Pooping in crate!! HELP!
 

Hi all..
We are having a huge problem with Snickers. Last week I posted about leaving Snick in a room with pee pad, bed, and toys and I got a ton of responses. Snickers ended up hating it and would bark like he was in pain when we put him in there. We decided to put him back in his crate, and I would have to try not to feel guilty about it. So he has been back sleeping in his crate (from our bed ) and being in his crate for 2.5 hours in the morning, having a 1 hour break-out with Dad, and then another 3 hours in the afternoon for the past week. Well for the past 5 working days, he has pooped in his crate!! Sometimes in the morning, sometimes in afternoon. He USED to be very regular, but now who knows. Why is he doing this and how can we get him to stop? Some things you should know:
-I am transitioning him to a grainless diet right now.
-We did buy him from a petstore in Sept 2008 and has had crate problems.
-While he was in the room last week for his trail run, he did poop in there as well.
-Could he be pooping from seperation anxiety? From panic-ing?
-He does hold his pee, just not his poop.
-We do not put him in the crate while we are home.
-Now I even feel more guilt that not only is he in a cage, but now he is in it with POOP!

PLEASE HELP ME...we can't take it anymore and cleaning the crate is such a pain! WAAAAA!
THANKS!!!!!!!
-Vivian:animal-pa

Do you think if we put him back in the laundry room with a baby gate he might like it more?? We would close the door and I think thats why he would freak out. I would like to get rid of crating him during the day all together, and just crate him at night. Any input is greatly appreciated!!

-Viv:animal-pa

Have you tried an x-pen during the day and then just crate him at night for sleeping.

I put bed, toys, food, pee pads, etc. in the pen. As long as he can't climb out, he should be safe and will be in his normal living space while you are gone.

I would try putting him back in the room using gates to keep him in. I think you might have something there with the door closing thing.