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TLDR; Our housetrained dog has started peeing/pooping inside - what is the best way to retrain him? Longer version: For various reasons our dogs, who used to be outdoors during the day when we were at work & then inside as soon as we got home, have become basically indoors only dogs. For the last 3 years, they've never had an accident indoors. For about four months even with the new situation, this has worked out perfectly well. We let them out in the morning, a friend walks them at lunchtime, we come home in the evening, walk them again & later let them out again before we go to bed at night. No accidents, all is good. But this has stopped working. Four times now, we have come down in the morning to find one of our dogs has left a mess on the floor. Always the same dog, only at night. They stay indoors while we're at work with no issues, this seems to happen only at night. They have been brilliant for years and I'm really afraid he's gotten into the habit of it now & it will be incredibly diffucult to stop him What we have done: Taken increasingly longer walks at night: Sometimes I swear to god he seems to save it. Acted embarassingly overexcited whenever I see him do his business outside. Started crating him at night again: Obviously this works perfectly, he likes his crate. He has never made a mess while in there. But I hate having it in the living room & he did fine without it for about 2 years. What we have not done: Punished him in any way for leaving a mess. What I'm afraid of: I know the right way to do this is to just encourage him doing the right thing - but I don't know how to re-instill inhibition for peeing/pooping inside. I almost feel like that without some sort of punishment he will never learn to "not" do what he was doing. Advice please?
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Nov 18, 2014 23:13
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 18:27 |
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How old is he? My older dog started having accidents inside and it turned out his arthritis was worsening and it hurt him to squat to poop so he'd hold it for as long as possible then just poop whenever he couldn't hold it anymore. A vet visit and an adjustment of his meds/supplements later he was back to normal.
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Nov 18, 2014 23:58
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He's about 4~ years old. He's going to the vet next week anyway to get his kennel cough vac's so I can definitely bring it up.
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Nov 19, 2014 00:12
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Definitely rule out vet issues first - that's most likely since he was previously housebroken. Any sort of punishment is more likely to result in him hiding from you (and less likely to eliminate on walks). Does he like the over-the-top cheerleading outside? I would probably spend a month or two associating elimination on command when you take him out on leash (give your command when you're 80% sure he's about to poop, then follow it with a low-key 'good boy' and a treat). Once you've conditioned him to it, use the command on the last walk of the night, randomizing the treat reward over the course of a couple of months until you can fade it out. If he eliminates then let him have the run of the house, if he doesn't he sleeps in the crate. If he's still having accidents even if he's emptied out just before bed I think you're stuck with the crate.
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Nov 19, 2014 00:43
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Engineer Lenk posted:Definitely rule out vet issues first - that's most likely since he was previously housebroken. Well it's not really cheerleading, it's more that I watch like a hawk out the back window & as soon as I see him eliminate I rush out to let him in and praise him. He definitely loves being let in - comes barreling in at 500mph  On walks it's more difficult to reward him because he basically ignores everything except walking unless you literally shove a treat in his face.He doesn't go in the house if he's gone already (either on a walk or by letting him out the back). We've been crating him for the last few days & that works fine. (Still no issue at all being indoors while we're at work during the day).
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Nov 21, 2014 22:53
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