Getting rid of the crate?

[Awkwardusername]

Our pup (GSD) turned 1 in March and we think it might be time to ditch the crate (closed). She still seems to be happy enough going in and sleeping there etc but we’ve been leaving it open and she’ll take herself in there, then on the floor, then back into it during the night (after a few teething problems as we blocked her access to the sofas where she would obviously prefer to be!).

However, we have a small issue!

On several occasions now, she’s pooed on the floor during the night?! Obviously she has never done this in her crate, and normally on a morning we’d let her out and she wouldn’t need to go immediately. We thought she was totally toilet trained?!
We have set up a camera and to be fair to her, she does go to the back door, bark (once) and whine a bit before doing it but it’s a very quiet bark etc; definitely not loud enough to wake us up.

Does anyone have any comments, advice etc?
If we need to go back to the hourly alarms, we will, but wondering if this if something we should have expected/if there’s anything else we can do?

TIA!

If she is pooing at the same time each night, perhaps you could set an alarm and let her out to poo, just like you did when she was a young pupppy

What time are you feeding her and giving her a last walk of the evening? I might be worth feeding earlier and making sure she’s walked at about 8/9pm for a quick toilet break. That’s got to be a better habit than waking at night to go.

Could she be getting cold? That sometimes wakes them up and makes them need a bowel movement. If she's been used to being in a covered crate having it open and being out of it might be cooler for her.

Our rescue dog is nearly 5 and still sleeps in her locked crate at night (and when we are out). When we have tried transitioning her with an open door (to an enclosed space!) we found she was defecating and seeing every time and we are 99% sure it's from anxiety/stress. Shut the cage and she is absolutely fine, no toileting needs. Open crate door and mess everywhere and a very stressed hound.

I would be looking at her feeding times as pp has said.

I personally wouldn't be wanting to start getting up in the night to let her out as this would become the expectation.

We feed ours at 6am then 5 pm and a quick walk around the block at about 7pm.

I think it can be fairly common for dogs to struggle if they're used to being crated overnight. I wonder if she's feeling a bit anxious due to the changes and that's making her wanting to poo.

If you watch her on the camera, does she otherwise seem happy and settled outside of the crate? Is she sleeping properly?

I think you do need to find a way to get up and let her out when she asks to go - either use a camera with noise so it alerts you, or train her to use doggy doorbells so you can hear them upstairs. It's not uncommon for young adult dogs to regress slightly and need the toilet again in the night for a while.