[funnygirl463]

Hello everyone!

I have a problem and am hopeful that someone has experienced this and can give me a tried and true solution. We have adopted 3 dogs an English Pointer (Delilah), Schnauzer/Terrier mix (Alley), and a Chihuahua (Foxy Cleopatra). All have been kenneled trained and the transition was extremely easy to say the least but recently Delilah has decided to start rebelling. :twisted:

Delilah has been with us for about a year now and IS kennel trained. We have a very large 2 dog kennel (for Delilah/Alley) and we have had to add the separator for the last 2 weeks because of Delilah’s new little dirty habit. She’s pooping in her kennel!! We were told the wisest thing to do with her having accidents is to add a separator and give her enough room to lay down but nothing else. Apparently we have some sort of Cirque du Soleil dog and she contorts herself so she can poop in the kennel.

3am this morning Delilah began barking and I came out and Alley was sitting on her side of the cage looking disgusted and Delilah was sitting on hers in poop. I immediately pulled Alley out so Delilah couldn’t cover her like she always does (yes even through the separator she covers Alley) and Delilah was forced to wait it out until the morning.

My husband cleaned the cage and took Delilah down (for her normal walk) and she refused to poop (even after a 30 minute opportunity). He brought her back upstairs and put her back in the kennel (a rule followed when they refuse to go because of the pet agreement with our complex) and she immediately pooped in the kennel . . . AGAIN! This is so frustrating and it’s s irritating because we don’t know what to do. We are at our wits end and we don’t want to spend our lives cleaning a kennel that should stay clean because it’s their sleeping area.

We have no clue what the issue is and why she has decided to start using the kennel instead of going outside. I live in an apartment and would hate to have to give her away because of her actions but it is starting to become something that is unavoidable if she cannot break this.
We don’t leave food out all day they eat twice a day and the food is put away at night at least 3-4 hours before bed.

What is the best thing to do about this? Someone mentioned that possibly she is doing it out of spite because she dislikes being in the kennel. But the reality of it is we DO NOT trust her to be alone in the apartment. (She digs in the trash, has accidents, eats my plants, is destructive in general). I was also told that we need to adhere to a “potty” schedule and make them abide by it. This doesn’t seem to work for her.

We cannot spend every waking minute outside with her as we work and for various other reasons. They are in no way being neglected when it comes to outside time and all get their equal share of time outside so that’s not the issue. We even go to a dog park regularly so what can it be????

What do we do? HELP!

[lange]

Has she been seen by a vet? You may want to bring this up to them. Any time a dog exhibits new behavior it can be a symptom of an illness or something being physically wrong. That's usually the first step in finding out what is going on.

It is not normal for a dog to accept pooping in it's space (small crate) and it's not the dogs fault if it does. There's either a physical reason or a mental one (not a dogs spite :roll: )

Does your dog cry or whine before she poops in there? Is she stressed by the crate?


I'm curious, are all of your dogs constantly crated when you're not home? If you can't rely on any of your dogs being free to roam the house it's probably because you aren't putting the effort in to train them properly. All dogs thrive on leadership, exercise, constancy, rules and schedules. When we slack on these things it's usually when problems crop up for our dogs.

If your English Pointer isn't ill, you might want to be sure you're fullfilling her breeds needs... Quoting:

"English Pointers are extremely high energy, and very enthusiastic hunters. With enough exercise they will be calm in the home."

"Intelligent, devoted, loyal and clean."

"as the owner of the dog be sure to stay mentally strong so the dog can feed from your energy to avoid timidity."

"Nervous humans tend to have nervous dogs because the dog can feel your emotions."

"If you do not provide enough mental and or physical exercise they will become high-strung and distracted and can become neurotic and destructive."

[Suzie Q]

I am having the same issues with my 2 year old Jack Russel (adopted). The previous owners claim she was crate trained but she is not proving to be. I even tried leaving her for one hour without using the crate but she still went in my livingroom. The other day I put her in her crate for 10 min while i took a shower and she pooped by the time I got out. (and yes i took her outside beforehand) If you found any solutions please fill me in!!!

[CorkyMax]

I have no answers but thought this a good place to remind about the dangers of some crate separators! I was looking for the thread in here about a previous member (done back in early '09) who inserted a metal mesh divider ('homemade' or not--I don't know) to make the crate smaller to try and stop her dog from pooing in the crate. Could not find the thread so will tell about it. The dog chewed up/ingested the metal mesh. Dog needed surgery---very expensive surgery and not sure whether dog would survive. Never did hear back from her (hookooke--member's name--no longer a member) so don't know if the dog lived or not--also don't know if she got the surgery done or if she put the poor dog to sleep as she didn't have the money for the surgery. Very sad--so that is why I want to remind about this danger! I imagine a dog could chew and swallow plastic dividers also. Anybody have any ideas as what to use that would be safe??

Even though this is not sounding like it may be a list of threads previously done in here of the problem you are having with the pooing in crate or getting your dog(s) to potty outside--I used these words (chewing crate) in the Search field at the top of the pages in this forum--See the blue strip with all the white words (Search is closer to the right)--Just click on the word and --I put chewing crate (trying to find what I was searching for)--It does bring up a lot of threads for you to check out that may have some answers for the problem you are having. And note that there are 3 pages of these threads to check out. You might put other words to try too (but try what I used 1st please)--pooping in crate---crate training----pooping in house (etc.)---You get the idea.

[Lara's mom]

Crates have never worked for me. Blocked mine off in the kitchen with paper, toys and a nice bed. No problems from that point. Sold the stupid crate at a garage sale and would never waste my money on another.