Dog pees in crate

Question
Hi there,

I have an 8mo Weim/Viszla mix.  I've crate-trained her since she was quite young, and she seems to enjoy her crate.  She consistently makes it 8+ hours through the night without accidents, but whenever we leave during the day, she pees in her crate.  I'm home to take her out at lunch, and she's RARELY left in her crate longer than 3 hours during the day.  I have a crate divider, so the crate is the correct size.  I try not to give her (much) water before leaving her in her crate, but she almost always pees.  I've tried removing all bedding, and then she just gets soaked in pee...which is not the solution I'm looking for.  We keep the crate clean and she gets fresh bedding each time for hygiene reasons.  She doesn't seem to have seperation anxiety in regard to being visibly unhappy when we leave the house, but I'm not certain this isn't a result of that.

Please advise as to ideas to help train her away from this behavior.  I'm game to try almost anything!

Thanks,
Christine

Answer
You may want to have your vet rule out any medical reason, such as urinary infection.

I assume she's having the chance to urinate outside before going in the crate for the day.

You could try giving her a "special" toy that she only gets when she's in the crate, such as in the article below.  This may help take her mind off being alone in the house.

http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/KongsHomeAlone.pdf


While you do not suspect the reason is separation anxiety, I am including information on that "just in case" some of the information can be used or is relative:

http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/sep-anxiety.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/SeparationAnxietyShortRx.pdf
http://www.marinhumanesociety.org/Behavior/Handouts/Anxiety.pdf

If you continue to experience problems, you might want to contact a trainer in your area to work with you one-on-one.  Good suggestions can be found at www.apdt.com