Hey there! I have a 15 month old neutered male GSP. His name is Luke and he's awesome! He's very well trained. He knows all of his basic commands and is pretty good with his out of sight sit and stay. He listens despite a lot of temptations. I crate trained him from day one when I brought him home at 8 weeks old. He's never ever had an issue with his crate until about a month ago. I used to work 3-12 hour shifts per week and he never had an issue. I recently switched jobs and now I work 9 hours M-Th and 4 hours on Friday. Since starting this new position, he urinates in his crate daily while I am at work. I tried taking the blankets out, and making his crate smaller. I don't give him access to water before I go to work. I let him run around and play for about 30 minutes before I go to work and I let him out right before I leave for work. I don't really know what else to try but I have gotten to the point that I dread coming home to a crate full of urine now. Please, any advice?
Hi Kristen WOW 12 hour shifts sounds much too long for Luke to be in a crate and to hear you didn’t have any problems has really surprised me Your new work pattern sounds a little more suited to owning a dog, but, for some reason Luke doesn’t agree ! Dogs are working progress and as they mature their habits and needs change, we have to change with them and often re train I don’t have any helpful advice other than could someone come in and take Luke out for a leg stretch and toilet break whilst you are at work It may be worth paying a reputable “ dog “ walker to do it for you and it will elevate the stress for you as you are on your way home worrying about what is to great you ! Philippa
He got into a routine which has now changed so it will take time for him to get used to the new one. I personally would never withhold water and nine hours is a long time to do so, and could be life-threatening, if he became dehydrated. Bladder control comes with maturity, as an adult he would be able to hold his bladder for a long time with free access to water at all times. Personally I think it’s unfair to expect a puppy/adult dog to live in a crate for that length of time every day, without a break in-between. have you any friends /relatives that could take him out.
Making Luke's crate smaller will only make him feel more shut in than ever, and taking his blankets out... do you mean you leave him in a smaller crate and just the bare plastic tray to lay on? A crate should be large enough for the dog to stand up, turn round, lay down full length, roll over, and generally move about - a crate is not a cage. And as @GsdSlave said, it is unfair to expect a puppy/adult dog to live in a crate for that length of time every day, without a break in-between. My small dog sleeps in a crate but she only goes into it at night. It has a full size soft padded mat in it, plus a half size padded fluffy mat at her sleeping end. And on the rare occasion she pees in it - because I have not heard her eep to be let out to go out for a pee - how difficult is it to rinse out her mats?
If he needs to go - what choice does he have? How would you cope in the same situation? Better absorbent washable bedding than him have to lie in a puddle all day. Eventually I suspect he will learn to lift his leg and pee through the bars.