Adult Frenchie crate issue?

[Intocva]

Hi. We are new to the board. We've been reading for a while, but this is our first post.

We got our beautiful frenchie, Rocky, 3 1/2 weeks ago. He is almost two years old, and we are the third home that he has lived in. He is housetrained, very sweet, healthy, etc, and until 5 days ago has had no "accidents" or any problems.

5 days ago, we took Rocky to visit some of our family. They are not big on dogs in the house, but they have a dog that spends time outdoors and in a mudroom in the basement. We were only able to leave Rocky in the mudroom...After 30 minutes in the room, we went to play with him and check up on him. He had pooped. (We did walk him right before bringing him into the house). We immediately cleaned it up and took him outside, hoping this would be a one time thing.

2 days later, we left him in his crate for 5 hours while we were running errands. When we came back, he had pooped and peed in his crate. We walked him and gave him a bath, and hoped that it wouldn't happen again. We didn't want to chastize him since we didn't know when he actually did it.

Now, he had another accident the day before yesterday (pooping and peeing), and again this afternoon (just pooping) in his crate. I don't understand what is causing this behavior, since he has not had problems like this before. After researching, I can't seem to find anything on older dogs relapsing or anything like that. We would really appreciate any advice! Thanks!

[ashley1135]

I also have crate issues w/ my pup. He is completely comfortable w/ eliminating in the crate. It doesn't matter the period of time he's in the crate, he'll likely pee. The crate is the correct size, he is taken to pee before going in (and he does pee), he's never left in the crate for excessive periods, and he's very healthy. I think he does it because he's nervous. He HATES being left for any period of time. I have tried everything to make the crate a pleasant place for him. When he's out of the crate during play time, sometimes he will deliberately walk over to the crate just to pee in it. I know it doesn't help that he has a puppy litter tray rather than going outside, but he very very seldom has any accidents in other places in the apartment. So, I too would appreciate any crate advice.

[lollerskates]

Lola had this problem also. I was really upset about it because everything I was reading (and this was before I found this forum) said that dogs will NOT eliminate in their crates. Well, I agree that Frenchies are the exception. The one thing I did (as suggested by my vet) which really helped was to try to get to her before she had a chance to go.

This meant setting alarm clocks for the middle of the night and hurrying home at lunch breaks. Eventually she learned that I would be coming back to let her out and if she could just hold it until then, WOO HOO.

[Marcel]

We have 11 y.old pekingese Rudy who was never completely housebroken and is still going to the bathroom whenever he feels like. Even it is always someone in the house and the most they stay alone is 4-5 hours, we have pad on the floor for Rudy. It didn't affect Marcel. He is 19 month old and didn't have any accidents since he was 6 month old

[ashley1135]

I'm so jealous of Marcel and 6 months of no accidents! I have always fed Sulley in his crate and removed the bedding. He holds it through the night, no problem. In fact, he only gets up once a night. It's just during the day when he has to be in the crate that he'll pee. Seems spiteful...like "I hate this stupid crate and being left alone." He liked it in the beginning, but that was before the door would close. ;) Even when he goes potty right before going in the crate, he seems to save some just to show me how he feels about the crate. evilicon This breed is something else and I won't lie and say I expected all this.

[Chris&Eti]

Rocky's behavior seems like it could be stress related. Since yours is his third (and new) home he may have some issues that were triggered by the recent incident in the mudroom. There's some information here about "crate stress"
< http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1713&S=1&SourceID=47 >.
It could also be that he's sensing some kind of payoff with his behavior-even though you didn't chastise him they can sense a shift in body language/activity and is doing it for the negative attention. If you aren't already doing this, make sure he's in another room while you do the secret clean up.