At The End Of My Rope...

[Fevah]

Alright, so Jacques is now over a year old, yet I'm still having issues with him pooing inside the house. I'm ready to pull my hair out.

Here is the setup.

During the day when noone is home the dogs are outside, where they have access to the double garage via a doggy door.

During the day when someone is home, the screen door is propped open so they have constant access outside.

During the day when it is cold, the doors are closed but someone takes the dogs out every two hours.

Now Remy, dog bless him, has learnt not to do anything inside, absolutely no problems with him whatsoever.

Jacques, on the other hand, seems to think the lounge carpet is his personal pooing ground. Of course nothing happens when the doors are closed so no access is allowed, but this isn't feasible as it is our 'social' area.

I can't seem to 'catch him in the act' because he is too damn sneaky. I suspect he's also secretly weeing everywhere (even after being desexed) except again it is hard to catch him/hard to find evidence.

He is very stubborn and frustrates me, a perfect example is today is it raining - I took them both outside and asked them to do a wee. Remy, ever dutiful, did what he had to do and then waited patiently as I dried him with a towel. Jacques absolutely refused, and bolted inside the safety of the garage.

What am I to do about this problem?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Please, please help me!

[rish]

that made me really laugh >)

I would put pepper down where he is pooing.

Weird ,Leigh is now doing that to,and she walk's and pooes/weee's ,but i think she is stressed,looks like she is in for a operation,she seems to have torn a crucial ligament,sad and sorry part is i slipped on a grape (i little grape) 2 years ago,and have had both knee's already done.so i think she wants to be like mum.

[Nekhbet]

get him a litter box that smells like his wee - dab a tissue in some of his urine or leave a little smear of poo in paper based litter and give him an indoor place to go.

Get a Britex machine and wash your carpets within an inch of their lives. He doesnt understand that inside is a no no, he just understands not to do it in front of you. Dont worry mum has a 10 year old Pom that still wees inside if someone elses dog comes round

Block access to that area unless you are right there with him or keep him on a leash and teach him to litter box.

[APBT]

it seems you may be giving your dogs to much access to the house, and they do as they please, restrict were they are allowed to go, so its alot harder for them to toilet with out you catching them.

also desexing does not fix the problem of peeing everywhere,

Also, don't let him Refuse, leave him out till he does what he needs to do,

i never create trained my girl, but from when she was a pup i restricted her to only one room, as there were less and less accidents i gave her more access to the house, the main thing is to take them out side every couple hours so there is a routine with there toileting,

apart from that i cant give more advice, because what i wrote is exactly what i did and it seemed to work perfectly.

[Bullbreedlover]

Alright, so Jacques is now over a year old, yet I'm still having issues with him pooing inside the house. I'm ready to pull my hair out.

Here is the setup.

During the day when noone is home the dogs are outside, where they have access to the double garage via a doggy door.

During the day when someone is home, the screen door is propped open so they have constant access outside.

During the day when it is cold, the doors are closed but someone takes the dogs out every two hours.

Now Remy, dog bless him, has learnt not to do anything inside, absolutely no problems with him whatsoever.

Jacques, on the other hand, seems to think the lounge carpet is his personal pooing ground. Of course nothing happens when the doors are closed so no access is allowed, but this isn't feasible as it is our 'social' area.

I can't seem to 'catch him in the act' because he is too damn sneaky. I suspect he's also secretly weeing everywhere (even after being desexed) except again it is hard to catch him/hard to find evidence.

He is very stubborn and frustrates me, a perfect example is today is it raining - I took them both outside and asked them to do a wee. Remy, ever dutiful, did what he had to do and then waited patiently as I dried him with a towel. Jacques absolutely refused, and bolted inside the safety of the garage.

What am I to do about this problem?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Please, please help me!

I have had a few toilet training problems over the years(with the dogs of course) LOL.

And one of the cases with a very stubborn bitch.

What about taking the trouble maker outside on a lead. And they can not make a bolt for the garage. Rain is a bloody frustrating time to toilet dogs.

As soon as you get home he goes out with you and you make sure he goes. ones and twos.

[Staranais]

Have you considered "going back to basics" and just treating him as you would treat a little puppy? i.e., give him no unsupervised time inside the house so he doesn't practice toileting inside (put him in a crate if you want him inside but can't supervise him directly), and make sure you always make a huge fuss of him when he does go outside.

Other more experienced folks might have other ideas, but that's the first thing I'd do.

[Teebs]

Have you considered "going back to basics" and just treating him as you would treat a little puppy? i.e., give him no unsupervised time inside the house so he doesn't practice toileting inside (put him in a crate if you want him inside but can't supervise him directly), and make sure you always make a huge fuss of him when he does go outside.

Other more experienced folks might have other ideas, but that's the first thing I'd do.

i totally agree, Kaos was shocking, for a LONG time! she drove me nuts, never weed, but would poo inside, i went back to the start, she was crated at night, crated when i couldnt watch her, she would cry, so i would take her out to go to the loo, and bring her in and crate again, it took a while for her to learn she couldnt poo inside, but worth the hassle, i can now leave her in the house alone and know she wont go

[tramissa]

I've just gone back to basics and crating with Jonno yet again. Same issue, except he rarely poos inside, but does wee.

Got some more stuff to treat the carpet, and he's crated when inside. He spends all day outside as well and has no issues toileting outside then.

[Stitch]

Jacques has learnt that it is OK to poo inside, he can so he does - simple as that!!

If you want him to unlearn it then you have to restrict him from the area you don't want him to poo in so that he then learns it is OK to poo in another area.

Dogs are pretty basic creatures and you have to resist the urge to humanise them by thinking they have an ulteria motive or that they think like a human. He isn't stubborn, he just doesn't understand and you have to reteach him!

[Teebs]

oh, i have to say with kaos, she would wake me up.... AFTER she pooed!! I hated her for a while

[persephone]

Dogs are pretty basic creatures and you have to resist the urge to humanise them by thinking they have an ulteria motive or that they think like a human. He isn't stubborn, he just doesn't understand and you have to reteach him! smile.gif

I would second the idea of going back to basics. crate or leash him and practice practice practice :D

Treats/praise every time he toilets outside!!

[Fevah]

Some great ideas here, which I will put into play soon. At the moment I am waiting for my parents to leave to go to Poland as they don't follow my rules (e.g. someone always opens the lounge room when they are inside, even after I've closed it ). They will be away for 8 weeks so hopefully I can re-train him during that time.

Back to basics - I like that, I have a crate and I will definately use it. I think this might be the only fail-safe way to make him understand.

Will definately suggest to mum that the carpet gets a proper cleaning so that it doesn't smell like his place.

And taking him on lead outside is a great idea, I have no idea why I didn't think of it (lack of common sense over here!).

O hail ye DOLers of wisdom :D

[cowanbree]

Another option might be tethering him to you when you can’t give him your complete attention. That way he isn’t crated all the time but it would be very hard for him to toilet inside without you knowing. I have found this very effective.

[Fevah]

Another option might be tethering him to you when you can’t give him your complete attention. That way he isn’t crated all the time but it would be very hard for him to toilet inside without you knowing. I have found this very effective.

Thanks cowanbree, that is also a fantastic idea. Will try all the strategies listed in this thread and will update in a month Thanks again everyone.

Edited May 24, 2009 by Fevah

[puggy_puggy]

As everyone else has said you are being to soft on him. He thinks he's the boss and can do what he likes.

I would leave him outside untill he goes to the toilet. He can stay out untill he does.

You could even put doggy pants on him whilst inside. I don't think he will be pooing in them in a hurry.

[Fyscha]

We had problems with our staffy for quite a while and the clincher that seemed to solve the problem was when we finally caught her in the act. Well, my partner did, which was probably good because he roared at her and she didn't know where to hide. It was all over in a matter of seconds and she was outside sulking. I was a bit shocked at his reaction and said at the time that I thought he over reacted, he didn't hit her or anything but he left no doubt with her that she was out of line. But after what had been a long road, she was 6 months old by then, we haven't had another episode. Moral of the story, we really had to step up our vigilance inside and outside. Standing in the rain for AGES waiting or her to go.... carrying on like a pork chop when she did - treats and cuddles etc. If we left her outside by herself I'd search for ages until I found something that looked fresh. Also not letting her out of our sight inside. We did get to a stage where we thought she was there and got a bit slack and realised too late that we'd jumped the gun and she still wasn't trained. So even when you do finally think you are there, I'd keep up the regime for at least another month or two.

Good luck, you will get there.

[Erny]

Jacques, on the other hand, seems to think the lounge carpet is his personal pooing ground. Of course nothing happens when the doors are closed so no access is allowed, but this isn't feasible as it is our 'social' area.

My "social area" became a conglomerate of puppy pen (used as a barrier and at other times a confinement) and large sized crate, with lounge chairs blocking other open doorways (it was funny when people came to visit, to see them seated in extraordinary spots around the room ). It was only this way could I be as vigilant as I needed to be and to prevent my pup learning to disappear to go to the toilet. It was so great when I was confident they were no longer required. I was then able to "reclaim" my home and it felt less like a formal puppy creche.**

Learning to go outside to the toilet is one thing. Knowing to hold on and understanding that someone will grant access to outside is another and IME a secondary phase to toilet training. Sounds to me that your toilet training of Jacques isn't completed. And if you were to, please don't compare one dog with the other. They each learn different things at different rates. That's part of what makes them the individuals that they are.

**Now it's just a big, over-sized, multi-roomed dog kennel .

Edited May 24, 2009 by Erny

[Fevah]

As everyone else has said you are being to soft on him. He thinks he's the boss and can do what he likes.

I would leave him outside untill he goes to the toilet. He can stay out untill he does.

You could even put doggy pants on him whilst inside. I don't think he will be pooing in them in a hurry.

Indeed he does. You should have seen his face when I stood outside with him for half an hour in the rain a while ago.

I might try the doggy pants too, any ideas where to get them from?

Learning to go outside to the toilet is one thing. Knowing to hold on and understanding that someone will grant access to outside is another and IME a secondary phase to toilet training. Sounds to me that your toilet training of Jacques isn't completed. And if you were to, please don't compare one dog with the other. They each learn different things at different rates. That's part of what makes them the individuals that they are.

I might sound frustrated at Jacques but in reality I'm more frustrated at my parents, who clearly favour him and let him get away with murder (which they would not allow with Remy). That is why my tone is annoyed, I'm not saying Remy is better than Jacques so please don't make assumptions.

[Erny]

I'm not saying Remy is better than Jacques so please don't make assumptions.

I wasn't making assumptions, just pre-empting a possibility, which is why I wrote : " And if you were to ... ".

[Fevah]

I'm not saying Remy is better than Jacques so please don't make assumptions.

I wasn't making assumptions, just pre-empting a possibility, which is why I wrote : " And if you were to ... ".

Sorry, I do get angsty about it, I love them both equally yet I have to put up with Jacques getting favoured in this household (and out of the household) all the time (because he is smaller, and therefore somehow that correlates with being cuter according to the general population) even though he is the 'naughty' one (and like people have mentioned, only because the majority of the household allows him to be).