I'm pregnant, male dog has started pooing in the house

[whyowhyiwhy]

Help! I'm 16 weeks pregnant and pretty much from 8 weeks onwards, my usually fine 2 year old dog has started messing in the house. I work from home and the back door is pretty much always open. He's even been going upstairs into my DS's rooms and messing there. I am sick of clearing up poo.

Why is he doing this?? Is it my hormones? Would a plug in pheromone thing help?

He's driving me mad

Yikes. Not what you need when pregnant (or ever).

I'd advise a trip to the vet to rule out physical reasons. A stair gate so it's at least not in the bedrooms. And then back to basics on house training I guess.

Has his routine changed since you've been pregnant? Fewer/different walks?

Nope he has a long off lead walk a day with my other high energy dog.

The only change has been that they now sleep downstairs or in the DS's room as with my expanding body there isn't enough room in the bed! (He has always slept under the duvet), instead he's in with my older DS (under the duvet with him). Nothing else has changed?

The other night my DP was away so they both came back in bed with me (and no poo!)

Do I need to buy a bigger bed???

No solution but my dog shits in the house when she is mad at me - if I go upstairs and she can't follow, or go out and she is in (usually in the utility with back door open) she finds a lion sized amount and leaves it for me.

A dirty protest? Can that be a thing?!

Has he been snipped?

Vet check.
Is the walk in the evening? So he has to wait all day?
Shut doors or use stair gates to reduce access.
I doubt your hormones are affecting him. Is he used to more than the one walk a day?

Have you changed his food?

It's much more likely to be the change in sleeping arrangements than your hormones.

I Second getting a vet check to rule out anything physical, and then work on keeping him downstairs while also doing some positive reenforcement training for when he poos outside. This is really quite important...

If he doesn't do it already, he needs to learn to toilet PM command, and then he should get lots of reward for doing it - favourite toys, high value treats etc

I know how frustrating it is. I had a dog who would do protest wees on a human or dog bed, or sofa if she wasn't allowed to get her own way (not being allowed to sleep on the bed, being told to her down from the sofa etc)
It took quite a lot of training and consistency to break the habit, but we got there in the end

Walk is usually mid morning. I work from home so back door is also open most of time. He's always had crap bladder / bowel control- took me 12 months to get him fully clean (rescue dog).

Food is same- tin of wet food after his walk and dry mix available. He is ridiculously fussy with food and not a great eater at the best of times (whippet x) . Refused the raw diet, only ever picks at dry food. Pate type trays are the only thing he'll touch (and only ever after he's been walked).

He's ridiculously demanding and attention seeking... I love him to bits despite this very annoying behaviour. Bought a carpet washer in the defence against scrubbing poo!

Main reason for evicting him from bedroom is that the other dog who is huge will also sleep on the bed if he comes up too. I put pjs on him so he's not cold but it's been 3 months and he's still pooing...

And yes he's snipped too

He's had 1 x off lead 1hr walk the last 12 months or so. Him and my other one also play for hours in the garden. Def not lack of exercise as I also take him out with me. He's rarely left home alone (and even if he was he'd had the other for company)

Oh and he had a health check only 3 weeks ago with vet. He's in rude health

He's always had crap bladder/bowel control? Sounds like he was never reliably toilet trained in the first place. The door being open doesn't work if he doesn't realise that's where he should be going every time. Take him out on a lead. After sleeps, after food, after playing and very frequently in between. Praise like a loon when he goes. Attach a key word if you want to be able to tell him to go when you're out. Repeat until he gets it.

Wolfiefan he's been clean for over 1.5 years? No accidents until I've been pregnant. He was rescued from an animal hoarder in a flat along with loads of other animals- never went out so took him ages to 'get' going outside in the first place.

I used to put him on a lead to go to the toilet but he's been fine for ages. Maybe time to go back to basics then. He's very nervy & attention seeking so maybe it's anxiety based from not being near me at night? Hadn't considered that as he's now sleeping in my my DS

Thankyou will try that :)