Relapsed

[katielogue]

I posted in the summer seeking advice on puppies to adopt. I went with a yellow lab. I am afraid I have spoiled him badly. He suddenly does not want to go potty in the yard. I take him to his place (grassy spot close to our woods) and walk him around for about 30 minutes. Up until this weekend he would "go potty" within that time frame. This little (? 23 pounds!) darling has relaspsed and will not "potty". I had him what I thought was well-trained on this. Now he will urinate but not poop during this time.
Can anyone offer me a solution? Did I do something wrong? I need help and I need it right away. Please offer me some suggestions. My pup is around 14 weeks old now and I love him dearly. I originally got him for my granddaughter but I quickly adopted him as my own. What can I do?
PS - I have taken him to an eight-week puppy scholl at Petsmart and he was at the top of his class.
Help me, please.
Thanks in advance.
katielogue

[opokki]

Is he pooping in the house?
Have you changed brands of food?

[DachshundDuo]

Maybe he needs a new place to potty. My dogs are very particular in where they go potty. They seem to have to search and search for the perfect spot to poop. :rolleyes: It sounds ridiculous, but maye this is the problem.

[draper]

My old dog needed to have one of her poops around to smell it, and it would encourage her to go in that area. It was kind of nice because her poops were all together - all you had to do was find the section! Anyway, my Mom's dog will not go if you are outside with him. So, we let him out and walk away - other wise not only would he not do his business, but want to come in even if he has to go so bad that his hindlegs are crossed and his eye balls are floating! I should add, that the dog will go potty if he is on a leash.

[krazy4birds]

Oh my.. :eek: .what a deliema. I never heard of this before but that is not to say it is not common. I just do not know alot about dogs behavior patterns. If you are taking him to the exact same spot try a different one. I wish I knew more, I am sorry. We have some excellant members who post often that are very informed about things like this so just keep checking back to see if they posted yet. In the mean time try not to stress out to bad because that is not good for either of you. Good Luck! :)

[DachshundDuo]

krazy4birds is right; don't let him see that you are getting upset about this, because then he won't poop. Just let him have extra time outside, maye he just needs a new spot and more time. It's serious business to find the perfect spot, at least to dogs, anyhow! :rolleyes:

[katielogue]

Thanks to those members with advice. I will try a new area for his potty place.
I did change his food about week ago. I had been using the PetSmart Blue something for large puppies but he did not seem to like it. My vet suggested Eukanuba (sp?) and he really doesn't like it that much either! I just bought Science Diet which I have not tried yet (I had a $7 coupon for it). I also changed from Pupparoni to a different brand of treats (at the trainer's suggestion to give him a variety.)
I love this dog as you already know. I don't expect him to be perfect but I feel I have failed him in some way. I spend all my time at home with him (his name is Fluffy-named by my granddaughter as soon as the litter was born). He will grow into a huge FLUFFY I am sure but he knows his name. He still responds to training commands - except when I want him to come to me I now have to whistle for him.
He has pooped in the house - once each day since Saturday. I did not make an issue of it - just cleaned it up. It was after the fact but also after the fact that he would not "go" during the 30 minutes following eating.
Thanks again - I can use all the help I can get - this is the first puppy I have ever had. I have read the books for Dummies over and over. I just need hands on advice from y'all because I feel y'all know from experience and your suggestions will not be generalizations like the Dummy books.
k

[G_Unit]

We have had a somewhat similar dilemma with our dog, Gunner. Gunner would poop on command for me, but not for my husband. I would just actually refuse to move until he had gone potty and I would always say the same thing each time, "go potty".

He has gone through stages where he would not poop in his "spot" after going there everyday for so long. I think maybe it's just time to move the spot. Maybe it's similar to how cats won't go in a dirty litter box. *not a dog expert by any stretch of the imagination. LOL*

Good luck!

[KCCaneCorsos]

I just wanted to say that switching his food all around is probably the culprit. It is not good to change a dog's food so drastically, you need to mix it in gradually with whatever he has been eating. And when you say "he didn't like it", what makes you say that? B/c he's not woofing the food down? It IS NOT GOOD for them to inhale their food. I have the opposite problem, trying to get mine to slow down. Dogs who inhale their food are at SO MUCH HIGHER RISK for developing bloat. Definitely pick one brand of food and just stick with it. He will not starve himself, I promise. He will eat when he gets hungry enough. Look at it this way, in a way you're kind of lucky he's having the problem of NOT going. Usually when you switch a dog's diet you get the opposite problem....(very loose stools). I hope I don't come off sounding harsh, I really don't mean to :p . I went through the same thing when mine were pups, I thought they were picky eaters and kept switching dog foods. My vet told me not to do this, it's not good for them.

Ok, one last thing. Eukanuba and Science Diet aren't very good quality dog foods. (I know I'm probably going to get a lot of disagreements on that). I honeslty believe they just have HUGE marketing budgets, so everyone's heard of them, and I GAURANTEE your vet's office gets money for every Science Hill product they sell. The Petsmart brand is actually a good food, based on its ingredients. I used to feed Natural Choice, until I compared the labels, and they were very close to being the same. And the Authority is sooo much cheaper (I feed 3 Cane Corsos). Here are a couple links that you might find helpful and interesting:
http://www.doberdogs.com/menu.html
http://www.doberdogs.com/foodcht2.html

Sorry for such a long post!!! :eek:

[KCCaneCorsos]

Oops, I forgot to say in my previous post, while I have my beliefs about the quality of the well known name-brand, so called "top of the line" comercial dog foods, I wanted to add that I also believe that whatever you feed your dog (even if it's whatever brand is on sale that week and keep switching all around) ANY FOOD is better than NO FOOD. But we all know that. LOL :D

[hopeful]

I agree wholeheartedly
switching food should not be an all the time issue, esp on a pup, and if you do switch it has got to be gradual, a pup even on an adult dogs stomach cannot handle that quite well.