Hi, I have a Chinese Crested Powder Puff, that turned one on August 18, 2009. He has always been a great dog, great with the kids, very loveable, and trained fairly well, with just a few accidents now and then. We were always so proud of him. He sleeps in a wire kennel at night, goes out first thing in the morning, as long as it takes, and is free in the house for about an hour before we all leave for work/school, and is kenneled for about 9 hours, having very few problems with holding it. Here lately, he has begun "marking" everything, trees, tires, my recliner, and big screen TV, and has started peeing and pooping in his kennel during the day. We give him treats for doing his buisseness outdoors, and he gets lots of excersise and play time in the evenings, both inside and out, we have very active kiddos. Would getting him nuetered help? We thought we may breed him someday, since he has papers, but that is not as important to me as his over all health. We love him very much, but I can't deal with the accidents in the kennel forever, there has to be something I can do, I have read training books, and books on his breed, but he has always done well, it's just something here lately...

I'm glad you say they are nice dogs other than this problem, I am getting a Crested in a few months :)

Getting him neutered would certainly help with the marking.

The thing with breeding is papers can often mean nothing, it proves that he is a purebred Crested and to be honest, it's fun to flash around in front of friends ( ;) ) but it doesn't prove he is 'good enough' to breed.

By good enough I just mean that only the 'best of the best' should be bred from and to prove they are the best they should be shown in the conformation ring.

You then have to study up on the breed standard (http://www.akc.org/breeds/chinese_crested/index.cfm) and find a compatible b*tch to breed him to, meaning she should the have opposing as well as complimenting qualities to him... So if he is a little too heavily boned then you need to breed him to a b*tch that is finer boned, if he has a raised foot you need to breed him to a b*tch with more of a hare foot and so on...

Then there's the health testing, but that's a whole other chapter.

If you do decide that breeding is what you want to do I would love it if you would come back and discuss it further :)

As for the pottying in the crate, have you considered leaving him somewhere like your kitchen during the day?
I bought a baby gate a while back and it's the best thing I ever bought... I used to come home to wee and poop everywhere but now I have given them a bit more freedom in the kitchen they haven't done it once.