Expert: Jody Epstein, APDT - 1/26/2012

Question
QUESTION: I have a 4 year old female French bulldog. We got her 2 and 1/2 months ago from a breeder.
She was kenneled her whole life with her sister and learned to go to the bathroom on towels...as I was told by the breeders. I never got to see her den. (i feel it was cruel)
She learned to go "potty" outside by the 3rd day of having her and had very few #2 accidents because we had to get on her #2 schedule.
We decided that it would be best to crate her while we are at work and over night to avoid accidents in the house and from her previous life being kenneled. We tried to let her roam the kitchen the first day while we were at work and she was too anxious and went #1 and #2 several times throughout the day on the floor. Puppy pads never worked. Towels did, but she went next to them or half on them and half off. We know this because we recorded her. We got the crate that night.
She was still going #1 in her crate during the day and at night.
A month ago we found out that she had a bladder infection and fixed that. She has now stopped going during the day, she does get a walk mid-day when my boyfriend comes home for lunch.
She is still going at night. We have tried taking away her water after her dinner at 4pm. Also, walking her right before bed and a walk after dinner. She still goes. I cannot trust her to be alone at the house because she will spray a little if I'm in the shower and she is left alone even with the door open.
We were blessed with her not becoming a chewer.She will not leave my side, I rarely need a leash for her on walks, I only use them for safety reasons.
I would really like her to stop going in her crate at night.
I do keep towels in there with her. I have used her bed and she still goes, so I don't think it is a towel issue.
Please give me any and all info on what to do as I do not want her to keep this up.

ANSWER: Thank you for your question. You are dealing with a puppy mill dog - a dog who was housed in a crate pretty much 24/7 for the first 4 years of her life. She was forced to go potty in her living space and so this became a learned behavior. It can be extremely difficult to work through all of the issues that puppy mill dogs come with (be they puppies who were sold or retired breeder dogs).

I'm impressed that she has been comfortable enough to go outside at all, and that she feels comfortable moving around your house. I'm not at all surprised that she clings to you when you're home. The world is a scary place when your entire world was a crate consisting of about 4 square feet.

I wouldn't pick up her water quite so early. 4pm until the following morning is a long time to go without water. I would pick it up about 2 hours before her bedtime, though. So if you're putting her to bed at 10pm, the water should be picked up around 8pm.

The best way to help her learn to hold it all night - and unlearn the unfortunate behavior of going where she lives - we need to adjust our nights.

Is her crate in your bedroom? Does she make any noise such as whimpering at night when she needs to potty? That would be a great start if she does give a signal. But, even if she doesn't we can work through this.

The timeline I'm going to give is an example. You should adjust this to your personal schedule.

If her bedtime is 10pm and yours is midnight, then walk her just before her bedtime. Then, just before YOUR bedtime, get her up and take her potty again. Then, for the next month - yes, four full weeks - set your alarm for 3am and take her potty. You should get up every 3 - 4 hours with her during the night for the next month.

You will be able to adjust this a bit during the first week. If you find that when you got up at 3am she had already gone potty, then set the alarm for 2am the next night. Adjust until you are able to get ahead of the potty. This allows you to anticipate her need and get her to the right place rather than allowing her to go in her crate.

On the flip side, if you take her potty at one of these middle-of-the-night potties and she just clearly doesn't need to go, adjust that same night to get up just an hour later and try again. This will allow you to figure out how long between potties she really can go. You may find during that first week that you really only need to get up once or twice per night rather than 3 or 4 times per night.

Once you get that schedule worked out during the first week, continue that same schedule for the next 3 weeks. When you have had NO accidents in the crate for a month, then you can start weaning her so that you'll be able to get her through the night. To do this, you'll shift your alarm by just 10-15 minutes. If you've been getting up at 3AM, you'll shift to 3.10AM or 3.15AM. If she successfully holds it until you get up with her, then stay at this new time for 2 weeks. Then shift again by 10-15 minutes. Make this adjustment for each time during the night that you have to get up with her.

If you make that shift to 3.15 and find that she did potty during that 15-minute window, then back up. Go back to 3AM for a week, then shift the alarm just 3 minutes per week - so long as she continues to be successful.

It will take time. It may take several months, but if you're patient and consistent in this, she will learn to hold it longer and longer - knowing that you will in fact come to her 'rescue' to take her potty. She may even start to cue you, if she isn't already, when she needs to go and you're pushing it by a few minutes. That's a huge milestone when she becomes proactive and tells you she needs to potty!

Ideally, you will get her to be able to go 7 - 8 hours over night. This is considered all night.

There may be some setbacks during this process. Don't fret. Just back up so you're getting her up a little earlier so you can get ahead of it again and then, after at least 7 consecutive nights of success, start pushing the time again, but more slowly. At worst, you're pushing it by literally just 1 minute per week. Likely you'll be able to push it 10 - 15 minutes per week for a few weeks and then may be able to push it by 20 - 30 minutes each week. You'll have to figure that out based on your dog's personal needs.

I hope this proves helpful. Please feel free to write again if I can be of further assistance.

Jody, APDT
Los Angeles Behaviorist
http://gooddog-dogtraining.com


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Night 1 seemed to work last night. Thank-you!

I'm having another issue recently.

She is starting to go to the bathroom (#1) on the bedroom floor. The only room with carpet. It seems that if I do not pay attention to her for a couple of minutes, then it happens. I don't see her do it, so I cannot correct the problem. She was taken out and went to the bathroom an hour before this happened. She gets plenty of outside walks...4 a day or more.

I'm worried that it is behavioral.

Our schedule is as follows:

am wake up. Take Knodel(dog) for #1 and #2 walk.
Feed and water
Crate from 7:30ish
Boyfriend comes home to walk Knodel around 12noon for #1 walk.
water if she wants...it is always out until evening.
Crate until p.m.
Feed and water, walk #1
hang out with her or go run errand in the car etc.
Walk before bed around p.m. #1 and #2
Her #2 has been happening on every walk for the past few days.
We are now adding in the middle night walk as well.

I'm at a loss and feeling more anger towards the breeders. Do you think it is just behavior.
Crate until p.m.

Answer
Could you please go through your schedule again and provide actual times. Currently you have "crate until p.m." and "walk before bed around p.m." but no actual times other than she's back in her crate at 7.30ish in the morning.

Ideally, our goal is to give her more and more freedom so that she doesn't spend the rest of her life crated all day long.

There may be adjustments to her potty schedule as she settles into the new home and begins to feel more secure. When dogs are stressed/anxious/nervous/tense it can effect their bowel and bladder habits. So the change in her pooping schedule may be related to relaxing in your home or a change in diet or just the adjusting routine of your daily schedule with her.

Once you provide a more detailed schedule of your day (with all actual/approximate times noted), I will then comment on the new issue and how we might address all of it.

I look forward to your prompt reply.

Jody, APDT
Los Angeles Behaviorist
http://gooddog-dogtraining.com