Needs Out When Loose Not When Crated

[krissy]

Okay, super annoying thing that Kili does. She is just fine in her crate for 5-10 hours (during the day about 5 hours because I come home for lunch, if we go for an outing we might leave her for 8, overnight on weekends might be 10). And she is not desperate to go out at any of these intervals if she was given sufficient chance to empty.

 

But, if we are home and she's out loose, she asks to go out almost every hour. She gets all frantic and attacks the baby gate to the kitchen (backyard door is in the kitchen) and runs around the house whining and freaking out. If I let her out she'll go out and pee, but hardly seems desperate once she's out the door. If I ignore her she will typically eventually chill out.

 

And it's not like she doesn't get out often enough. She goes out first thing in the morning when we go for our walk. Then I go to work. I come home at lunch to let them out and do some training and then go back to work. After work they go out again and we train or hike or jog or something else. Then ideally I would just let them out again before bed. However, in the 3 hours between our evening activity and bed she will usually want to go out at least 2 more times.

 

She is not tanking on water, she does not have a UTI. I do wonder if her ability to hold it has been compromised by all the UTIs she had as a pup. However she has never had an accident in her crate since having surgery to correct her problem. which leads me to believe that she has simply decided that someone is home, she has a little bit of a bladder and she COULD go out for a pee... so why not? Or is this just normal for some dogs? I've never had a female before and I'm used to Summit's iron bladder. He will choose to hold it 16 hours if the weather is miserable. Anyone else have a dog that does this?

[OwnedBySummer]

We go out every couple of hours because I'm home, more if we're camping because we're outside anyway and I like to walk her through the campgrounds. So for us it's normal. That being said, though, I *can* leave her for 6 hours or so (never tried any longer than that). I believe if they are sleeping, that they concentrate their urine much better = can hold it for longer just like we can when we're sleeping. But if they're awake they need to go more, just like us -- and some are better than others.

 

Forgot to add: Summer will also often bug to go out and she certainly doesn't need to. She'll have a little pee. But what she really wanted to do was just go outside. In nice weather, she wants to flat dog. But nowadays in the cooler fall weather, she wants to just wander about, chase squirrels, have a zoomie, sniff the air and, if it's dry enough, lie down and survey the terrain.

Edited October 27, 2013 by OwnedBySummer

[krissy]

Forgot to add: Summer will also often bug to go out and she certainly doesn't need to. She'll have a little pee. But what she really wanted to do was just go outside. In nice weather, she wants to flat dog. But nowadays in the cooler fall weather, she wants to just wander about, chase squirrels, have a zoomie, sniff the air and, if it's dry enough, lie down and survey the terrain.

This is more what I think the problem might be.

 

I realize that she'll do better overnight when she's sleeping. I don't expect her to go 10 hours when she's loose at home with us. I would EXPECT 5 hours to be reasonable, but we're home so less would be ok. I think 3 hours is totally reasonable. I think every hour is a little ridiculous. I don't really think she HAS to pee every hour if she is perfectly capable of 5-8 hours in her crate?

[Batmom]

She probably doesn't have to pee every hour but she will have to pee more often -- and maybe as often as 2-3 hours -- if she is up on her feet doing stuff. Could be partly the novelty of it, too. If she doesn't often have the chance to just monkey around at home, it'll take her a bit to figure out what she can do, what she's supposed to do, etc. when she's out of her crate but nothing much is going on.

 

If the weather is nice, mine like to go outside every 3 hours or so. If not nice, they'll hibernate. But they're older.

[greysmom]

More than likely it's just a habit - they get so schedule oriented so easily! Mine jump up every time I flush the toilet - because they go out after I flush the toilet. Not every time, but certainly often enough that they take that as a cue to get excited for going o-u-t. And Lilly will definitely become very stubborn about going out at specific times, even though she doesn't have to go, and likely won't go if I take her out. She just wants to go out and play!

[NeylasMom]

You said if you ignore her, she settles? As in she doesn't have an accident? If so, I'd say she just knows if she acts like that she'll get let out, which is way more fun than staying in. If you think she might have to go, pay NO attention to her, just quietly snap on a leash, take her outside, tell her to go potty and if she does, praise her and bring her right back in. If she doesn't go relatively immediately then just bring her back in and ignore it the next time.

[krissy]

The thing is... it's really hard to ignore her because when she was a pup if you ignored her chances were she'd have an accident. So now even though I'm like "you can't possibly have to go out" in the back of my mind I'm thinking "maybe she has a UTI starting up" or "maybe she can't hold it as long because of all the UTIs she had".

 

She's a good actress... I mean she looks DESPERATE. Normally I just let her out in the yard, but I guess we could go back to basics and only go out on lead. It's not like she does much else when she's out there anyway. If she goes sniffing around I call her back into the house. But yeah, we can try on lead again.

[NeylasMom]

Well...your other option is to manage her somehow inside so she can't practice that. You could crate her for periods, or confine her to the room you're in away from the door and then reward her frequently for laying calmly, chewing in a chew toy, anything you DO want her to do. When you think its nearing the time she might start, ask her to go to her bed and give her a stuffed frozen Kong or play a puzzle game. Etc. Whatever works for you, point being you need to do something to stop or preferably prevent the behavior and then reward her generously for doing what you do want or she'll have no motivation to change it.