[lunagirl]

My 12 week old labradoodle Luna has been pooping in her kennel at night since we have got her. We have had her checked out by the vet, so no health issues. She usually eats part of it, but mostly she just stomps all over it and gets it jammed into her paws, so everynight between the hours of 1am-4am I am up cleaning her kennel and giving her a bath. We use positive potty training and it has seemed to work well with her urinating. We take her out several times for at least 10-15 minutes in the evening before bed time. We have set alarms for 12:30am and between 4-5am to try and take her outside to poop. But she always waits until we put her back to bed. She never whines when she has to poop, only when she has to pee. If she is in her play pen with a potty pad she will sometimes poop on the potty pad. We do not have a potty pad in her kennel because we do not want her to think that is where she should go poop or pee. We have even tried taking all the blankets out of the kennel at night to see if that would help. No such luck. Any suggestions??

 

[Maggie67]

My 12 week old labradoodle Luna has been pooping in her kennel at night since we have got her. We have had her checked out by the vet, so no health issues. She usually eats part of it, but mostly she just stomps all over it and gets it jammed into her paws, so everynight between the hours of 1am-4am I am up cleaning her kennel and giving her a bath. We use positive potty training and it has seemed to work well with her urinating. We take her out several times for at least 10-15 minutes in the evening before bed time. We have set alarms for 12:30am and between 4-5am to try and take her outside to poop. But she always waits until we put her back to bed. She never whines when she has to poop, only when she has to pee. If she is in her play pen with a potty pad she will sometimes poop on the potty pad. We do not have a potty pad in her kennel because we do not want her to think that is where she should go poop or pee. We have even tried taking all the blankets out of the kennel at night to see if that would help. No such luck. Any suggestions??

Clean her bedding with white vinegar...this kills the smell that normally attracts her to go in the same place.. Also make sure she doesn't have enough room in her crate that would allow her to circle around to go in it. If it's too big use some type of a partition to block part of of the kennel. Take a small part of her poop and put it outside where you want her to go. Try to have her last feeding 4 hours before her bedtime. When she goes outside shower her with praise...

 

[DaySleepers]

What do you know about the situation where she was bred and raised? Pooping in the crate and then eating it can sometimes be the result of a puppy learning very early that they aren't going to be given the opportunity to go outside and that the only way to keep their space clean is to... clean it up themselves. If this is the case, you might have a harder time because it's something she's been practicing for a long time. Hopefully it's just a recent hiccup!

You say she waits to poop until you put her back in the crate. Do you have an idea on if she poops very quickly after you put her back to bed or not? If that's the case, you might be able to encourage her to poop by either waiting longer with her outside during the nighttime potty trips, or by putting her in the crate for 3-5 minutes and then taking her right back out, repeating until you have a successful poop. Either way it might mean a few extra-sleepless nights, but it's worth it to break this habit ASAP to make your life going forward easier.

 

[lunagirl]

Thank you for your advice! She was from a large litter of 17!!! The breeder and vet both mentioned that to keep the space clean with that many pups, the momma probably ate the poop. So I assume that is why she is doing that as well. Honestly, I'd rather her eat it than stomp and lay in it at this point!

We are not sure when exactly she poops just that it is sometime between 1-4 am. Her last meal of the day is around 5pm and we put her to bed around 10pm. Isn't is weird that she poops that many hours later?

 

[3GSD4IPO]

You need to sacrifice sleep for a bit. This means taking her out at night and waiting. If it means waiting an hour, then it means waiting an hour. The object is to absolutely NOT allow her to poop in the crate.

You may also need to change her feeding schedule. Absolutely no food after 2 in the afternoon and her last meal a light meal. Help her to be "empty" earlier. Just feed her earlier in the morning.. sort of rotate her day to start at 4AM and then feed again at 1PM.. midday meal at 9-9:30 AM if you are still doing 3 meals.

The coprophagia may stop on its own when the opportunity is removed.

Good luck!