My Laika is 3 months old. I have been trying to crate train her. And I just can't seem to get it right.That whole "Dogs don't poop/pee where they sleep" thing...I feel is inaccurate towards my dog.. Problem is. She will urinate, and poop all over the crate, and just LAY in it. She will not cry, or fuss, it's like she has NO problem laying in her own mess. The longest she's in the crate is through the night. I've been trying to wake up before everyone in the house so that I can catch her early, and take her outside to use the bathroom. That doesn't seem to work either because once I'm down there, she's already beaten me to it. Crate is once again soiled, and she's just laying here wagging her tail.
It's disgusting and I feel like my dog has no sense of cleanliness, either that or she's just plain dumb. My dad has recently made me move her crate to the basement (we had our basement fixed It's like a mini apartment, not to mention at night it gets much cooler down there which is why i've noticed she tends to sleep all night without a fuss)
But she's only down there at night, I never leave her down there when we're all awake. I keep her tied in the living room with a long rope so I can watch her every move...

So back to the crate. What am I supposed to do?? I'm getting really tired of waking up at 6am for no reason, just to go down there and once again, clean up her mess. I take her outside every night before putting her in the crate, and she doesn't drink water before going in. I give it to her in the morning after breakfast. I just want to know whats making her just want to poop and pee where she sleeps, and just lay in it like no problem..also

We are keeping her in a large crate, that has been cut off in the middle so she has a little room to stand and turn around and stretch. But I'm guessing for her, is also room to poop and pee. I have also added the same tiles to the floor of the crate, that we have in our kitchen because it's alot cooler and she seems to love laying on our kitchen floor. I'm not sure if that can have an effect on her wanting to use the bathroom...she doesn't do it either way when she's upstairs so that can't be it.

When exactly do they start to hold the urge to use the bathroom..? Is it 6 months?
Please I hope someone has a solution...or has gone through the same thing.

I'm sorry to hear its so difficult with her crate training. As to why she is okay with it, there can be a variety of causes, most important of which is what her environment was like as a newborn until you brought her home. If the conditions were that she was forced to lay in it as a tiny puppy, it won't bother her now, and probably never will. Where did you get her? Did you visit the site and see the living conditions of the dogs?

In reality, it doesn't really matter why, what matters most to you (I'm guessing) is that you get her conditioned NOT to go in the crate. Firstly, it needs a serious hose down and cleaning with an enzymatic cleaner, like natures miracle. This will break up the organic material and the smell. I would hose it down, bleach it with dilute solution, then do the nature's miracle, then re hose it down, and let it dry completely before putting her in. Then, you should use the nature's miracle on it every single time she has an accident in there, and maybe the complete clean out once a week. Make sure you thoroughly rinse out the bleach, as that can be bad for them if any residue is left in there.

Secondly, I would recommend putting her crate in your room, and waking up every hour to two hours to take her outside, yes all night, 6 am may just not be early enough for her. She may just not be able to hold her bladder that long. Some puppies can and some can't. The reason I recommend her crate in your room, is so that you can hear her if/when she wakes up and moves around. You should set your alarm to wake you up to take her out. Yes, this sucks, but its part of having a puppy, and its better than what you're dealing with now. She might be crying to go out at night, but no one can hear her, so she gives up and goes, and now, she has gotten used to laying in her waste.

Third, take her to the vet. Females are kind of prone to UTIs and that can cause a lack of ability to hold the bladder. When our cat had one it was horrendous, he was going everywhere!

Fourth, if you are really desperate, you could try doggie diapers. This isn't usually recommended, but my mother in law uses them for her dogs. You could put one on at night when she goes to bed, and at least that way you wouldn't wake up to her covered in mess. You could also open up the divider in the crate and put pee pads in there. Its also not ideal, but again at least she wouldn't wake up covered in waste.

I hope this isn't harsh, I don't mean for it to be, but you got a puppy and puppies take a lot of care. I brought my little guy home a month ago and I don't think I've gotten more than 5-6 hours of sleep in a row since (which may be where the harshness is coming from). Last night, I went to bed at 9:30 and was excited that I might get 7.5 hours in, but this morning, he woke me up at 3:30 to go out. So, I threw on some shoes and trudged down 3 flights of stairs to let him pee, then got up 1.5 hours later to walk him and get ready for work. I think you need to readjust your expectations as to how long she can hold her bladder. She's just a baby, and needs cared for like one.

A 3 month old puppy does not have the physical bladder conditioning or muscle tone to be able to hold it through the nigh. You'll need to set an alarm for every 2-3 hours and pe prepared to take her out that often at night. Otherwise you will continue to wake up to a puppy covered in feces and urine. She isn't dumb, she cannot physically do what you are expecting.

I took koda how at 8 weeks and would take him out everry hour in the middle of the night up till he was almost 4 months.. Then it was every 2-3 hours. Now he will wake me up when he needs to go out when he is in his crate. He is 6 months and most nights he wakes up once to go out, sometimes he sleeps through the night.

definitely put her in the room with you - get up every 2-ish hours and bring her out. she can not hold it through out the night. willow literally had enough room to walk in- turn around - and lay down in her crate. i did not give her the room to poop or pee in her crate. she to this day has only had ONE accident in her crate, and that was because i was gone for 6 hours. i still get up in the middle of the night and take her out to make sure she doesn't have any accidents.

as for the crate, definitely get a cleaner like nature's miracle and clean the mess out of it!!!! if it smells like urine, she will continue to use it as her bathroom.

I just got Kronos and he is 8 weeks old. I am in the process of crate training too. Don't give up! I have to agree with the others here, your girl will need to go potty outside like two or three times at night. You should hear her moving around or whimpering when she needs out. I have not slept a full nights sleep since Kronos got home. The puppy needs to be 'trained' she won't just learn automatically, sorry if you felt misinformed. Good luck

Great advise so far. I just wanted to chime in and recommend a urine cleaner from the dollar tree http://reviews.dollartree.com/0550/878802/reviews.htm the design and name has changed, but its still the same product. I think it's called pet stain remover now
It really works and costs a dollar. Can't really beat that!

Thanks for the advice guys, the only reason why I thought she would hold it all night, until the morning is because when I brought her home, she used to sleep with me..in my bed. And she slept all night, and would wake up at 5-5:30 am to go pee..I did that for almost a month. Do you think she maybe got used to going at 5? And I'm just waking up too late? The crate is way to big and heavy to bring inside my room. I'm going to buy a newer smaller one, and work with that. And I will definitely get the natures miracle. But first. SHE NEEDS A BATH.

The guy I got her from takes excellent care of is Huskies, and they were all kept in a very very clean environment. So I'm not sure why she chooses not to fuss and cry. And there isn't an issue with not being able to hear her, because My bedroom is downstairs near the basement door, and I keep it open just incase she starts to cry in the middle of the night, and she does not. Like I said she sleeps all night, never fusses.

And No. I am not expecting her to automatically hold her urine in at the age of 3 months. And I am aware that she is a baby, I own 3 dogs and my American Bulldog is very well crate trained, we worked our butts off with him, but her just never had the issue of going in his crate and laying in it. The only reason why I thought she wouldn't go in there was because she used to sleep in my room all night without any accidents until the morning.

Once again thanks for the advice! I will definitely follow it and see how it goes. My Laika is way to beautiful to be laying in her own waste, She's my little princess. If it continues, I'll just open up the divider and place puppy pads inside since she knows how to use them. (Thank god)

Yeah everyone's advice is very good so there really isn't anything I can add to that. Although maybe sometime this weekend if you don't have to go to work or anything like that you could pull an all nighter. I'm not exactly sure if it's a good idea but if you're able to stay awake all night instead of having to roll out of bed every two hours and potentially sleep through your alarm, then you would be able to catch your husky before she goes in her crate. If she only goes once a night (say 3am for example) and you catch her then you can set your alarm for 3am the next day to see if the pattern repeats, if it does then you can take her out every morning at 3am and your problems would be solved! Once again though this is probably a very bad idea as staying awake all night is never ideal and everyone else had better advice anyways, I just didn't want to echo them.

Good luck and I hope you can solve your problems quickly!