Hi Everyone

If there is anyone out there who can offer me any advice about this I would be very grateful.

About two weeks ago we got our new puppy who is now about nine weeks old. Bearing in mind she is still very young, the house training is generally going well. At night she is brilliant; she sleeps in a crate and generally wakes me up once a night to go out and has, as yet, never gone to the toilet in the crate overnight. When the very same crate is moved into the back of the car, however, it's a different story. No matter how much she goes out in the toilet area in the garden immediately before the journey, she allways decides to poo in the crate when in the car (sometimes driving, sometimes stationary with the engine off). This is a particular problem as she doesn't seem to mind walking in it resulting in a very dirty dog/crate/car.

On one hand I have thought that it's just something she may grow out of, but I am worried that by just ignoring it I may be in some way reinforcing this behaviour. Also, on a practical level a puppy/crate covered in poo is a problem when we're going somewhere, so I'd like to teach her not to do it sooner rather than later.

I have been trying to think why she may be so good in the crate at night but so bad in it in the car. The only thing I can think of is that at night I tend to cover the crate with a blanket to make it more 'den like'. In the car the crate is uncovered, so perhaps it feels like a different place to her?

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks very much

Mark

When we first intorduce a new puppy to the car we take them on very short journeys, maybe only a quarter of a mile or so. We take them out and give them a little walk, so that they know its a nice thing to do, many a puppies first journey in a car is to the vets to have an injection. We gradually increase the journey lengths but always for a walk and it seems to have worked well for us. However, beware of taking a pup out at night time, the oncoming headlights terrified our setter pup that he made a real mess. Our last two dogs loved the car from the first time they went in it.

Funnily enough, she seems to do something within the first few minutes of being put in the crate. Typically I'll put her in, close the hatch, go back to the front door to lock up and by the time I've returned (about 1 minute!) there's a horrible smelly poo covered pup! Is there anything I can do to get her to realise that the car is not the right place to go to the toilet? Although she goes tend to complain for a few minutes once we're underway she settles down, so I wouldn't say she particularly dislikes doing in the car.

Mark

This problem took me back a few years! One of mine was just the same - we'd arrive anywhere with a very stinky puppy who needed to be carried yuck! Thankfully she slowly grew out of it - took up carsickness for a few weeks instead - and from about 6 months of age she has been fine.

I certainly think covering her crate in the car could help her settle better, as well.

Good luck. :)

Thanks! Yesterday my wife took her on a round of socialising visits, which, as it involved four separate car journeys, could have potentially been a bit of a nightmare! Fortunately it went OK, as she only peed once in the crate. Compared with what I had done, my wife did three things differently. Firstly she was even more strict with making sure the pup had toileted just before going in the car, secondly she kept her occupied in there with some biscuits (which take her ages to eat!) or a Kong with something nice in it and finally she tried to tire her out before she went in the car (which turned out to be quite easy as she was meeting lots of people/dogs for the first time) so she slept a lot. It seems to have helped.

Mark

p.s. Poor thing, I keep refering to her as 'the pup'! She is in fact a German Wirehaired Pointer called Willow.