Thanks for all your advice. Last night I left him the light on, but still he messed. Going to leave the radio on tonight and see if that makes a difference. Then, if that doesn't work, I'll try the crate again. He was crated from 8 weeks to about 6 months. He doesn't appear to be a worrier and is pretty confident. He's left for about 4 hours on a morning during the week when I work and has never messed then. His diet is good, I feed him NatureDiet which contains only natural products and only give him the occasional hide chew. I'll keep you posted.