Our older (16 year old) beagle lab mix (med/large dog) can't make it all night. I've been sick and just can't get up in the middle of the night to let him out of the garage. It's also killing me, might as well have a newborn as sometimes it's twice a night. My thought is we need to consider something he can use in the garage that is easy to clean instead of having to spray out the garage everyday. Has anyone used anything that works? Especially for a bigger dog? Thanks! I've looked at the webpages for the two items in the subject but want advice from actual users.
P.S. He's been to the vet regularly and is just old. He's had blood tests and tests to rule out infections. He has a young dog attitude his body is rightfully showing signs of his age.
Edited to add: Good thought S.B. Here are my reservations about a doggy door. We have a dog door BUT we also have raccoons in the area that are pretty agressive, I forgot to mention the dog is deaf and my fear is he wouldn't hear them and end up tangling with them. Maybe this is no a valid fear? But they've (raccoons) have run towards me growling and snarling before when I was out getting something out of the car.
Aww poor baby. You and doggy. I agree don't do a doggie door. Don't mess with raccoons!! Definitely a valid fear! Try some kind of a weewee pad if you can. Hopefully this will work...
We have a doggie door. Our dog can come and go as she pleases. If that's an option, it seems much better than some sort of contraption that has to be cleaned. Plus there is the whole idea of training an older dog to use it. It also sounds like a big investment to gamble on him using it.
We cut a hole in the door to install our doggie door here. At our last house we had windows low to the ground. We cut plywood to fit in the window and cut a hole in that.
We have two doggy doors: one that goes from our kitchen out to the garage and another one that goes from the garage to the backyard. We lock the one that goes from the garage to outside because we have skunks in our area that my dog just hasn't learned to leave alone! I also use a large chux pad for her to use at night if she needs to. You can order a large amount of them online for a pretty good price and you can get different sizes too. Good luck!
No answer re the dog's potty problem. I'm sure others have better answers on that than I do. However, I couldn't help but notice your response regarding the racoons. I would definitely recommend you call animal control and see if they can capture some of those 'coons and test them. Any wild animal that is that aggressive without provocation may be infected with rabies. You don't want to chance your dog or a person getting bit or scratched by one of them.
Doggie door might be your only answer IF he'll use it
Once he's back in, you put the little locking slide in it so a racoon can't
get in
I have dogs & bless the little's heart: small bladder equals having to get up and let him out. I don't want him sleeping outside w/the racoons all night (we have them too) plus it's cold at night)
I know they have pee pads but I have never had luck w/those
Unfortunately, you might just have to bite the bullet and keep doing what
you're doing. I know not the answer you wanted but it won't go on forever. :( Rest whenever you can.
Can someone else help let him out? In my house, I am the only one who will do it! Poor poochie.
Can he/will he pee in the garage and you can clean it up later?
Can he sleep inside w/you? Closer to you to let him out.
Sorry I know you need your sleep but I hope something like this helsp you!
Would doggie diapers be an option for overnight? Or will he still want to go outside because he knows that is what he is supposed to do? I would otherwise go for the absorbent wee-wee pads if he would use them. I wouldn't chance him tangling with raccoons either - they can sometimes be rabid and even if his rabies vaccine is current, I wouldn't take a chance. Their bites can cause a lot of pain and get infected too, even without rabies being a possibility.
Our older dog also started having problems being able to hold it, we could not teach him to go on weewee pads, we tried he just knew not to pee inside. We ended up putting a dog door in, the first one he couldn't figure out how to go through it and the second door he seems to like. If he has to he will go through the dog door but most of the time he usually stands at the door and waits for us to open it.
Dogs won't mess where they sleep. You need to contain the dog in a smaller area of the garage. I use x-pens (a wire fence). Put his bed, and a litter box in the area, toys & water bowl too.. Do not leave alot of extra space. I put a piece of linoleum under the litter box and surounding area for easy cleanup. For the litter box I use a hot water heater pan made of aluminum- it's lightweight, easy to clean, and dogs won't chew on it. Inside I put a few sheets of newspaper and a layer (1" or less) of compressed bedding for animals (compressed sawdust pellets - I use Mallard Creek brand, 100% softwood). I've also used wood shavings, but the shavings are lighter and tend to blow around when they get out of the litter box. The pellets don't blow all over the garage.
I've used this with litters of puppies as young as 4 weeks and they learn to use the litter box on their own, they don't want to mess where they sleep either. An older dog may need a bit of training to get used to it, but the trick is to not give him another space to pee/poop in. He'll have to use the litter box. You might be able to use a chux in the litter box instead of the pellets. Puppies would shred the chux, but an older dog won't. Clean up is easy - just pull out the litter box, dump & spray it out. You can spray off the lino too. Beats having to clean out the garage every day.
I would just use water proof training pads. You can get them anywhere (like walmart) and they are disposable.
