Newbie in OHIO

[Dalra102007]

Hello all,
For Christmas 2006 my sister got me a Boston Terrier puppy.
It was a great suprise. We have a male named Buddy, he is 6 yrs old.
We named the puppy Darla, she is 7 month old now.
For the most part she's a great puppy. However I'm having a problem, I have tryed several things with her and nothing is helping.
She makes a mess in her crate every night...

I take her outside several time before bed, she will go and still she's made a mess every morning.

PLEASE HELP I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO !!!

Thanks
TD

[Swiftwind]

Hi, welcome to Global Paw!

There could be a number of factors contributing to her messing her crate every night. It would be a good idea to look at the type of food you're feeding her. Does it give her an upset stomach, how many times on average does she need to poo/pee each day? If she's pooing a lot, then something might not be going down right with her. She might be having trouble digesting her food properly. Is she house trained apart from urinating or pooing in her crate?

Try having set times that you take her out during the day/night. Always take her out around half an hour after she's finished eating, so she knows to expect that she'll be let out then. How long is she kept in her crate for at night?

Some dogs just take longer to housetrain than others (it was that way with my Chihuahua), especially the smaller breeds. Don't give up, your hard work will pay off sooner or later!

[DogLover8]

Welcome to GP!

[calgal]

Maybe she's getting too much to eat during the day. What I did form mine when house training was to attach an expen to the front of the crate, cover the crate with a blanket to make it more den-like, put a wee-wee pad at the opposite end and put in a stuffed toy and a femur bone or some other chewy that can't be eaten. During the day I took the puppy outside every hour to potty and play.

[Rivsky]

Welcome to GP!

[Sophie45]

Hmmm...couple of questions.
You said that you take her out every night, but how long until you "cut her off"? When I was housebreaking Sophie, I removed her water around 9, and last time out at night was around 11:30-ish, so she had a few hours to get it out of her system. Even though they go when you take them out, it doesn't mean that she's emptying her bladder.
Has she been seeing the vet regularly? Any health concerns?
How big is the crate? A dog should only have enough room to stand up and turn around in. Dogs have an innate desire to keep their "den" (crate) clean. Does she have enough room to go potty in the corner, but not have to lay in it? Given a choice, most pups will hold rather than lay in their urine/feces, but not always. (especially if they are desperate, didn't get to empty their bladder, is suffering from severe anxiety, etc.)
Does your pup like her crate? Does she cry, bark, struggle to get out, etc? Or is she happy and content, walking in willingly, able to sleep soundly in it?
I do agree that seven months can be kind of on the young side for a small breed pup to be fully housebroken, but most don't want to mess in their crate, so maybe something else is going on...

[IceyBlueSibes]

Welcome!

By mess, do you mean Pee, poop, or both?

You can try taking up food and water after 7 at night. This way by the time she goes out for her last potty break, she shouldn't have anything else left "waiting" so-to-speak.