Messy Kennel

Question
We have a 9 week female lab and she poops and pees in her kennel when we leave.  It doesn't matter if we are gone for 1 hour or for 8, she makes a huge mess of herself and the kennel.  We always make sure that she potties outside before we put her in the kennel, but she stills makes a big mess in her kennel.

Answer
I see many similar questions.  It sounds to me like the dog is doing it deliberately to protest being left in the crate.  That is at odds with the conventional wisdom.  However, many dogs don't seem to have read the parts about avoiding fouling their sleeping area.  

It is only natural that a puppy resists its crate at first.  What the puppy
wants more than anything else is to be with others, you, anyone else in the
household, and any other pets.  In our modern society, even if we are home,
other things distract us from the attention an uncrated puppy must have.   The
only real solution is to crate the dog when you aren't around.  Leave it some toys.  Perhaps a Kong filled with peanut butter.  Don't leave anything in the crate the dog might chew up.  Rather than relaxing and catching a nap in their den, some puppies protest by fouling the crate.  I haven't had this problem.  As I said, I see many questions suggesting it, and saw my daughter fight the problem.  

A wire rack in the bottom of the crate will help keep the puppy up out of urine and to a lessor extent stools.  They are available with the crates, but a piece of closely spaced wire closet shelving from a home supply place is cheaper.  This reduces the mess, making the protest much less effective.  The longer haired the puppy, the higher it needs to be.  In warmer weather, you can just haul the crate out and hose everything off.  When the puppy sees you coping with the situation, and you stand your ground, most of them give up and learn to relax, and that you will return.  One more thing that may help is using a smaller crate, or blocking off part of a larger one so the puppy can't fouled one spot and retreat.  

The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy.  Very few houses even have a
safe room.  How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing
else?  Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else.  In addition
to destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have
intestinal  blockage from the pieces.  I had a friend that left her dog in a
"safe" room.  It ate a hole in the floor covering.  The safe rooms fail to
give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires.  Nor
do they restrict activity extending the time the dog can go without relieving
itself.

Likely it will cry the first few nights in the crate.  I have never had much
luck with the old clock or radio tricks.  What I do is lay down by the crate
like I was going to sleep there.  Usually a puppy may fuss a little, but then
settle down and go to sleep.  Once it is asleep, you can get up and go to bed.