Overnight Indoor Pooping

[Ghemmie]

Hello all,

First time poster coming here for a bit of advice.

Have a 10 month old labrador, fully house trained, but he has started refusing to poop at bed time in the garden (he does pees) and then leaving us presents by the back door in the middle of the night.

Couple of points:
He's walked 2/3 times a day
We've tried feeding him earlier
We've tried going to bed later
We've tried standing outside with him (for over 30 mins)
He's happy pooping in the garden during the day

I *THINK* what is happening is that we now have a family of toads living at the top of the garden, and they are active at night. He's very interested in sniffing around at the top of the garden and is distracted from doing a poop. Then gets tired, comes inside and falls asleep, only to wake up and need a poop at 3am. So he goes by the back door and only THEN barks to tell us what he's done.

So, in a nutshell, I am after some advice on how to get him to poop again before bed time.

I don't really want to take him out for a walk before bed as I live in a village and its dark and the grass areas have no light.
I don't want to encourage him to bark before he poops as I don't want him to get into the habit of waking me up at 3am.
I am not able to control the toads or his interest in them.

Only solution I can think to try this evening is to put him on his long lead and tether it to the ground so he can't go to the top of the garden but can still wander about and relieve himself.

Thanks for taking the time,
Gemma

 

[JoanneF]

There are three things I can think of - any combination, or all might help.

First - teach him to poo on cue. In daytime when he is actually pooing, use a word to associate with it (we use busy busy) then make it rain fabulous rewards like lots of little pieces of hot dog sausage. Maybe get something only used for this particular piece of training to cement in his mind that outside poos earn this fantastic reward. Once he has learned the word you use, you can tell him that you want him to poo. This will take a little time.

The second suggestion is that you do take him out and not let him near the toads (don't let him near them anyway, toads secrete a noxious substance on their skin, not good for dogs) and wait until he poos. Sorry, I know you don't really want to do that.

The third suggestion is set your alarm for 2.30 am and take him out.

Good luck!

 

[Violet Turner]

Hi,
You could use a command for doing his toileting such as business or busy, we use do-dos.He should do his business then say the above command.
Also make a daily routine for his dinner then see what time his 'last' poop would be. Then you can work around feeds with toileting. A walk would be a good thing but you could instead make him sleepy then make him go in the garden.

 

[JudyN]

You could take him into the garden on lead in the evening and not let him to the 'interesting' places. If/when he does a poo, give him a reward and lots of praise, then let him off lead so he can go and explore. Eventually, he'll realise that the fun starts once he's pooed.

How many poos does he do a day? If it's a lot, a change of diet might help. High-quality foods have less filler, resulting in smaller, less frequent poos. Raw diets are famed for this!

Another approach is to move his evening meal later. If, say, feeding him at 6pm results in a poo at 3am, then feeding him at 9pm might mean he can hold on till 6am. OK, it's still early but...

 

[leashedForLife]

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Along with pairing a LABEL with the action of 'poop', which eventually becomes a cue that can be given to trigger the action...
I'd confine him to an easy-clean area overnight, until he proves he can "hold it".

If he was crate-trained as a pup, i'd reintroduce the crate as a night-time & nap-time sleep spot - & i'd buy an airline-approved shipping crate, not a wire cage AKA show-crate. // If U're on a budget, buy used - loads of ppl ditch the crate after that one plane-trip, or "after the pup's housetrained" - their shortsigtedness is yer gain. Buying a used shipping-crate online via CraigsList, e-Bay, PreLoved, gumTree, etc, saves an average of half the cost.

Show-crates are perfect for show venues - the dog can't hide; that's their purpose.
Shipping-crates are obviously for transport, but they are also far-better for home use, trips away, etc, as they do NOT leak, have solid floors & walls, all the good models have a molded-in moat for spills so that the dog doesn't have to lie in spilled water, vomit, etc.
They provide privacy - totally lacking in show-crates, & laying a blanket over the wire crate only gives the dog a day-long chewy to drag into the crate & shred. Shipping-crates provide ventilation, but crucially they also protect the dog from floor-level drafts year-round.

The determining dimension is the dog's ht at the withers - to see what fits, go to any brick-n-mortar pet supply, & try on various-sized floor models. The smallest one that the dog can enter, U-turn, & exit is the perfect fit - the next size down will force them to reverse & back-out, they can't U-turn. That's too small.
Also, dogs don't need to enter a crate head-up, nor stand inside it with their head raised & neck fully-extended - to enter, they duck & slip in, then turn about & lie down. When U travel, U DO NOT want extra room in the crate - U want it to fit the dog, as excess space only means more space in which to build deadly momentum & then smash into something - inside a crate, that's the wall or roof, & the closer it is, within reason, the better, as that halts the dog's flight quickly & safely.

Ppl forget that bodies in motion, tend to stay in motion - & everything inside a vehicle is doing the same SPEED as that vehicle; momentum is conserved, so when the car is abruptly stopped by say, an impact with a brick-wall, if U were previously traveling at 50-mph, the passengers, parcels, seats... all objects within & upon the car, are ALL doing 50-mph.
The car may be stopped - but everything else continues to speed in the same heading as the original direction, until they hit something.
If that's a seatbelt, air-bag, & crate, well & good - everyone might / could survive. If it's a windshield, doorpost, or the roof, bad things happen.

If the dog is stressed overnite by being solo, bringing the crate closer to the bedroom, even temporarily, can help ease that emotional upset. Emotional distress can affect gut-motility, the speed of the contractions that sweep the contents along for digestion, absorption, & processing to be ejected. A stool that arrived "early" due to a speed-up in gut motility may look almost identical to a normal stool, but it will often be delivered in a thin shiny coating of mucus, used to lubricate it during its too-hasty transit of the lower bowel. . Sometimes they are also a shade or 2 shades lighter in color on ejection, tho they darken as they dry, so if U aren't there quickly, U won't see the color difference.
[This of course is assuming the dog's diet is consistent & the color of their stools is likewise pretty consistent.]

A shipping-crate may not only prevent pooping in the house, but may also reassure the dog sufficiently that he doesn't have the accelerated gut-motility & early-AM stools. Routines are very soothing to dogs, & having a place to go that's all their own is a nice bonus.

- terry

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[Ghemmie]

Hi guys,

Thanks very much for all your replies. As is typical, as quickly as he started pooping indoors, he has now stopped! Going to work on the pooping on command. We have always praised him and used the word 'poop' when he goes, but not using treats has probably not caused a wonderful association in his mind.

Much appreciated,
Gem

 

[Mad Murphy]

For night time walks Murphy has a light collar I have a torch and welly boots ( in winter) . I realise walking at night bears risks but if your dog needs it then best equip yourself for it.

 

[Sezzy]

Hi guys,

Thanks very much for all your replies. As is typical, as quickly as he started pooping indoors, he has now stopped!

That’s good news, it’s a bit like going to the dentist with toothache....

 

[excuseme]

No one and nothing can make me poo if i don't need one or want one.

All of our girls know what wee wees is (that's No,1 or No,2) which ever they can manage. Our puppies (4 months of age) are getting quiet good at wee wees, (when requested), but they do have the other adults to copy, which also helps.