8 month old puppy won't stopp pooping in crate

by Kristine
(Graham NC)

My eight month old Peke poops in his crate daily, despite many efforts of going outside in the morning and at night.

Now when left out of the crate at night he will not poop anywhere. He sleeps three out of seven nights out of the crate, due to the crying he does to get out of the crate.

Any tips on how to stop the pooping in the crate?





Hi Kristine
This is unusual - not that he prefers to sleep outside of his crate but that he poops IN it, but not when he's free!

Generally it's the other way around but I'd guess that pooping in his crate has simply become a habit for him and when he goes in there it triggers that response. OR that he's actually suffering from some separation anxiety (see my Separation Anxiety In Your Dog for more on this behavior issue) and is so upset when he's crated that he needs to relieve himself due to anxiety.

At 8 months old he should have good bladder/bowel control (which seems to be the case as he can go all night indoors without making a mess), plus he should be past the 'chew everything' stage. So, in this situation, if he's fine not being crated then I'd personally just let him be.

Obviously if you're traveling, or you need to crate him for some reason then you'd need to go ahead and do it, and if he can be in his crate for short periods during the day without eliminating, then that would be a good way to keep him 'in practice'.

If this isn't a possibility, maybe a puppy play-pen or X-pen would be a good option. He may not mess in there either, but if he does then you could use puppy training pads. It's not what I'd normally recommend but you may need to be thinking 'outside the box' with this little guy.

Stopping him from pooping in his crate might be difficult given that it's become such a habit, and if he crate is already small enough (see my Crate Training A Puppy page for the info. on this) then there's not an awful lot you can do except take him out for a potty break much more frequently and be very vigilant when he's in his crate. This can definitely be done but it's very time consuming and takes a lot of patience and effort.

I hope this helps and wish you the very best of luck.