Dog fouling in house

[Zero]

Hello all,

I need some help/advice. I have an older dog of 11years and recently got a puppy. Since bringing the puppy home my older dog has been using the house as a potty. He will wee outside everytime, but occasionally he'll poop in the house. I originally put this down to accident, although I understand he shouldn't be having accidents now. However it's clear that it's some sort of behaviour type thing. For example, I came home from school run. Immediately went to let both dogs outside. The older boy went out, did a wee and a poop then whilst I was watching the puppy he went in side and finished his poop on my floor?! About 8 ft from the back door, when I looked at him he had the most dopey 'look what I did' face... Like that would make me happy!

I don't know if it territorial, or if he's seen the puppy have accidents and now thinks it's ok to defacate in the house?! I'm at a lose end, it bad enough having the puppy to deal with. Let alone that gigantic oaf!

Please help!

 

[JoanneF]

I would suggest a vet check first to make sure there isn't anything medical going on, then if it really is behavioural, back to basics.
Out more often than he needs to go to keep his bowel and bladder empty, massive and immediate praise and reward when he does go outside.

Do you display any reaction at all to either of them having indoor accidents? I ask because that can lead to the dog becoming anxious about toileting in your presence - they think you are angry at them toileting, as opposed to toileting in the house, so often seek opportunities to toilet in your absence, or sneak off to another room.

So try to show no reaction at all, just clean with an enzymatic cleaner and leave the cleaner down for ten minutes before you wipe it up to give it time to work.

 

[JudyN]

A couple of other thoughts - first, could he be doing this because he sees the puppy poo in the house, or can smell where he's pooed/weed? If so, then as @JoanneF says, back to basics, and clean up well.

Second, this may well be down to stress at the arrival of the pup (and it will probably be stressful for him even if they seem to get on well). My cat started using my bed as a litter tray when my puppy arrived. So make sure everything is as stress free for him as possible and he gets as much, or even more, attention as he did before (including one-on-one time), that he still has access to the best dog bed, and so on (it's recommended you have one more bed than you have dogs, so each dog always has a choice). An Adaptil pheromone spray or plug-in may also help.

 

[Jack-Russell-Lover]

That's so weird, one of ours started doing that as he got older, when he was about 12...he would start pooping outdoors and then come back in to finish!! But we had no new pets! Not sure if he just felt rushed so thought he had to do his stuff quick maybe...bizzare. He did sometimes pee in the house as well, probably weaker bladder, so we just let him out more often...like every 1-1.5 hours, as if we had a puppy again!