crate urination

Question
My beagle is doing well with her crate training. The only problem I am having is that she is urnating in it. She goes to bed at 9 or ten. The latest we take her out to go is 1 am for the final pee some mornings we sleep in about 1 hr longer than usual and her bedding will be soaking wet. Now if we are gone for the day we know to take her out before we leave and when we comes back her bedding is wet. How can I get my pup to stop it. She is 6 Mons now.

Answer

Hi Chiquita,

A six month old dog should be able to "hold it" overnight. Because female dogs are prone to develop urinary tract infections, you should have your dog examined by your vet to rule out a medical problem. A urinary tract infection would make holding her pee uncomfortable, treatment is usually inexpensive and short.

Once your dog checks out okay with the vet, you can then begin to look for other reasons for the change in her house training. You didn't say how long your dog is crated during the day. If it's more than 7 hours, it would be unreasonable to expect your dog to "hold it" for so long a period of time (anymore than you would be expected to hold it for that long!) Has your dog ever held her urine during the day while you're at work? Has she only recently reverted to having accidents? Sometimes puppies who seem to be house trained at one point regress and start soiling in the house again. Does she also have accidents when you're with her, or only when she's alone? (Being in a separate room from you overnight would count as being alone).
There are several possible reasons why a reliably house trained dog would start having accidents in the home. Assuming she doesn't have a urinary tract infection, it could be that she's alone for too many hours during the day, and then crated away from people over night too. You might try moving her crate or containment area into your bedroom at night to see if that helps any.

If you can get back to me with answers to my questions I should be better able to help you, though your first step is to rule out a urinary tract infection.

If you can't make it home at some point during the day to take her out for a walk, and she can't seem to hold it overnight,  you shouldn't crate her since that means you're inviting her to soil in her crate, and that's counter-productive to crate training. You don't want her to get used to soiling in her crate! Rather than crate her, either contain her to a small room (use baby gates keep her contained), or use an indoor door pen, such as this one:
http://www.petptt.com/uploads/allimg/11/1-11062R30Z40-L.jpg

Whichever method of containment you choose, you should lay a thick layer of newspaper down over the entire containment area. If your dog needs to relieve herself clean-up will be easier and she won't be forced to lay in urine all day or over night.

Best of luck,
Patti