Toilet Advice, please

[whitey]

Hi,

 

I wondered if I could please ask for some advice from some of the more knowledgeable dog-owners on here.

 

I have two black labrador puppies that will be five months old next week. They live outside in a kennel with attached run, set on paving slabs. They soil outside on the slabs, but have started to regularly urinate and soil inside the wooden 'bed' area of the kennel.

 

I had thought that animals learned not to do this from quite an early age - my previous dog certainly didn't.

 

Clearly, I have done something wrong to give them the impression that the bed area is their toilet area! I wondered if someone on here might be able to help me with a bit of advice on how to re-educate the little dears, as I am washing their bedding at quite a rate (which is not endearing me to Domestic Management), and more importantly, they don't have anywhere properly dry to sit - I keep replacing the bedding, and they either soil it so that it needs replacing again, or they drag it out into the run area, so that it will suffer the attentions of the elements. The wooden floor of the bed area is wet in places where they have urinated.

 

They used to sleep on straw/shavings bedding (Excel), but it made a horrible mess, and it became apparent whilst using it that the dogs seemed to use it for toilet purposes as well as sleeping. They have changed over to vetbed (and old blankets, etc) a couple of weeks ago, but the soiling hasn't stopped - in fact it's got worse.

 

Any advice anyone can given to tell me how I ought to be teaching them would be much appreciated.

[new to the flock]

How big is their bedding area?, and are they both males?

 

NTTF

[whitey]

Now - that's a good point, I hadn't thought about the 'male' aspect of the whole thing. Yes, you are correct, they are both entire males.

 

The bedding area is (I think) four foot square or so. The run's an entire unit, I think about 10 or 12 feet in length four foot deep, four foot of the length is the bedding area, and the remainder is the exercise area.

[new to the flock]

Over the next couple of days watch them out in the run to see if they are marking over top of each other. Also check to see if they are marking at the front of the sleeping quarters to see if this is how they are getting that area wet. It may require that you raise the sleeping quarters up off the kennel floor.

NTTF

[whitey]

Thanks very much for your advice.

 

I'm pretty sure they are simply going to the toilet in the sleeping area - it doesn't look like they are 'aiming' at the entrance to the sleeping area, they just urinate and defecate right in the back, middle and front of the sleeping area. The kennel design is such that the sleeping area is an inch or two off the paved floor - I could put in a false floor though, if you think that would help, to raise the effective sleeping area higher up?

[new to the flock]

You may want to consider closeing the size of the sleeping area down so that they do not have extra area in there to use as a toilet, or possibly making it into 2 seperate sleeping chambers.

 

NTTF

[whitey]

That sounds like a good idea - thank you. I will get my measuring tape out over the weekend, and start making some plans, to see if that stops their movements - I will let you know. My Springer-owning friend has previously suggested to me that I could reduce the area vertically (simply to make use of unused space - as he says, even Labs aren't that tall!), so perhaps I shall do both at once.

 

I will also try and see if they are marking over each other. They are litter brothers, and I haven't noticed them doing it whilst out on walks or in the garden, but equally it might be that I haven't noticed it because I'm not very observant! I shall keep my eyes peeled.

 

Thanks again for your advice - much appreciated.