Night... does your house allow for that?
The other option is, your new kitchen flooring be chosen with leaky dogs in mind, so think the sub floor is lined with something wee proof/water proof like a self levelling liquid compound, and then you lay heavy duty vinyl, but do it the way its done in hospitals and vets, where instead of stopping under the skirting board, it goes up the all a little, effectively 'tanking' the kitchen floor so nothing can seep through underneath it.
The cheap version of that is to get some heavy plastic sheet and as soon as the new floor is down you then tank the kitchen floor with the sheeting and gaffer tape, and then put washable rugs on top - wont look as pretty though.
That then still gives you the option to do more work on crating etc - but you do then still have a waterproof place for leaky dogs and, as dogs get older, they do get leaky. I must confess, sadly my house smells of p*ss because I now have three elderly leaky dogs, and FAR too much carpet, and badly fitted vinyl and urine is possibly THE worst substance EVER to get rid of once its soaked in.
BTW once urine HAS soaked in to something you cannot replace, like a wooden subfloor as has occurred here - you CAN seal it in using a specially designed sealant (its about £25 a tin mind you) and it wont come back through or pong, but you must then put something over the sealant as its not waterproof so if it gets peed on it will wash off. Our landing floor now smells totally fine and it had a couple of nasty areas where my sisters cats had peed repeatedly!
Could you make a dog flap that let out onto a small, secure toilet area - im thinking without any real view of Things To Shout At In The Night... does your house allow for that?
The other option is, your new kitchen flooring be chosen with leaky dogs in mind, so think the sub floor is lined with something wee proof/water proof like a self levelling liquid compound, and then you lay heavy duty vinyl, but do it the way its done in hospitals and vets, where instead of stopping under the skirting board, it goes up the all a little, effectively 'tanking' the kitchen floor so nothing can seep through underneath it.
The cheap version of that is to get some heavy plastic sheet and as soon as the new floor is down you then tank the kitchen floor with the sheeting and gaffer tape, and then put washable rugs on top - wont look as pretty though.
That then still gives you the option to do more work on crating etc - but you do then still have a waterproof place for leaky dogs and, as dogs get older, they do get leaky. I must confess, sadly my house smells of p*ss because I now have three elderly leaky dogs, and FAR too much carpet, and badly fitted vinyl and urine is possibly THE worst substance EVER to get rid of once its soaked in.
BTW once urine HAS soaked in to something you cannot replace, like a wooden subfloor as has occurred here - you CAN seal it in using a specially designed sealant (its about £25 a tin mind you) and it wont come back through or pong, but you must then put something over the sealant as its not waterproof so if it gets peed on it will wash off. Our landing floor now smells totally fine and it had a couple of nasty areas where my sisters cats had peed repeatedly!
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
Re: What to do with Sasha?
Dog flap is possible in theory but I really don't think she will use it!
She hates going outside at the best of times if it is even slightly cold, wet, etc.
We often leave patio door open during the day if I'm home but she still won't often go out on her own, you have to take her, and watch her like a puppy. We try to give her a 10-15 min walk every evening at about 10pm to make sure she is properly empty before bed, but very often she'll get to the end of the drive, or the first corner at the end of the road, do a wee, and then turn for home and refuse to walk any further, and of course we won't force her. So that plan doesn't always help much!
We have chosen a very expensive(!) vinyl floor with the dogs in mind, so just hoping it lives up to its reputation.
She went in her crate on the landing last night with a kong, so we could still hear her if she needed to go out, but she slept right through (and then weed in bedroom at 9am despite being taken out for a wee at 7am, go figure
)
Can't have the crate on landing permenantly because there isn't really room for it, but I'm hoping it might help getting her used to settling in it and then we can move it back into our room. I'm wondering if being in the same room as us was actually hindering rather than helping because of course she would rather be on the bed than in the crate. We could put crate in spare room next to ours so we could still hear if she needs to go out instead.
I'm also thinking that letting her on the bed during the day when we are out isn't helping either, maybe we should make the bed off limits completely and then she's less likely to want to be on it instead of in the crate?
She hates going outside at the best of times if it is even slightly cold, wet, etc.
We often leave patio door open during the day if I'm home but she still won't often go out on her own, you have to take her, and watch her like a puppy. We try to give her a 10-15 min walk every evening at about 10pm to make sure she is properly empty before bed, but very often she'll get to the end of the drive, or the first corner at the end of the road, do a wee, and then turn for home and refuse to walk any further, and of course we won't force her. So that plan doesn't always help much!
We have chosen a very expensive(!) vinyl floor with the dogs in mind, so just hoping it lives up to its reputation.
She went in her crate on the landing last night with a kong, so we could still hear her if she needed to go out, but she slept right through (and then weed in bedroom at 9am despite being taken out for a wee at 7am, go figure
) Can't have the crate on landing permenantly because there isn't really room for it, but I'm hoping it might help getting her used to settling in it and then we can move it back into our room. I'm wondering if being in the same room as us was actually hindering rather than helping because of course she would rather be on the bed than in the crate. We could put crate in spare room next to ours so we could still hear if she needs to go out instead.
I'm also thinking that letting her on the bed during the day when we are out isn't helping either, maybe we should make the bed off limits completely and then she's less likely to want to be on it instead of in the crate?
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