Stepping in poop/how long can she stay in her crate?

[morganboxwrx]

Hi all, I've been doing some research on how many hours at a time I can keep my 10 week old puppy safely in her crate (i.e. no accidents or having to take her out to potty). For the most part the rule seems to be 1 hour for each month, though some people say plus 1 more hour for each month. That being said my guess is 3 hours tops, however she is able to sleep the whole night without even getting up once to potty! Bed time is about 11pm and we wake up at 7 am. Is it safe to assume she can hold it a little longer than 3 hours..like 4 at the most?

I'm wondering because I work from 8 to 5 every day, with my lunch break from 12 to 1 which is when I go home to take her outside and play with her. Right now I don't have her in her crate while I'm gone because I don't know if she can hold it for 4 hours at a time. I have an area gated off the kitchen for her play and go potty, but I'm running into the problem where I get home at lunch and she has stepped in her poop and dragged it all over the floor and onto her bed and on the gate too. This has happened for the past 3 days and I end up having to give her a bath everyday which I don't think is really that good for her. Also if I'm home and she happens to be in her gated area and she poops she starts eating it! Is this normal? She never does this when she poops outside.

 

[gmacleod]

Is it safe to assume she can hold it a little longer than 3 hours..like 4 at the most?

No, it isn't. You have a 2 month old puppy, and the longest (as in absolute maximum - shorter being better) you can reasonably and safely ask her to hold on is 3 hours. Safely being a health matter, btw.

How long she can hold on overnight is irrelevant. Like every other mammal on the planet, she is able to hold on longer during deep sleep hours because her body isn't producing urine. Deep sleep time (i.e. overnight) is the body's growth and repair phase, during which non-essential functions such as urine production slow down or cease altogether. That's why you and I can last that long overnight without having to wake up to empty our bladders - but we wouldn't have a hope of doing so during the daytime (or at least, not without extreme discomfort and adverse health impacts). Well, it's the same for your puppy.

The problems you have with work schedules and being able to get home as often as your puppy needs to be allowed to relieve herself are pretty common. Not that many of us have the luxury of being able to be there all day. But you need to find another way of providing for her needs - you *cannot* expect or ask her to hold on beyond the limit of reasonable endurance. Doing so, especially regularly, isn't good for her health (nevermind the humane aspect).

In another month or so, she should be just capable of being asked (so we're not talking forever here). In the meantime, your choices are either to get someone else (friend, family member, neighbour, hired dog walker, etc) to come at regular intervals in your place. Or, to NOT crate the pup, but to continue as you are doing, and gating her in somewhere with a place to relieve herself as required.

The stepping in it/eating it is rather unfortunate. If you don't already, you may find that it's better if you lay some newspaper in a far corner - so she can go there, but is less likely to track through it at other times.

Eating it... well, crating her isn't going to make any difference to that one. Here you might look at the food you feed. There are many reasons for poop-eating - so no one-size-fits-all answer to the problem. However, in some cases, the problem is that the food the dog is fed isn't highly digestible. And in that case, not only is the dog seeking more protein, but the poop is attractive because of all the undigested protein it contains. Feeding a higher quality, more digestible food helps a lot in these cases (as it addresses both problems).

 

[LaylaE]

Also if I'm home and she happens to be in her gated area and she poops she starts eating it! Is this normal? She never does this when she poops outside.

Layla is almost 4 months now and we've had her for 3 weeks. Last week when I took her out to go potty in the back yard, she was sniffing the yard and then started to eat something. I pulled her back to see what she was eating and was shocked she was eating her own poop! I looked it up online right away and what I learned is that this behavior is not uncommon in dogs.

One reason, as gmacleod mentioned, is that she didn't digest her food thoroughly. Another reason could be in fear of their owner reprimanding them that they try to hide the evidence by eating it.

After Layla's poop-eating incident, we regularly sprinkle Prozyme with every feeding. We got it from the vet. It is "an all natural enzyme food supplement for better absorption of vital nutrients." Now when she goes potty and sniffs her previous poop outside, she backs away. We also changed her food from Eukanuba to Canidae ALS. I'm sure this food upgrade also helped with digestion.

 

[morganboxwrx]

Thank you for your responses and suggestions! I was able to make arrangements to have someone take her out to potty mid morning and mid afternoon so that she is only crated for a max of 3 hours at a time. So far it is working very well!

We have a vet appointment this Saturday so I will definitely bring up the poop eating. Glad to hear it's pretty common and can be avoided!