Puppy Mill Yorkie pees and whines in crate at night

Question
Hi Sandy,
My girlfriend and I rescued a puppy mill 4 yr. old male Yorkie a couple of weeks back. At first, he did not have any issues sleeping through the night, but for the last three nights he has woke us up because he has peed in his crate and won't stop whining. I don't want this to be a habit and I know he can go through the night without eliminating, so could you please provide a couple of pointers off the bat that we can do to manage this issue. We do not let him have water after 9 p.m. and take him out right before he goes to bed. He has a pretty small crate but will try sectioning it off further to see if it makes a difference. Besides the items mentioned above, what else can we do??

Please help
Regards

Answer
first thing I would do is have your vet do a urinalysis and examination. Frequently, inappropritate urination is the result of a physical issue like a UTI or bladder stones. If he checks out healthy, you might consider some other options for overnight - for instance, an xpen on a remnant of vinyl flooring with a bed and a litter box (which I think are better than pads - cleaner, and more like going outside, less like soft smooth surfaces they find inside - like rugs.  That way, if he needs to urinate, he can go to the litter box and doesn't have to lay in it. If he's already peeing in his crate, making it smaller is probably not going to be useful. Sometimes for dogs who come from situations where they were never able to keep themselves clean, it's a difficult concept. Sandy Case BFA MEd, CPDT www.positivelycanine.com