My dog is a 2-year-old neutered mini Goldendoodle mix. He’s been fully house-trained since about 6 months old and has never had an accident in the house.
We normally leave him out of the crate for 8+ hours a day and he has never caused problems or had accidents. Today we were gone for about 5 hours and when we came home, he had pooped on the couch. This has never happened before.
Earlier in the day he had diarrhea. Later, the poop on the couch was solid.
Recently his behavior has changed:
• Extreme crate anxiety — nonstop barking and biting at the crate • Increased arousal around other dogs (jumping/mounting) • Very attached to us and sleeps in bed with us at night I know a lot of people say it’s bad for dogs to sleep in the bed, but he’s family and this is what we’ve always done. At the same time, the crate clearly causes him intense distress.
I’m unsure what the best next steps are. Should he go back to sleeping in the crate at night and using it during the day, or should we stop using the crate altogether for now? I’m worried that forcing the crate could make things worse or that he might hurt himself when he panics.
This all feels very out of character for him, and I’m trying to understand whether this could be a medical/GI issue, anxiety/separation stress, or something else.
Has anyone dealt with this before or have advice on what steps to take next?
submitted by /u/Few_Relationship_517
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