Crate pooping

One of our dogs has been fine since we got in her April with the whole crate thing. For about the past month she has been pooping in her crate every night (we crate them at night and when we are not home). We take her on walks, put her out late before bed and she just poops in there every night and then lays around in it and it is pretty nasty. I think she may eat some of the poop too.

We are going to start feeding them an hour earlier at night (feed twice a day) but does anyone have any other suggestions?

This more regular crate pooping also started after we stopped occassionally letting them sleep in bed with us (they are total bed hogs and I am now pregnant and we don't fit!)

To give you the best advice a few questions. How old is your dog? What breed? What size crate are you using? The crate should be just big enough for the dog to stand up and turn around in.

Does she have the same behavior if she isn't in the crate? Could she be confined to a room instead for the night hours?

well i was told if the crate is bigger then nessisary they will use one side as a waste side and the other to sleep in

She is a 5 year old beagle. Her crate is not very big (she has a smidge of 'extra space' and she sleeps in the poop anyway so it's not like she voids in one place and sleeps elsewhere--she just sleeps in it.

I have thought about having them (both dogs) in another room at night but I don't trust the other dog--he is fine at night in his crate but when he is in our room on the floor at night he 'stress' pees on the floor usually.

Could you crate the one that has issues with being out and leave the other one free at night?

I had a similar problem with my Dixie when she was a pup. Her problem wasn't necessarily pooping in the crate though, it was pooping in the house. She would poop in her crate though if she had to go.

I solved this problem by putting her on a very regular food schedule and making sure she pooped before letting her back in the house. If I let her outside on her own, she would never go. I actually had to train her to "go potty" on command. Then I determined what time of day she reguarly went. For her it was in the morning. Basically, I knew not to leave for work until she did her morning poop or I would come home to a pile to clean up. So I went out with her and gave her the command "go potty". If she only went pee then I would make her go back until she did a poop. Once she realized we were not going to play or go back in the house in the morning until she did this, we didn't have any more problems. A friend of mine had the exact same scenario except hers was at night. Going out with her pup and making sure she went was her solution.

Of course you never want to crate a dog for excessive amounts of time. Once a dog is house trained, I never crate them at night. I may close the bedroom door so they don't have access to the rest of the house but I do let them sleep in the room. It doesn't matter if they don't sleep in bed with you. I still think they want to be in the same room. Perhaps you could put a comfy set of pillows at the foot of the bed on the floor and encourage her to sleep there.

its probably wise to feed them an hour earlier (like you said) some dog food makes dogs poop more, so that could be the problem too.