Hello everyone. I have a pug puppy that is now 10 weeks old. We got her at 9 weeks old from a good breeder. THis is our second pug from the breeder, and I am happy to say that our first pug is absolutely perfect and was easy to crate train.

However, the new pug is proving to be a bit of a problem. She is grasping the going outside part mostly, but she is pooping in her crate EVERY TIME (without fail) we leave the house. I take her out to go to the bathroom before we go, and she goes 90% of the time. When we get home there is a mess. I left her for only about an hour and a half this morning and there was already a mess. Now, I have a midwest cage so I have a divider in it. I started putting that in, but she still pooped in the cage. Any suggestions?

This is a fairly common problem. I think it may be even more common in some of the smaller breeds that can be quite strong willed. Perhaps you have read in books that a dog will not foul its sleeping quarters. Well neither your Pug or many other puppies seem to have read those books. My guess is that she is punishing you for leaving her alone. Being left alone is the worst thing a new puppy can imagine. If you stand your ground, she should give up soon. Since the divider isn't doing much good, you might remove it. My experience is that no matter what size the crate, new puppies spend all their time next to the door, fouling the crate there, and then lying in it. She may keep herself clean if you give her a chance.

If I remember correctly, the Midwest crates are the wire ones. I prefer the more enclosed, den like plastic ones. Skip the bedding. At first it gets wet, and later it can be chewed into choking hazards. A wire rack in the bottom will help keep the puppy up out of accidents at first. They are available with the crates, but a piece of closely spaced wire closet shelving from a home supply place is cheaper. If you already have a metal crate, covering it may help. Just make sure you use
Something the puppy can't pull in and chew. Another thing you might try is the wood shavings sold as bedding for small pets. Be careful, she may eat the shavings.

The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy. Very few houses even have a
Safe room. How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing
Else? Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else. In addition
To destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have
Intestinal blockage from the pieces. I had a friend that left her dog in a
"safe" room. It ate a hole in the floor covering. The safe rooms fail to
Give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires. Nor
Do they restrict activity extending the time the dog can go without relieving
Itself.

You must stand firm on this or she could end up running the house. This is not necessarily the breeder's fault. Some dogs are just very strong willed. Even litter mates can have very different personalities. You must give her proper leadership. The dogs see all the
People and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in
The pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members
Outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by
Reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class
Or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with
A treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/.

Thanks for the feedback. You have reaffirmed a lot of what I already thought, but it is always great to hear it from someone else so you don't think you're off your rocker heh. The puppy is staying in her crate, I don't care if she poops in it or not. We will run the house, not her. The other pug was so easy to house break, but oh well, I know different dogs have different personalities. I will remove her little farret bed that we placed in the crate (She is small enough for a farret bed, sad). We do have the midwest crate, but I have a towel around it as to make her feel more like she is in a safe den kind of place.

I do agree that she is "punishing" us for leaving her alone. She is a VERY stubborn dog. The other pug we have was/is pretty stubborn himself, but he understand that we are the boss and not him. He is a wonderful dog anyway (the new one will be wonderful I am sure, but house breaking issues always stress people out). I have thought about putting wire under so the poop would drop through, but I really think that is just going to encourage her to keep doing it. I do have the cage divider in a bit. Before I put the divider in, she would poop more towards the back away from her bed, but I think that I finallly convinced my wife that the bedding has to go.

We are still having this problem. I saw someone post something on the board here about some natural anxiety remedy for puppies called Rescue Remedy. Have you heard of that?


This is a fairly common problem.  I think it may be even more common in some of the smaller breeds that can be quite strong willed.  Perhaps you have read in books that a dog will not foul its sleeping quarters.  Well neither your Pug or many other puppies seem to have read those books.  My guess is that she is punishing you for leaving her alone.  Being left alone is the worst thing a new puppy can imagine.  If you stand your ground, she should give up soon.  Since the divider isn't doing much good, you might remove it.  My experience is that no matter what size the crate, new puppies spend all their time next to the door, fouling the crate there, and then lying in it.  She may keep herself clean if you give her a chance.  

If I remember correctly, the Midwest crates are the wire ones.  I prefer the more enclosed, den like plastic ones. Skip the bedding.  At first it gets wet, and later it can be chewed into choking hazards.  A wire rack in the bottom will help keep the puppy up out of accidents at first. They are available with the crates, but a piece of closely spaced wire closet shelving from a home supply place is cheaper. If you already have a metal crate, covering it may help. Just make sure you use
Something the puppy can't pull in and chew.  Another thing you might try is the wood shavings sold as bedding for small pets.  Be careful, she may eat the shavings.  

The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy.  Very few houses even have a
Safe room.  How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing
Else?  Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else.  In addition
To destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have
Intestinal  blockage from the pieces.  I had a friend that left her dog in a
"safe" room.  It ate a hole in the floor covering.  The safe rooms fail to
Give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires.  Nor
Do they restrict activity extending the time the dog can go without relieving
Itself.

You must stand firm on this or she could end up running the house.  This is not necessarily the breeder's fault.  Some dogs are just very strong willed.  Even litter mates can have very different personalities.  You must give her proper leadership.  The dogs see all the
People and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in
The pack and a top dog.  Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members
Outrank the 4 legged ones.  You can learn to play the role of top dog by
Reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class
Or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with
A treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/.

I am the person who posted about the rescue remedy. I suggest giving it a try to see if it works. The vet said it is completely safe. I put four drops on our puppy's food each day. It did seem to calm him down a bit - but our problem bacame more serious - he began vomiting when we left him-even for only an hour. Our vet told us that separation anxiety can be a very serious disease and many people just ignore it because they think there dog is acting out to spite them. He said that this is ridiculous! Dogs do not punish people. He said that many puppies suffer for hours each day having anxiety attacks waiting for their owners to return. He put our puppy on medication and gave us some tips to retrain him. Try these without the medication and see if it helps. Make your puppy earn attention by making him sit before petting him, play only when you iniate it, don't let him see you leave the house - face his crate away from the door, ignore him for about 20 minutes before you leave and at least ten minutes when you return, put on your coat and take out your keys at random times when you're not leaving so that the puppy will no longer assocaite these things with your leaving, give him plenty of treats and praise when he is in his crate - make him love it! Hope this helps!

Ok. I will try these things. She is awefully young, I know that. She is only 11 weeks old. But our other pug crapped in his cage one or twice and that was that. He Held it for 4 hours or so until one of us came home for lunch to let him out. This new one seems to just not care about her "space". It is really wearing on my nerves!



I am the person who posted about the rescue remedy.  i suggest giving it a try to see if it works.  the vet said it is completely safe.  I put four drops on our puppy's food each day.  It did seem to calm him down a bit - but our problem bacame more serious - he began vomiting when we left him-even for only an hour.  Our vet told us that separation anxiety can be a very serious disease and many people just ignore it because they think there dog is acting out to spite them.  He said that this is ridiculous!  Dogs do not punish people.  He said that many puppies suffer for hours each day having anxiety attacks waiting for their owners to return.  He put our puppy on medication and gave us some tips to retrain him.  Try these without the medication and see if it helps.  Make your puppy earn attention by making him sit before petting him, play only when you iniate it, don't let him see you leave the house - face his crate away from the door, ignore him for about 20 minutes before you leave and at least ten minutes when you return, put on your coat and take out your keys at random times when you're not leaving so that the puppy will no longer assocaite these things with your leaving, give him plenty of treats and praise when he is in his crate - make him love it!  Hope this helps!

My Pug is a female (1 year old now) had the same problem. She would go in her crate and that method just wasent working. Around the time where she could be getting into heat we put a diaper on her most of the time and discovered that she didn't go with it on. Then we would let her out every two hours and eventually she started telling us when she needed to go. I guess you could say we diaper trained our Pug. However, a puppy needs a lot of attention, I don't think you should own a dog esp a small dog if you leave it in the crate all the time. I wouldn't leave a puppy in there for more then 3 hours and that is pushing it. Even our adult pug that goes potty about 3 times a day would never be left in a crate for more then 8 hours a week total.

So should I let her poop in her crate or punish her. We have to give her a bath every time this happens. OUr Shorkie only poop when we leave her inher cage during the day not at night when we are sleeping. It's like she is punishing us for leaving. It's just hard because she is already almost potty trained inside.