Crate training

[Ana]

Hi!!
I have had my b baby for about two weeks now. I have been home a lot lately and have been trying to crate train my pup. It is a disaster. Everyone says pups don't like to soil their living space. But every time I leave him in the crate for a few minutes while I am home or leave him while I go out (not for more than 1-2 hours) he seems to have a nervous poop in the crate and jumps around in it. So I have to wash his feet and his crate every time I come home. I make sure he does his business before I leave but it is like he gets so scared that he poops, not to mention the amount of screams he makes. I have tried making his crate smaller so he doesn't want to soil his spot but it just doesn't work. Even when I just leave the crate open he goes in it to pee. At night he is just fine and doesn't have any accidents, but I leave the door open.
Someone has told me that some dogs just don't like crates and I should try blocking him off in an enclosed space like the kitchen. I have tried that and it seems to work a lot better. He isn't potty trained yet and has little accidents in the kitchen. I leave him with a Kong and he seems to cry a lot less.
I don't mind closing off in the kitchen but I am wondering if it is very bad that I choose to do that instead of leaving him in his crate.

Thank you so much!

[eeeefarm]

It's true that some Basenjis can't tolerate crates. I have had two such dogs. The defecating in the crate does seem like it is from anxiety. If the dog isn't so anxious closed into the kitchen, I would try that. You may have an issue with separation anxiety, or it may be crate anxiety and giving him a larger area may indeed make things better. Yes, you will potentially have "accidents", but the crate isn't solving this for you in any case!

[Benkura]

I too have a dog who cannot tolerate crates. It does make some aspects of life difficult for us since we are a multi-dog household but we have found other ways around it. Trouper prefers to sleep on the sofa at night so that is just fine, we can trust him not to chew etc. My other dogs are all perfectly happy in their crates and I am working on training my pups who are now 9 wks old. There is a DVD called Crate Games you can get. I believe you can also see some of this DVD on Youtube.
Good luck with your pup.

[Timesthemyth]

I'm not sure if this is the case with you or not, but I had the same problem with my puppy for several months before I was able to figure out that the defecating in the crate was not directly due to nervousness. I also tried reducing the crate size, etc. I would take him out a couple times, watched him go, before leaving and would come home to find a mess every single time (regardless of what treat I would put in there)…in addition to him screaming... I finally was able to figure out the problem. I take him out once, but in addition to that, I have to take him out for a walk shortly after that first time (he'll only go a second time if we're well away from the house and down the street). This only happens in the morning. In the afternoon he has no problem holding it .... the "crate anxiety" hasn't gone away completely , but there are no messes to clean up (which is helping reduce his anxiety day by day). Thought I would share my example, since I kept stumbling on " some dogs can't tolerate crates" and "signs of separation anxiety" when I was looking for an answer. It might be something that doesn't fit the norm. The clue for me was that he only pooped in his crate...I rarely found urine.

[Ana]

He does only poop in his crate, no urine usually.
I am trying to gradually get him to like his crate, but I do think it might be a lost cause. But yesterday I left for about three hours and left him in the kitchen. When I got back, I opened the door and looked down to see not only my cat waiting for me but my dog as well… He found a way to get out of the kitchen and have the run on my apartment. I now know why basenjis are called escape artists. I was happy to find that although he had an accident in the living room, he didn't destroy anything. But I won't count on one time to trust him alone.
I am going to stick with the kitchen and try to make sure he can't get out.