Dirty Dog Syndrome
Does your dog pee in the crate?
It May Be Dirty dog syndrome
There are tons of articles on housetraining a dog. But what help is there when you have a dog that urinates and defecates in its crate? Many pups will have an accident in their crate when they can not hold it any longer but what about the dog that actually goes to the bathroom in the crate even when they can hold it for a longer period of time? That dog is not offended by peeing or pooping in its area. That is called Dirty Dog Syndrome!
A term I coined back in the 1990’s, Dirty Dog Syndrome, is relatively rare, yet it is somewhat prevalent among small breed dogs and dogs that come from puppy mills.
Why small dogs and why puppy mill dogs? It is simple. Small dogs tend to be more difficult to housetrain. Additionally, papertraining also tends to be more widely used when training a small breed of dog. When you paper train a dog, if the paper is not kept clean, the dog becomes accustomed to its area which is dirty and they do not mind going to the bathroom in their area.
Puppy mill and pet store dogs are often kept in an area that has a grate for flooring so that any elimination drops down to a pad below. Very effective from a cleaning standpoint when running a pet store or puppy mill, however, it creates a training disaster for the new family who is doing their best to start crate training the correct way.
So you are reading this and thinking, "I don't really care why my dog does this! I am just sick and tired of coming home every day and the puppy has peed, pooped and danced all over it! Either this gets fixed or the dog goes back!" I completely understand! I have a foster dog right now that is a Red Tick Coonhound and I am fairly certain that she always lived in a crate where she could pee and poop to her heart's content. It is gross, difficult and a time consuming mess!
So let's fix it! We, at Haggerty Dog Training, call it the Reverse Housetraining Process. Think about this for a moment. When housetraining a dog, the idea is to take them out frequently, give them an opportunity to go to the bathroom on short walks, give them free time then return them to the crate! To resolve Dirty Dog Syndrome, we need to reverse what we do!
For a seamless experience, ideally we need the following:
A fenced in back yard
A crate
A leash
Lots of patience
Keep your dog outside for 30 minutes at a time, you will want to stay outside with her and wait until she goes to the bathroom. Once she goes, bring her inside immediately and place her inside the crate. Keep her there for two hours. Take her outside again for another 30 minutes and wait for her to go the bathroom. Once she goes, bring her inside and place her in the crate. You want to continue this routine. Each time she goes to the bathroom outside, place her inside the crate. By placing her inside the crate, immediately after going to the bathroom, you are eliminating the possibility of her going to the bathroom INSIDE the crate! As time goes on, you will start taking her outside less often while decreasing the length of time she stays outside. You will be doing this while also keeping her inside the crate for longer periods of time. Keep in mind, you want to do the OPPOSITE of housetraining. (See my blog post on crate training) How to Crate Train Your Dog
If you do not have access to a fenced in yard, you will want to tether her to you in the house and take her out every hour giving her five to seven minutes to go to the bathroom. Keeping her tethered gives you the opportunity to stop the elimination in the crate. Since she is tethered to you, you will also be able to intercept her if she starts sniffing and needs to go to the bathroom and wants to do so next to you in the house.
A caveat of using a fenced in yard is becoming too comfortable with leaving her outside unsupervised for periods of time. If you have a small dog, be careful of wild life, even hawks that could pick up your dog and take her away. Dogs that are great diggers, like terriers, can dig their way out of the yard. In addition to the safety concerns, from a training point, it is important to stay outside with her so that you KNOW when she has gone to the bathroom. If you are not with her, you are not going to know when it is safe to put her inside the crate. We want her inside the crate when we know that she does NOT have to go to the bathroom! Otherwise, we will set her up to continue to go to the bathroom inside the crate!
It is super important that you also track her bathroom schedule. You want to write down the time of each day she relieves herself and what she does. This will help you determine her bathroom cycle and know what she has to do and when she has to do it.
Between keeping her outside for extended periods of time, only placing her in the crate when she has very recently relieved herself and tracking her bathroom schedule, you will be able to eventually turn your dog from a Dirty Dog to a Clean Canine!
As always, Yours for Better Dogs,
Babette Haggerty