Frustration with accidents. Going crazy - help!

H

Hunter's Mom

Forums Regular
I'm really frustrated tonight with Hunter.
His housebreaking has had its ups and downs for quite some time. Over the Summer, my mom stayed with us and kind of took over dog walking duties. Since I don't have a fenced yard, Hunter is hand walked in the yard to do his business. He has never been great about giving a signal, he is about 90% reliable with whining or standing near us and staring until someone takes him out.
With my mom being here 24/7 over the past few months, Hunter has had no poops in the house until a week ago. I woke up one morning last week and he'd had an accident allll over my room. Since he had not gone the night before I assumed it was due to constipation that cleared up overnight and did not fault him for it, he has been so good for about 4 months. I assumed this was a fluke.
His issue is not with potty in the house but with poops only. Here is what I've tried in the past to resolve this: tethering to me, crating, gating sections of the house, feeding at scheduled times, going out every 45-60 minutes, long walks and games of fetch to get things moving, associating a word to the action, humongous amounts of praise and even treats when poops happen outside and even scolding for accidents when I reached the end of my rope. We can have great success for days, weeks and even months, then disaster strikes and I lose all trust in him and feel like we are right back to square one.
My mom has moved back to her own house so it is just Hunter and I in the house again.
Tonight, I started a bit of laundry. I was laying down on the couch beforehand with Hunter sleeping soundly on the floor. When I got up to switch loads, he got up too. I put a load in the dryer and headed into my bedroom to grab another load. As I came through the doorway, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Hunter doing something. He ran off, I looked down and saw a poop on my floor!! My laundry room is literally 4 steps, around the corner from where he was doing this. He immediately ran off to his kennel with his head ducked and ears back, he knows he has done wrong and this time, I caught him mid-act. He never gave me any signal that he needed to go outside and in fact, had just been out less than 1 hr before and had only pottied. He always choses a place to do this where I am not, the bedroom if I am in the living room, the living room if I am in the office or bedroom even the kitchen if I am in the bedroom.
I'm at the end of my rope with this guys, I want to trust him & I want a 100% reliably house broken dog. He is almost 2 yrs old for gosh-sakes!
I have spoken to my vet who says it is not health related so that only leaves behavior. Why can we have 4 months of no accidents and then -bang- right back into bad habits again? What am I doing wrong? How can I fix this?
He is taken out regularly, usually every 3-4 hrs and given ample opportunity to take care of business. He eats measured amounts of a grain-free, high protein, super premium food, twice daily. There is nothing physically wrong with him. He gets one-on-one attention several times daily including training sessions and playtime.

I need some serious help please.
 
Hunter's Mom

Certainly sounds like Hunter is knowing that what he's doing is wrong. That's why he makes sure it's where you are not. I can only suggest that when you are busy and not able to watch him 100%, crate him. Then as soon as you are finished with your work leash him and bring him out. May I ask Does Hunter come when called? Maybe some playtime outside somewhere maybe some enclosed area to let him run free and play . He's may be missing your Mom.:confused2:
 
I think I had the same problem you're having

I had/have a similar problem with Sadie, and it was behavioral. She was between the age of approximately 5-10 months old and had been house trained for months. She'd go for 2-3 months with no accidents and then have an accidents or a series of accidents. We were so shocked by the first one that would happen that we wouldn't usually scold her at first. Then she'd have 1 or 2 others within 12 hours of the first one. When we scolded her the accidents would stop...for a while.

Does this sound familiar?

It took us a long time to figure it out but Sadie was basically demanding attention from me. It usually happened when I went to take a shower and did not let her come in with me. I'd shut the door and she's pee/poo near by. It also happened when I didn't get up in the morning when she wanted me to (after she'd already eaten and been out to potty) and when I was on my computer and not giving her attention. Every time it happened she'd recently been out to go potty and actually gone. She was also sneaky about it, she'd literally sneak away from my husband to do it!

Sadie has not had an 'accident' in 6 months (knock on wood) so I think she's finally grown out of it or learned her place. Here are some suggestions that made our lives easier.

If you can't watch him or have someone watch him, even for a few minutes, crate him. Dogs will not go potty where they sleep so if its behavioral this will stop the problem. You can keep crating positive by giving him a Kong each time you crate him or keep a special toy aside for him to have in his crate only. If he's having an 'accident' before you get up in the morning and you know that he can usually hold it, crate him at night too. Putting the crate in your room might make the transition to night crating easier.

We went back to crating for a few nights and then trained her to stay in her bed, she's only allowed up when we get up. I know this is easier said than done if you're a sound sleeper!

Also make sure that Hunter knows you are the alpha in the house, not him. I've attached a link to a web site that gives some good examples on ways of gently asserting dominance. A couple of ways of asserting dominance that it doesn't mention are making sure to always walk through a door before your dog, the alpha always goes first. Also if your dog is lying where you want to walk, make him move. The alpha should always have the right of way and a submissive dog has to move. I usually shuffle my feet as I'm walking and Sadie will move.

http://www.bigpawdesigns.com/gewatoasdowi.html

I know how frustrating this can be! Look at it this way, you have an extremely intelligent pup!

Good Luck!
 
I was reading up on adolescence in dogs (around that 5 to 10mth or even older age region) and one of the things that goes downhill is toilet training. It was suggested that we just go back to what we did before and praise like you won the lottery or click and treat randomly whenever we catch our rebellious adolescent dog pottying in the right place.
 
romeosangiovese said:
I was reading up on adolescence in dogs (around that 5 to 10mth or even older age region) and one of the things that goes downhill is toilet training. It was suggested that we just go back to what we did before and praise like you won the lottery or click and treat randomly whenever we catch our rebellious adolescent dog pottying in the right place.
Click to expand...

In Sadie's case it was purely behavioral, she knew EXACTLY what she was doing. We still went outside with her every time she went and she got praise and a treat every single time. So in theory praise sounds great but doesn't always work
 
Just to put in my two cents, we had the same problem with Bentley. The good thing is that he knows he's doing the wrong thing. It would be a big problem if he would do it while you were watching and didn't feel bad.

I totally agree with what everyone else has said. You think you're just going to be doing something else for 5 minutes and BAM too late. We had to go with watching him every second. If Bentley would leave the room we were in, we had to get up and find him. And he was in the crate if we couldn't be there. Finally, he seemed to get the idea.
 
Ok, so now I'm the same problem with 7 month old Bacca.

He's been terrific! No accidents for ages! Then all of a sudden 2 accidents in the last week. Though "accident" is stretching it a little. In both cases, he didn't even try to let me know he needed out.

So its back to basics! I was getting ready to let him out of the crate at night since he only sleeps anyway, but not now! Too bad, Bacca! :uhoh:

Plus today he tore up part of my wall to wall carpet. I left him alone for 5 minutes. I could hear him scratching on the carpet, but didn't think it was serious until I went to see what he was doing. Somehow he got hold a thread in a corner and was in process of shredding the entire edge against the wall! Yikes!
 
I totally agree with Ontario here. My Foxman is housebroken, but when he is upset he poohs in the den. He usually does it while I am in bed. Hubby lets the dogs out very early in the morning when he gets ready for work. Fox goes outside and is fine. Then when hubby leaves Fox gets upset and poohs on the floor. I do not get up at 4am when hubby leaves and Fox has this need to have a human around him at all times. If hubby puts Fox back in my room when he is leaving, no problems.

I really do think puppers will revert their behaviors when something changes (your mom leaving) or when they want attention and feel they are not getting it on their terms
 
Thanks everyone

Thanks for all the advice and support so far guys. At least now I feel like I am not alone!
Being that Shelties are so intelligent, I didn’t think housebreaking issues were common with them and I was feeling like I had a dog with issues or I was doing something terribly wrong. I don’t remember these issues with my childhood Sheltie.
My dad’s solution to housetraining accidents when we had our 1st Sheltie 12 yrs ago was to chase him down with a rolled-up newspaper or magazine and spank the dog with it. My father was not a compassionate man and I refuse to even consider that as a solution although I’m sure that would be his suggestion if I asked him for advice.

One thing I forgot to mention is that my Mom comes over every weekday morning and takes Hunter over to her house for the day. She feeds him his breakfast there, he plays with his best bud all day (my mom’s border collie – Benny) and she takes them both out regularly. He has had no accidents while he is at my Mom’s house. I pick him up after work and we go home for the night. Since my mom is disabled and retired, she volunteered to be my built-in doggy daycare. I guess since I haven’t given her any 2-legged grandchildren and she really loves Hunter.

The night I wrote my post, I kept him tethered to me for the rest of the night and took him out later where he pooped outside. I verbally praised him like a crazy person LOL. He was very excited by this praise.

I thought after 4 months of being accident-free we would have conquered this. And what frustrates me is that he is going to be 2 yrs old at the end of January. Some of you mentioned that some dogs regress on their potty-training around 5-10 mos, Hunter is 21 mos old so what gives? Seems a little old to be regressing.
And yes, he does seem to understand that he has done wrong. When I caught him in the act the other night, he acted like he knew he was in trouble. If I find the accident after the fact, he acts this way as soon as he knows I have found it. Usually by running off to another room, away from the scene of the crime, or to his kennel with his head and tail down and ears back.
For right now I will take the advice everyone has given and go back to the basics:
tethering or crating him when I cannot pay attention to him 100%, I don’t like the idea of crating him a lot so I may choose to tether if possible. My frustration is how long do we need to go accident free before I can trust him? Or will he never be 100% reliable?
Winter is coming in MN and taking him out every hour is a very cold prospect.
I am beginning to wonder if he isn’t revenge-pooping because of the change in his environment or he feels he is not getting enough attention from me. The 1st accident happened before my mom moved out but that may have been medical related from constipation?
How old was everyone else’s dog before they were 100% reliable and accident free? And, how long did they go accident free before you trusted them 100%?
We do practice NILIF here to a certain extent; sit before treats, meals or leashing. I go out & in doors first etc...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top