We have a crate pooper
 

Our new puppy, Trezzi, is a great little guy. I love his disposition self-confidence. He seems to be adjusting well to his new environment. However we have several potty issues with him.

First, Trezzi seems to be able to hold #1 for forever. We try putting him on his pad every hour, and sometimes wait for 15 minutes, but he doesn't go. We especially try catching him after he eats and after he plays. But he can hold it for a really long time. And then, 5 minutes out of the pad, he goes and pees right by the food :( He knows where the pad is, and he knows what he is supposed to do there. Sometimes he goes there on his own and urinates without any problems. We had a breakthrough though in the last couple of days, and it seems he started getting it. So I am hopeful we'll be having less incidents every day.

Second, we have a major problem with #2. Two days ago we closed Trezzi in his crate during the day for about 2.5 hours. We left the house to take Lulu to a dog park. When we came back, Trezzi's crate was covered with poop. He had a soft stool (we've been dealing with soft poop due to the fact he's eating a mix of wet+dry food) on one side of the crate, and diarrhea on the other. We felt terrible for the little guy. We felt so guilty he was closed in his crate and had to go. And we figured that he probably was stressed out, and this is why he went in his crate. I am working from home, so during the days my babies are always under supervision, fenced off in the kitchen, and have access to their potty pad.

But it happened again tonight. We put Trezzi on his pad at midnight. He was there for about 10 minutes, but he didn't go at all. We brought him in his crate to our bedroom, where he sleeps with us. His crate is placed on a chair, right by my side of the bed to make him feel more secured. At 1:30 am I woke up smelling an awful smell of poop and hearing him moving in his crate. Trezzi pooped in his crate again :mad: I took him down, cleaned his crate while he was on the potty pad, and after 10 minutes of being on the pad he pooped again. I am not sure why he pooped, as he ate last around 7 pm in the evening.

I am upset because Trezzi wasn't even trying to make any sounds to wake us up and let us know he needs to go. He just pooped in the crate, right where he sleeps. And he loves peeing right by his food. :eek:

I am planning to put a box in his crate, to limit him from being able pooping on the other side of his crate. And if it doesn't work, I won't have a choice but to keep him in the fenced-off area of the kitchen at night, with his crate open — so he can go and potty if he needs to.

Please let me know if you have any ideas, experience, or advice to why might he be doing this, and other options to keep him from going in his crate.

thanks,
Nadezda

What time did you feed him? I learned the hard way last night, that if you feed him too late, he won't have enough time to digest and will be forced to poop in his crate (or out of it somehow in my case).

Make sure you're keeping him on a decent schedule where you can almost predict when he can poop. We try not to let him eat past 6pm (last night was different sadly).

We fed them at 7pm last evening, but I always have some dry kibble out because of his small size, as per the breeder's suggestion. I think I'll leave only water out after 6 pm for them.

I am trying to do that. This is what we've done very successfully with Lulu, but doesn't seem to work with Trezzi so well. :confused:

Yea, they seem a lot different than some other breeds.

My gf always let her Cockapoo have food out all the time, but I think that is more for a mature dog. Even then, I'd like to keep the puppy on a schedule even after he gets a bit larger/older.

I'm even tempted to take away the water while he's in the crate from now on after the pee/poo he left for me this morning =/

We have a crate pooper here but not a yorkie and not a mill dog.
He is just to young to be left in the kennel for to long and needs to go out more often then we thought.

not all dogs go the said 1/ hour after they eat and need to be walked longer to get them to go.

JL

I don't give them water while they're in the crate at night (Lulu sleeps with us in the bed, but we don't have potty problems with her usually), but they have access to water all day long. It's hot here, and I still add honey to the water for little Trezzi. Making sure he's sugar level is good.

My babies go inside only. I'll start training them outside in August. Trezzi will be done with his vaccination only in the end of July. I want to train them to go outdoors together so there's no confusion.

you must have a vet that said he can not go out until all shots that so very wrong and you are missing extremly important soical skills window if you do that.
As long as the place you take him is clean get him outside.

take him out and about in your arms and pee pad him in areas that are less clean.

one set of shots is enough to get them outside.

soical skills are so needed 100 places, people, dogs ,things and sounds by 16 weeks for great soicalization.

JL

My vet said that it's OK to take him out, as long as the area is clean and that he doesn't come in contact with other dogs until he gets all his puppy vaccines. BUT: we have ferile cats that poop in our backyard (we clean it up of course), and our neighbor's puppy had parvo and she defecated in our yard. We cleaned the spot with bleach to kill the virus, as per the vet's recommendation, but I am still not feeling comfortable about it.
Trezzi is almost 13 weeks, and he's been with us only 1 week. I want to make sure he is well adjusted to be in our house and gains a bit more weight, before I take him outside.

I truly understand but trust me when I say get him out even in your arms to see the world.
I have one that did not and she is 7 years old on prozac and lives a life of fear.
I have on that is 18 months old and 70 pounds and kids scare him so bad he shakes.
I returned on to the breeder at 100 pounds not mine that should have been put down.

JL

What brand of food does he eat? I've found with certain brands they have to poop soon after eating which makes it easier to train. Jada eats Royal Canin and Ceasar. Have you tried a walk after he eats? sometimes that helps her go also. Good luck and keep us posted.:p

I should add that non of these are mine at the time they needed soical skills All came through my hands as a trainer or handler or now mum to one after the soicalization window closed.


JL

Thanks for your advice. However, we did the same thing with Lulu (she's almost 6 months now), and she is totally fine with beeing outside. She absolutely loves walking in the hood, riding in the car, running in the yard, and she is crazy about people. We still working on socializing her with other doggies though.
The one thing we did with Lulu was to take her in her carrier everywhere, and it seemed to help a lot.

Great glad to hear you have him out.
makes a world of differnce.
Just making sure as I hate to see these guys hurt as bad as I see some hurting do to lack of soical skills

JL

You answered a ton of questions about if I should take my puppy out to see the backyard and poo/pee there if he can.

We do have 1 feral cat that comes around and hunts the birds, but that's about it.

He's 10 weeks and has seen the outside world at least 3 occasions since we got him on the 12th.

So it's okay for him to run around the yard and check things out and even use the time out there to poo/pee out there?

You've only had him a week, he's a pup you can't except him to be trained to go on the pad and poop when you think he's going to. Poor guy give him a chance to get use to him environment. Each dog is different. Chelsea can take hours before she poop yet DaisiMae goes 10 minutes later. Try giving him quality food, I’m feeding the girls Wellness for puppies and mixed my cooking with it. Always leave water for them. If your neighbor's puppy had parvo and she defecated in your yard I would differently NOT take any dogs need the grass or whatever. There a thread which she indicated that it’s just about impossible to get rid of.

Right now I feed him Diamond Naturals + Cesar + Baby Rice Cereal. He poops after he eats, no problem there... But then he has to poop again (and sometimes again) much later. I'm trying to get him to eat more dry kibble too, so his poops are more solid.

You may want to change that food combination Cesar is crap and Baby Rice Cereal how much sodium is in it. In one of the threads have recipes for young pup under 6 weeks and the proper portion and the right food for them. Maybe do a search on recipes.

I know that Cesar isn't good food, but it's a good way to entice young ones to eat. He really gets a sliver of a teaspoon for the taste. The Baby Rice Cereal is good to help his poops firm.
I am actually working on taking him off this stuff, and getting him to eat only dry kibble. He only gets this combo in the morning (the past two days), to make sure he eats. But then he is fed 2 more times only kibble. I am trying to move him to regular diet gradually.

Also, I am not sure his diet is the only cause to why he chose to poop in his crate. Thankfully, he didn't poop in his crate yesterday or tonight. :thumbup:

When my Coco was a baby he used to go into his crate too poop!! He would be out playing and just walking around then he would go in there and poop. I don't know why. He's crazzzzzy!!

My bathroom is part of the master suite so I can't confine her there. I have Lily in an excercise pen which is a 48in sq. It fits the 24X18 crate, her litter box, food water, place for toys and a little space to play. I have found that limiting the space is the best thing. I put a box in her crate to keep her from using part of it for ther bathroom. It worked great. The crate door is never closed. She went to the litter box the 2nd day after I set up the arrangement. She has not gone potty in her crate. At nite she isn't in my room. I put her back in the xpen and cover her crate with a towel. She goes right in and goes to sleep. Food & water are always available because I am not home all day. She gets up and uses the bathroom as she sees fit (I guess). In the morning she waits quietly for me to come (usually around 5:45 to 6:00am cuz I have to go to work @ 7:30) There is usually a greeting of pee and poop on the pee pad. If there ia no poo, I watch her cuz I know it's coming. When she is out for playtime I have to keep a diaper on her but I watch for signs and run her back to the litter box. The watching for signs drives me crazy! Her little butt seems to always be in a squat. She doesn't really get it yet but I have only had her 3 wks so I think this is a good start. I have 2 xpens so I move her location around. I leave her in the one in the living room when I go to work as it's a tad bigger.

For the peeing: I would wait him out. This is what I did with Thor. We had two marathon sessions where I took him out every hour and put him on his pad for five minutes. If sat or laid down, he went back in to the crate. I think it took him 40 hours the first time (I did sleep during the night, but otherwise, every hour), but once he FINALLY pottied, he figured out very quickly that the way to freedom was a potty on the pad.

You can put her food and water dishes in her crate so she doesn't starve while you are waiting her out.

Also, have you tried blotting her pad with some of her pee? The scent of urine often releases the floodgates.

Frankie doesn't go anywhere in the house but on his pads--he didn't miss even at 12 weeks, but here is the weird part...I have a larger crate, so there is a sherpa rug, water dish and pee pad in there. I never intended the crate to be used to house break him, but to keep him safe when I was out. When he's not locked in there, that's where he goes--on the pad in his crate. I always leave the door open and he uses it like a bathroom.

Here's the more strange part. When I put him in there when I leave the house, I had to put a pee pad by the crate door. It appears that he doesn't want to soil the crate when he has to be in there, so he wizzes out the door onto the pad "outside" the crate.

He NEVER goes anywhere else, and it's what he does, so I'm sticking to it. Strange--reverse crate training, using it like a bathroom.

So far we didn't have any more poop in the crate incidents. When we need to leave the house during the day, we leave Trezzi's crate open in the fenced off area in the kitchen. He knows where the pad is and goes there. He hasn't had accidents so far when he's in the kitchen. :)

We lock up Lulu in her crate though — she learned how to jump the fence :eek:, and does it every time now if she is left in that area to her own devices.

I was more worried about nighttime because he sleeps in his crate, closed-off in our bedroom. I am not sure what happened that night when he pooped in his crate, but it hasn't happened ever since. I am very happy about it. :)

I also limit their last feeding time to 7 pm. We usually go to sleep around midnight, and the monkeys hangout with us till then; so they have plenty of opportunities to go if they need it. And then hubby wakes up around 5 am to take Trezzi to his pad in the kitchen, just in case he needs to go. :thumbup:

How interesting!

Oopppsss.... I did it again
 

Yes, Trezzi pooped in his crate last night again :(

Yesterday we had people over, and Trezzi was in his enclosed area in the kitchen. He pooped several times, with the last batch being diarrhea. A present for mommy and daddy to be proud of, right in front of their guests LOL

We put him on his pad around midnight, and he didn't poop. Then around 3:30 am I heard him happily "talking" in his crate. I woke up to find a new pile of poop, right there in the crate — just like before... :eek: