Question:
Hello. My name is Dave. We have a 3 month old chocolate Lab who just will not stop urinating in the house. It has been on and off when we first got her and thought she would grow out of it but it appears to be getting worse. We've had her to the Vets at 2 months with a clean bill of health. We take her back next week for another check-up. We have cleaned the carpets/floors with cleaners and vinegar as some other pet owners have recommended to eliminate the odor. I will ask the Vets about a possible bladder infection but we take her out plenty so she shouldn't be going in the house so often. Can anyone please give us some advice for our puppy? Thanks, Dave.

Answer:
Does she do it while you are home or only when she is alone? Also, is she crate trained? One last question, is she a rescue, bought from a breeder or a pet store dog? Reason I am asking is if she was bought from a pet store you will probably be in for a tough road ahead because these dogs are used to just eliminating wherever they are. If you can give some more info, I'm sure there will be a lot of responses for you. Also, welcome to the forum and we would love to see pictures.

Answer:
She was bought from a breeder. She does it while we're at home because when we leave for work or just go out to eat we put her in a cage. Her cage has been clean, God bless her heart, for about three to four weeks now. When we first got her she was a total mess when we got home. We didn't get mad because she is in that cage for about 10 hours M-F. She finally quit doing #2 but occasionally does #1 but we keep training pads in the cage. She has been chewing them up pretty bad so we stopped using the training pads in the cage. We did go to Pet Smart to purchase some of that Nature's Miracle as mentioned in some other suggestions. Her routine has been to eat around 5:30-6:00 a.m. go out for a walk until she does both, then in the cage around 7:00 a.m. She is in there until about 5:30 P.M. Sometimes she is completely dry, and sometimes just a little wet but not STOOL messy. That is one accomplishment so far but in the past month she just seems to go whenever and where ever she wants to. We take her out several times a night too. Anymore suggestions would be much appreciated. I'm trying to attach a picture but can't figure it out. I may have done it. Her name is Bella. Thanks, Dave.

Answer:
I think you're expecting too much from this puppy. At three months, there's no way a dog can hold her bladder unless you are scaring her into doing so. Honestly, for her future bladder and kidney health, I really wouldn't expect a pup to hold it that long. When I had the two puppy fosters here, they would go on the pee pads about 20 times a day and they were perfectly healthy.

What you have is a puppy. Puppies pee. Puppies have tiny bladders with weak muscles. That's just what puppies are all about.

Answer:
Your baby is gorgeous. She is so cute.

Anyway, at her age ten hours is definitely a bit too long to be by herself. Is there anyway you can stop home at lunch and let her out or have a dog walker come by for about fifteen minutes. She needs something to break up the day a bit. Just remember three months is still very young. She is a baby. We adopted my dog when she was around 4-5 months old and it took us a good 5 months before she was fully potty trained. Some dogs pick it up faster than others. So just be patient with her, she is just doing what puppies do. You seem to be doing a great job with her.

Answer:
It sounds to me like she has recognized the crate as the bed and everywhere else as the place you can go.

I STRONGLY encourage you to find someone who can come and give puppy a break twice a day, even once would be better than a 10 hour day of trying to hold it. This can lead to serious kidney problems as she gets older.

Bella, ( my grandma's name ) needs to know that the house is part of her bed area. You can do this by using wee pads in the areas she is currently peeing and moving them closer to doors and then finally outside. I think going back to basics here is a good idea.
She will get the idea to pee on the pads and then to go out. It may just take a little time.Potty training can take up a year , others get it right away.
If she is used to being in a small space all day, she also may want a smaller space when she is free. Try keeping her in a room with you and slowly expanding her freedom. This will again help her to understand where is house and where to relieve herself. Too much freedom causes confusion as to where and when to go etc.

My 18 month old and 12 year old can't g for 10 hours without peeing either. it is normal for them to go a lot while they are that little.

I can only imagine how cute she is. I really hope you find a way for t have a little freedom from the crate during the day.

Kimmee

Answer:
First of all, Bella is really cute.

Secondly, I agree with all the others. You cannot expect Bella to be able to hold her pee that long. You need to get a neighbour, friend or someone to come over and take her out or else put her in daycare.

Answer:
I just wanted to mention a good general rule of thumb regarding pups & alone time....

1 hr per month old is the amount of time a pup should be left w/out a potty break.

3 mths = 3 hrs MAXIMUM.

after that 3 hrs, Bella will need some attention and most definately a chance to go outside to do her business. Also, this really helps train - frequent potty breaks outside along with positive praise leads to a housetrained pup sooner than later.

When I got my dog (he was 8 wks) my bf and I rearranged our work schedules to accommodate our pup until he was housebroken/crate trained. I crated the pup at 8am, my bf came home for a break at 10am, recrated at 10:30am, he came home again at Noon, recrated at 1pm, then I came home at 3pm. As our pup grew, learned his business belongs outside, and built up bladder control we GRADUALLY increased the time spent in the crate. we went from 2 hrs, to 3 hrs, to 4 hrs, etc...

Bella is adorable by the way!

Answer:
I was waiting for someone to post the age in mo = hours "rule".

However... I wanted to point out that it sounds like Bella is urinating *when the guardians are home*, which is really a matter of needing to train the trainer.
A pup of her age needs to be taught the rules. She will also send signals to tell you what's going on with her. She'll whine, circle, start sniffing, start squatting or do *something* to signal that she needs to pee. She won't just all of a sudden let loose a squirt of pee. Your job is to keep your eye on her at all times that you're home, and when you see any of these signals, then you rush her to the place outside you want her to pee and give her a command "go potty" or "tinkle" or whatever you choose. Since you've recognized that she needs to pee, she likely will. While she's peeing, you repeat "good tinkle" (obviously replace tinkle with your word of choice) until she's done, and then praise her with exuberant "good tinkle Bella!!!" and pets, hugs, treats, or whatever you use to teach her other commands.

It won't take long for a labrador puppy to understand that peeing outside = praise. You also need to correct her if she starts to pee indoors (which is actually your mistake so don't get mad at her!). A sharp "No!" and quickly taking her outside and telling her "tinkle" is enough. Do *not* correct her (in any way shape or form) if you do not catch her in the act. Puppies (and many would argue grown up dogs) don't understand what they did wrong if you correct them even 5 seconds after it's done. Rubbing their nose in it teaches them that you want them to *eat* their messes. Saying "bad tinkle" after the fact will teach her that it's bad to pee around you, and she will start to be afraid of peeing in places that you'll find--this can lead to her refusing to pee while on leash outdoors, and can result in her finding places to hide her pee indoors (in plants, under couches, in laundry hampers, etc). So you do *not* want to correct her after the fact.

Ok, so how do you watch her all the time and know what her signals are? Well, first, you take her out as soon as you get home, first thing in the morning, last thing before bed, after every 20 minutes of play, after every nap, within 20 minutes of eating or drinking (good job making sure she's empty before you leave, by the way), and then whenever else you think she might need to go. Yes it's a lot, but it won't be forever. Also make sure that if you're not directly supervising her (or the other person or people who make up the "we" in your post) that she is on a leash attached to someone's waist so that she can't wander away and find her own place to pee. Chances are much better that if you don't notice her "signs", then at least you'll be around to correct her and rush her outside when she starts to pee.
What also helps, is if you hang a jingle bell on a string near the door(s) that you take her out, and make her ring the bell (push with her nose or hit it with her feet) before she goes out, and then reward her for that. Eventually you will have a dog who goes to the door and rings the bell for you to let her out. There is only one problem with this, and that's when your dog starts to ring the bell as a way for you to let her out when she doesn't need to pee, just wants to go out. If you train her to ring the bell, go out for a pee or poo and then come back in, she won't learn that the bell means generalized outdoor time. I trained my dog to do this and it's worked really well for me. We have the bell beside our glass patio door as the dog run is attached to it (small dog so we step over the gate that contains him). Once when I came home and had my hands full, I was able to get him to ring the bell through the door so that my bf came up and opened the door. Neat trick! The reason this is good is that unless you teach them to do *something* when they need to go out, they'll often just go sit near the door and wait for you to figure it out. If you don't notice it soon enough, you can end up with a mess in front of the door. If you're really motivated, you can even modify a wireless doorbell chime to be attached to the jingle bell and then you'll be able to hear it throughout the house. Or you can buy one of these (which have the advantage of being portable to other's homes if you're visiting someone):
Lentek Pet Chime
Pet 2 Ring

It is very important that you teach her both how to recognize when it's time to pee and where you want her to pee (ie not in the house). Confining her to her crate for so long at such a young age could cause her to not understand that she needs to keep her "den" clean, as she is physically unable to wait 10 hours to pee. As a result of this, she might also end up learning that it's ok to pee in the house, even if you do everything you can to house train her. It's a pain, yes, but even if you could get her out in the middle of the day so she only has to be in there 5 hours at a time, it'd make a big difference. Maybe you have a neighbour who's home during the day or works night shift or maybe you need to hire a dog-walking service. At least for the summer, if you can find a child in your neighbourhood that you trust, maybe that would work. But you also have to teach her to recognize when she needs to go pee (which is why you take her out so often, just "in case"), and in so doing, you'll teach her the proper places to pee.

Now... since you're on the road to having this problem fixed, I'd highly recommend that you get your carpets professionally steam cleaned with a shampoo formulated to get rid of pet odours if she's even peed on them once--there could be other spots that you don't know about. If you don't have carpets, make sure that you thoroughly clean your flooring with an enzymatic cleaner (sounds like you already have some of this, but check to make sure it's enzymatic and not just filled with perfumes). Once all the odours are out of the house, it'll be much easier for Bella to understand where it's ok to go--outside (where it smells like pee!).

I hope this helps. She is still very young and this process may take a long time, and even after she's been perfect indoors for some time, there may be the ocassional accident. Be patient and consistent and you'll be rewarded. She looks like an awesome dog and I'm sure she will be! (Also make sure she's getting into puppy classes somewhere to learn how to behave while she's still small enough to be manageable)

Good luck and please keep us posted on her progress.
Melissa

Answer:
I'm sorry it's been so long before replying but it's been so busy. Bella is doing much better. I've read all of the replies and I deeply appreciate all the advice. We put wee wee pads in her cage which is fairly large so she does go on this pad throughout the day. At least she isn't trying to hold it all day. She rips it up though some days just like any ornery pup would I guess. I believe the weekend I started writing to you all was when we sat for our daughters larger Lab. Bella was really being a pest to our daughters dog Kirbie. They BOTH had accidents in the house. Kirbie didn't get mean with her or anything but I just think they were both trying make a point or something. Kirbie hardly EVER goes in the house unless she has eaten something that didn't agree with her. Yes, my daughter has given her people food, but Bella NEVER gets it. There's a long story about Kirbie and my daugther I'll have to share without boring you all but there is a big love connection between Kirbie and my daughter. Anyway, we have been working with Bella who (knock on wood) hasn't had an accident for a few days now. Thank you all and may God Bless. Dave.

Answer: