| Duchess does not sleep in a crate...she sleeps on our beds...and chills on the bed or the couch when we are gone.
When she was a puppy we kept her in a crate when we went somewhere or went to sleep...It was a real big crate...so in order to prevent her from getting up and going potty in a spot and then coming back and laying down to sleep..we made a divider...that only gave her enough room to lay down in it. She never had an accident...and would sleep from 12am-6am straight. During the day we would take her out to go potty after she 1. Ate 2. Played 3. Slept and never went any longer than 45 minutes without letting her out in the grass...Like I said we no longer use the crate we stopped using the crate when we go to bed at 5-6 months old..(she knows how to use the doggie door by then) but we still kept her in the crate when we were out of the house till she was probably 7-9 months...but she would view her crate as somewhere that prevents her from being with us...she would rather lay on the couch next to us or on our laps. Since we have the doggie door she never had an accident. First we had to train her to be okay with going on concrete...so that was difficult...b.c she learned to do it with grass the whole time. she thought it would be wrong if she went on the concrete...so i was just standing there saying "Duchess go potty" while I KNEW she REALLY had to go but she was shaking and holding it. We started to train her to be okay with going on concrete by taking her for a walk around the block whenever we thought she might want to go pee...and when she did "GOOD PUPPY!" so then one night we were sitting at the dinner table and we heard the doggy door open and close...next thing we know duchess is prancing in all proud!! lol however, the bad thing is since we have the doggy door she forgets that she has to hold it until we let her out outside at my friends house sometimes. So when were over there its like she is a puppy all over again...always letting the out in the yard. and she doesnt tell us when she needs to go b.c she is use to being independent and so she must be like "hmmm where is my doggy door???...well i guess here will have to do"
lol she is getting better with telling us though she will start pacing and walking around the house. Duchess goes pretty fast on different surfaces since we trained her in the grass and then for concrete...she will always pee atleast once around the block and is okay with making mommy work and have to pick up her poo every once and awhile. *additional comment* When Duchess was a puppy up till atleast a little over a year she would piddle a little when she was real excited to see people. Your not suppose to punish for puppy piddles...or else it will get worse i heard...so we just cleaned it up after. while we would try teaching "settle" a little.
__________________  |