I'm helping out a friend with her puppy. A chocolate coloured boy, 11 weeks old at the moment. I've had him at my place twice. Playing together with my own ~1.5 year old boy. They get along well. The first time, everything went very well, the puppy in question was alone for an hour while I visited the vet with my own dog. Came back and he had obviously gone to sleep after enjoying half of the frozen kong. The next time, I didn't really need to go anywhere, but thought it simpler to go outside one-by-one. So I first took the puppy outside(pee&poo done, I took him back). Put him in a crate and all seemed well. After getting back with the bigger dog, I heard the puppy screaming, so I waited outside the door until he stopped and came in. He had pooped himself, although he'd just been outside and did it outside as well. Accidents happen, and that's fine, but this puppy had literally covered himself in excrement and was obviously very upset. So I cleaned him up and talked to her owner afterwards about it. He has no issue with being crated, but there's sometimes an issue when left alone. Turns out, this puppy tends to have a kind of a nervous breakdown when left alone. Not always, but in the odd case he does, he always has an accident. Even when there's a stuffed kong with him. What makes it odd is that he has no issue being covered with his own byproduct. The owner said that when the puppy has an accident, he often just sits back down in his own puddle, although there's plenty of room to stay clear. This is making crate/potty training incredibly difficult and I don't know what advice to give her, so thought I'd write here and see what you guys think would be appropriate action. Personally, I'm guessing normal crate training and making sure that the puppy has gone outside before crating would do the trick. But as evidence suggests it might not be the case(we had just gone outside before and he had done everything needed). The situation is also made more difficult by the fact that the owner has to return to work, starting from next week, so the puppy will have more alone time in the crate. I'm really not sure how best to approach the situation or what advice to give her.
What about putting his crate in a pen? Leaving the door open so he can go in and out as he wants. I know several others used this method so that the puppy can have a larger area to have an accident and stay clear. Sorry I've no personal experience of this as Bailey was only in a crate while tiny and then generally just for sleeping in. He had no issues with going into it at all. We worked on leaving him on his own - seconds, minutes etc - for quite a while. Interestingly he preferred to be loose in a room rather than in a crate for that - even now we use our bedroom for leaving him in if we have to go somewhere without him for a few hours. He just sleeps on our bed.
That's a good idea, He's quite good at avoiding accidents, but when there's a nervous breakdown, it's inevitable. So it might work well. I'll see if we can set something up.
My latest puppy was a nightmare for rolling around in her own wee and poo. I had her in a large pen, with the crate inside with the door open. She had loads of room, but wouldn't think twice about sitting down in her puddles and mountains. I think it's just how some of them are. It's a pain, and it certainly makes toilet training tedious, but you just carry on the way you normally would, all the time keeping in mind that he will grow out of it. Eventually. If my puppy toileted in the crate, I wouldn't want to shut him in there, and would certainly encourage them to consider a pen. Even if the puppy does still roll around in it, at least in a pen, they can avoid it if they wish.
