I have a seven month old, 10 pound Australian Terrier. We have had her since she was two months old and she is still pooping in her crate. We have her completely house broken, and we haven't had an accident in the house in months. However, we still have problems with her pooping in her crate. I know she doesn't like it because she jumps out the second I open the gate.


I feed her 1/4 cup at 6:00 a.m. and then again at 4:30 p.m. I come home at 12:00 to go for a a walk and so she can releive herself. We go on 2-3 walks a day to release all her energy.


She had been doing really good on this schedule and we had gone almost a week a few different times without any accidents in her crate. However after she was spayed two weeks ago, we couldn't walk her and I think it threw her schedule off. Now she has been pooping in her crate every time she is in there, which is only when we are not home. I clean it with Nature's Way and I give her baths so it's not on her fur. I know that the breeders we got her from were very good -- and my sister-in-law who got her puppy from them doesn't have this problem

Also, she will go 8 - 10 hours at night in her crate with no messes -- it's very rare for her to poop or potty overnight. So I know she can hold it. And the vet has done several stool samples, and they are always normal.

I had her on Iams Pro Puppy, but when we started having problems with this I switched her to Nature's Recipe Puppy -- and it seems to have gotten worse. Does anyone have any food suggestions?

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem and has been able to correct it. Please help!

I had the same problem with my beagle although he's a little younger...I had a crate with divider to change the size. Started the area with a very small space so basically he had room enough to just turn around and lay down....if he went a couple days without an accident i'd open it up a little and keep doing that...if he had an accident I'd shorten the size again until he went a few more days, then again made it bigger...it took maybe a month until he learned not to poop or pee in there...

good luck

Thank you! -- Our crate is the same way -- I think we'll try that.

I am having the same problem with my 7 month old chihuahua. I have had her 3 weeks, she can go all night and if I let her sleep on my bed she doesn't mess up. The main time with her is some nights and if I leave her home in the crate for short periods.