Dog(s) pooing in the house - grrrr! Any advice?

[notjustapuppymum]

Ok, we have 2 golden retrievers, both just over 2 years old. Fully toilet trained up until last week it would seem...

We had a new baby 3 months ago and their routine hasn't changed. They seem to love the baby and have been very calm and kind around him.

Anyway, whether that has anything to do with it or not I don't know but the last week or so they have started doing poos in the house.

They have even done a couple overnight in their bed area. I was prepared to let them off of that thinking that maybe it was a tummy upset or they really couldn't hold it overnight but this morning really took the biscuit.

I came downstairs, let them straight out into the garden for the toilet while I made the babies bottle. Watched them both do a wee and a poo, then come to the door to be let back in.

So I let them back in and went and fed the baby. Came back down 20 mins later to find a massive poo in my dining room.

Now, this is very odd for several reasons:

1. They ARE toilet trained and haven't pooed/weed in the house since pups, so why have they suddenly started.

1. They especially never pooed in our dining room as pups.

1. They used to sit at the door and bark if they needed the toilet. I have even been woken up by them at 5am if they are desperate for the loo.

Furthermore, the trouble is I don't actually know which one is doing it - or indeed whether it is the same dog each time.

Sorry for the long ramble but does anyone have any advice?

Has their diet/meal times changed?

Are they being walked as much as before?

Are they regularly wormed?

No, absolutely no change to diet, meal times or walks. We have been very conscious of not making any changes to their routine so that they don't feel pushed out by the new pack member.

Yes they are regularly wormed which sometimes gives them a bad tummy for a day afterwards but is unrelated to this problem.

Is it just for attention or are they not clever enough for that?

Dogs can do things for attention, but they don't feel pushed out by new babies

Depends on how you have reacted when you've found the mess, really.

One of our dogs has done this a couple of times since our baby came along (now 3mths)..we think it was just a bit of attention seeking as both times it happened when I had dealt with them (feeding or whatever) quite quickly as preoccupied with the baby..
don't have any particularly insightful advice on how to stop it though I'm afraid other than give them lots of attention and put them out in the garden lots.
Seperate to this behaviour our terrier sometimes goes through phases of messing in his bed area..we can never detect any pattern/reason for this it seems to just be one of those things...again not very helpful sorry!

I've gone "oh my god, that's disgusting" at the top of my voice and then sent them both into the garden but I haven't actually told either of them off because it's impossible to know who did it!

I'm not a 'rub their nose in it' person but this is pushing me to my limit. With a new baby I have enough to do without picking up dog poo and mopping the floor each day.

Am I just going to have to put up with this and hope it passes?

Rubbing their noses in poo is cruel, totally useless and very unhygienic.

tbh, saying 'that's disgusting' at the top of your voice could be attention enough, and then they are sent out into the garden for playtime.

Could be just the result they want

Hopefully it will just pass - ours hasn't had any accidents for a few weeks now. For what its worth I used to do a sort of general telling off to both of them..I figure the one that didn't do it will be a bit miffed but will forget it soon enough!

Put their poo outside with them, to remind them where its supposed to be - leave it there a bit before getting rid of it. Our current dog was housetrained when we got him but seemed initially a little confused as to where he was meant to go and this seemed to help.

When DD was small and starting to potty train and having accidents, our dog started weeing inside. My theory is that he could smell wee in the living room so he decided that it was now OK to go there. Just wondering if your dogs are getting a nappy whiff and its confusing them?

Possibly Grimma but think it's naughtiness really seeing as they had already been 20 mins earlier this morning and still did one.

Hopefully will resolve itself as picklesrule says.

In the meantime if it happens again I will pick it up without saying a word and put it outside.

Is there no chance of an upset tummy? It takes a bit of forethought to hold a poo in for 20 minutes and then do it inside ,and that's not really the way dogs' minds work.

well if it was one occassion I would say yes Bella but it has happened several times over the last week or two.

Also, it's always overnight or first thing in the morning - never in the middle of the day, early afternoon, teatime etc....

The poos look ok - not upset tummyish either.

Grrrrrrrrr!!!!!!! Have got up this morning and there is a massive pile of poo in their bed.

They went out at 10pm last night for 15 mins to do their business as usual and I got up at 6.30am and could instantly smell something suss when I walked downstairs....sure enough a big pile of poo.

Have picked it up and put it outside along with them without saying anything but inside I am seething!

I just can't cope with this. What on earth am I going to do??

They're not doing it to wind you up. It's just not what dogs do. It's something which at the moment is beyond their control

It has to be because they are upset, stressed or ill. It seems you've eliminated illness, so it has to be stress or upset.

I appreciate how hard you've worked to keep their routine normal - but they're still little more than puppies (retrievers of any type seem to take an age to grow up properly) and
something has upset their applecart.

Is your baby your first? Was your baby poorly or unsettled when this started? Are they familiar with your new noise and routine do think?

Was the poo actually in the bed? Or nearby?

My oh thinks they don't have the intelligence to know that a poo in the house is naughty and then think to themselves that they will do one to wind me up.

Yes it is our first baby but as I say, we have tried our hardest not to leave them out. They still get their walks, their strokes etc.

No the baby is not upset or unsettled. They didn't do this when we up doing night feeds and they would have been able to hear us up with the baby. Baby sleeps through the night now and so they are as undisturbed as before.

The poo was just nearby their bed, they sleep in a small-ish utility room so it's very den like for them and surprising they do it there at all given that it's such a confined space.

It points to stress to me, especially crapping so close to their beds.

They're honestly not doing it to wind you up! No matter how much it feels like it.

Did you crate train then when they were small? If you did, it might be time to bring them back again. It would be very unusual for them to poo in a crate so it might break the behaviour pattern.

I would take them to the vet though - just to be absolutely sure it isn't something medical causing it.

Are they both currently pooing to their normal routine? Apart from the nighttime bombs of course. It's especially hard with two because it's hard to tell if it's one or both of them. Male or female?

Are they fed twice a day? What do they eat at the end of the day?

Oh that is really grim!

I think first you need to find out which one is doing it. If both, then they are more likely to be stressed, if one perhaps more likely to be something medical - after all if you gotta poo you gotta poo and if one is pooing more than usual than it may be a digestive issue. Dogs can often wait ages for a poo in the morning, so this suggests they just can't hold it in?

Can you separate them at night so that you can see which one the poo appears next to?!

If no room to do that in the house, then if it were me I would alternate them in the local kennels overnight so that you just have one dog in the house at a time and then you can find out who the 'culprit' is.

Is that practical for you or do you not ever kennel them?

No we didn't crate train them. I'll probably get shot down in flames but I just don't agree with that. The size of crate we'd need now anyway would be enormous!

They had their annual check up at the vet 2 weeks ago and there were no problems.

Yes they are both pooing to their normal routine and as you say very hard to know which one is doing it.

They are both male, they are brothers from the same litter.

Fed twice a day on an organic food. Last mealtime is 5pm, then out into the garden, back in until bedtime at 10pm when they are let out again and then have a small treat each.

I just don't know how to stop it? I know they're not winding me up and now feel guilty that they are stressed or upset.

But they are their normal selves, they don't look depressed or anything and with retrievers you can normally tell as their faces give away their feelings.

I second what Daisydot says, and tbh you sound very stressed about it all, which will only exacerbate the situation.
Dogs categorically do not try to wind us up. Pick up any credible dog behaviour book, spend 5 mins reading it and you'll see that they simply are incapable of thinking like that. They also pick up minute body language changes so they'll know you are unhappy, even if you don't raise your voice.
It's entirely feasible that your reaction on the first occasion created such anxiety in them that they are now doing it purely from stress. Dogs cannot connect praise or punishment to anything in the past, even something that only happened 5 mins ago. So if you come downstairs and shout in the morning, they have no idea why but will assume that you will shout tomorrow too, and get anxious.. and poo.

I think if you can find some way to discover which one is doing it, you will also feel as if you have gained some control over the situation - it will be a starting point at least and may put you in a more positive frame of mind which may lead to less stress?

(Is that too hippy?!)

Are you letting them out for long enough to do all the poos they need to do?

Often on his morning walk, my dog will do his expected poo at the beginning and then about 15 minutes later will do another.

Perhaps as the dogs are getting bigger and eating more they are producing more......?

Were they vaccinated at their annual check up?

I too would say the most likely source is stress. If nothing has changed whatsoever in their routine, maybe they are just wary of the new baby? Are they used to seeing babies or spending much time with them?! If you're a dog, babies smell, sound and move oddly until you're used to them and it might be making them on edge.

As you don't know which do or if it's both, I would get them back to the vets to rule out any physical problems (odd that this started after the vets appointment) and maybe try a DAP plug in diffuser/s to try and help calm them down.

If it makes you feel any better, I expect the dogs are as miserable about the situation as you are, if not moreso. A dog that is previously toilet trained and then starts to toilet on it's bed is not a happy dog at all.

Merrylegs - my thought was to separate them, we have the space - but if they are already stressed or upset then I don't want to add to that.

No I would never kennel them (I think you can start to see how much of a soft touch I am...no kennels, no crates...)

Do they get a walk between 5pm and 10pm? Because, tbh, if they are indoors for 5 hours solid after dinner (I know you said you let them out straight after their meal), then 15 mins in the garden at bedtime may not be enough to let them empty their bowels. I know it's not easy with dc but I would suggest a walk in the evening, or at the very least another trip out into the garden between 5 and 10 pm.

If you can get them to a point where they are not pooing overnight (e.g. by inrtroducing a short extra walk) then your resulting decreased stress will rub off on them and it may help to break the cycle.

Take it back to basics, too - praise them like mad and treat them when they poo outside. They'll be delighted.

buy a cheap webcam for the utility room and see whether you can work out who's doing it! Poor you - how awful to have an incontinent dog and a newborn.

they don't get a walk between 5pm and 10pm as we live in a village with no street lights so it's not easy to do that.

they go out after their dinner at 5pm for as long as they want and again at 10pm before bed but they can also go out in between if they want to. They sit by the door to be let out and bark if you don't see them quickly enough. That's what I couldn't work out about the poo in the dining room yesterday, they knew we were up and yet the didn't ask to be let out.