Dear J Ralston---I still have this problem but I believe it is completely behavioral. Rockie was "paper trained" in a double connected crate for the first three months of his life (by his breeder). This did not transfer to us as I bought a big enough crate where I could put paper on one part and him on the other. Then I was told to put him in one small enough for just him to be able to turn around and he should not go in his own space---well, let me tell you--this dog rarely has accidents in the house (he has a doggy door). However, prior to the doggy door came about we would put him in his crate and like you, 10 minutes or 2 hours, even if he went to the bathroom right before going in to his crate he would not only leave me a present to clean up but he would roll around in it--basically to say "do you really want to lock me up in here??? Okay, this is what you get". We now only use his crate when he acts up--as a punishment (although we always keep the door open and have gone back to the big one so that occasionally he will crawl in and go to sleep on his own-as long as the door is open). Basically, we were lucky enough to have a gated large back yard and put in the doggy door and that was the last of it. At night he either sleeps in our bed or in his dog bed next to our bed. I hope you have better luck with the crate than I did.
