Please help! I finally gave in to years of asking if my children could have a dog and after doing much research I brought home a Lab. I have had her for about 3 weeks, she is 10 weeks old now. The problem is that she urinates and poops in her crate. She is taken out hourly, and will go potty outside, however when she comes in and its time for her to go into her crate, she will pee or poop in there also. I have partitioned off her crate so its just big enough for her to turn around and lay down, and have taken out her blanket, however she still does it and when she does, she just lays down in it and goes to sleep. Its making me insane! I have asked some of my friends who have dogs and they say that a dog shouldn't urinate or poop where they sleep, and she will probably continue to do so. Any advice or tips that you can share is GREATLY appreciated.

Does she like being in her crate? Start feeding her in her crate, give her toys to play with, treats, etc. we had a problem with our puppy doing that too, but in time she realized her crate was her happy place. Now she'll go in there all by herself when she knows I'm getting ready for work and she'll be sitting in there wagging her tail when I close the door. So we went from one extreme to the next. It's hard not to get frustrated when this happens. When you're frustrated your dog can sense it. Just try to be calm.

She's still very young, probably can't hold it long enough at this point.

Most dogs won't potty in their crate because they feel safe, it's like a den to them. How many hours does your puppy spend in the crate each day?

At this age the puppy should only be left alone for 1 to 2 hours at a time. It goes by age, a 1 month old=1hour, 2 months=2 hours, 3 months=3 hours and so on. This is a puppy, it needs constant care and supervision. If it's constantly in the crate and not getting any attention then it will do undesirable things.

Bottom line, this puppy is still very young, most dogs don't have complete control of their bowels and bladder until they're around 4 months of age.

Good luck and congrats on your new addition.