Potty training without a crate

[juxie]

We are having difficulty training our now three month old boxer mix puppy Cosmo. I crate trained my chocolate Lab pup, and she trained quickly and easily to potty in the backyard. We introduced Cosmo to the crate upon bringing him home slowly, with praise and treats like we did with Ruby. He is terrified of the crate: hyperventilating, shrieking and a few times vomiting when the door is closed on it, both with us in the room, and not in the room. After repeated attempts, it was obviously distressing the puppy, us and Ruby so we gave up. There is really no way to confine him in a room either, as he gets major seperation anxiety when he is away from Ruby.

We have tried paper training and thats hit and miss too. When we are home, and right now one of us is usually here, he goes outside to potty with us praising him like maniacs, and he barely makes a mistake on the floor. He's even learning finally to bark at the door when he wants to go out. However, at night he pees anywhere and everywhere, and while we are gone its basically a fluke if he hits his papered area with his pee.

He seems to feel guilt when I'm cleaning up the puddles, ducking his head and running for his dog bed, so it appears he knows it is undesirable behavior. We don't yell at him for mistakes or punish him, we just clean it up.

I'm just not sure how to correct the behavior and get him to at least hit the papers when we can't be here to let him out. When we miss a 'pee outside' opportunity and he manages to hit his papers we praise, praise, praise. I hope eventually his little bladder will mature and he'll be able to hold it long enough to be let out- but right now its like he sees no reason to hold it in at all, or go to his paper.

I've never trained without a crate before and I am so confused. I'm sure I'm probably confusing Cosmo too. Please help!!:confused:

[lizbud]

It's hard to train a dog to pee outside, when you also use a pee pad
inside the house. I believe 3 mos is still young enough to not be able to
hold peeing altogether when home without you, but I'd limit his water
on days when you have to leave for a few hours. Good luck.:)

[Giselle]

If a crate doesn't work, try a very small ex-pen:
http://www.dogsquadonline.com/sites/thainsworth/_files/Image/dog%20exercise%20pen.jpg

[juxie]

Thanks for the ideas :) I looked all over for an ex-pen here and couldn't find one. Gotta love small towns..

I decided to set up the crate again and try getting him used to it really slowly again now that hes older. I threw treats and toys in , and praised when he went in. Then I closed the door while I sat on the other side talking to him for a minute or so, and let him out when he wasn't fussing. Last night when he was ready to sleep for the night I coaxed him into the crate, grabbed my pillow and half lay in the crate with him, until he settled to sleep. Then I quietly got up and closed the door. He slept for two hours, with me on the couch directly beside the crate. He woke up to potty outside, and then I repeated the lying half in the crate with him until he was asleep again and he slept for 5 hours straight!! I am so excited that I may be on the way to successful crate training here :D. I hope I'm not doing it all wrong- but at least he didn't panic and hyperventilate this time!

Eventually I'll have to tackle small stints in the day with the door shut on the crate. Keep your fingers crossed for us!