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So first off, I am not in a situation where I can take him out every hour of the day. Plus, when it rains (like it is right now) he will refuse to use the bathroom at all outside. As such, I am trying to get him to use a indoor pad. My issue is that he will poop on the pad, but he will absolutely not pee on it. In fact, he only ever stealth pees and will not pee under supervision. In order to redirect him to the right place, I took off the from work so that he could be 100% supervised and he ended up peeing inside his crate and laying in it. I dont know what to do.

I have an 11-week-old English Cocker Spaniel, and we’ve been together for about two weeks. I’ve been crate training since day one, and he does really well at night, either sleeping through the night or only waking up once to go to the bathroom. His crate is in another room, covered and low white noise playing.

During the day, he has enforced naps and handles those pretty well for his age too. He’s usually awake for about an hour, then sleeps for 2–3 hours. When I first put him in the crate, he’ll bark or whine for about a minute, but then he settles down. I live in an apartment, and for naps I keep his crate in a separate room with it covered and some white noise playing (again, not too loud).

The issue is that he sleeps fine as long as I’m quiet. He’s also fine if the TV is on or if I leave the apartment, since it stays relatively quiet. But if I make noise, like opening cupboards, cooking, or really doing anything around the apartment, he wakes up and starts barking, whining, crying, or howling until I stop.

I’m not sure how to help him become less sensitive to normal household noise while also ensuring he’s actually getting sleep.

And for reference, when he’s awake he does not settle. That’s why the enforced naps and covered crate in a separate room is important because if he sees me and is awake outside of the crate, he will go go go. I also have a pen but when he’s in it and can see me he just barks and cry’s and whines, doesn’t ever settle.

I feel so bad for my senior dog that Susan Garrett's content didn't exist and I didn't know of her when I was training 14 years ago. My senior dog has an incredibly forgiving and understanding personality, so it was very easy to train her in the ways that mattered to me.

My new puppy (9mo, Chihuahua mix) has a much more ambitious personality and, having been a street dog before being rescued, is primed for "run from people, steel the good stuff". Because I was adopting her from true puppy (2-3 months back in Sept), I immediately enrolled in in-person classes. They were great, basic shaping classes, but never got me to a level where I felt safe letting her off leash at the park. Perhaps the most important thing they did was get me interested in training more seriously, which lead me to Susan Garrett and specifically the free ItsYerChoice series.

I'm not being overly dramatic when I say ItsYerChoice is philosophy.

It has totally changed my relationship with my dog, completely removed power struggles and negotiations, really calmed her down and developed our mutual trust. I have also done Susan's Crate Games, and while they are amazing, IYC is a far better starting point and really taught me how to approach training. I would choose Susan's online programs over local in person programs every single time, and only go to a local in person program after I had exhausted her content.

I hope this encourages some overwhelmed puppy owners to look into her content. Theres a lot of free stuff on youtube and IYC is free for 10 days. Its a great starting point!

Should I be worried? At his size i read ready for at least another 8 week before he’d not need at least one bathroom break. He slept in his crate until 1 ish where he got fussy, not “I need to pee” fussy it was “cuddle me” fussy. After he’d stopped whining I took him out to snuggle on the couch and went back to sleep until 5.

Not a single puddle. Aside from him whining to come hang out he was silent all night. The couch is short enough for him to (mostly) safely get down but not back up so I know he didn’t go down to do his business and come back. I’ve showered this couch for any sign of dampness, blankets pillows etc have all been checked by my family so they don’t start to stink and nothing.

I took him out at 5 am and he peed fine, no signs of strain or discomfort. His last pee had been ~7:30 pm the night before and last sip of water ~7:50 pm. I don’t withhold water for the record, where we were in the house it was a bit of a walk for him to get some but he knows he has access.

That’s almost 10 hours with no pee????

Like I said there was no straining or discomfort during his morning pee, no discoloration either. He’s had accidents inside before so he knows it’s possible just not encouraged. Mind we don’t punish accidents just completely ignore while we clean up so he doesn’t get any kind of reward for it.

He slept the entire time at least from what I saw. He went out at 8 ish and was asleep in the crate till I went to sleep at around 11 and once I took him out to snuggle he was out for the rest of the night. I woke up a few times (every 45 minutes ish) to check on him but he was zonked.

Also if relevant he got his vaccines, rabies and DHPPi+L in addition to a deworming tablet on Friday.

Typically when I take him on weekend (I have school so my moms on night duty while I sleep) and even when my mom has him we expect a bathroom break when he wakes up ~1 and then again ~5 when he gets taken out.

Should I just take the win? I can’t stop being slightly worried such a small dog held his bladder for 10 hours, even though he knew he could signal if he needs to go out which he always does.