I have a Havanese who is 4 months old. We have a wire crate that he goes into when I go out, it has been divided so it is only big enough for his small bed. Each time I leave him he crys and barks and does a bowel movement in the bed and he is covered by the time I get home. I can be gone only 30 minutes or 2 hours it is still the same. He does this even if he has done his bowel movements before I go out he still does it. If I put him in his small travel plastic crate in the car and drive around and go shopping and leave him in the car he is fine. He can go through the night without any accidents.(He sleeps in my son's room) We have only had one accident in the last week on the house training. I was wondering should I get a larger plastic crate with dividers to make it smaller and try this so the crate is darker maybe the wire crate is to bright during the day. Any suggestions I am really getting tired of coming in and cleaning up bowel movements and then have to bath him as he is covered everytime I go out. Can anyone help me???

Seems like he is stressing out when you leave him alone in the crate. Have you tried locking him in the crate but remaining in the house? This may reassure him that the crate dosesnt mean your out of the house.
Have you tried placing him in the kitchen without locking him in his crate when you leave him. You say he can sleep overnight withour messing himself perhaps he wont mess if he can get out of his bed. (least you wont have yo bath him anyway).
Hopefully others will have better advise, best of luck hope your messy pup problem is resolved soon.

May,

I do not think the size of the crate matters very much in this case. It sounds like your puppy is messing from stress and separation anxiety, in other words, it's out of his control.

You could try one of two things. First, try leaving him in the kitchen or a puppy pen for 15 minutes and see if he is okay. If he does not mess, try it for a bit longer. If this works, great. Most dogs like their crates, but yours may not and there are not enough distractions for him at home (as in the car) or when he is not very sleepy to keep his mind off the fact that he is very confined.

If that does not work, or it only works for a while, you need to break the separation anxiety. Try leaving him in his crate while you work in another room within eyesight. Then move to other parts of the house. Keep the time away short at first and gradually lengthen it. Next, leave him in the crate and you leave the house for a couple of minutes, again lengthening the time as he gets used to the idea and does not panic when you disappear.

Patience .. eventually he will learn

Stacey