Hello, my puppy is 7 months old and he was housetrained early on, he will happily sleep in his crate at night. He gets his last food at 4pm and then its usual for him to go for a last poo at about 10.30, he goes outside about 11.30 before going in his crate and he will sleep without a sound until about 6. When I come down Cookie is always sitting patiently for me to come down, he never makes a sounds to be let out, but he always goes out to do a poo first thing once I let him out. However, the last few days in a row he has done a poo in his crate. I don't know what time he has done it, and he always sits very carefully next to it waiting for me, without a sound. I'm not sure if a smaller space would stop it happening, he's in a large crate now but he is a big puppy. Any ideas on how to stop this? Should I go back to taking him out in the middle of the night or is the natural instinct to not poo on his bed now ruined? Thanks for any advice.
I certainly wouldn't make his crate smaller because when a dog needs to poo they have to do it, the urge to defecate can't be controlled to the same extent as the urge to urinate. At least with a big crate he doesn't have to lie right next to it. I'd have a look at feeding - have you increased quantities, changed type of food, given different treats, has anyone else given him extra tit-bits etc? You could try making his last meal a couple of hours later and see if this helps.
