Crate Training nightmare...all out of ideas!!

[shokfer]

I have a 6 month old boxer female and 2 toy poodles that are 14 years old and 6 years old. i crate trained both of my poodles with no problem but my boxer pup Roxy has been a bear. She poops in her crate and then tramples through it. And not only does she walk all through it, then it's spreads to each bar on the crate and even is thrown outside of her crate on my floor. *Thank god for tile and Mr.Clean* She has not done it for about a month and then yesterday morning she did it again. I've tried all different size crates thinking her crate was too big or too small. she is fed in her crate and praised in her crate. She is walked constantly so, I don't know what else to do.

 

[knjsBailey]

That is not normal. I am guessing that by trying different crates you have the right size. The only time I have heard of this is from dogs that were bought from pet stores and are forced to relieve themselves where they eat and sleep, unusual though even at that. One lady I know had that problem and was only able to correct it by going to a dog therapist. Other than that, I have no idea. Hope someone can help you that has more experience with this problem. Good luck.

 

[shokfer]

I have never heard of a dog doing what she does either. and I bought her from a breeder where she was in a very large kennel with her litter mates and mother or left in a fenced in yard, when she got older, with all of his other dogs. I don't know what else to do

 

[knjsBailey]

If you can't find help here I would ask your vet for advice, just because by instinct a dog will not do that unless they can't hold it any longer. Seeing how you did it sucessfully with the other two, it rules out you doing anything wrong. If she has been good for a month, maybe that was just an accident. It could be that she gets stressed and can't hold herself. If you don't already I would suggest a stuffed kong, frozen, to keep her busy.

 

[carrojod]

I don't know what to tell you either. My Luke is so adverse to the crate that he bites the bars until he breaks his teeth. He has broken two canines and had to have them surgically removed. I finally gave up:(

 

[Checkers]

The crate is not the be all and end all There are always other options.

Id try and gate her somewhere like the kitchen and see if that doesnt help.

 

[tesster]

Conner has severe separation anxiety and does this pretty often. Does your girl have any other signs of separation anxiety? Vocalizing when you're gone? Tearing things up?

 

[shokfer]

i do walk Roxy alot and because I'm a paramedic in a hospital, my schedule is forever changing but my husband's is not. so she pretty much has a regular routine. she is never in the crate for more than 6 hours and that is only about 1-2 days during the week and then about 5-6 hours at night. when we got her, we woke up to her and poop all over every single morning for a good 2 weeks straight and then it dropped to 1-2 a week until we were without for about a month. she doesn't seem sick. poop is solid i even tried leaving the TV on all night. she whines and barks for about 5-10 mins when we put her in the crate at night. thank you for your responses and help. i need it!

 

[shokfer]

I have never left Roxy out in the house unsupervised to see if she would be destructive but my guess is....she probably would. I kind of think she does suffer from SA

 

[tesster]

I know exactly what you mean about the poo on the bars!!! SO annoying! I tried putting pee pads down in Conner's crate (we're not so lucky - his are not nice and firm), but he just ripped them to shreds. If she doesn't do things like that, you might try it for easy clean up.

I really think that it happens once on accident and then they think, "Hmm - having poop in my crate isn't THAT bad! I lived through it. Woo hoo - don't have to hold it anymore." I have no scientific evidence supporting this theory, but with Conner and Tess, both (at separate times), I left them in the crate for too long and an accident happened. After that, in both instances with both dogs, I had a problem for a while of potties in the crate that took a while for them to get over.

Try the pee pads. They could at least make cleanup easier. I don't know what else to tell you except to hang in there and be glad they aren't soft!!!