Dog Training Q&A

Mary Ann posted this question:

“I have a blind 9 yr old daschund. When I cage her she poops in her cage and goes in circles and stomps it in. If I let her loose in the house she still poops and sometimes stomps it in. She does this even if she was just out and has taken care of her business. If I take her in the car with me and let her in there on mild days, she does the same thing and stomps into my leather seat. Any suggestions on what to do with her? I have bopped her nose and scolded her numerous times but with no success. She is doing this more and more as time goes by. I love her to death, but this is getting old.”

This is what I had to say…..

Training might help with this, but you inadvertantly hit the nail on the head when you said “this is getting old”.  Your dog is getting on in years and my first recommendation would be to have the vet check her out to make sure there are no health reasons for the loose bowel.  It could be something as simple as the need to change her diet (like puppies, older dogs have different dietary needs than young adult dogs, so it may be that something in her food is aggravating the situation).

After you have ascertained there are no underlying health issues, the following might help:

1. Please do not hit your dog, it will serve no purpose to correct her this way
2. Implement a consistent feeding regime with food and portions suitable for her age and size.  My suggestion would be a meal in the morning and another late afternoon (but do check with your vet first!).  Give her 15 to 20 minutes to eat each meal, then remove any food that has not been eaten within that time. This will help regularize bowel movements.
3. Always follow up a feed with a toilet break.  Try to get her to associate a command with the “act” of pooping.  That way if you want to crate her or take her on a car journey, you can encourage her to eliminate first with a recognizable command. 
4. If she has been pooping on your car seat, I would suggest that you get a travel crate and use that for car journeys.  It will be much easier to clean than your car seats if she has any little accidents!

Because she has got used to soiling in her crate, you might also need to give it a really good clean to get rid of the scents associated with the soiling, or ideally buy a new one and some new bedding to go in it.  This could help get her out of the habit, as it may be the familiar toilet smells that are making her poop in the crate in the first place.  Her remaining intact senses will be heightened, and there may be a sense of anxiety because she cannot see where she is, so providing her with a new “den” might be the way to go.

Tags: daschund, pooping in crate, soiling

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 9:27 am and is filed under Bad Behavior, Breed Specific Dog Training Problems, House Training Your Dog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.