Dog taking a dump on the bathroom floor HELP!!

[TheDetective]

I've had our rescue dog 4 weeks now, and this problem has only surfaced in the last 4 days.

We are a family of 3, 2 adults, one child of 9. We have 2 cats, and now our dog. Since her arrival the cats have de-camped to the upstairs, and spend most of their time under the beds. In the last 3 days girl cat has started to allow the dog near her, without claws out, and has ventured downstairs for short periods. Boy cat will not come near at all and is hostile and angry if he so much as hears the dog. The dog is generally good around the cats, she is excited, and will chase if they run, but she will not bite or fight with them, and I can have her next to the girl cat with no problems.

While the cats have been upstairs, they have developed the nasty habit of defecating in the bath. They have their litter tray, but understandably they are stressed, so I am putting it down to this. Now the dog has decided that this is the area for all of us to take a dump arghhhhhh!! She has done this for the last 4 nights, while we are in bed. She goes outside every morning and night and before bed and she is walked every day, she does go for a wee and poo while she is outside. She is fed once a day as soon as we come home from work, to give her plenty of opportunity to go before we go to bed (which is after midnight usually). She not only did it once last night, but then seemed to have had some left to spare, and did that on the landing outside the bathroom.

So, any hints or tips? I've despatched DP to the pet shop to buy some product to spray to discourage her from going in that area. But I don't want her to change this area for another.

[minimuu]

Restrict the area in which she sleeps. I would use a crate but does depend on her history. She is very unlikely to poo in her bed and it will encourage her to poo in the right place eg the garden.

[2T2T]

how old is your rescue dog?

[silentcatastrophe]

How disgusting for you. It could be a sort of territorial marking especially if the cats are doing the same. It is really important that you clean up so the smell goes away. Some people use biological soap powder for this, or you can get Simple Solution from pet shops.
It can take a bit of time for a dog to get used to a new home, and this kind of thing pops up. It will pass. You may have to just start housetraining from scratch. It helps if you can get the dog to do it business on command. I have only recently learned this...

[LetThereBeCupcakes]

Is it possible that one big meal in the evening is too much for her? Maybe split it into 2 so she has half in the morning and half in the evening.
Also, what are you feeding? Some foods do make them need to go more. It's odd that it's only just started, but with the stress of the move things are bound to settle and habits change.

[TheDetective]

Ok, over a week on, and things have got worse.

The day I posted she stopped going in the bathroom, and infact stopped wanting to come upstairs. That night she did it in the living room. And every day since. Multiple times. I'm tearing my hair out. The pattern seems to be she is doing it either very early, just before we get up, or just after we have let her out for the first time in the morning. She has also been doing it if she has been in the living room on her own. I try to keep her with me around the house, but she just wanders off! So I don't know if its an anxiety thing, because she seems content to be alone from time to time. Last night we kept her in our room - incase it was a seperation anxiety issue - and she was great, all night. Let her out as soon as we were up, she went outside, but didn't do anything. She came back in, and pooed straight on the living room floor. She was trained when she came to us, and she does do it outside - and gets praise for doing so. She knows she has done something wrong when she does it - you can see from her eyes, and she won't come near you, running off, and then gets all excited.

I can't understand - she is pooing about 4 times a day at the minute!!!! And its not solid - not diahorrea, but not fully solid.

We are going to change her food - she is on dry diet dog food, we thought maybe increasing her fibre intake too? We have also started the last 2 days feeding her in the morning, smaller amounts. This makes no difference :(

Does anyone have any useful suggestions, or links where I can get good information on how to stop this habit!! She is a 2 year old lab cross btw.

[UptownAbbie]

Lots of possible reasons for a dog pooing indoors. My lab started to do early morning poos in the sitting room before we got up when he was a year old, poos very firm and not smelly and hard floor so not a huge problem but needed to be stopped. DH slept downstairs for a couple of nights and discovered that dog poo'd at 6am - never barks, just just stands by the door and whimpers very quietly, poor dog couldn't wake us up and needed to go so he went. We experimented with his dinner times, used to be fed at 6pm, now he has his meal later, at 7-8pm and goes exactly 12 hours later, when we're all up so problem solved.
If your dog is having soft poos the "transit time" likely to be quicker, might be worth reducing food a bit until he only goes twice a day and stools are firmer, they don't always need the recommended amount.
Also v important to use special spray (or bio detergent) to clean up or dog will keep going in the same place.
Another thing to try if he carries on pooing indoors in the day is treat him like a puppy, don't let him out of your sight and watch for "pre poo" behaviour, sniffing, circling etc.
Good luck.

[feesh]

I know it's tedious, but I would go back to basics - have her on a houseline, take her out every hour and TREAT when she does go outside - not just praise, but yummy treats. Don't give her chance to go in the house and after a week or so he will be OK I think - it could mean getting up in the middle of the night for a bathroom break if your gut instinct tells you to, which will be a pain for a while. And don't let her back in the house in the morning until she's been and been rewarded for doing so.

Someone is going to say it, so I may as well be first! Have you tried a raw food diet? Ours poos a lot less since we ditched the kibble.....

[TheDetective]

Thank you for the responses! Today we have had success all day. She stayed with me all night again, no problems. Got up, DS let her out, and she didn't do anything, so I made DS send her back out, where she did 2 poos. Thank god we made her go back out! No further doggy business since! She has been let out 8 times today, but not even a wee since this morning. I have reduced her food intake, and changed the time, so hopefully we are on our way now.
I've made sure she has been with me at all times, unless I am out. When I did go out I shut her in the hall with her bed. She did venture in to DS's room (you can close the door, but no latch so it doesn't click 'shut') but didn't do anything in there (she has once before). We also have a spray for the carpet etc, but that actually hadn't deterred her at all. Have tried bio powder too, with the same effects!!!
Re: raw food diet. I'm not sure its something that is right for us, at the present time. I am the one who does the majority of the dog care, and I am vegetarian, so I'd have to man up a lot to go down this route! The thought of it does make me feel a little ill!! It might be something to consider if we are still having problems. As I've said, initially when she came to us 5 weeks ago she was great, and no accidents, pooing once a day etc. Just seems to be a recent issue :(
Thanks again for the advice - much appreciated!

[TheDetective]

Oh bollocks, I fear we have gone the opposite way now! No poos at all since yesterday morning! And only one wee an hour ago.

She seems completely fine otherwise! Arghhhh!

[multipoodles]

As the weather is colder some dogs are reluctant to leave the nice warm house to go outside, once out they get distracted and forget why they are out there. Our dogs always check out the fences, poke in the hedges and one likes to sit on the highest step looking around her like she owns the place. But we have always taught our dogs to go toilet on command, so when we let them out we always ask for a pee, we can see that done straight away, then if poo is not forthcoming we kick a toy or ball up and down for a minute or two. Excercise will bring on a poo!! Once toileting is done they are left out to do their poking around bit. It only takes a few minutes on our part to do this, less time I imagine than srubbing poo off carpet, never mind the stress part :(

I know in these dark mornings if I didn't ask for pees & poos they'd be at the door looking in right away, then looking out again in 10mins. Your dog had a routine in a previous home and now time, patience and routine are needed to bring it all back in line with yours. I do think the colder darker mornings and nights have contributed.

With regards to raw food, you could try the frozen packs like Prize Choice, set one in fridge to defrost the night before, open slice and pop in bowl, while your back is turned dog will have gulped it down, no smell, no fuss and no handling meat. Your dog will love you for it!
Good luck :)