Has anyone else had a young Lab who generally does well with tolieting then started to have an occasional poo accident. My lab is crated at night and usually does not do poos in her crate but recently has had a few times. Can they get more sensitive to little changes in the day and react in this way?
Hi @Me and my dog I'm not sure what you referring to when you write about sensitivity to changes in the day. But sure dogs can have accidents from upset bowel, a failure to defecate during the day, or a change in diet and so on. In order to restore the show, I would do some toilet training again. Take the dog on the lead at around the time she had been defecating tbefore the accidents. Make sure you give positive reinforcement when she decates. Yes plus food treat. The idea is to reinforce going in the garden, and in doing so reduce the relative payoff from doing it in the crate.
As well as what Michael says, it's also possible your dog is a bit anxious at night (for some reason) and that is causing poop to happen. A loud noise or something may have scared him during the night, causing him to associate that feeling with being crated at night and to get afraid on subsequent nights. If you think anxiety could be an issue, try sleeping next to the crate on the sofa or put the crate in your bedroom for a few nights. If that's not an option at least try using an Adaptil diffuser in the room and maybe a course of Zylkene too...
