I have a one year old lab who still poops in his crate what do i do?

labman

This difficult problem will be even more so having been let go a year. If you are leaving him in the crate all day, you may never fix it. Dogs that are forced to live in their own filth when too young to hold it, may never learn to stay clean. Quite often the problem is created before people bring the puppy home, puppy mills, pet stores, and the would be breeders that come here showing they know nothing about caring for puppies. Although many people have such problems, it is not normal, and doesn't happen with well cared for puppies.

This is not a problem I have had, or have successful experience fixing. I do have some ideas that may help. I would rather have some more details first, is it over night, during a long day, or almost as soon as you put him in it?

labman

From an email:

''Thanks for the response. It is usually when we go away and somebody
else watches him for us, but when we do return home he still does it the
first night that we are home and then stops. He does however still pee
in his crate almost all the time. The breeder that we got him from
had the puppys going right in the crate but had paper underneath to catch
it, could that be why?''

As I said, ''Quite often the problem is created before people bring the puppy home....'' I am sure what the breeder did helped lead to the problem. It does sound like the stress of being left with somebody else. As he develops confidence when he sees a pattern of prompt returns, he may do it less. If his keepers walk him good before putting him in the crate, and then give him a Kong filled with peanut butter, he could be too busy licking the peanut butter out to be stressed enough to foul the crate.

Again, walking him may help with the urinating. It is a little defeatist and going back to the breeder's poor practice, but you can keep him up out of the urine by using a grid in the crate. I won't repeat what is in the sticky at http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/in...man-53153.html