We have had a bit of trouble with our puppy Axel and his
crate the last few nights, but thought I would give some background first... We got Axel when he was 8 weeks old, and from about 10 weeks on he has slept in his
crate every night, so it's been about 8 weeks or so. The
crate is in our room at the end of the bed. We conditioned him to it slowly, and for about the first week we let him sleep in it with the door open. The first night we closed the door he cried for about 10 minutes, then settled. No problems since. When we say 'bed time' he runs into his
crate and waits for the few treats he gets every night, and goes to sleep. Sleeping in the
crate also made him stop getting up to go to the toilet during the night, and he now sleeps right through every night until about 6.30am. The only time he is in his
crate is at nights, and he hasn't ever been left alone in it.
This was all great and we had been very pleased with how he was going with the
crate... Up until three nights ago. At about 2am, he woke up screaming in his
crate. Not just his usual crying or whinging, it was full on screams (similar to when he has a bath, which he HATES, or the noise we've heard him make a few times when he was hurt). We quickly pulled him out and my partner picked him up, trying to see what was wrong with him and he would just not stop screaming. In our panic, we put him on our bed to try figure out what was wrong with him and where he was hurting. This stopped the screaming immediately. I think we just distracted him because he is not usually allowed on the bed. We put him on the ground and he was limping on his front left foot, but not showing and signs of pain when we touched his whole leg/paw. Anyways, as it was late we decided to put him back to sleep as there wasn't much we could do at that point. Back in the
crate, and he starts crying again, we figure it's because he wants to come back out/thinks it's time to get up. We ignore him for about 15 minutes, until we hear him PEEING in the
crate!!! This has NEVER happened, not once since he's been in there! We figured it was our fault, he HAD been crying, but because we thought it was because he wanted out we just ignored him. Anyways, cleaned the
crate and off to bed for the third time. In the morning he was no longer limping, so we just assume it must have been pins and needles or slept on funny...
The next night, it was his normal bed time and he went into his
crate willingly. As soon as the door was shut and the lights were off though, the crying began again. We ignored him, then after about 20 minutes he peed AGAIN in the
crate!! We couldn't believe it! Out he came, we cleaned it up again and back in the
crate. Whinged for a bit then off to sleep. Last night the exact same thing happened again!! Both nights by the way, he has gone to the toilet right before bed. It honestly feels like he is pushing it out because he has realised it gets him out of the
crate 
Today I cleaned the
crate with hot water & white vinegar. I also tried to start reconditioning him to the
crate, throwing treats in there for him to go get. I should also point out that he has a large
crate, we never put a divider in there because he was doing so well. The divider is now in there as of last night after the accident, which he was pawing at and seemed to make him even more unhappy.
I'm sorry to have rambled on so much, just wanted to make sure I gave all the information. Basically, we are at a lost!! How could he go from sleeping right through every night in his
crate, to crying, whinging and peeing in it three nights in a row?! Any advice would be much appreciated... Thank you
haha
