[NAGDU] New dog keeps pooping in my house!

[Lisa Belville]

Hi, Tara.  You have my genuine empathy. My second dog did this on and 
off for the first two years I worked her.  The first thing I tried was 
keeping her on leash in the house and letting her have longer relieving 
times.  This made no difference.  She also never urinated in the house, 
so it didn't seem as much like a behavior issue to me as something medical.


Not to be graphic, but are the stools soft or hard?  I ask because when 
I had my dog at the vet for a check up, the vet found her anal glands 
were very full.  This was a surprise, since my dog never licked or 
scooted or otherwise showed any indication her glands needed to be 
expressed.


This was a recurring issue; Katy's glands would need to be expressed at 
least once a month and the intermittent in-door defecation continued.  
This wasn't a huge amount, just one or two small semi-soft droppings.  
The worst one was when she dropped a present on my bed and I actually 
felt her back arching slightly. It wasn't as pronounced as it was when 
she was outside pooping normally; this was just falling out, I honestly 
don't t think she knew it was happening.


My vet never found anything medical other than the chronically full anal 
glands.  The vet speculated that Katy's stools were not hard enough to 
express the glands naturally.


The school recommended a food high in fiber--  I think it was some 
version of Pro Plan, but I'm not sure, this was ten years ago.  I had 
limited success.  Her stools were always small and not really hard.


Someone on the school's Email list recommended adding green beans to 
Katy's food once or twice a week.  These were frozen or fresh green 
beans that were added to put additional fiber into Katy without adding 
weight.


This did work, for the most part.  Katy continued to have small stools 
and frequent pooping in harness. . . Though never inside. She would veer 
off the sidewalk if she had to go.  I realize this would be a deal 
breaker for some people, but Katy never defecated inside a building 
while working, and once I added the green beans, she stopped defecating 
in my house with the exception of one or two times in the nine or so 
years I used the green bean method.


After she was retired, I found out she was diagnosed with irritable 
bowel syndrome.  I'm not sure if this was related to the defecation.  
Katy never had gas and rarely had diarrhea, so I honestly couldn't say.  
She was eleven or 12 when she was diagnosed.

Do try leaving her on leash and giving her longer relief periods, but 
also verify that there isn't something else going on that could be 
causing this to happen.

Good luck.

Lisa


Lisa Belville



missktlab1217 at frontier.com

On 12/2/2018 10:59 PM, Tara Briggs via NAGDU wrote:
> Hi all! The subject line of this email pretty much  says it  all. I got home at the beginning of October with a new black lab named prudence from the seeing Eye. She is a good guide and does a good job of focusing when she has a harness on. I have two children ages four and two. She is sweet with my kids and seemed to enjoy them. However, she keeps taking poops in my house. I take her out four times a day. I try to stay out there for a few minutes until I’m sure she’s done. She takes a P right off really fast but she’s struggles to poop. She doesn’t seem constipated. But you just won’t poop. Several times now after I get her inside she goes and takes a poop. This past week I have been home with the flu and a nasty ear infection. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to work her. I have still tried to take her out four times a day. The other day she poops in the house and I took her out right after I found it. Again she acted  like she was done. She came back  inside and pooped in the same spot. I really got after her for that. And I was hoping that she got the message  that behavior is just not  going to  work. But today she pooped again. I feel very discouraged and I don’t know what to do.
> Tara
>
>
> Sent  from my iPhone

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