We have a 12 month lab who we have crate trained . However I now feel it is time to start weaning him off of this. I have left him for a significant length of time 5 hours, with his toys and his stuffed kongs and he hasnt chewed anything up but each time he has gone upstairs and weed outside our bedroom door.When we are at home he is not allowed upstairs and because of the layout of our house it is impossible to confine him to any room unless he is crated. at night he has been clean from an early age for a much longet time than 5 hours. Is this anything to do with the fact he knows the cat goes upstairs? the cat doesn't sleep in my bedroom but in an adjacent one. the bedroom doors are shut when I go out. Also how to you advise weaning a dog off his ctrate or should I just keep it as his den? he chooses to go in there quite often when we are at home and it has never been used as a punishment. It is in the kitchen and there is room to keep it. My only problem I have if i get rid of the crate completely is that I have nowhere in the house to confine him ie if i need all the outside dooras open if we have builders etc or on those occaisons when little children visit who are scared of dogs etc.

My dog used to do this every time we went out, but he had seperation anxiety. He broke out of two crates! But if yours likes his I would keep him in it. It was maybe a bit weird for him being alone in the house and not in his crate if this was his routine. He probably urinated because he was a little worried. They tend to do again in the same place as it leaves a strong smell for them no matter how much you clean  it.