Spike the Min Pin Puppy

Question
I have a new min pin puppy named Spike that is 14 weeks old. I think he may be suffering from separation anxiety, but am not sure. When he is out during the day, he holds his pee/poop for up to 3 hours, but the moment I put him in his crate at night, he yelps wildly and claws at the crate door wildly for up to an hour. He also soils his crate at night during the first hour, no matter, if he has just pottied outside before going to bed. If I put him in the bed with me, he does fine, but wakes me up every three hours on the dot to go out to potty. I can't keep getting up 2-3times at night to let him out, and he won't keep his crate clean. What should I do?

Answer
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.

Strong leadership on your part should help too.  Small dogs need obedience training just as much as larger ones.  At his age, you need  to work out of a book at home.  The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/ For more on being top dog, see http://www.dogbreedinfo.com./topdogrules.htm