Hi everyone, I just have to say thank you for all these wonderful replies and ideas. I have only just learned of how many different ways dogs are trained so standing on the shoulders of giants in this case has been helping a lot. Last night I cordoned off Troy's kennel with the included divider (pic posted on my public album) to be large enough for his pad and soothed him to sleep in his kennel after treating him in and having him "sit" for treats with the door open then closed.

I waited about 10 mins for him to be sound asleep then went to bed and set myself an alarm for 2 hours later. When I was awakened I woke Troy and set him on a potty pad nearby and issued the command we use and although it took awhile he did go, and then it was right back to the kennel and soothed to sleep again by my presence. I did this a couple more times every 2 hours and I believe that he only peed once near the end of a normal sleep cycle.

One thing that I am debating in my mind right now is that he did do a little bit of crying so I decided to try and go out into the living room (his crate is there near the warm propane fireplace that he loves to sit by and is right outside our bedroom door) and act like I hadn't come out there to pay attention to him but rather waiting a minute or two after he stopped crying to go and let him out to try and potty. It seemed like it worked to some extent and I am planning on doing it again tonight but I am not sure if Troy will draw a correlation to his crying and my attention and coming out into the room if I am acting like I come out preoccupied. I would love for this training trick to work as he seems to have begun getting that when he comes out of the kennel it's potty then back to the kennel and no playing around. So I wonder, is he smart enough to know that I am coming out for him if I ignore him when I come out? It quiets him and he calms down and it doesn't seem to hurt but I will allow him to cry if it is him training me in reverse.

So lets see, I swap out his pad for a blanket when he pees on it and bathe him if he lays in it and he does have a chew toy that he likes but he seems to love chewing on the bed even more when he sets his mind to it. I think I am feeling tired but optimistic as to the success of this last night and know he will be able to understand better with more repetition. Thanks again for the replies, I will ponder them all and try to add to my understanding of the situation. I'll let you all know how it's coming along in the future. Good night!

@tanza:

Who is his breeder?

The breeder is http://www.congaro.com/ and you can see his photos on the puppies page. I also posted a few photos on my profile this morning as well. Enjoy

Hello everyone, our precious puppy Troy has been home with us for about a week now and my wife and I have been actively trying to train good behavior and crate use. Troy is 10 weeks old at the moment and being a very young guy we understand that he needs tons of attention paid to his needs like playing and potty time.

My wife and I are adamant that Troy learn to love and use his crate for some simple reasons but the solutions, at least to me, do not seem completely obvious so here I am asking for advice. First, we will eventually need to work as we just recently moved. My wife will work some time later than I and will be able to continue to train Troy when I am gone but we want him to love his crate be able to hold his business albeit for very reasonable amounts of time since I can always drive home 4 minutes away in this small town when I need to. Basically from this stems our need of advice as I will detail.

Housebreaking is our first priority but it is not quite as simple as I would love for it to be. We live in an area without a fence and there are many deer, loose dogs, and other animals that do their business at their leisure and we cannot allow Troy to "go" outside until he has had his parvo shots and his immunity strengthened. Currently we are forced to turn to potty pads inside and he has been quite receptive to these pads outside of the crate. We can get Troy to go hang out in his crate and chew his toys without so much as an objection but when it comes to sleeping in the crate the issue arises and this is where the advice is needed.

Troy loves to chew on things, so when we put his pad into the crate he proceeds to tear it's stuffing out. When we put Troy in his crate to go to sleep we have spent at least the last half hour coercing him to do his business and have controlled his water and food schedules to a point where it would seem he has no more to go. Troy will immediately after we lay down begin crying, and maybe that isn't the word for it, it is actually more like the scream of a dying child. He will not be calmed by us sleeping next to the crate or talking to him, at least not for long. In this period of time, he seems to "hold it" and then will poop and pee more even though we really, really tried to eliminate his business before bedtime. Troy seems to have no mind to cleanliness and will walk all over it and drag his pad through it, not that it matters because he will not sleep. He continues to cry and scream and howl the entire night, and yes I do mean the entire night, in a way that would drive Ghandi insane. My wife and I have taken to earplugs the last 2 nights so that we can sleep at all. And even with him on the other end of our place and earplugs in it might as well be an air raid siren. (yes we tried him in our room next to us)

We have tried to add personal value to his crate by feeding and watering him inside during mealtimes and treating him in and praising as much as we can. None of it seems to work, toys in the crate, we tried potty pads and he chews them right up along with paper so we can't get him to eliminate cleanly since we can't get him to eliminate fully, I swear he seems to hold it til we put him in and not a moment sooner. We are fine getting up to let him out to pee but he will not have any of it. We set him on the pad and he won't go then we put him back and within 20 minutes, all while screaming, he will have peed on his pad, or somewhere else in the crate.

I know I have gone on far too long, so here is my question. Should I simply let him scream in his crate and hope it stops? Right now I am exhausted and see no end to it. I make sure he is calm when I let him to potty on the pad in the middle of the night and he just won't go. I need some help here because I love this little guy and I know he will grow up but I want to seed some good behavior here and I can't tell if he's ever going to quit screaming ALL NIGHT.

Thanks for your time in reading and replying I would love to hear any advice, however please don't advise me to quit crating because it is what we need in the future and I don't want to go through a similar phase a year down the road when Troy is much larger.

Hi everyone, my name is Luke and my wife and I recently picked up our purebred trindle basenji from a breeder in Riverside, CA. His name is Troy and he is such a cute little rascal who loves to chew on everything at the moment. Looking forward to asking questions and relating with your community in general. Thanks.