Hello,
I'm the owner of a four month old italian greyhound. We've had him almost three weeks and his housebreaking is coming along fairly well - accidents in the house are becoming infrequent - however he is still consistently messing in his crate!
We generally stay up until midnight and I try to get the pooch to do his #2 outside before bed, but he won't always go when he needs to go... which results in him holding it until he goes in his crate, and generally after he goes in his crate he gets it EVERYWHERE. It's becoming really unpleasant cleaning up after him, and it's hard to understand why he feels it to be necessary to spread his poo literally all over his surroundings until one of us gets up in the morning to clean him and his crate.
Is there anything we can do to try to curb this behavior? It is my understanding that dogs will naturally try to not mess in their crate, however our dog seems to care very little.
One suggestion I know I've heard is to get up earlier in the night, because the little guy can't really hold it all night yet. I understand this and I'm willing to try, but it still doesn't help me try to get him to go when he should go. What times should I feed him at to get "during the day" bowel movements?
Thanks,
Greyhound Troubles