[punky08]

I rescued my beagle 3 years ago from a shelter who found her at a puppy mill. My husband and I have crate trained her. She has been really good up until 2 months ago, she never cried and never gave us a problem about going into her kennel. All of the sudden she is crying/howling/panting and salivating for hours at night, she even started chewing her blanket. This only happens at night, she is fine if she has to go into the kennel during the day. We can't leave her out at night because she will pee/poop in the house.
I took her to the vet and got testing done (blood, urine, and stool), everything came back fine. My vet put her on 10 mg of Valium a night, but that is starting not to work now. I don't want to keep her on meds for the rest of her life. I'm 6 1/2 months pregnant now and that is the only thing that has changed in her environment.
I don't know what to do with her, but I have to have my rest and I don't know what we will do once the baby gets here.
Any suggestions on how I can train her to pee/poop on a pee pad? Any other suggestions?

[reeskujo]

Well my first question would have to be if you've had her for 3yr.s has there been a issue with house breaking?

[punky08]

No we have never had a problem with house breaking her. She was already trained when we got her. Of course when we brought her home she had one or two accidents until she got used to her new environment. Other than that no problems.

[reeskujo]

The reason I ask is because in your initial post you said you can't leave her out at night because she will go potty in the house...That would indicate she's not completely housebroken.

[Yogi]

I would have to agree, if she in fact was housebroken, leaving her out would not be a problem.
The other thing is that dogs do sense pregnancies and changes. This could also be causing the discomfort she is having lately.

[reeskujo]

Originally Posted by Yogi

I would have to agree, if she in fact was housebroken, leaving her out would not be a problem.
The other thing is that dogs do sense pregnancies and changes. This could also be causing the discomfort she is having lately.

Yogi's right dogs do sense those changes...When I was pregnant with my youngest daughter I had a Chow named Bear...His favorite thing to do was to jump up on me and give me a hug...Well shortly after I got pregnant and well before you could tell I was he completely stopped doing it..Sure enough the day I came home from the hospital that was the first thing he did...Luckily I didn't have a c-section..lol

I also agree with Yogi that she's having some housebreaking issues as well.

[lange]

I just want to add a warning, if you're thinking of trying pee pads the housebreaking will get even worse & confuse your dog in the process.

edit: Not sure where she is crated but she might do better close to you & tell her to settle down as soon as the first little whimper starts. This method worked for my puppy.

[angiesample]

My sister in law has a beagle and one of my really close friends has a beagle/corgi mix and howling has always been a big problem. Make sure ur dog is getting plenty of exercise... both of these dogs take prozac everyday.. im not sure about valium but prozac is only like $10 a month at target.

Have u tried putting music on, covering the crate at night, putting a blanket in with the dog that smells like u?

[lange]

Re-reading your original post, are you sure something didn't scare her one night? It seems weird that's it's the only time she is freaking out, so to speak.

[Spunky's Momma]

I agree with lange - maybe the beagle is scared of the dark? It may sound silly, but my 60 lb "pet bull" is terrified of the dark. Asked the vet about it, and he said it was certainly a human characteristic but he wouldn't think it unbelievable. Tested it in the exam room by flipping off the lights and sure enough my baby started crying and shaking.

We got him a big night light and he seems quite all right now.