Crate issues

[GunnarG]

I have a male that is 16 months old. He seems to not mind soiling his den. My first mistake was buying a dog from a pet store, he has been this way since we brought him home as a puppy. Sometimes he can go a couple weeks with no issues and then he will poop and pee in his crate more than once a week. I will take him out first thing in the morning, he usually only pees. We come inside and I feed him (in his crate) 1.5 cups of totw. I get in the shower while he eats, sometimes he will poop before I am even done showering. I take him out again before I leave for work and if he hasn't pooped in his crate, he usually goes now. I come home for lunch 4 hours later, he is usually ok, I take him out again, sometimes he poops but always pees. Back to work and come home again 4 hours later. Sometimes he has pooped or peed...or both. I feed him another 1.5 cups of food in his crate, play with him, he plays with our other dogs they run around the house like crazy. He finally settles down around 10pm. He usually falls asleep on the couch before getting put in his crate. He doesn't usually have any trouble overnight.
He usually ruins everything we put in his crate for him to lay on. If he doesn't poop on it, he tears it up. He doesnt mind getting put in his crate, he usually flies in there when I tell him to because he sometimes gets a treat. He drinks water like its going out of style and has to go out and pee all the time too. He has bells to ring on the door and very rarely goes in the house outside of his crate. Its like he thinks the crate is a safe place to pee and poop. I'm at the end of my leash with this issue, not sure how much longer I can take it.
My main question, is there any way to fix a dog that has been ruined on not soiling his den? We tried making his create smaller as a puppy, didn't seem to help, it just caused him to lay in his mess.

 

[Caney Creek]

I'm afraid that at 16 months, if he's been doing this since he was a puppy, it is going to take A LOT of work to change the behavior at this point. Mostly it will involve prevention, since you know when he usually tends to soil his crate.

You might try changing his feeding or "going out" schedule. For example my girls have to go #2 RIGHT after they eat in the morning. It sounds like that is the case with your pup since he sometimes goes in his crate before you are done showering. Since you know he does this sometimes, instead of crating him right after eating, just take him right back outside, wait until he does his business and THEN go back in for your shower.

When you come home from work in the middle of the day, he probably doesn't need to eat again at that time. A treat would be OK but I'd think that he could wait until you get home in the evening for his next actual meal (at his age he should only be getting 2 meals per day, spaced about 10-12 hours apart).

The issue from what you've said seems that, he needs to poop right after or soon after he eats, but he isn't getting the chance to do so. It is going to take some work at first to change his potty schedule but if you get him running around in the yard pretty good, he should be able to empty his bowels without issue, and then after a few more minutes of play and praise (LOTS of praise for doing his business outside appicon) you can put him back in his crate without worry.

 

[GunnarG]

I totally forgot that I had posted this question here and just remembered. I do only feed twice a day. Once before work and again in the evening (about 12 hours apart). I feed the recommended amount. He acts like he is always looking for something to eat though and he practically inhales his food. He threw up the other day and the food wasnt chewed up at all. He hasnt went #2 right after eating since my last post and has went in his crate once but it was between lunch time and when I got off work. He pees in there quite often though. I would say a couple times a week. I hate putting bedding in his crate because it just gets peed on, but if I dont put something down, he either lays in it (rarely) or kicks around and it gets splatter out of his crate. Is there any good bedding to put in that he won't destroy? It seems like he may be worse about peeing in the crate if there is nothing in there for him to lay on.