Housebreaking

What the Internet and every puppy training resource told me: Crate training is the best way to housebreak a puppy because they won't mess where they sleep.

What Macie taught me: That is a complete lie.

When we brought our sweet seven-week old girl home, we quickly discovered that she had no bladder or bowel control, regardless of the situation. When she had even the slightest urge to go, she simply squatted and went. It didn't matter if she had been outside five minutes earlier; there were so many times we'd turn around to see her leaving a little puddle on the kitchen floor. And when we left and put her in her crate - you know, to go to church or the grocery store or work - she would most certainly do her business right where she slept. Oh, Internet: I can't believe you lied to me!

Maybe it didn't lie. Possibly, whoever writes these things is under the assumption that a new puppy owner has the luxury of not leaving her new dog crated for more than an hour or two at a time. Theoretically, for every month a puppy ages, she can hold her bladder for an hour plus one. So maybe, if we could have put Macie in her crate and taken her out every two hours, we could have made the Internet be true. But there's this thing called work. And this thing called sleep (though we didn't get much of that, since we were trying to do what all the books said and take her out a few times a night). And poor Macie, in a crate that gave her just enough room to lay down (again, per the prevailing wisdom), was spending too much time wallowing in her own waste.

After two weeks of this, we were finally presented with a viable solution from a reputable breeder: make the crate bigger, put her towel in the back and line the front with newspapers. She's smart - she'll learn to have accidents on the newspapers instead of her towel. But that is still distasteful to her, so as she is physically able to "hold it," she'll stop with the accidents all together. This set up will not slow housebreaking, despite the dire warnings on the Web. It is, very simply, the best alternative for working families. And about getting up with her for nighttime potty breaks: stop. Again, she will learn. Just put her somewhere you can't hear her and ignore her cries and yelps, so you can get some sleep.

So we tried it, and our eleven-week old Macie hasn't had an accident in her crate for three days! She makes it all night long, and also through our work day. And we aren't ridiculously tired anymore (though I wish she could distinguish weekends from weekdays)! Thank you, Roger from Brady Kennels, for the great advice!