My rottie pup of 3 months old keeps pooping in her crate over night?

by Andee
(Country)

We have a pure breed rottweiler pup she’s 3 months old and every night she’s happy to go to bed in her crate but in the morning there is always poop in the crate when we wake up.

How can we train her to stop pooping where she sleeps?

Hi Andee
Generally puppies and dogs will try really hard not to pee or poop where they sleep, this is why puppy crate training works so well.

At 3 months old, it’s possible that your little girl simply doesn’t have the bowel control to ‘hold it’ all night, this wouldn’t be unusual. Most puppies need at least one night-time potty break until they’re 3 or 4 months old. Not ALL puppies of course, but many of them!

I’d recommend not feeding her any later than 6pm at night so that she has several hours to digest her food before bed. Also make sure she’s had a reasonably long ‘potty break’ right before she goes to bed. Quite often puppies need to pee and/or poop more than once per potty trip – especially first thing in the morning or last thing at night – so make sure you give her time to ‘finish up’ and don’t rush her right back inside just because she’s squatted once.

Then listen for her waking up and whining in the night, if she does this take her outside right away so that she can eliminate outdoors. If she doesn’t seem to whine or fuss before she goes, set your alarm clock for sometime during the night (make it about 3 – 4 hours after you go to bed at night) and take her outside anyway.

You want to discourage her from eliminating in her crate because it will become a habit and will counteract the natural benefits of crate training.

As she matures and her control grows she will be able to go all night without a break, but for now she’s just a baby and you’ll need to give her a bit more help.

Best of luck, enjoy your puppy.