Is this bed cruel for the dog?

[HopingSomeoneIsAwake]

I have a 9 month old dog who is perfectly house trained and has been for months. The last week or so he has suddenly started pooing in his bed overnight (he is crated because he was when I first got him and it suits him and us too for safety reasons - young children in the house etc). He can be quite anxious at times however he has started new medication (steroids) so that could be the culprit of upsetting his stomach. I know it’s not his fault but it’s actually starting to get me quite down having to do a full load of washing of his bed things every morning to then have to repeat it the day after - would it be cruel for me to take away the bedding in his crate until his stomach issues have resolved? He has never used puppy pads (went straight into the garden when toilet training) and I wouldn’t trust him not to chew them overnight anyway. He has the vets tomorrow and they are going to give him some stomach protection medications so hopefully that helps!

Crate training is also an important part of training as in no way is it "cruel" to want to teach your dog boundaries and keep him safe.

Of course it isn't. It's perfectly possible to keep puppies safe without caging them simply because it suits you.

You need to let him out to the toilet during the night. Being forced to poop in his bedding will be very distressing for a fully toilet trained dog. That will make his anxiety and his stomach problems worse.

A dog going for an overnight stay at the vets will be crated overnight. Good luck to those who’s dog has never been in a crate

It's never been a problem with any of our dogs.

Oh, that’s good then

Get up and let them go outside if yoi know they are soiling.
They are obvisouly ill and feeling shit if on steroids, don’t take away their bedding. Surely washing bedding is easier than scooping and wiping a cage?

If your dog needs to be crated because he's getting into trouble, then it means it doesn't like the crate/ being on his own etc

Crating for your own convenience is cruel. Crating without blankets is really cruel.

I change my elderly dogs bedding every day due to accidents when he’s asleep. It’s not his fault, dogs get I’ll and old, we know this when we get them. I just ensure that’s he’s happy and comfortable.

If the crate is large, cover one half with newspaper and put his bed in the other half, so at least he doesn't have to soil his bed (sorry if this has been said - short of time). Then set your alarm for every two hours to let him out in the garden at night until this is resolved (if he's on steroids he'll need to wee much more often anyway).

Look, a side effect of high dose steroids is unconscious night time incontinence. Our free roam, perfectly house trained dog would pee and poop in her sleep and not even realise until she woke up when she was on them. She'd be mortified but we just ensured her cosy bed was waterproofed so we could change and replace like you would a child. The crate is irrelevant here. The OP just wants bedding advice FFs not a range of opinions about crating or not crating. Agreed that no bedding is not acceptable though.

Of course dogs need a safe space to retire to where they will be left alone. That doesn't need to be a cage. DDog has her bed in a corner under a table. Sometimes she chooses to go there and have peace and quiet, and the rule is no-one is allowed to disturb her when she's there. Same when I was growing up, I knew from an early age that if our dog was in his basket I wasn't allowed to disturb him.

DDog potters round at night, and has several sleeping places that she uses as suits her. All of them are within the boundaries we allow. DD keeps her door closed, and DDog doesn't try to go in there until the alarm goes off, then she scratches on the door because she knows DD will give her breakfast. Personally I allow DDog on the bed with me, growing up our dogs were not allowed upstairs. Each was able to select the most comfortable place within the boundaries, and after the initial effort of teaching them where was and was not allowed they just settled where they wanted within those boundaries.

TBH if DDog needs to stay overnight at the vets there will be so much that's unfamiliar, being in a cage will be neither here nor there. It will be a necessary evil that is outweighed by the benefits.

My dog is fine to be left alone, she kips on the sofa - all fine, but sometimes I have my DDs dog to stay and NO WAY would I trust her to have free reign of the house overnight 🙈

When I go to bed she's crated - if I need to pop out through the day I'll block the kitchen off with the crate and leave the door open so she can roam about in the kitchen. Is this an option OP?

Is he pooing everywhere during the daytime too?

If not it could be that he associates his crate/bed with going to the toilet.
Which would make sense as to why he sleeps on the hard part of the crate.

Therefore, I would try him with leaving the crate door open and having a different bed away from the crate.

You may find that he goes into the crate to go to the toilet and then comes back out to sleep.
Put a baby gate up so he is still confined to one room and therefore your kids aren’t at risk of anything.

I am not against crates for dogs, but I aghast that you would leave a dog without bedding and that you leave the dog locked up whilst you go out. This is not how a crate should be used, they are not supposed to be for your convenience or to save you from tidy up. You are hugely misunderstanding the purpose of a crate if this is what you think.

You shouldn’t be locking your dog in a crate whilst you go out, the dog should be able to alert a human being that it needs to be released from the crate, it should not be a prisoner in there. What if you are delayed and it needs to go, poor dog is left lying its own excrement, but the only part of that scenario you seem to care about is having to wash bedding.

My dog was crated at night when he was young, but if he kept having accidents, I would set an alarm clock and get up in the night to take him outside. Indeed as we did when they were very young anyway as puppies have small bladders.

You are a cruel owner and shouldn’t have a dog. Find this poor dog a better home because you are not fit. I am angry reading your posts.

I bought a cheap single duvet, cut and sewed in into 4 mini duvets and use those in the bottom of our dog’s crate. Cosy and easy to chuck in the wash.

I realise that you probably can’t do this straight away but worth doing when you are able as the mini duvets are very handy.

Hope your dog is better soon.

I mean I crate trained my dog.

But I also put the baby in a cot he can’t escape from and he sleeps there for 12+ hours a night.

they don’t seem wildly dissimilar to me.

Thank you for all of the helpful comments, I’ve decided to put the baby gate on the kitchen door and put his bed in there tonight so he can get up and walk about but is confined to one room where there is nothing he can get into etc and he has the vets for some stomach protection from the steroids

Our cocker dog can open doors and let himself into and back out of the garden.

Never closes them behind himself, though, the lazy beggar! 😁

The best thing to buy is ‘Vet Bed’ - it’s a layer of thick fleecy fabric which you trim to size and it can be machine washed on a very high temperature to kill bacteria. Vets use it, as the name suggests. It’s a bit like artificial sheepskin. Buy enough to swap the pieces round while one washes.

And for those people making out I’m such a horrible dog owner from one aspect - bedding - and one post - I just feel embarrassed for you really 😂 my dog is extremely well cared for and wants for nothing - he is on very high nutritional food (which costs a fortune) is supplemented with the best vitamins around, regularly attends the vets for check ups and groomers, has plenty of mental stimulation with lick mats, food based puzzles etc and plenty of walks including a dog Walker once a week which takes him out in a group for hours because my joints seize up in the cold (medical condition, I imagine that makes me a bad owner too 😅) and have spent hours and hours training him into the dog he is now because believe me he was a mess when I first got him because he actually had been mistreated from his breeder

I’ve literally worked so hard to transform that dog from a quivering mess who used to wee and poo out of fear every time they saw someone to being - apart from a bit of anxiety which he will probably always have - a happy little dog who is able to interact with other people and dogs now - so yeah I must be the worst of the worst, ring the RSPCA now 😂

PS a certified clinical animal behaviourist helped us crate train both of our dogs. Never ever had a single sign of distress or a bark from either dog while in the crate. It has really helped at the vets and travelling in a crate in the car as both are very happy to curl up and nod off. Ignore the people who have no idea about proper crate training and assume you are shoving your bewildered dog in there, locking the door and going out to work (they care about animal welfare and mean well!).

I completely agree with this - my dog never shows any sign of distress from being in there either - in fact if he ever feels scared or unsure (mainly when unknown men come in the house like workers etc) that’s actually his place of safety that he runs to and finds comfort in, when I close the gate for bedtime or going out, I sprinkle some treats for him to snuffle around and find but half the time he has already peacefully fallen asleep!

Yes, but you still considered letting the puppy sleep in a bare cage overnight in the middle of winter because you find it too inconvenient to keep washing bedding. That's not a kind owner.

His crate is right in front of the radiator which stays on in the night, if anything he spends most the time sleeping on the floor in there anyway because the room gets so hot, and anyway I’ve already explained what I will be doing instead which isn’t that