I thought dogs were meant to not mess in their crate!?

[Mumma2Ro]

Hello
we’ve got a 9 week old Labrador. She’s amazing and we are so in love with her.
but she keeps pooping in her crate!! A bit more context, it’s only been when she has been in her crate with the door shut. So either over night or when I’ve been on the school run.
I thought the whole idea of the crate was that it was their safe space and they don’t mess in there!?
never any wees just poos.
Her Poos are very soft atm while we are transitioning her from raw food diet to kibble. Could this be why! Is she struggling to hold it. But it doesn’t happen any other time, all the rest of her poos are done in the garden. It’s 1.30am and I am yet again putting wash on 😩😩
sorry for the rant. Any advice please.
just now I went down as soon as she started crying, I never leave her crying in there.

Way, way too young to be crated overnight!

She's just a baby and has only left her mum. Pup needs more time to learn. I feel your frustration though.

Is she being let out during night? When is she being fed?

ours has been crated since she came home at 8 weeks but we slept beside crate for 2 weeks+ until she got used to it. We also fed her at v regular times so she was less likely to need to pop over night. She has very occasionally had an accident but only when she has an upset stomach - we transitioned off 100% kibble incidentally as it seemed to cause issues

Think she’s was in garden 2/3 times a night at that age, was harder then a newborn

Sounds like stress?
How often do you leave her in the crate?

Ideally a crate should have really positive associations, be a peaceful place to retreat to ( with door open!) rather than be used as a “Jail” where she is kept separate from you.

Are you actually house training her?
Taking her out every couple of hours, always after feeding and waking up?

Using a cue word helps- and reward and masses of praise the minute she poos/wees outside.

Never punish for an indoor poo- that’s your fault, not hers.

Just clean up quietly.

9 weeks is still young, but kittens f she is messing in a crate she doesn’t see the crate as a safe space or is being left in there too long.

I haven’t had a puppy poo or wee in a crate- sounds like it’s on bedding, too- that definitely isn’t normal- a dog will never usually want to soil their bed.

Some puppy farmed dogs are left to soil their tiny enclosures-
If she had this start in life it might help explain why-
Vigilance is the key, I had
a little “ Poo Monster” who would as a puppy poo indoors occasionally if it was raining hard outside-
But a waterproof coat for her and my going out with her in heavy rain made that stop🙂
( She’s a Whippet and they hate heavy rain).

If a 9 week old puppy needs to go it needs to go, it wont want to go in its crate but you need to train it not to by getting them outside before it happens, day or night.

You need to work out when it is going and get up and take it outside before it happens and wait until it does. Dh was sleeping downstairs with our lab puppy until he was around 12 weeks old and only needed a very late and very early toilet trip.

Anything but the shortest of school runs are tricky with such a young pup if you dont manage to get them to toilet immediately before you go.

Can you be there for the pup more for a few weeks, sleep with it and let it out at night, make other arrangements for the school run?

For a young pup you should be setting your alarm and taking her out every 3 hrs through night- They can’t hold wees for long.
Have her in the same room as you- you can hear when she stirs and take her out then.
The first dog I had from RSPCA they said “Don’t leave her downstairs- you’ll never get her clean”

I followed their advice of keeping her in my bedroom ( Crates weren’t a thing back then) and taking her out throughout the night- just like attending to a newborn as PP said.

She was a dream to housetrain- approx 16 weeks old when we got her.

She is 9 weeks old! Is this for real?

Poor mite. Of course a 9 week old puppy can't hold it in all night. It's a crate not a magic device.
We always left the crate door open at night so pup could get out and, yes, of course we'd come down to accidents but that's what puppies do. She still can't always go through the night at 3 so we just confine her to the kitchen that has a hard floor

Of course a 9 week old puppy can’t hold it in overnight, whatever made you think that it could? You need to be getting up two or three times during the night to let her out if you’re wanting to crate train her. When ours were puppies we kept the crate by our bed at night so we could hear when they woke up and take them out straight away.

You need to stop going down when she cries, all that is doing is teaching her that crying = going out. You need to set an alarm at least every 2 hours and take her out before she cries.
What time is she having her dinner?

She’s too young to be able to hold herself all night. Our Labrador as a puppy that age always used to poo overnight either in his crate or in the kitchen where we moved his bed to.
Once he got a bit bigger there were no more accidents. They want to be clean but just can’t necessarily manage it for hours at a time at that age.

I'm no expert on puppies from what friends have told me they have generally slept in the same room as the puppy for a while until they are able to go all night without needing to toilet. I can't see how leaving such a young puppy downstairs by themselves is ever going to lead to anything BUT mess! How do you expect her not to mess in her crate when you're not there to take her out when she needs to go? She can't hold it for long, she's a baby.

9 week of puppies are little babies. Would you expect a 9 week old baby to go all night without a wee or a poop? You need to let her out into the garden every 3 hours day and night, then she will learn to hold it until in the garden. If she wees or poops in garden make a fuss of her and give her a tiny treat. Only reward when she wees or poops in garden she will soon learn to hold it. We got up every 3 hours with our puppy until they were 13 or 14 weeks then every 4 hours until 22 weeks then every 5 hours until about 40 weeks then they went all night about 7 hours. We only ever had two or three accidents between both puppies. Before school run give pup 10 mins in garden. Then put crate in kitchen but don't shut her in. If she needs poop once she's alone, she may be scared to be alone, she will most likely go by the door and keep her crate clean. If you shut her in her crate and she needs to go you give her no option but to go in the crate. Puppies are more sleep destroying than babies for 6 months.

“I thought the whole idea of the crate was that it was their safe space and they don’t mess in there!?”

Well firstly you need to actually make it that for them, which will usually take longer than a week, it’s not just a case of sticking them in a crate and hoping fir the best.

Secondly you need to have realistic expectations - that age of puppy is going to be upset when left and isn’t going to be able to hold on all night without toileting.

Yea she is let out during the night. I go down and let her in the garden as soon as I hear her cry or bark.

she has her breakfast between 7am and 8am. Lunch between 1pm and 2pm. Dinner between 5pm and 6pm.
can I ask what food you switched to from 100% kibble?

Yea mine is in the garden 3 times a night too

Thank you for your reply.
She’s left in her crate in the morning and the afternoon while I go on the school runs for approx 30-45 mins.
then she goes in the crate again over night for sleeping.

yes we are house training her. We take her in the garden every hour and always after waking up and eating.

we use a cue word and reward massively when she goes to the toilet outside.

I never tell her off or punish her. And she came from the most amazing breeder- she had a great start to her life.

we leave the door to the crate open all day, I put water and treats in there. And toys. Comfy bed etc.
she doesn’t freely go in it, during the day she sleeps on the living floor or on my lap/at my feet.

Also sorry i didn’t make it clear that I do let her out 3 times a night into the garden l. I don’t leave her all night and I know she cannot hold her toilet all night.
maybe when she poos at night I’m just not getting down to her quick enough when she calls ?

Thank you. I worry that if I leave the crate door open at night, She will chew my sofas

Oh that’s good advice thank you. But what if she is crying to go out and I ignore her ? I don’t think my heart could take leaving her to cry

Really good advice thank you x

Taken on board thanks so much

We got a puppy pen and attached it to the front of the crate. Then she could go to the toilet there on puppy pads and her bed remained nice and clean.

As others have said it’s a big ask for a 9 week old puppy.

We put our pup’s crate at the side of our bed until he could go through the night without needing to go out to make sure we heard as soon as he stirred and could get him out. We then gradually moved it to where we wanted him in the kitchen with no issues.

The only issue is you said her poos are soft. This might mean that the kibble isn’t agreeing with her which won’t help her learn to hold it. We tried loads of kibbles for ours and eventually switched to raw when he was about a year old and it was the best thing we ever did. He went from pooing 5-6x a day (only the first one of the day was normal) to 1-2x a day normal poos that are half the size. I think some dogs just don’t do well on kibble so one to keep an eye on.