Hello, I just found this Forum and I am looking for some insight/advice. I have a 9 week old chocolate lab who we are having an issue with pooping in the crate, usually in the morning after just pooping outside. She was perfectly fine the first week we had her and just starting having uses this past Monday. Here is the rundown: The last three mornings I have taken the puppy out normally and she has gone poop outside like normal. I leave for work and within 10-15 minutes my wife gets back from running. Within 10-15 minutes of time the puppy has pooped in her crate. She does get really upset about being left alone when I do go. I do not know if it is because she is still so young, some anxiety about being left alone at that time, or potentially a combination of both. She also pooped in her crate once during the afternoon this week so far. We tend not to leave her by herself for very long. -She has been perfectly fine in her crate at night with us taking her out once. -I have tried different things in the morning: not feeding her before I leave, feeding her in the crate before l leave, taking her outside more than once before I leave, trying to tire her out before I leave. I know that was a lot of information at once. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I do not understand how she seemed to be fine with the same exact schedule last week but not now.
Welcome to you. Yes, a lot of pups poop when anxious, it's not unusual. Two of my pups did anxious poos in the car at first because they hated it. After a long sleep even 10-15 minutes is too long to leave a pup alone. Could your wife not re-arrange her schedule until the pup is older and can cope. You could be building an anxiety problem unessesarily. Also many pups need two poops in the morning. I raise Guide Dog pups. They go to School at 14 months old. The training routine depends on whether the pups are 'two poop' or 'one poop' pups. Bruce is definitely a two poop pup (11 months old) so, as all walks have to be clean, I don't take him out until he's done two. ...
When Duggan was that age he pooped three times every morning. Usually the third time was 15 min after the first.
Yes, you still have a super young pup and yet to find a routine. It will come but you might need more time with her to work out what will work. Also. How big is your crate...if it's quite roomy she won't see it as her bed space and will be happy to poop. Crates need to be quite snug so they see it as their bed and won't soil it. That said I wouldn't really encourage leaving such a young pup for any real length of time yet. Need to build it up slowly...have fun
Puppies that young do not yet have strong enough sphincter muscles to be able to control when they poop. When they gotta go, they go, they really have no control over it. A much larger crate might at least allow her time to poop some place other than where she will have to lie in it. You didn't say she is lying in her poop so maybe you already have a nice big crate. We left the crate door open and found the pups did choose too poop and pee away from it, keeping their sleeping and eating places clean. Plus, for the one short week I did use the crate, it really slowed down my getting pup outside in time. Yes, in one week you haven't really had time to establish a schedule and keep in mind as puppy matures a schedule is ever changing anyway. If one or both of you could modify your schedules a bit it might help a lot.
Thanks for all of the advice. I think we are going to have to change it up to where she isn't alone at all for the first few hours in the morning. It is a large crate but we have a divider to keep it snug to only allow for her enough room to lay down and turn around. Looks like there are various points of view on whether that is best or not. My big worry is she was having terrible separation anxiety that was causing her to whine so much and poop in the crate. It seems based on much of the feedback that since she just is really young and cannot quite control it yet. Hopefully once she gets a few weeks older her sphincter muscles will be more developed and she will get accustomed to being in the crate without getting upset.
This is best for the brief periods you need for house training when you can't supervise a puppy, but confining a pup in a crate for longer than they can hold pee or poo is defeating the point. Once they start peeing and pooing in the crate, and get used to that, then the crate is ruined as a house training tool anyway. It's not the point to confine a puppy long term in a very small space. You need to train this. You need to go through a careful programme where you train her to be ok in a crate without getting upset. And then when you leave (for maybe just a second at first) and build it up really slowly.
Hi and welcome. As the others have said you have a very young pup - a baby still - you need time to build up time alone (even 15 mins) and also to find out if your pup needs more than one poop in the mornings. My boy still has two poops in the morning, usually around 10 mins apart and he is 8 months old. We go out in the garden about 15 mins after getting up (morning cuddles come first) then we go out into the garden, when he was tiny he would pee and poop then wander round, have a chase of a fly or an ant for a bit (or destroy a flower) and then poop again. And months later he still does!
There is a fabulous crate training guide on the main site. At 8 weeks your pup should only be in there for a couple of seconds at a time, you really have to build it up super slowly. I followed the guide (I actually built up duration even slower than recommended because Xena was a widdler) and she never had crate anxiety. My only advice is to not start with frozen Kongs - start with them at room temperature, then par-frozen, and finally you introduce frozen.
is the crate just big enough for him? when i gave sparky too much space, he peed but never pooped inside his crate. i had to move the divider and make the space big enough just for him to turn around and that fixed the problem. almost guaranteed now no poo/pee if hes locked in his crate. the pen on the other hand is a different story.
