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My dog is having issues peeing and pooping while we are away
My dog Kona is an Alaskan Malamute. My boyfriend and I have had her since she was a puppy. Ever since she was a puppy, she has always pooped and peed in her crate and rolled in her own stool. We have tried everything we could by consulting professionals and reading solutions online for this behavioral issue but she continued to poop and pee in her kennel and got her stool all over herself to the age of 10 months. She's a big girl and was at 60 pounds when we were finally tired of bathing her once a day and cleaning her kennel. We have had enough of this and finally decided to leave her to roam around the house with our roommate's dog uncrated as well. Since then, she has stopped peeing and pooping and is completely potty trained. Circumstances have changed and we are now having Kona stay in our bedroom while we are away and now she has picked up her old habits of peeing and pooping. Even if we are gone for only a half hour, she still pees and poops. We always let her outside to relive herself before we leave but that doesn't help. We exercise her daily; take her out for walks and to the dog park to run around with other dogs. She is well socialized and is a great dog, but this one problem has been out of our hands to resolve. We have never caught her in the act of reliving herself in our presence; therefore she cannot be punished for doing the wrong thing. We've tried exercising her before we leave. We've tried giving her a puzzle kong with treats inside so she's occupied. We have even tried letting her roam about the whole house while we are away but she continues to relieve herself. We are never gone for more than 3 hours at a time. We are all out of ideas and we are tired of consulting "professionals" locally because they haven't been able to come up with solutions to this issue. She's a great dog other than this one issue and I hate that I feel like a bad mom because I can't help her resolve this fear... or whatever she is feeling while we are away. Can anyone help us?
4 Replies
November 4, 2009 9:21 PM
Ok for me, I have never seen this ever. House breaking is normally pretty easy, and most dogs do not want to go where they live.
Without seeing the dog, or the enviornment that it lives in, not certain if this will help.
OK as you say, you can't catch the dog at is, so can't train it. Dog is showing some agression to you by doing this because you are not there. I might try less attention to the dog, not something I would normally like to do. There is one thing you might try, fake out leaving. Go outside, maybe start the car, and then go back in, quitely and try to catch in the act.
I have not heard this working well but has from some, When you leave, put TV or radio on. TV should be on a dog show, a friend of mine loved the Benji movies. Another said that classical music worked best for him. None of that ever worked for me.
I would also limit dammage to the home, dog proof it. When you leave, bedroom might not be the best idea. A bathroom or kitchen with a dog gate might work OK. Basically work for a tile floor where cleanup is quick and easy.
If the dog is currently 10 months old, some of this behavior might end with age. For me the dog it real old for this behaviour though.
Do you ever take the dog somewhere in the car? This is assuming you leave by car. Maybe a trip or two might let the dog know it is safe and fun for the humas, as it is with a dog.
My best guess though is your dog is "punishing" you for leaving it.
That is what I would work on. That might indicate a lack of pack leader in you, but your note didn't indicate that.
Normally I would say a crate for the problem, but you tried that and lost. For those that do crate training, I don't, I hope they can help you move to a better result on doing the crate.
November 8, 2009 2:23 PM
do you have a back yard? If so leave her in the back yard just make sure you leave water and shelter for him that way if she relieves herself you dont have to worry about it.Some people may thing is mean to leave your dog aoutside but she shoutl be fine.It also sounds like she might have seperation anxiaty.
November 9, 2009 11:15 AM
We actually decided to get a pet cam to understand her better. I do agree that this behavior is seperation anxiety. She hasn't peed or pooped in the house while we are home with her in a long time and it only occurs while we are away. Thanks for the suggestions! I will update when I see improvement.
November 9, 2009 12:26 PM
Even if my note might have said seperation anxiety to you, I don't know if I believe in that. The anixity is lack of stuff to do and boredom.
For me, having film of a dog doing something in my house that I pick up afterward won't do too much good. I know what they did, know exactily the possition they are in, etc. Time of day might help, but if I am at work, taking off is not something I can do at "that time". You might get lots of dog pacing, but I could probably figure that out pretty easily.
For you, you know the dog. If you have set rules for the dog, not different ones depending on how you feel, then set rules. If you have a bad day at work is your dog thought of the same as a good day at work? Dog did not cause the bad day, it is just happy to see you home.
For me, I try to think like a dog some. If someone left me in a house with nothing to do, I would be upset about it. If I had no idea when they got home, then that would make me more upset.
If when they came home and did a walk trough in the house to see what I had done vs saying, at the door, did you protect the house well all day? Were you a good dog? If you find a mistake, then clean it up, training at this point isn't worth the effort. If your dog gets its attention from being bad, even if it is negative attention, then you reinforce the negative, not possitive.
Overall, reinforce with praise good behavior. If you don't catch the dog, then ignore the bad. Overall you get a dog that understands this is what I want to do to get my humans to like me.
For my non treat training, over the long run. A dog is rewarded by prise for good behavior. It is egnored for bad. Like a child that does a temper tantrum. You can reward that with going to the child and have it repeated, or egnore it. For my dogs it is easy. They have commands not to do something, and if they choose to do it anyway, then fun ends, and they get their time out and for me, that is no human attention.
Do what you think you need to do, but overall the dog needs to be treated as you would like to be. Yes some work is not great, but you will do it with incentave, of some sort. If you get ticked at work and do a poor job, maybe you can understand that you get yelled at but overall, that is bosses attention that is no longer directed to you, maybe someone else. A person stives to please the others they socialize with, dogs are the same.
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