Dog weeing inside.

[supercalifragilistic2]

Recently adopted ddog. We were told he was housetrained and okay to be left for a few hours.

He seems perfectly housetrained hasn't wee'd in the house when we're in. However, if we go out and he's on his own for a few hours he either poo's or wees in the house. We encourage him to go outside and I take him for a quick trot outside before I leave the house. He also gets an hour walk every morning. When we get back, he knows he's done wrong by weeing in the house.

How do I stop this behaviour? We leave him a few toys, but he's not really bothered with them.

Sounds like separation anxiety. You could get a pet camera to see how he behaves when left. If it's that, you'll need to start with leaving him for very short periods (maybe even just a minute at a time), come back in, praise, repeat.

Has he ever been crate trained? I had a dog who was completely trained during the day but got anxious when left and would pee in the house. We went back to basics and crate trained, then he would go in his crate with a stuffed kong and the radio on low and we would come back and find him relaxed and happy. It was like the job of looking after whole house was too much for him but he could manage his crate!

It's not an instant fix but worked well for us. Have you tried the Adaptil plug ins too? Might help him settle?

Crate trained I have no idea. We got him as a rescue. And although he has lived in a house, we are unsure about how truthful the previous owners were in regards to his behaviour.

I have bought a kong, so going to try him with that. His head is ruled by his stomach, so hopefully that will work. He jumped the baby gate, got upstairs and found my jacket which had a dog treat in

I left the tv on for him today (figured the noise will help?) and no wee/poo so that's good :).

I do think he has separation anxiety, he follows me everywhere. He's worse than the toddler for it

Dogs are pack animals - they live in packs (or they have originated that way). He sees your family as his pack. He's lonely and bored, perhaps fears abandonment, when he's alone. That's why he wees and poos in the house. He's scared. Putting him in a cage won't help with that.

As you've discovered, leaving some sound on (so he thinks someone is at home) works. The tv is great. Leave him one of those "Kong" things with food or treats in it. Toys/a teddy or something may help. A cushion/item of clothing with your scent on may also help. Try to leave him as little as possible at the moment, then gradually increase the time over a few weeks. Dogs shouldn't really ever be left for longer than 4 hours - that's a long time to a dog anyway.

He's only been left for a couple of hours at most. Me and dp work opposite shifts. Thankfully I'm not in for the next week, so we'll start again and leave him for 10 mins/20 Mins etc.

I'm not sure about using a crate on him. And his god damn huge!