I am at my wits end with my dog and I don't have any more ideas. I need some advice please.

[THUM]

I have a 3 year old black lab, she is a lovely dog and has been really easy to train.

She knows the basics, sit, stay, come, heel, paw, say please . She is was house trained. She is one of the easiest dogs I have ever house trained.
I have always had dogs when growing up and when I moved in with DP now DH. Although I have never had a pedigree lab before.

For the last 6 months or so she has been peeing and pooing in the house. My bathroom is downstairs off the back of my kitchen and she will flood the place with pee and poo.

We have a doggy door to the backgarden which she uses, but will not do her business out there.
I have taken her to the vets to rule out anything medically wrong with her and she is fine.
She wont do her business on walks (she gets walked 4 times a day and more at weekend whn DH is home)

I have cleaned with biological washpowder as was recommended by the vet.

She has just done it again and it is realllllllly starting to anny me.

please help.

Oh and I have used those pet spray things.
Tried reprimanding her immidiately when she does it in front of me.
Tried comforting her.
It is solid, so not as if she has tummy upset.

I am at a loss.

This is a behavioural problem. They can be tricky to solve so I would refer you to see a specialist - ask your vet to arrange this for you. If you have pet insurance you may find it will cover the fees.

Thanks, I will check my policy. If my policy doens't cover this do you have nay idea how much it will cost?

I got a dog psychologist from the Yellow pages when my dog had behavioural problems that we couldn't sort out.

She was great. She was here for an hour, and in that time she diagnosed the problems and gave us advice. We followed it, and it worked!

All for the princely sum of £50.

Thats not too bad is it, I'm sure I could save up £50 in a few weeks. Will just have to keep on cleaning it up for now, unless I get a kennel

Is there anything I can do in the meantime with her?

the odd thing is she goes all night without going IYSWIM, but will be in the kitchen/bathroom for 5 minutes and she goes.
Its not like she cant even see us as we have the baby gate up. and TBH she is only in there if we have visitors or if DD is roaming in the dining room.
I wonder if it is the kitchen/bathroom she doesn't like?
we have a terraced house and the front room and middle room are knocked through, we have a room divider and are usually in the front room. So she gets the middle room, kitchen, bathroom and backgarden (through the doggy door) But she doesn't do it when she has access to the middle room.

You could try going back to basics, there may be something that has upset her, or that she perceives is different thats led to this behaviour. I've recently read Jan Fennels dog listener book, her methods will help with a huge variety of problems, google it on Amazon or borrow it from your library, there are some really useful tips in it. It'll suggest you go back to basics to reinforce her place in the pack; e.g ignore her when you first come in the room, gesture eating, going through doors first, well behaved on walks, etc, and that you reward your dog when she goes in the correct place. I really think its worth a try for your dog, its worked with mine. Good luck, it must be very difficult for you.

it sounds like an attention/stress behavior that has escalated into a habbit.

You say she only goes in the kitchen/bathroom and then only if she's shut out of the rest of the house?

I would change the way you deal with her when visitors come, to ensure that for now, she's not shut in the kitchen/bathroom (until you break the habbit).

If you don't want her out when visitors come, then I would get her a crate that you can put her in, but which is in the same room as you so she can see you. If you don't want to get a crate then I would put her on a lead when visitors come so you have control of her but so that she's still with you. You could even get one of those training leads that you can unclip part of and attach to something so that you're not left walking around the house with a dog on a lead.

And then you need to work on her going outside. Does she go in the garden at all?

We have a black lab (age 3) who does the same it drives me mad .
The vet told me that Labs hate to be left alone and a lot of them do this for attention.
I know it sounds mad but I have started leaving a radio on for him and although he does still do it from time to time its not everyday like it used to be .

The exact same thing happened to my dog. Does she do it when you're at home?

She used to go in the garden all the time and on walks. No it is only occasionaly.

I will literally have to take her out on a lead and stay with her for ages before she will do anything. She will absolutely not leave go in the garden if it is wet or raining , but she will go for walks if it is raining or wet.

I cant fathom her out.

I could keep her in the dining room, with ony the room divider between us when we have visitors and not let DD roam about in the dining room.
DD is 18mo and can be quite rough with the dog so I don't like to have them near each other even when I am there iyswim.

I keep thinking about putting paper down but then I don't want to reinforce that it is okay for her to do her business in the house.

She does it in front of me. I can be in the kicthen like earlier on and she will squatt and go

My response is immediate, I tell her no (I don't shout although it is hard not too) and put her outside, I lock the doggy door so she cant get back in. Clean it up and then allow her back in.

I bet I am doing something wrong.

It is just not hygenic though, I am cleaning like a mad woman when she does it and I disinfect everything, several times a day due to this. Ic ant keep doing it. I have just found out that I am pg again and I am dreading cleaning up when morning sickness starts and my bump appears.

This may be worth a look at .Its a diffuser (a plug in I think) which is meant to stop the dog messing in the house .

HTH

Don't put paper down. You're right it's reinforcing the behavior.

Work out a command that relates to going to the toilet. So take her out in the garden on a lead and say "busy busy"(that's the command that guide dogs use for eg) or something equivalent. When she goes then lots of praise and reward (food works well with labs ). If she is receptive to training she will soon learn that busy equals do her business and that doing business to command equals food reward.

I feel your pain. I have a nearly 14 year old lab who is becoming incontinant and it drives me mad. Sadly the problem will only stop for me when she dies .

My dog wouldn't go outside if it was raining either.
My dog would mess in the house when I went out and no ammount of telling off and rubbing her nose in it etc helped. My vet said she was suffering seperation anxiety and gave me some tips. We were able to overcome the problem.
When I returned home, if she jumped up to say hello, I had to completely ignore her, no touching no saying hello, not even push her down, just keep walking and get on with stuff. he'd start barking and what not for the attention but once she'd calmed down and layed back in her bed, I'd call her over to say hello.
if she had messed, I was told the secret is to not acknowledge it infront of her. I'd get in, open the garden door and shut her outside whilst I cleaned it up.
YOUR DOG MUST NOT SEE YOU CLEANING THEIR PEE OR POO.
Don't let dog have free roam of house, mine used to follow me everywhere so I had to use a gate to keep her downstairs if I went toilet etc.
Sorry to be blunt here, but if you don't trust your dog with a child that is too young to understand, maybe you should think about re-homing it. It's what I had to do when ds started getting to rough, the hardest thing I ever had to do.

Thanks Fiveplus

wannabe, I know how you feel, my last dog died 4 years ago, she was a lab/collie X, I had her from being a pup when I was 12. She came with me when I moved in with Dp (Now DH). I swore I would never get another dog after she died, that didn't last long.
She was inconinent for the last couple of years of her life, it is a pain but I would have her back in a heartbeat.

If it is an anxiety problem the DAP plug in diffuser might work.

My dog doesnt mess in the house, but she does sometimes get freaked out by something random and then starts to bark a lot when we are out (makes us v popular with neighbours!). The DAP thing works to calm her down and reassure her and after a day or two she soon stops. It is expensive but lasts a long time.

Ask your vet if it might work for your problem if it is behavioural.

BTW I also leave the radio on. In fact DH and I have been known to argue about the best station!

littleboyblue, I hear what you are saying, I don't trust any animal that can inflict any degree of damage with my DD. I don't think my dog would hurt DD but I am not nieve enough to believe that it cant happen IYSWIM.

DD and my dog do have time togther under strict and close supervision from myself and DD. they play lovely but DD is only 18mo and is not at that stage where I can teach her not to be rough. DD will be better as she gets older.

I don't want to rehome her cos apart from the peeing and pooing, she is a wonderful dog.

THUM, understand completely.
Good luck with it all.
I had one of those plug in things, £35 and it did sweet FA.

lo, at arguing about radio station for the dog

we used to leave a small portable TV on for our old dog when we went out. I may get DH to dig it out of the loft for her.

My mum and dad use those DAP things as they have a menagerie of dogs and they find it helps to calm them down, esp wrt fireworks. I will get one. Is one enough? and where should I plug it?

It definitely sounds like an attention seeking ploy and they can get the reward they are seeking just by having you say no, or put them outside, even without shouting or anything else.

If it were me I would get a behaviourist in - I've used them before and agree it is £50 well spent.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but you're not the person who posted previously about the dog getting cuddles from the DH when he's home, are you?

Nope thats noy me bella.

thank you for the advice

Okay, sorry for the mistake!

Hope you get it sorted out

Giving you a bump for the evening shift.

It sounds like this is really getting you down (I'd be the same!!!) so let's get some ideas....

Hi again, THUM.

If it is separation anxiety, you could try these things (that worked for us):

• Leave the radio on when you go out (as has already been suggested);

• Buy a really good stuffable toy, and stuff it really tight with loads of treats. Eg. Cheese, Schmackos, Ham etc. Make sure the nicest stuff is really hard to get at. If you give this to your dog just before you leave, she'll have to work so hard at getting all the treats out she should be quite calm by the time she's finished;

• Ignore your dog for 15 minutes before you are about to leave. Seems counter-intuitive, but that way they don't go from lots of company and affection to an empty house.

• All the Dog Whisperer stuff to reinforce pack-position is really good, too.

It may just be that you'll have to spend a week standing in the park for hours while you wait for her to perform, then give her some delicious doggy-treats as soon as she has done so.

Good luck: hope you can sort it out.