# Help with 9-week old schnoodle



## newtoschnoodles (Oct 2, 2014)

We adopted an 8-week old schnoodle puppy about a week and a half ago. To say the least, things have been rough as expected. We have done so much research on how to house train a puppy, but we are unsure if what we are doing is right and could use any advice anyone could give us. 

Initially, our plan was to use a long-term confinement area in our living room. We bought a 4x4 foot pen and set it up in our living room, and inside we put a small crate (the smallest we could find), a puppy pad, toys, food and water. We had been placing him in the pen whenever we can't keep an eye on him-- while fixing breakfast, cooking dinner, chores, etc. We were also leaving him in there while we are at work. I leave at 8, come home at 12, leave at 1, and come back around 4, so he's not home by himself for more than 4 hours at a time. He uses the puppy pad every time and never misses when we're not home if he's in his pen. We live in an apartment complex and wanted to wait until after his second round of shots to start potty training outside. We haven't taken him outside at all except for when we carry him around. 

We are going to start taking him outside to use the bathroom this weekend, at 10 weeks. We realized that if we want him to start going to the bathroom outside, we need to train him to hold it. So we started crating him while I'm at work, and when I come home at lunch I let him out to go potty on his pad, play, and then put him back in the crate. Unfortunately, he has had an accident in his crate the 3/4 days that we have been doing this, and it's mostly poop. He won't poop in the morning before we leave for work on the potty pad because he's too busy whining that he's in his pen while we get ready for work. He won't poop on my lunch break either and I'm not entirely sure why. He doesn't seem to eat much or at any regular schedule. He takes a few nibbles in the morning and then nibbles on the food in the evening but never just sits there and eats his entire bowl. 

We are going to start this schedule on Saturday when we can start taking him outside: 

6:30 AM: take puppy outside, wait for him to eliminate and praise 
6:55 AM: indoor, 100% supervised play time and access to water
7:25 AM: put puppy back in crate with breakfast meal 
7:40 AM: take puppy outside (remove food). wait for him to eliminate and praise 
8:00 AM: put puppy back in crate, leave for work
12:00 PM: take puppy outdoors. wait for him to eliminate and praise
12:15 PM: indoor, 100% supervised play time and access to water 
12:30 PM: put puppy in crate with lunch meal
12:45 PM: take puppy outdoors (remove food), wait for him to eliminate and praise 
1:00 PM: put puppy back in crate, back to work
5:00 PM: take puppy outdoors, wait for him to eliminate and praise 
5:15 PM: play with puppy outdoors
5:30 PM: indoor, 100% supervised play time and access to water
6:00 PM: put puppy in crate and tend to required evening tasks
7:00 PM: take puppy outdoors, wait for him to eliminate and praise
7:15 PM: indoor, 100% supervised play time and access to water
8:00 PM: in crate with evening meal
8:30 PM: take puppy outdoors (remove food), wait for him to eliminate and praise
8:45 PM: indoor, 100% supervised play time and access to water
10:15 PM: last trip outside
10:30 PM: put puppy in crate for the evening 

My question is, once we start doing this schedule, do you think the accidents in the crate with stop? How long after starting this schedule do you think it will work? I know puppies will have accidents in their crate, I just don't want him to learn that it's okay. 

Another problem I'd like some advice on, we have had him for almost two weeks and his whining and crying hasn't stopped yet. He sleeps okay at night some nights, but other nights he wakes up every couple hours crying. We crate him at night in our living room. The first few nights he was here we took turns sleeping out in the living room with him. Now we both sleep in our bedroom and he's in the living room. We are getting up at 3-4 am and letting him out of the crate and onto the pee pad. We will start taking him outside this weekend to do the same thing. 

How long does the nighttime crying last? Anything we can do to lessen it? We live in an apartment complex and we're scared we're going to get a noise complaint. He may only weight 2 pounds but he sounds like a pterodactyl. He also whines when he's in his pen in the living room and we're somewhere else in the apartment. How much longer does this usually last??

I appreciate any advice you can give, thank you!!


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

To me, it sounds like he just really has to poop and since he hasn't gone in the morning, he ends up going in his crate. I think if you take him outside and walk him around until he goes (and he will go eventually), then praise and give a treat, he will get the idea. And if he's going outside reliably before work, he probably won't have an accident in his crate.

As far as sleeping through the night goes, it totally depends on the puppy. Mine did not sleep through the night until 5 months old, but by then he was at least waiting until 5:30 to wake up. When he was young we set an alarm and took him out on a schedule. At first it was 4 hours after we went to sleep, then 5 hours, etc until he was sleeping through the night. I didn't want to ever reward crying in the crate, though I still ended up with a dog who cried in his crate

What do you do when he whines in his pen? The key is to not talk to him or pay any attention to him while he's whining, or he will learn that it's reinforcing to whine (even if you say "no", some attention is better than no attention). When you come back, don't make a big deal out of it, just let him out and ignore him. 

Do you give him anything to chew on while he's in there? A stuffed kong or other chewy will keep him busy and give him positive associations with going in his crate.


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## newtoschnoodles (Oct 2, 2014)

I am really hoping that going outside will change everything. I think once we get him on an outside potty schedule and a feeding schedule (feeding in crate and taking the food away after 15 minutes) he will potty more regularly, does this sound right? I hope the transition from pee pad to outside isn't too rough. 

We don't mind too much getting up at 4 to take him potty. It's just the whining and crying when we put him to bed and when he doesn't have to go to the bathroom or when he just went to the bathroom that's starting to drive us crazy. 

We'd love for him to be comfortable in his pen or crate while we're home or in another room. For example-- I'll be getting dressed in the master bathroom and I can hear him hollering away in the living room. Hopefully in a few more weeks this will stop? Initially we were saying "No!" whenever he whined but now we are trying our best to just ignore it. I try to only open the pen when he has stopped whining for at least a few seconds. We just don't want him roaming the house loose where he could go to the bathroom on things. He needs to stay in a confined area until we get the whole potty outside thing down. 

I've put a stuffed kong (the puppy size) in his crate with him when I leave for work, but today for example I came home and he had pooped in his crate and he had gotten a large portion of it on his kong. It seems like he's not too interested in the kong-- he will lick all the peanut butter off the outside but has a hard time getting to the treats inside. I got the bitty puppy size, but he is only 2 pounds and is very tiny so maybe the puppy kong is still too big. Maybe I should look into a nyla bone?


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

newtoschnoodles said:


> I am really hoping that going outside will change everything. I think once we get him on an outside potty schedule and a feeding schedule (feeding in crate and taking the food away after 15 minutes) he will potty more regularly, does this sound right? I hope the transition from pee pad to outside isn't too rough.


I think going outside will make things much more clear for him. Once you start taking him out I would remove the pee pads entirely.



> We don't mind too much getting up at 4 to take him potty. It's just the whining and crying when we put him to bed and when he doesn't have to go to the bathroom or when he just went to the bathroom that's starting to drive us crazy.


I feel your pain. Mine cried in his crate every night for months. After a while it was just 5-10min when we first put him in, but it did not go away after a few days or weeks like it does for many people. But he has always tended towards separation anxiety so I think it was his personality more than anything. Just keep doing what you're doing.



> We just don't want him roaming the house loose where he could go to the bathroom on things. He needs to stay in a confined area until we get the whole potty outside thing down.


Totally understandable. Just keep putting him in the crate and coming and going from room to room as it nothing out of the ordinary has happened. It also took my dog forever to get the hang out being confined to a room away from us though. Not to make you panic, just to say that if your puppy has a hard time with this it may just be him. But you are doing the right thing by ignoring him now. It may just take him a bit longer to get it since you did pay attention to the whining at first by saying "no".


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## newtoschnoodles (Oct 2, 2014)

How long does it normally take a puppy to get used to going outside and getting on a regular feeding schedule? Should I continue keeping him in his crate when I'm gone even though he may have an accident (as opposed to letting him be loose in his pen with puppy pad and crate)?


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Dogs, especially little ones, don't have full bladder control until 6 months so I would not be too hasty to get rid of the crate. It's always better to prevent accodents if you can


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## newtoschnoodles (Oct 2, 2014)

Thanks for answering my questions! It does help me feel better that we're going to be doing the right thing. I can't wait until this weekend when we can start taking him outside. I plan on going on long walks with him too so hopefully that will get a lot of the energy out of him. Crossing my fingers that the whining will stop soon, it will be two weeks this weekend. He is fine when we're in the room but when we leave it's a huge issue... we live in an apartment complex and we're worried we're going to get a noise complaint! 

How many crate accidents would be considered "normal" while we're transitioning him from puppy pad to outside? When should we be worried that he's not getting the idea?


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## pinksand (Dec 11, 2013)

You’ve already been given great advice. I’ll just second that I think eliminating pee pads will help make things clearer for him. I also agree that having him on a feeding schedule should also put him on a potty schedule, at least that’s what I’ve experienced. You have a small, young puppy… it’s going to take time to get him to gain bladder control and to be able to sleep through the night. I really think the crate is your best tool for housebreaking when you aren't able to supervise. You also may need to make adjustments when you notice he's had an accident. For example, planning to spend more time outside before you leave if needed. I noticed that the whole process meant that we needed to constantly adapt as he grew up too. 

If he isn't eating well on a schedule, maybe try making the food more enticing by adding a bit of yogurt or sprinkle of cheese? It might help him eat when you want him to so that he'll in turn poop when you want him to. Just a thought...? My dog acts like he's constantly ravenous so that's not something we had to deal with. However, my dog growing up had lupus and a side effect was lack of appetite, so we'd add all kinds of things to her food to get her to eat. 

As far as the crying goes, memories of this is what keeps my puppy fever in check. It’s horrible, I can sympathize! We’d only respond when we thought that he had to go outside. Then we’d take him out for business only, no playing or exploring. We also worked on a “go potty” command to let him know what we wanted from him. As soon as he went he got a treat and went straight back to his crate. He’d yelp and cry once back in his crate and my husband and I would have to look at each other for reassurance that we had to be strong and not give into the urge to take him out and cuddle him. His crying bouts got shorter and shorter and slowly he was able to hold it through the night longer, and eventually entirely. At the time it feels like forever, but I’m a firm believer in consistency and I think it really does pay off and is essential to surviving puppyhood.

We had a lot of trouble with him crying in the crate when we were walking around or leaving the room. Honestly, he still can’t stand for doors to be closed. He’s just a Velcro dog and wants to be with me at all times. Once I could trust that he wouldn’t get into trouble, this got a lot easier. In time (months for us) he learned that we are going to leave the house, it could be 10 minutes or 8 hours, but we’re coming back. He doesn’t bark at all when we leave. He’d yelp in the beginning, then he’d just cry, and now he’s perfectly fine when we leave him with a Kong. He knows the drill and goes straight to where he’s supposed to go to wait for the kong. It all took time, and a lot of it comes down to your individual dog’s personality. I think you also learn how to adapt and make things work for your routine.


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