New Westie Puppy

[hull0001]

I just got a 9 week old Westie--Lexy. I have a crate for her
and the first fews days were bad--barking, jumping. I started paper training her and she has done really well. When I do take her outside she just walks around and never goes #1 and #2. I guess she is confused. I have to leave her in the crate for sometimes up to 8 hours. I have put a puppy paid in the back of the crate which she uses to do #1 and #2. Last night the crate was a disaster. I feel bad about leaving her all day but have no choice. I also let her sleep with me and I think that was big mistake--I just feel bad leaving her in a crate all day and all night. She has about 3-4 hours of fun time in the evenings. I have never seen a dog that would not go outside at some point. What am I doing wrong? Confused!!!!!

[Lessica Jake]

Try putting some newspaper or a puppy pad outside. Since she knows that's what she's supposed to go on, putting one outside would lessen her confusion. Also, don't put them in the crate. The crate is for teaching them not to go in the house. Also, if you can fit the dog, her bed and a place for her to go to the bathroom, your crate is way too big for her. There should only be enough room for her to turn around in there and lie down. If you're going to be away a long time and want to leave her a place to go to the bathroom, you should sequester her in the laundry room or bathroom with her pad, not the crate.

[Luvit73]

Good ideas there from Lessica . Also , you could try to take Lexy outside right after you give her food and water , and once out there , don't come back in until she goes . Once she does , be sure to praise her , and then go back inside right away - so she understands that the purpose of her being out there , was to go potty .

Welcome to the forum .

[GretaJack]

Oh a Westie. I love westies. I had one until I was 17. What spunky little dogs. I have ideas for you but I will have to come back later. I am at work, customer just walked in.

[BabyElephant]

The other thing I would add is not to use paper and puppy training pads. I ONLY use training pads and they are great, and I make sure that they are only ever in one place. So, like you I sometimes have to be gone all day. I put her crate in the kitchen and the training pad in the same place in the kitchen. She sleeps in her crate and so can come and go as she wants in and out of the crate all day. She uses the training pads if she needs to - if ever I forget to put one down, she will still use the same place. She has never done #2 in the house at all. She used to be crated at night but I don't do that now, she has free run of the kitchen - I don't allow her to sleep on the bed - don't start doing this unless you want it to continue for the rest of her life!

I would also suggest that you thoroughly clean the crate to get rid of any possible smell (they are attracted to use the same place once they have done it there once) and then partition the crate so she can only turn round (like Lessica said).

Have you got anyone who can pop in at lunchtime to let her out? I did that for quite a few weeks after I got my puppy.

As Luvit said for getting her to go outside, take her out first thing in the morning and stand with her and give her a command to go (I use "go pee pee" for #1 and "go toilet" for #2). Give her heaps of praise when she does something. If she doesn't go, take her back in, give her some food & water and 10 minutes after this take her outside again - stand with her - don't leave her on her own. If she doesn't eat her food within 20 minutes, remove it, don't leave it down. When you get home, same thing - outside, commands. Feed, outside, commands she will get there. (One thing you might want to do is to put one of her #2 outside where you would like her to go - she should then be attracted to use that place - I know it might sound disgusting but it should work).

Sorry for the long post, but hope this helps.

[hull0001]

I have tried putting the paper outside and she did nothing. It was even soiled. How can I cutdown on the size of the crate? Any suggestions? Would it be wrong to not feed her until the evening when I get home? That would cutdown on how much she goes during the day. I'm only giving her 1/2 cup dry food in the a.m. and 1/2 cup in the p.m. Also, do you feel it's ok to crate her day and night. Hopefully she will not bark too much. I think she barks for a while and then settles down after we are gone. Thanks for all your help.

[BabyElephant]

Mmm, ideally at that age they should be getting 3-4 meals a day. So it depends on what the breeder was doing. I kept Poppy to the same schedule as the breeder for a couple of weeks, but if you can't get home at lunchtime or can't get anybody to pop in then I would suggest the following:

1 meal after taking her out to potty first thing in the morning, 1 meal as soon as you have taken her out to potty when you get home, 1 meal 3 hours later. Weigh your pup, read the packaging, then weigh out what she should be getting everyday then divide that by three meals. Also don't let her have access to water for about an hour before you go to bed and don't put water & food in the crate. You could put a kong in there though stuffed with her food, peanut butter etc to keep her busy during the day (make sure you take the food out of her daily food allowance).

Crating day and night is fine IF you give her heaps of attention and stimulation when you are there. But you will probably find that she won't be able to go 8 hours without needing to go potty until she is a bit older (some members suggest 1 hour for every month of age, others say they had puppies that could go for 2 hours for every month of age - it just depends on your puppy).

You can section off the crate with cardboard boxes, if your puppy isn't destructive. It is probably going to be very difficult to get her out of this habbit as she probably now feels that the crate is the place that she has to go potty. You need to persevere, don't relent and put the training pads back in the crate, put them in the same place, day and night and keep taking her to them or outside. She will get the hang of it eventually.

As for the barking, you need to make going in to the crate a good experience, there's loads of other posts on here about crate training - you could look them up too.

[SouthPaw]

That is too small a puppy to not feed that long of a time period. Your housebreaking may take longer but her health must come first. Do you have a good book on Dogs for reference? The library should have some good reading material and you'll enjoy them.
I like Baby's plan. Barracade the kitchen, use the piddle pads but leave food/water available for your little one.

[Moo]

House breaking bites. For long periods, I would try having the crate in a bigger pen, in the kitchen. The crate partitioned, with paper outside in a corner of the pen. I usually disagree with paper/pad detours, but time issues, and that's better than having him messing up the crate. Then I would definitely crate for nights. That's when I find the crate most helpful. No water within a few hours of bed time, and a trip out before bed and you should have a good 6-hour night. The crate can be in your bedroom at night.

[erdog3]

First up you are expecting too much too soon.
12 weeks minimum for full bladder control, so before that age forget it. You are wasting your time expecting anything else than what you have...A DISASTER!!
Starting from scratch: Yes if you can't let her out every 2 hours day and night, you are going to have a soiled crate!! Don't expect anything less.
It would take a 6 month old dog..NO LESS to be expected to wait at least 8 hours to be let out to pee/poop without an accident in the crate.
So for starters you are going to have to allow for this. (That is one thing I don't get with Americans...this crate thing...us in oz just don't do it. Crates are for transporting, not keeping a dog in day and night). Anyway difference of opinion here, not helping you very much. But that is your problem, too much too soon.
What you are trying to do is crate train, housebreak in one go, all in its 9 weeks of age, look at the pups point of view, what is it supposed to do. We don't expect our own babies to go on the loo till 2, so why expect a pup to do it before 3 months.
Just like our children...So are puppies, we have to teach. If you are not there to teach at least during the daytime, then it is going to take you longer.
So unless you can go home and let that pup out every 2 hours during the day, save yourself a lot of heartache and mess, and prepare for the pee and poop. Put down paper for him/her to go on, he/her won't go outside if he/her goes inside..full stop.
he/her doesn't know why you are putting he/her outside for, more likely is looking at you in wondermont, waiting for the next step in total confusion...like, are we out here to play or what???
So give away any training in the crate till at least 12 weeks of age. Sorry, it is too early, too soon, your pup is not old enough!!