My 5 month old puppy poops in her crate and I ground her by canceling her walks and I don't feed her breakfast or lunch. How do I teach her and how do I correct her?

Dear Cindy,

My Dogo (born May 2009) has a poop problem. I've tried many things but nothing seems to work.

1. After eating between 6-7 in the afternoon, I take her to walk for about half a mile and after that I let her play in the backyard for about 1.5 hours. At that time, her crate is quite big, 1.2m x 1.2 m. In the morning, about 5:45, she pooped in her crate.

2. After that I tried to put her in crate with the door opened. For a few days she didn't poop in the crate. This means she does that in the backyard. But this did not take long, about a week after, she does that again the crate even though the door is opened.

3. After that I bought a smaller dog crate made with fiber which can be used for traveling. She can only stand up and lay down in there. 4 days she slept in there without doing it. I was happy to see that, I thought my problem was over. But this morning, at 5:45 (it is always the time when I wake up and take my dogs out of their crates) she pooped in that small crate.

I was so angry so I cancelled the morning walk with her. I also ground her by not giving her food in the morning and noon.

I need some suggestions.

1. Is this normal? I mean is there a dog with those characteristics? She has lived with me for about 1.5 months. It didn't take long for my other dogs (GSD and golden retriever) to understand this house matter.

2. What can I do to teach her? And how is the correction on this? Because she knows it, I know she knows it that I don't like it when she did it.

Thanks and regards,
Damsi