Need some advice for my dog,

[Hermione1]

We got a female dog afew months ago, she's a fox terrier as far as we know, she's brilliant around kids and have nothing to complain about except that at night time/or when we go out and leave her, she wee's and poos all over the place, Is that normal?? She doesn't seemed to be trained at all and i was needing some advice on how to stop her from doing it, especially at night time. Was thinking of getting a dog flap so she go in the garden. help!!

[Nemo1977]

how old is she? You may need to be putting her out quite a bit before you go anywhere. IT depends on the dog itself as our dog is quite good with holding it in but last summer we had a springer spaniel who would do anything anywhere and they only way i stopped it was before we went out/to bed to put her in the garden for 30mins.

[Hermione1]

She's 5 and i do take her our before we go out or when it's bedtime but doesn';t seem to do anything and then like last night half an hour later she's done it everywhere, i just don't know what to do with her.

[Freckle]

I agree with putting her out in the garden for a while before you go to bed etc. Also look at when you feed her. Her digestion will work at a certain pace and, therefore, x hours after she's eaten, she will need to go out. Our rescue dog used to poo and wee in the house during the night if I fed him at about 8pm-ish. Now I feed him just before we go to bed - anywhere between 10 and midnight - and let him out in the garden, and he usually manages to control himself until the morning.

How many meals a day does she eat? If only one, perhaps you should only feed her in the morning. If two, perhaps making the second meal either very late at night so she can go through, or much earlier so that the meal will be digested before bedtime and she'll do the necessary when you let her out last thing.

[Hermione1]

I have tried this, shes fed once. She's a very nervous dog and doesn't like to be left alone or shut in somewhere.

Thanks for all advice,.

[Freckle]

Have you spoken to your vet? They may have some suggestions. Where did you get her from? Do you know her history at all?

[Hermione1]

I got her from a friends friend because her marriage had broken up and she didn't have time for the dog. She did tell me to feed her early or she'l lmess everywhere but i do, and she still does.
I love her to pieces and won't get rid of her because of this, i just don't want my house stinking of dogs mess. oh hum.

[Nemo1977]

sounds like anxiety then if its being locked in. Was she allowed to sleep in your friends room or anything?

[Hermione1]

i don't know that much. I know she was kept outside alot of the time even when she went out. But i am frightened someone will take her. although we have 6 foot wall around out yard should i say, If we are in she goes in and out all day. just night time was thinking of getting a dog flap so she can get out when she needs to go.

[Freckle]

Dog flap might be a good idea, but you need to think about security issues. We had a dog flap at our last house, but it only gave access into our conservatory. As a dog flap is bigger than a cat flap, it means that burglars could access your house that way. If you get one, you need to be sure that you can lock the rest of the house.

Where does the dog sleep at night? Can you just restrict her to one room?

[spidermama]

The sad fact is, being pack animals, they hate being left alone.

[Hermione1]

i tried that last night putting her in the bottome hall with water and her bed, but she just stcratched and the door and whinged and when i did let her out because i couldn't bear it , she was sick.

she's only a small dog so doubt i'l need to get a big flap,

[Hermione1]

we were thinking of getting another dog to keep her company.

[spidermama]

Good idea to get another dog. It worked well for my mum.

[RedZuleika]

I have never tried crate training, but I have heard of it working with a bitch that wee'd everywhere when left alone. I believe if you introduce it properly, the dog sees it as a cosy little nest, rather than somewhere to be locked up.

If nothing else it establishes if the problem is physical (it just has to go) or behavioural.

[Hermione1]

she gets really worked up if left shut up, and was sick last time i did that, not with a crate but in a part of the house. There is no question of getting rid of her, she's fine apart from this aspect. Have decided to get a dog flap and see if we can get her another dog to keep her company. Last night she only did one tiny wee.

[chloe55]

I can completely sympathise. I had this problem with german shepherd for 2 years, she was a very skitty 2yr old when I took her on. I tried crate training but she used to go crazy and just peed/pooed in the crate which wasn't pleasant for her/me! I tried leaving the radio on with her when she was left which helped a little. Leave her for 5/10mins at a time and when she has been good give her loads of praise. Leave her again about an hour later for another 10 mins and give praise when she has been good (ignore her for a short while if she messes). When she wees/poos outside give her a treat or lots of cuddles so she can associate doing her business outside as being good. Use a c0ommand when she goes outside, I always say "Go for a wee" or you can say "get busy", "do your business" etc - you'll sound rediculous but dogs become accustomed to weeing on command after a while but you must always use the same phrase. It takes time but now my dog is good as gold no matter how long she is left for.

[Hermione1]

thanks i will definately try that one.

[LittleB]

Have you read 'The Dog Lisener'? I'd really recommend it as it gives good tips on training your dogs. We had a rescue dog who used to go in the house, at night and when left during the day, with the advice from the book the training helped to make him happier on his own and he's been fine for ages now. He was always with our other dog too, never completely alone, but was anxious at being seperated from us so the training helped. I think alot of rehomed dogs can have this problem as they've already lost one family so get worried about this happening again. Good luck.

[Chandra]

This book is fantastic, we have a dog that took almost a year to train, with this book she was sorted in a week. HTH

[charleypops]

You could try scattering some food (dry) around where she is messing. Dogs don't like to dirty where they eat.

[Fio2]

I aint being funny but if you have tried everything it might be easier to teach her to poo on newspaper in a certain place, or have you tried that? Failing that newspaper everywhere

[Chandra]

My dog used to eat the newspaper or rip it into long ribbons that she scattered around the house. The curious thing is that she perfectly understood she was not supposed to do it, so she carried the newspaper under a bed where she can rip it with some privacy.

With our other dog the newspaper worked so well that it became a problem... any printed paper was potentially a toilet, no matter if it was a magazine laying in the living room or DH's documents from the office ...

[Hermione1]

Just thought i would update. She's a little better found out if we shut her in our bedroom with us at night, she doesn't mess at all, so she can definately hold on to both. I try to feed her at exactly the same each day.

Thanx for all advice.

[magnolia1]

Sounds like its purely an anxiety thing rather than when she's being fed. She can obviosly hold it all night but when left alone gets anxious and has accidents.
Are you hapy to have her in your room every night? If so then it sounds like the perfect solution

[LittleB]

When we couldn't get our dog to go through the night (he was a rescue dog) we had him in our room for a while and he was fine. We then slept on the sofa bed in the lounge where his bed is for a few nights and he slept in his bed and was fine, and he now sleeps down staris in his bed every night.