Early waking & soiling

[nick2]

Our Blue Roan puppy  (Poppy)is nearly 7 months. Ever since she came to us at 12 weeks of age, she has been happy to go into a crate at night & for short periods when we go out in the day. We expected the first nights to be difficult and were pleasantly surprised that they weren't. She is a very happy and sweet natured puppy.

She has, however, always been in the habit of soiling her crate between 5am and 6.30am. If she does this, she barks until let out ( understandably).
Waking at 6am is not a problem, but 5am is tiring and she barks if put back into her crate at this time (we try to ignore this, but it keeps us all awake).
She is otherwise fully housetrained. Poppy has Hills Puppy Dry Food twice a day. We have tried changing feeding times, but without effect. We always take her out before we go to bed & she usually performs (unless it's raining!).

Does anyone have any ideas please?

Also, how long do you carry on using a crate?

Thanks

[Aearoniel]

not sure about how long to use a crate as we don't use one, but with regards to her pooing in the mornings she's still only a pup and probably can't hold it long enough to go through that length of time. What time does she go in the crate? Perhaps putting her to bed later and therefore a later last toilet break will let you get more sleep. Other than that just be consistant, no fuss when you go down and never go back unless the barking is in proper distress over something.

HTH

[Cob-Web]

She has, however, always been in the habit of soiling her crate between 5am and 6.30am. If she does this, she barks until let out ( understandably).

To break her of this habit, you could try pre-empting her *accident* and letting her out before she soils. It will mean a few early mornings but will be worth it 

Start by setting your alarm for 5 am, letting her out BEFORE she soils, and then settling her back down again.  Every few days, set the alarm 5 minutes later, so you gradually teach her to hold longer and longer and she should soon get the hang of holding on until you get up 

We slowly began leaving Molo's crate open during the day, first for short periods alone, and building up to a few hours - we still crated him at night until he was about a year old, and even then left the crate open, and he invariably chose to sleep in there. We only got rid of the crate when we bought a second freezer for his raw food