# dog has started to poop in house at night



## ElisabethMcC (Feb 28, 2018)

My parents have a just under 2 year old Parson Russell Terrior (fixed).

She was successfully housetrained but now seems to slip up every so often only during the night. My father unfortunately is the one faced with the ‘gift’ in the morning when it happens and he’s beginning to reach the end of his tether which is stressing us all out.

- she sleeps downstairs in the kitchen/living area (open plan) and is pooping in the dinning room next door every time (there is no door to close as it’s open plan)
- she is fed a small amount of dry food in the morning at 10am and again at 5pm (we pulled this back from 6pm recently from later to see if that helps) and my mother makes sure that stays the same always
- we tend to all go to bed around 10pm and she’s taken outside then to do the last of her business in the garden which she has no bother doing
- she is well exercised (they live in the countryside close to the beach) and taken out to the garden regularly
- she is healthy and has been checked out by the vet
- she does however grumble (low growl) sometimes when being being put to bed especially if she’s overtired 
- my parents give her lots of praise when she does her business outside and when putting her to bed to try and reassure her incase it’s anxiety

The problem is she doesn’t let us know if she needs out at night and my mother is a super light sleeper so keeps an ear out for her (she’s very vocal if it’s the case during the day). Last night I Iet her stay in my bed (not done every night I try to keep it a treat) and I woke her up accidentally while tossing at 2am. She got out of my bed and went downstairs which I assumed I had annoyed her. I listened carefully to see if I could hear anything but nothing. About 2 minutes later she came back up and went under the covers. I was suspicious and went down to see she’d pooped. I called her down and told her off (gently) showed her poop in the bag and put it out in the bin. She knew what she’d down and hid behind the sofa. She then snuck back upstairs and I found her in my bed again. I removed her and sent her back down. What I’m annoyed at is she didn’t alert me to needing out or made any noises (she yelps at me if she needs out during the day) and just came straight back to my bed after, she only appeared guilty when I told her off. 

I’m visiting from abroad for a while and trying to help my parents work this out before I leave as it’s really stressing my parents out!


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## ElisabethMcC (Feb 28, 2018)

I should have added my parents only want to use crate training as a very last resort as she has never been in or around one before and we’ve never had to use one with any previous dogs (including the same breed)


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## JoanneF (Feb 1, 2016)

When a dog has been scolded, even quite gently, for toileting in the house, they can learn to fear the humans' reaction to their toilet so create opportunities to sneak off and do it in private.



ElisabethMcC said:


> I called her down and told her off (gently) showed her poop in the bag and put it out in the bin. She knew what she'd down and hid behind the sofa.


This rather reinforces that theory, particularly as any medical cause has been ruled out. Showing her the poop in a bag is meaningless, she doesn't connect the bag and bin with her toilet. Even if the telling off was gentle, dogs are very sensitive to human body language. Hard as it is, try not to react at all. Just clean up.


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## ElisabethMcC (Feb 28, 2018)

Ahh I see, would you say this is why she didn’t alert me too it? Obviously my dad has been telling her off in the morning when he finds it. I still don’t understand why then she’s ok to tell us during the day if she needs to go and not during the night. Is there anyway to train her to do so?

I will make sure to follow your advice regarding telling her off though, thank you


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## JoanneF (Feb 1, 2016)

Maybe work out what time she does it and pre-empt it by getting up (sorry) and take her out for a few nights. Massively praise her and reward with something high value like chicken when she toilets outside. Gradually make the time later night by night. You could also try changing her feed time to later in the afternoon. Dogs usually poo their second last meal of the day so you could add a few kernels of sweet corn to see how her digestion speed is, then adjust feeding times accordingly.


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