Why is she doing this???

[secondchance]

Over the past three weeks, our eight year old female has repeatedly left us "presents" both urine and poo when we leave her. We always take her out before we leave, and are usually gone less than two-three hours. One time we were only gone for an hour. She normally greets us at the door when we arrive home, but when she has done something, she stays upstairs so I really believe she knows she has done something inappropriate.

We've had her checked by the vet who says there is no reasons for this behavior.

She has had the run of the house since we adopted her last year, but I am thinking we are going to have to crate her when we leave even for a little while if we can't find a solution to this.

Has any one else experience this? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[gmacleod]

Is she peeing/pooping in the same place all the time, or are you coming home to a minefield of different piles/puddles in miscellaneous places?

If it's the former, then probably you've got a housetraining problem on your hands, that will likely be solved by some time crated and reversion to potty training 101 principles (schedule, going out with her, praise, etc).

If it's the latter though, then you may (possibly) have some form of separation anxiety problem there. A crate won't solve/help that one. It's a psychological issue that requires a lot of work to resolve.

 

[secondchance]

Usually it is down in the living room area, but yesterday for the first time it was upstairs in the study.

We have started crating her. We'll see how that works out. If it continues, how does one treat a psychological issue in a dog?

 

[tessa-leader]

i have had the exact same problem with tessa. look up my post called "unhousetraining?". at first i let tessa have the run of the house but started in with the "presents". i have to go and crate her whenever i leave. i hate doing it, but i need to do what is best. since i have done this there has not been a problem. i tried to go back to the free house thing and after a couple of days she is right back to the left "presents" thing.

andrea

 

[secondchance]

Andrea,

Thanks so much for referring me back to the Unhousebreaking thread you originally posted. I guess it is a more common problem than I thought and I find that reassuring.

This is our fourth boxer (over 43 years) and the others only regressed when they were quite old, and that was certainly understandable. I just don't want to have to deal with presents for the next 4 or 5 years!

We tried the crate for the time we were gone yesterday, and had no problem. Someone will be home for the next few days but I think we'll use it again when no one is home even though she looks so sad when we put her in it.. Hopefully after a few times in it, she'll remember that the yard is for potty.

Thanks again for your referral.

Mary Ann