Adam I did think about it, but I also have a 1 year old lab and I can't fit them both, and the husband is not thrilled about a dog sleeping with us, we never have let any of them. Plus he sleeps in a crate right next to our lab, so he does have company. He doesn't make a sound all night, just pees lol.

Balon went 5 whole hours with no peeing in his crate! WOOHOO what did I do: no water after 8pm (I know some of you don't agree with this but my vet said this is perfectly safe for him as long as he gets plenty of water during the day,which he does) I am putting him in crate at 11pm, and my son takes him out a 2pm, Then I am up usually at 5pm. But today I slept until 7 (usually he wakes me up barking and whining at 5) I thought oh boy theres gonna be a flood in the crate. I got up went to the family room where the crates are and he was sitting up looking at me. I turned on the light and NO PEE!!! I was so happy for him I picked him up and hugged him and told him what a good boy he was. LOL

Thats great news. I was just thinking about him this morning. Hopefully it continues!

yes hopefully. I did speak with my vet about this again and she said that not all puppies bladders mature at the same time and Balon might just be a late bloomer since she can't find anything else wrong I gotta believe it lol

Sorry I didn't get back to this. My week has been crazy (see hijack-- that's been my life).

I would have suggested just what you did. Taking away water after 8pm and increasing the intervals that you take him out so that he doesn't have a chance to fail. As he succeeds, start stretching the length of time between potty breaks. The only thing you CAN do is start back at step 1. Potty training is one of those awful beasts like that.

However, I think it was likely a combination of many things: too much water, undeveloped bladder, and mostly not getting a clean enough surface. Once you started cleaning the surface properly, the behavior was already imprinted in his brain so it didn't matter that the smell was gone, so you had to work overtime (ie- back to step 1) in order to get him to realize that peeing in the crate is NOT okay.

Keep it up. Don't get discouraged. Sometimes it's just the perfect storm of factors and it take time to get him back.

Thanks Tori, I always thought bleach took care of everything lol. Vinegar even takes the smell out of the rug by the front door that he peed on!

Ok so Balon is continuing to make great progress in not peeing in his crate. We are waking him up to take him out around 2am and it seems to be doing the trick. Will wait a while before trying an allnighter, I want him to succeed, not fail! But he has had no pee accidents in crate! WOOHOO