Hi, everyone.
I need some advice/help!
My boyfriend and I are new puppy owners (yay!). We adopted a 9-week old lab mix one week ago (her name is Pippa). She does very well with the crate-training at night if we are careful to wake her up twice to pee. If we don't wake her up at 12:30 am and 3:30 am, she will pee a little bit in her crate.
Worse than this, however, is the pooping in the crate. It is quite distressing. It happens only sometimes, and she makes a terrible mess of it and seems to be pretty upset.
We never have left her for more than 3 hours in the crate, we walk her/exercise her a ton in the evening and a considerable amount in the morning & lunchtime, we make sure she's both peed and pooped before going into the crate, have partitioned it off so it's not too big, etc: all the things we've been told work.
For a bit more context: the crate is in our bedroom at night (right next to our bed), and we move it to the kitchen during the day. It's a wire crate, which means she can see all around her. I am wondering if the pooping has something to do with anxiety? Or over-stimulation? Would not moving the crate, or perhaps covering it up, help to stop her from soiling it?
I thank anyone who can offer any morsel of advice and/or insight!
I need some advice/help!
My boyfriend and I are new puppy owners (yay!). We adopted a 9-week old lab mix one week ago (her name is Pippa). She does very well with the crate-training at night if we are careful to wake her up twice to pee. If we don't wake her up at 12:30 am and 3:30 am, she will pee a little bit in her crate.
Worse than this, however, is the pooping in the crate. It is quite distressing. It happens only sometimes, and she makes a terrible mess of it and seems to be pretty upset.
We never have left her for more than 3 hours in the crate, we walk her/exercise her a ton in the evening and a considerable amount in the morning & lunchtime, we make sure she's both peed and pooped before going into the crate, have partitioned it off so it's not too big, etc: all the things we've been told work.
For a bit more context: the crate is in our bedroom at night (right next to our bed), and we move it to the kitchen during the day. It's a wire crate, which means she can see all around her. I am wondering if the pooping has something to do with anxiety? Or over-stimulation? Would not moving the crate, or perhaps covering it up, help to stop her from soiling it?
I thank anyone who can offer any morsel of advice and/or insight!