My 1 year old beagle poops in her cage

Question
I am unemployed and stay home with her most all the time, but when I do leave, she acts out and poops and pees in her cage. Anytime before we leave, we make sure she goes outside and uses the restroom (both 1 and 2) and nearly every time we come back home to a mess. She will kick the tray out of the cage and go on the floor and somehow manage to move the cage all over the bathroom and smear her poop! It's disgusting and a pain to clean her and the bathroom every time we  have to leave the house! What should we do?

Answer
This is a difficult problem, and most of the people writing books never seem to have heard of it.  I think it is the stress of being left alone.  Using a grid as I do while new puppies are still having accidents might help.  They are available with the crates, but expensive and hard to find. A piece of closely spaced wire closet shelving from a home supply place is cheaper. I am now using a plastic vegetable bin with plenty of holes drilled in the bottom. It helps block off part of the crate for the smaller puppy. If you already have a metal crate, covering it may help. Just make sure you use something the puppy can't pull in and chew.

Try leaving a Kong filled with peanut butter for her.  If she is highly food motivated, she may not worry out you leaving.  

Better leadership from you may help.  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