pooping in the house. Advice please!

[AmyPC]

This may be longish...

Rory has always had run of the house. Used to leak in the house due to incontinence problems, this was a big problem but is under control. Would occasionally pee in the house but this has stopped since her incont. probs are under control.

In the last 6 months or so, in the morning, my Mum would be finding one poop in the lounge room in the morning, behind the couch. A new poop - not from the night. Seemed to be done AFTER everyone had woken up and Rory had been let out and back inside.

This continued but no one would ever catch her in the act. If Mum cought her just after she thought Rory had done it she would show Rory the spot with the poop, tell her off and put her outside for an hour or so. And clean the spot thoroughly. This kept going on though - not every night but maybe once a week or so...so in the end, they just decided to close the loungeroom door at night so Rory couldn't go in there. This worked well and there were no accidents - until the lounge room door got left open one night and it happened again. And then again...and again. So she is ONLY doing it in the lounge. And the lounge door keeps getting left open from time to time as my Dad is completely scatterbrained and will not close it every time he is the last one up (or so anything he is asked to in the house in fact!).

So in the end, Mum decided Rory would just have to come in and sleep with her. That is fine, there are no accidents, Rory trots off to Mum's room every night when she sees um getting ready for bed, Mum is fine with having her in there - she's been sleeping in there for months with no problems. Last week my Dad let Rory out of the bedroom and of course left the lopunge room door open when he went to bed - in the morning there was a poop in there!!!

Now, it seems - and you might disagree - this is not a matter or her needing to get outside and not being able to - as she can go out whenever she wants, and sometimes wakes my Mum up to do so if she wants to go. And that it seems to be going on in the morning, not during the night. She is NOT confined to the house in the morning. WHAT is going on???!!! Maybe she can smell the scent and it is a trigger - but it has been cleaned every which way. Mum has even gone so far as to suggest maybe she is jealous of the cat? So is doing it to get attention? ( But I don't think they work like that! And she gets LOADS of attention!)

By the way, rory is three and a half. Any suggestions would be very helpful. And before anyone suggests cleaning the spot with Nature's Miracle, we don't get it here in Australia!!! And there's no use telling everyone to close the door every night - we've been through that and it's just not going to happen each and every night - ridiculous I know but work with me here!

 

[BoundlessNewfs]

When we take the girls out to potty in the morning, I tell them to "go potty some more" (poop) and they usually do it. I have to watch and make sure, though, because a couple of times I have seen Lucy squat, but not actually go, and then she's had an accident in the house later. Is Rory trained to "go" on command? If not, you might go out with her, and tell her "go potty" (or whatever command you like) JUST as she's doing it, so she connects the command with the act. Have a different command for each function (we use "go potty", and "go potty some more"). Carry treats with you, and reward her right after she does it. Eventually she will know to "do it" when you say to, and you can go out with her...tell her to go (and make sure she does)...then bring her back in.

Sure hope this helps!

 

[AmyPC]

Hmmmmm, Rory does know how to pee on command, but not poop. We taught her to pee on command when she had problems toilet training when she was a pup. So you definitely might have something there as that worked. However, any more suggestions are appreciated!

 

[NewfMom]

Since Rory only does it in that spot maybe you could keep her out of there. I know the door can't be closed. Believe me, my house is the same.

Here in the U.S. we have an electronics parts chain store called Radio Shack. They sell a cheap motion detector alarm.

We wanted to train Kimber to stay out of the living room and dining room. What our trainer had us do was get some bright red duct tape and put a stripe across the doorway. Then we put the alarm just inside the door. That way every time Kimber crossed the line we could catch her and fuss. After a while, the trainer had us keep removing part of the tape until it was gone. Then we put the alarms away. It only took a month or so to go through the whole process and only a few days to get her to stay out of that area.

If Rory has no legitimate business behind the couch and since that's the only place she does it, maybe they could train her to stay out of that area.

 

[BluwaterNewfs]

Unless there is a medical condition causing her to need poop more often that normal, I would consider this a training issue. IF she was my dog I go back to crating her at night and when I wasn't home.

 

[DreamTime Newfs]

I would have to agree with Joan. I crated Baxter at night and when we weren't home until he was fully trained.
We have had Wilbur for 3 weeks and he is being crated and he only pooped in the house once and has not peed in the house in a few days.
He never messes in his crate. It works wonders!!

 

[AmyPC]

Thanks for the suggestions! I love the idea of the tape providing a mental block to keep out of that area - that's a fantastic idea!

I'll take all this on board and see what we want to do.

Rory has not been crated, ever. I don't know of a single person in Australia with a crate, I'd never heard of it except for usage at dog shows until I started checking out US dog related websites. I know they're very popular in the US and I'm sure for good reason. We are pretty much using the bedroom as a pseudo-crate, as, like you guys said, they don't go where they sleep.

Again, thanks for your help!

 

[kristin]

i had a similar problem with jack. We don't crate him either. He would also poop on the right side of the couch. same exact spot, and then we'd clean it very thoroughly. i put a lamp there and he hasn't done it since. i couldn't think of an explanation for that, but it's true. maybe he looks at that area as his area... he notices nobody else goes there, so he keeps pooping in it. i dont know what to tell you. we trained Jack to stay out of my roommates room because he would always go potty in there. he won't walk through the door now... i guess different things for different dogs

 

[Largo]

Amy, how is Rory doing? Did you solve the problem? Just thinking about ya.