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Lovely82 · Jul 21, 2010, 12:18 PM

I have a 9 month old West Highland Terrier. She was close to being completely crate/potty trained up until about a month ago. We went away for about a week and left her at a Pet Hotel that she has been to a few times before. When we came back she started to pee in her crate every few days or so. Then she went to pooping and peeing in her crate maybe two or three times a week. Now she poops and pees in her crate any time of day everyday. She is in her crate while we are at work and while we are sleeping. We do not have time to come back during lunch to tend to her because we work 45 min away from our apartment. She has two crates. One is used as a backup if the other one needs to be cleaned or whatever. The crate she mainly uses is 24"L x 18"W x 21"H and fits dogs up to 25lbs. The second is a small travel crate like the size of a cat carrier. My puppy is about 10.5 lbs. We take her for a walk in the morning before we leave for work and right away when we get home. We also take her for another walk after she eats dinner. She eats Science Diet Puppy. We also play with her after her after her afternoon walk and let her run around the house for a while until we eat dinner and let her out again when we are done. When we put her in the crate so we can eat dinner she poops in the crate right away while looking at us and then turns her back on us. When we come home from being at work or even just gone a couple of hours she is covered in poop. She squishes her paws into her poop and rubs her face in it. Yesterday we came home to find her covered in poop and pee and gave her a bath and cleaned her crate. After her bath while the crate was being cleaned we put her in the extra crate that we have. As soon as I closed the crate door she looked at me and pooped. I took her out to clean the poop up. I then tried to put her back in the crate and she fought with me. As soon as I closed the crate door she looked at me and pooped again. I then repeated the whole cleaning process and put her back in the crate. I then went to go clean the other crate and she started to howl so my husband went to check on her. When he saw her she had pooped again and squished her paws into it. We have been trying to keep her outside her crate more often and play with her more but when we play with her more that doesn't seem to work either. For example, she had just gone for a walk and did her business. I brought her in and was playing fetch with her. Then she looked at me squatted and peed on the carpet. She did this another time and trailed the poop from the kitchen to the living room. We can't keep her in the crate as punishment for pooping in it because then she will never have any freedom. We don't want to spank her or rub her face in it because one, that just won't help and two if she is doing it for attention even the negative attention would egg her on. We have two cats and try not to pet them in front of her anymore so she won't get jealous. She starts to make noises when my husband and I are hugging or anything like that. She also turns her back to us when we are giving each other attention. Her crate isn't in front of the door so she doesn't see us leave. I am three months pregnant. I have no idea if this has anything to do with her behavior but we would really like some help while she has all of our attention. We are pretty much out of ideas here. Thank you in advance.

tickle · Jul 21, 2010, 12:37 PM

I am sorry for laughing lovely, but those little westies are so super intelligent they are almost human like any other terrier. She is so absolutely browned off at you (poor choice of words). I am not a dog whisperer and I couldn't do it at a distance if I was but so many things you bring up lead me to believe that she is trying to tell you to trust her. She doesn't want to watch you have dinner from her crate, she want to sit beside you and watch. SHE WANTS TRUST.

You are 3 months pregnant and your little dog is 9 months so I see where she is coming from. She sensed the intimacy between you two and is a bit jealous. You probably know that. You seem to know your dog quite well, but you are not reading her right now because you are pre-occupied, pregnant, upset because you have two crates and there is a lot of crap to clean up. Please don't get angry with her. She is actually quite young herself and trying to understand they dynamics of the household.

You have to establish yourself as alpha here and she has to recognize that you mean business and will not tolerate this misbehaving, but she hates those crates.

Lovely82 · Jul 21, 2010, 01:03 PM

The only reason she is in her crate when we eat is because she jumps up on us and tries to get our food. We don't eat in front of her. She is always out of view.

Aurora_Bell · Jul 21, 2010, 01:10 PM

Where did you get your dog from?

Have you tried barricading her in a hall way or laundry room?

Lovely82 · Jul 21, 2010, 01:19 PM

We just started blocking her off in the kitchen but she chews the cabinets and trim even if she has tons of toys and other things to chew. We don't trust her enough to leave her like that all day or all night. We live in an apartment so whatever she damages we are responsible for... she has already made her mark...

Aurora_Bell · Jul 21, 2010, 01:25 PM

Sounds like she is suffering from a bit of separation anxiety. Have you considered enrolling her in puppy socialization or obedience classes?

Sounds like you guys are doing every thing you can to occupy her mind. Have you tried any bitter sprays? I know they don't work with some dogs, so I used to wipe my electrical cords, cabinets, table legs and even shoes with Mr. Clean. It has a product called bitter ex in it. No animal I have ever encountered will continue to chew once they get a taste of that stuff. I believe Lysol or any other all purpose cleaner has the same product in it.

Where did you get your pup from?

Lovely82 · Jul 21, 2010, 01:31 PM

I have not tried the bitter spray with this dog. I guess I didn't think about using it because it didn't work with the dog I used to have. I got her from a local pet store when she was three months old and never really had any issues with her until recently.

Lovely82 · Jul 21, 2010, 01:43 PM

Also in response to your question about obedience/socialization classes, no we haven't. She gets along with other dogs amazingly. She listens for the most part when we tell her to come and sit and wait and little things like that. I have thought about sending her to a daycare type thing they have for dogs out here but wasn't really sure how much that would help with pooping in her crate when we have to put her in it.

Aurora_Bell · Jul 21, 2010, 02:43 PM

Obedience is more than learning tricks. It's about building confidence, which helps with separation anxiety.

Also dogs that come from pet stores are the most likely to have house breaking issues. They have lived in a cage for most of their life, where pooping and peeing was not only acceptable, but their only option.