Puppy soils his crate at 1yrs old

thatkidhugo

Alright, so I got my miniature pinscher December 2008 and he will be turning 1 October 20th. He's been a great dog, very loving and extremely playful 24/7. The potty training was tough at first but slowly started to get better. He's always outside since I have a fenced in backyard.. he does his business outside no problem. Lately tho he has started to pee/poo in his crate when we lock him up at night usually at around 11pm and we let him around between 7 and 8am. He is not neutered and I dont plan on having the surgery done on him, I dont understand what brought this upon him at this age. I have heard tho with these dogs that 6 months to 1.5 years in the worst age for them to "act out" sort to speak.

skelaki

Since this seems to be a change in behavior the first step would be a vet check to (hopefully) eliminate any possible medical conditions such as UTI or even worms contributing to the problem. The next step would be to figure out if there have been any environmental changes that might have thrown off the housetraining. These could be anything from a move to a new house to new plants in the yard. And, of course, whatever the underlying reason/s might be, whether medical, environmental, or just plain old adolescent forgetfulness, a review of housebreaking 101 is definitely in order both for the dog and for you. For example, are you cleaning the crate each time with an enzyme cleaner to discourage the behavior? Is the dog on some kind of schedule?

Cracker

I agree with Skelaki, if this is a new behaviour you should have him checked out. Do you have a consistent schedule for his feeding? Does he have a bowel movement when you take him out at 11 before bed? It could be that nine hours is too long, that his dinner is too late or that you are free feeding him (which means his digestion is not on a schedule as well). Did you reward him when he went outside during his initial housetraining? Just because he was outside all day in his pen doesn't mean he fully understood, "this is where you go potty".

Get him checked for worms and start keeping track of his bm's so you can see what his internal timing is and work around it.