I have an 11 week old Saint Bernard pup. I got him from a breeder out of state. He spent 12 hours in a travel crate (that he urinated in) on his way to my house. I am afraid that this produced an association between travel crate and bathroom. So, I bought him a wire crate and put no bedding or towels in. I even used a divider, giving him enough room to stand, turn around, and lay down. No luck and it has been 3 weeks. He still associates the crate with the bathroom. If he is not in his crate, he rarely ever goes to the bathroom inside and it is only pee (usually when he drinks a lot of water). He never poops in the house and even sleeps on the floor next to my bed and wakes me once during the night and I let him out and he goes to the bathroom. I fine tuned his feeding schedule so that he is all pooped and peed out by the time it is time to go in his crate. He sometimes still manages to squeeze out a little if he can. But, he always remembers to pee in his crate. On any given day, he spends about
1 hour in the afternoon and 1 in the evening in his crate. About twice a week, when I go out to dinner I leave him for 2 hours. Tonight, I tried to get him more accustomed to the crate and put him in there and he peed immediately and then proceeded to lay in it. He is not averse to laying in his own mess, be it pee or poop! I suspect the large amounts of time both the breeder's family and I have spent with him lead to the crate being a punishment and/or bathroom. I always give him a treat when putting him in the crate and then I leave immediately and don't look or talk to him. I even tried laying next to him outside the crate while he was in it, but the next time I left him unattended he peed in it. I tried to put some toys in there and he soiled them too. Please help me, I know he is extremely smart and is most likely doing this cause he is mad. I am going crazy from cleaning the crate after he has only been in for 1 hour (I work from home so he is almost never alone). Thanks for the help.

Tuscany

Our resident dog expert Labman has posted sticky notes at the beginning of this forum to help you with your very question. Read those, and if you need further clarification, I am sure he will be along shortly. Hang in there!!!

labman

I am afraid the sticky and I don't have as good of answers for you as Tuscany suggested. Although I have solutions to many problems, fouling the crate is not one of them. A grid in the crate makes urine easier to cope with, but doesn't work well wit bowel movements, or solve the problem. They are available with the crates, but expensive and hard to find. A piece of closely spaced wire closet shelving from a home supply place is cheaper. I am now using a plastic vegetable bin with plenty of holes drilled in the bottom. It helps block off part of the crate for the smaller puppy.

Exactly what goes on in those furry little heads is hard to say. Could you be convinced he is doing it deliberately to protest being crated? If so, it certainly is effective isn't it? Many ''experts'' say no way. It could also be the stress of being left behind in the crate.

saintpuppy

Does anyone know of any spray or anything that I could use to stop him from going to the bathroom in his crate? Is there anything that makes it undesirable to "make" in the crate?

Jessyfay

My Daschund use to go in his crate all the time, especially at night. I tried everything, from litter box, to urine spray to paper tray, what worked for me was that I had a large wire crate and it was much to big for my dog, I traded it in for a small, plastic one and made the whole crate bottom his bed. A dog won't pee or poo in his bed.
I can't imagine the size of the crate you must have for a st. bernard, but he's a small puppy right now, you might wanna try a smaller crate, you can actually buy crate barriers to make the crate smaller, and I also notice that the plastic crate walls are more den like then the wire crates.
It worked for my dog, he has a proper crate size big enough for his bed and him to stand and turn around in and he never goes in the crate anymore.