I have a 4 month old black lab! She has been a real joy to train and play with and I love her dearly! When I got her at 7 weeks, I immediately started crate training her. She did great! But within the last 2 weeks she's suddenly started to regress to pooping at night in her crate. This is something that happened once when we first started crate training but never again... until now!

Why might she be regressing?

And

What can I do to stop it!

I've crate trained many of our labs and this is the first time I've run into this problem!

Thanks!

Could be digestive problems, have you changed her food?

Try feeding her earlier in the day, and take her out at least an hour before bedtime. My dog did that, and it may be a digestive problem, but if you see no difference in the stool, most likely it's that she's eating too late, or is finding something to eat late that you don't know about. Hope that helps :) Oh and when I took my miniture pincher to the vet, she told me that dogs with digestive problems can take a teaspoon of Pepto Bismal, which I gave to her in a syringe. If a 2 lb. dog can handle that, I'm sure your lab can too. Good luck.

Thanks for the info MOWERMAN and karma!

We haven't changed her food but I'm sure we could manage to feed her earlier! She is a sneaky girl so she may have a food stash somewhere!! I will definitely try the Pepto too!

Thanks again!

My dog did that too. The crate was too big for him so we put a piece of cardboard in it to cut it in half. It still had room but not enough to poop on one side and sleep on the other. When we woke up we took him directly out and he pooped. When he got bigger we took out the cardboard piece so he has more room and he is trained.

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Originally Posted by YoAdrienne

I have a 4 month old black lab! She has been a real joy to train and play with and I love her dearly! When I got her at 7 weeks, I immediatly started crate training her. She did great! But within the last 2 weeks she's suddenly started to regress to pooping at night in her crate. This is something that happened once when we first started crate training but never again...until now!

Why might she be regressing?

and

What can I do to stop it!?

I've crate trained many of our labs and this is the first time I've run into this problem!

Thanks!

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After reading a lot of the treads on this subject, I began to read about separation anxiety and believe this is what we are facing. Asa doesn't do this in our room at night, only in the crate when we leave during the day. He was crate trained by a breeder and did not have this problem with us at first. However, he is a very loving puppy and desires attention. Also he did get loose and was gone for about 3 hours, a very tramatic experience for him.
Has anyone had any experience with dog separation anxiety?