Hi everyone! I posted about Dutch before being small for his age, but thankfully after many MANY dewormers later, he's putting on weight like a champ and growing fast! Now though, it seems that his potty training is getting to be more difficult. He is in the habit of peeing in his crate and just walking around in it, many times licking up the pee if he's in there for a few hours while we're out. We're not sure what's going on, since I was always under the impression that dogs won't pee or poop where the sleep, but it doesn't seem to bother him. He is also still peeing in the house, but it's mostly when he walks and sprinkles little drops. From what I've been reading on the thread, it's pretty common in huskies, so I'm not too worried about that. My husband thinks Dutch's crate-peeing has gotten worse since we got him neutered a few weeks ago, but we're not sure. He's still young (5 1/2 months) so I know he will still have accidents and it won't 100% for a while. But when I let him out to pee, then put him in his crate while we have dinner and 20 minutes later, he pees his crate, (this is a daily occurrence now) something seems off. Has anyone else had something like this happen? Is it a puppy thing or should the vet be called in? I'm worried about putting him on more medications. He's been on 3 different types on antibiotics since we got him in June (twice for diarrhea, once for kennel cough) so I would like to avoid it if possible. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!


Here is Dutch lounging with his brother Conan

There are a couple things I can think of from experience.

First, how much room does he have in the crate? When I got Nikko I gave him too much space inside the crate and put blankets down, and he would pee on the blankets and be able to lay down. I gave him less room and took out the blankets and it solved the problem.

The other time he peed in his crate is when he had a urinary tract infection, so he could not help but pee in his crate. I had to get antibiotics from the vet to take care of it and he stopped.

The only other time is when they had diarrhea, and I had them on rice and boiled chicken diet. Since the rice has high water content he was getting way more water than usual, so he could not hold it for that long.

Basically he shouldn’t be peeing inside his crate as long as he has only enough room to turn around and lay down. If he is, I would talk to your vet.

I had much difficulty housebreaking my Balon. He was having so many accidents in the house and in the crate, even though I had a divider panel in the crate! After many negative urine stick tests I finally asked them to please do a clean bladder catch and do a culture. They did find an infection. After 3 weeks on an antibiotic, he is way better. He is now 7 months and has maybe 1 accident a week instead of 8-9 a day! And usually that is because we don't hear him at the door. He no longer pees in his crate. (When yours pees in the crate use white vinegar to clean it up, it completely takes away the urine smell).

I would suggest a urine test to rule out an infection, a culture is best for this. Make sure you are neutralizing the urine smell in the crate and anywhere else he goes. Keep a chart of when you take him out. I cannot tell you how helpful they are, I still keep one for Balon. Take him out a lot, start with every 30 minutes when you are home, we still take Balon out every 1 1/2, and once in the middle of the night.

Good luck, he will catch on.