# Peeing in crate as soon as the door opens



## komi (Apr 27, 2009)

I have a 15 week old Bernese Mountain Dog puppy, and I have a crate for her in the bedroom upstairs. She has been good about not peeing in her crate until a few days ago - now, as soon as we open the door to the crate, she squats and pees in the crate, or right outside the crate. We immediately tuck her tail and and say NO and carry her downstairs and out the door, but she continues to do this. We have tried to wait until she is completely calm before letting her out, and she does the same thing, regardless of whether its been a few hours since her last potty break, or even just one hour.

Any advice? 

Once this gets taken care of, I'd like to also stop carrying her down the stairs to go out - we try to have her walk down the stairs and out the door with us, but she always stops at the top of the stairs and then pees. She's getting quite heavy, and I don't know how much longer we can carry her!


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## FourIsCompany (Apr 18, 2009)

First, congratulations on have one of the cutest puppies in the world! Of course, you probably already kow that. 

The question I have is - Is she peeing because she can't hold it anymore or because of excitement? I expect it's excitement. And walking down the stairs and out the door is just too much control for her to have just yet. 

I would get another crate or move this one close to the area where you take her out to potty. Come in and *completely *ignore her. Don't even look at her, but let her see you. Go about your regular coming home routine and within about 10 minutes of your arrival, walk by her crate (still no talking) and reach down and unlatch it in a swift, smooth movement, (so she can get out) and then you continue to walk right to the door (and hopefully, she follows you), open the door and let her follow you out. THEN let her potty and then give her affection.


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## komi (Apr 27, 2009)

Thanks for the advice! I assume it's because she is excited. But she just started doing this a few days ago (before that, she just came out and wagged her tail, and we'd pick her up and take her out). Now as soon as the door opens, she pees, without even giving us a chance to pick her up!

I'll try what you suggested - keeping my fingers crossed!!


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## FourIsCompany (Apr 18, 2009)

Just to check. Did anything frightening happen to her in her crate before this started? Sometimes a dog will urinate as a sign of submission or if they're afraid. If she had an incident where she was frightened just as someone came home and was about to let her out of her crate, that could cause submissive urination. Even if it wasn't something scary, if she interpreted it as something frightening, that might be the reason.


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## komi (Apr 27, 2009)

That's interesting - but no, I don't think anything frightening happened.


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## baorb (Mar 14, 2009)

My puppy does that, too.
What worked for me is I just open the door for her when she stop barking and whining.
And just walk away, and she will follow me outside and go. With no eye contact at all, worked alot better this way.


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