So I always thought dogs preferred not to pee in their crates since its sort of their personal space but Elf seems to think that's where he's suppose to pee... We'll go through a couple days without incident but it seems like it's happening every other day and I'm normally only gone for an hour or two. Maybe he pees when he's anxious in his crate... that could be it hmm

Is there a way to remove this association with crating and peeing, its making me room kinda stinky hah...

Im no expert b/c my dogs not fully trained yet but using a crate divider has helped us aton. My husband made one out of plywood and ever since we started using it i can see progress. Before we had it, Kiba would pee and poo alll over her crate

well, whenever i know i will be leaving the dogs crated for any amount of time, i be sure to take their water away and not let them exercise about an hour prior to leaving. then i let them outside to do their business, and theyve never had an accident in their crate. i'd give that shot.

Jessica gave the same advice I would have. Also, do you ever just crate him for an hour or two while you're home watching tv? I used to do that with Soshanna all the time as a puppy. It made her more comfortable with long stays in her crate.

I advise getting some type of cleaner, like Nature's Miracle Oxy that will get rid of the scent. That might help in addition to what everyone else said.

If the crate isn't too big, the dog doesn't have access to excess amounts of water (as a puppy, people generally just take the water away entirely, but Pippa has water in her crate and she never pees in it), and you let it out before you leave I'd take it to the vet to rule out a UTI or something else that could affect bladder control.

Several people on here have had trouble with problems like that, maybe they'll chime in.

reasons a dog may pee in crate,

1 if they get to anxious about something, they have tiny bladders with little control, cant hold it

2 crate is to big so they pee in one half sleep on other,

3 to much access to water, cant hold in

4 crate smells like urine so they think thats where they pee

thats all i got

We just came from outside and Milo did his business and ran back into the crate and peed in the crate. I just put a fresh towel down too. It seemed like he was either marking it or peeing in it so I wouldn't put him in there later. Still working on crate training. Its only been a week, (he's 12 weeks). Thanks for the suggestions above.