I think I'm doing everything right? Puppy still pees on bedding in crate.

Hello, I just adopted a 15 week old puppy who has been doing very well. He pees and poops outside and I give him a treat every time he pees/poops outside with praise. I take him out as advised every hour or two. The longest he has been in crate was 3 hours. That was one time. He peed on his orthopedic crate mat in the crate. I immediately removed the mat to clean it and replaced it with a cheaper mat that I got from Petsmart- that is easier to clean. A white crate mat. I also have been sure not to leave him in crate for any more than 2 hours. I do this 2 times a day for crate training. I also feed him in crate to encourage cleanliness and so he will think its a good place. I let him out as soon as he finishes eating. I have 3 great chew toys for him in there to release tension/boredom. Well, 2 days later he peed on his new white crate mat during the 2 hours he was in crate. I always take him out to pee/poop before I put him in crate. So.... I took the crate mat out- washed it and dried it in washing machine. All clean and warm- I put it back in his crate. He immediately got excited about the mat- went in the crate and peed on it. Then started tossing it around like a toy. I immediately took it out. The original orthopedic crate mat I have been keeping in the living room. He has been playing on it over the past week with no accidents on it. It was cleaned after his original "accident". Well... this morning- after peeing and pooping outside after his breakfast we come inside. He starts to play in living room as usual and all of the sudden he squats on the orthopedic crate mat (that I have been using as a doggie bed) and PEES.

Why is he peeing on these comfy cozy mats? Should I remove them and just have him sit in a crate with no bedding at all? Seems uncomfortable..... but what can I do??

I have a pup who is about 4 weeks younger than yours. She is crate trained and is very happy to spend her down time in there with the door open or closed. If I leave the house doors open she takes herself outside for wees and poos or I'll take her if I think she's overdue for a wee.

Sometimes when I shut her in the crate she wees on her bed which is a metre length of vetbed folded in half. I think she does this because she can't get outside. I don't leave her for more than an hour or so. She drinks a huge amount and I never restrict her water, so until her bladder can hold it I will just have to give her a clean piece of vetbed every day. It's not a big deal because when the crate door is open she takes herself outside.

PS. I don't bother with a special crate mat either, just the vetbed which allows any wetness to drain through so the top is always dry.

I think you'll find it is a throwback to babyhood as they were probably on vetbed initially. I puppy pad/paper train my babies from around 4 weeks old so they get the idea of where to do it. My 7 month old girl that I kept from my last litter will still find a blanket to go on if I am not quick enough to let her out, she pulls it out of the bed and goes on it, no amount of washing gets rid of the smell for them because they have such an incredibly developed sense of smell. As they get older they don't need to go as often anyway. In fact my dogs have a kennel that they only use as a convenience, they have it all sorted out, the big one is their living quarters, and the smaller one is used for downloading purposes!!!!

That makes sense about the vetbed. It's noticeably less wet in the past few days because she sleeps in there with the door open mostly now.

She is being clean in her own mind, it is your mind that needs to connect to the way she thinks

She doesn't need to be shut in there any more during the day. I shut her in at night but get up at 4am to take her out for a poo and a wee which has been working really well.

I have never ever shut babies up,day or night. I have them using puppypads/paper and 9 times out of 10 they will toddle over to it and do their bit. I had a litter of 12 in January so had 4 'pit stops' for them all and they were fine. In the morning they would sometimes have gone in between on the floor, but that was usually if the pit stops had already been used a couple of times, then they didn't like to go there anymore and looked for another place, but during the day when I could keep on top of it all it worked fine. Sometimes they did go into the crate and use the vetbed though, so they did remember it from being really tiny. They went outside at 6 weeks but I left puppy pads down for them so as to remind them to use them for when they went to their new homes, and they did use them, then gradually got into the habit of going outside, which I think mum and auntie were responsible for

You and mum did well to housetrain 12 pups!

She was an absolute star with them, she organised a shift system for feeding and cleaning them, Auntie Cariad cleaned as well, and I fed copious amounts of food to her 5 times a day and weaned them at 3 weeks to help her out, but really they had it organised between the 2 of them and I was sort of the odd job man that came into clean and wash bedding

That sounds like a full time job for mum and you. Lovely photo!