Going to the bathroom in crate...at our wits end!

[boxerallie]

We've had Allie for a little over a year. She's around 3 years old. For a good 10 months she was good in her crate (bathroom wise). She used to go nuts trying to get out but then we got her a better crate and that fixed that. For the past 2 months or so, she started to poop and pee in her crate when we leave. She'll do this in as little as 5 minutes. We've tried just about everything. We bought a thundershirt for her and even tried diapers. We take her on longer walks. She no longer has bedding. We tried giving it back to her this past Sunday after a week of no accidents and she went to the bathroom (within a 1.5 hours after just being out). We clean everything with nature's miracle. All of her blankets are cleaned on the steam sanitary cycle so the smell should be gone. We don't know what to do anymore. We're so tired of coming home at lunch and after work to clean the crate and give her a bath.

Her schedule has not changed so I don't know what started this change in behavior. She had pretty bad separation anxiety when we got her but we thought we were done with all of those issues. She's so well behaved when we're home and she's fully house trained now. I'd love to try to leave her out of the crate when we leave but I don't want her going to the bathroom all over the house!

Any suggestions?!?! Thank you!

 

[CrazyCharlie]

Is her create located near a door or window? Maybe she isn't feeling comfortable in her crate while you are gone. Is there anyway you can block off someof the house so she can roam a little but still have access to her crate? That way you can kind of judge if maybe she is just uncomfortable or if maybe its a different issue?