# Help Puppy walks in his own poop



## thelaststraw (Apr 28, 2009)

I've never seen this before. I've had dog's all my life and the one thing I could count on and use is the fact that dogs don't like there own poo.

Here's my story. About 4 weeks ago I picked up a pup from an animal rescue. She is a 6 month old Chihuahua Dachshund mix. The lady had 26 dogs in the house of varying sizes of which she was the smallest. Overall hse is a very normal puppy that I'm enjoying.

This time in the housebreaking is a little different. I don't work close to home and am unable to come home to take care of her around noon. There is no one I can rely on to let her out for me yet. I'm getting married in a little less than a month (she is for my new step daughter) and my wife will be able to at that point. However because of this I'm going to paper training route. 9 to 10 hours in a crate seems to be a bit much to so paper training seems best.

I've been playing with the eating schedule. She gets one cup of Sceince diet for pups a day. In the beginning it was 1/3 in the morning and 2/3 at 6PM when I got home. What I've found is that around 3PM she wants to poop in front of the gate and run back and forth all over it making a big mess for me to cleanup (pun intended ). 

From being with her over the weekends I know that she wants to poop around 2 to 3 PM nothing seems to change that. If I give her all of her food at 6PM she still needs to poop at 3PM. I alos tried moving it to in the morning primarily but this wasn't any help. She gets poop everywhere and once that happens she will even pee in her bed.

She does great in her crate at night no accidents for a while now. I've purchased a wizdog (doggie potty) thinking maybe the issue is that the papers are too soiled with wee for her by 3PM to poop on them. It gets here tomorrow and my fingers are crossed.

Beyond that I've not got a clue how to get her out of the habit of walking in her own poop. I don't get upset at accidents but this is way different. It really bugs me. I'm not taking it out on her I know it's not her fault.

All advice welcomed.


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## PoisonGirl (Oct 24, 2008)

Can you get a dog walker to pop in and shee her during the day? At around the time she needs to poop. It does sound like an awful long time for a pup to be left.. And would make toilet training so much easier. 

She sounds like a real cutie, have you any pics?

x


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## shortbackandsides (Aug 28, 2008)

crating is far better,if you are out


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## Nonnie (Apr 15, 2009)

Shes being left for far too long, im surprised a rescue let you have her knowing this.

Shes treading in it most likely because shes fretting at the gateway. You cant blame her as she has no choice but to go inside as shes left alone for hours on end.

My advice is that you need to sort out some form of care for her during the day. She may be going to the gate and asking to go out, but as no-one is there, she is soiling the house.

Did you not consider the longs hours she would be left on her own when you got her? Seems very unfair on such a young dog.


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## gesic (Feb 19, 2009)

It does sound as though she is soiling due to the fact she is anxious about being left...sounds a little like a seperation anxiety problem.


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## thelaststraw (Apr 28, 2009)

Thanks all for the advice and keep it coming. I agree I leave her longer than I would like to. She does however get lots of attention and is happy. She has a number of toys and acitvely uses them while I'm away and I leave a radio playing as well so she doesn't feel so alone. I know it's a cheap substitute but it's what I have to work with at the moment. She's number one on my list whlile I'm home and that's most of the time when not working.

As to the pooping, I am trying to just paper train so I expect her to poop on the paper in the house. I get that she's going to need to do that. I know that goes against the grain for many people and it's a first for me. I've always crate trained in the past. 

The real issue I've had is she doesn't have that instinct that stepping in your own poop is a bad thing thereby keeping her away from it.

I've considered changing the crating from at night to during the day. it is about the same amount of time so she should be ok. I however would never crate her at night and during the day that's way to much crate time for a dog of any age.

Tomorrow the wizdog comes in. I'm hoping for a bit of a silver bullet I know but it's worth a try. I'm also considering doggie day care 2 or 3 days a week until my family gets here. My wife is a teacher so she would be home a couple hours quicker than I am and she would be her with her during the summer to get her on her way.

Today was better the poop was much less and it wasn't right in the center of the gateway. I decided to shut the bathroom door thinking it may keep her from pacing because she wouldn't be able to watch for me. That seemed to work and I'll try it again tomorrow. This is one in a row though so it makbe a fluke.


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