Suddenly messing in the house.

[boden]

Hi there, we have a 13 month old cross bred Staffie/Collie called Holly. We rehomed her from the Dogs Trust here in the UK and she was already house-trained.

Until now she's been no trouble at all. She's had her chewing phase but its confined to her own toys (and the occasional sock) and she can be a little boistrous on her walks. Nothing we've struggled with. But now we have a bit of a problem. The problem is to do with that most pleasant of subjects, toilet habits.

Until now she's always let us know that she needs to 'pay a visit' by attracting our attention then standing by the door or walking round in circles.

But on sunday night we took her down for her usual potty stop in the garden and then she came in. Not 15 minutes later she squatted on the bedroom floor and did her numbers 2s. Accidents happen so we cleaned it up and took her down to the kitchen to sleep on her bed. When we woke she'd done it again and also wee'd on the floor... From then on all was fine for 2 days. Then she did another number 2 in the bedroom. Today it came to a head with her fouling the kitchen 3 times. Two of those times just after she'd been in the garden for her normal toilet break and leisure time.

We considered illness but other than this she's her usual cheery self. Also, she had a vets checkup two weeks ago and the vet said she was perfectly healthy and the perfect weight.

She isn't currently getting as much time as she normally does in the garden during the day because of the weather but we never rush her to do her business. Could we still be unwittingly rushing her and not letting her finish? Our main concern is that she hasn't been letting us know that she needs to go in her usual way.

The other possible cause is that she has been given treats by various members of the family who seem oblivious to our calls for no treats. The frustration of trying to stop people from treating her with human food when we're trying to watch her food intake is driving us to the edge. We're wondering if these well meaning but ultimately annoying family members are giving her too rich food that is causing her to have an upset stomach.

Any tips would be helpful.

[Squawksx3]

Hi boden and welcome :)

I think it may be possible that it could be a result of human food not agreeing with her... I also think it could be because the weather is getting colder and she may not want to do her duty outside. You didnt mention any new pets added to the family, sometimes that will cause this problem. If there is a change in the normal family routine, it sometimes affects them that way also. If the situation doesnt get better with working with her, I would take her to the vet to rule out any medical issues. We almost lost our Labx mix a few years ago because he ate people food :( . He went down hill very fast and we almost lost him. Good luck!!.

[maltina]

Hello,

I'm not sure if this will be helpful to you or not, but I have recently had the same problem with my Shih Tzu who is 2 years old. She began peeing and pooping on the carpet, and once it started, that was it, she kept doing it.

I have done a lot of training with animals, and between my knowledge, and help from a trainer that I know, we worked it out. I began treating her like a puppy! She was either tethered to me on a 8 foot leash tied around my waist, or crated when I was not able to watch her. The ONLY time she had freely for about 2 weeks was when she had already gone, and there was no threat of an accident. I know it seems like a lot, but it's better to break that behavior now, before she gets really used to eliminating indoors.

Also, I once had this problem with my mini aussie. He went from NEVER having accidents, to pooping in the same spot in the kitchen for weeks. The problem was, I could NEVER catch him in the act. Well finally one day, my little spy self was watching him until he did it, I yelled at him right away, and sent him to the back yard for a few minutes. That's all it took! Just him knowing how upset I was, and that it was wrong, he never did it again.

If all else fails, consult a trainer.

Good Luck!!!

Tina

[boden]

Thanks for your replies folks. We've managed to get the treats from family members out of her diet (its funny how well a threat of 'if she messes and you gave her treats, you clean it up' works :)) and also concentrated on watching her in the garden and making sure she eliminates there. So far, its only been a couple of days but we've had success. She's been quite content to make her business in the garden again and has been getting a lot of praise for doing it there.

There are no new pets in the family but my girlfriend read that boredom can sometimes cause pets to mess in the house. I don't know how true this is but it did make us analyse the toy situation and bought her a few new ones. The extra energy she's spending with toys means that she's better behaved in front of the family cat. So we've solved two problems in one go :D