How do!

Parka is now 10 months old, and yet he still insists on messing up the kitchen when left alone, even for the shortest amounts of time.

When we are there hes great, he asks to go out and does his business on the grass. But if we go out, even if we take him out before we go out and he does his business we come back to find hes messed the kitchen up.

We have started feeding him his entire days food in the morning in the hope that by the time we go to bed hes emptied himself, but theres been a few times over the past couple of weeks whereby even though hes finished his food my midday, and ive taken him out for his final walk at like 2am, i still get up in the morning to find poo on the floor, I have no idea why hes holding on to it for so long.

Today, Karen got up and feed him, I got up 30 mins after her and stayed with him till 12:00 making sure he went out and did his stuff before I went to work. Karen got home at 5:30 to find 2 loads of wee and a lovely pile of poo, yet hes lasted well over 8 hours on previous days. I just havent a clue whats going on in his head.

Its really starting to depress me and my partner, I need to get this sorted or I fear he will do this for ever, I am sure he should of grown out of this by now.

Can anyone give me anything to try with him, it almost as if he does it out of spite cause we have left him alone, I am all out of ideas.

Hi Benneh,

Don't worry, he's not doing it out of spite :)

5 and a half hours is rather a long time to leave any dog... can you ask your neighbours to listen out for him to see if he cries at all? If he howls or cries, it could be Separation Anxiety.

Is he left with lots to do when you leave? You could try hiding food in different areas, leaving him with a kong etc...

If you weren't leaving him so long, I'd sugget crating him, as most dogs won't 'go' in their bed. Can you get anyone to call in or look after him for some time in the afternoon so you can crate him when nobody's around (only for 1-2 hours max) and then he's being kept busy with someone there?

HI THERE ,SOUNDS A BIT LIKE ANXIETY, WHEN YOU COME HOME & FIND A MESS WHAT DO YOU DO ? WHEN I HAD A SIMULAR PROBLEM WITH 1 OF MY 8 I USED TO IGNORE HIM IF HE HAD MADE A MESS, & PRAISE HIM IF HE WAS CLEAN, ITS NOT AN INSTANT CURE BUT IT DID WORK FOR HIM, SOMETIMES DOGS DO THINGS FOR ATTENTION EVEN IF IT IS A TELLING OFF. i ALSO AGREE THAT CRATE TRAINING HELPS ..BUT NOT ALWAYS WITH BULLDOGS LOL. HOPE THIS HELPS

He does have loads of toys to play with when left alone, although he tends to chew anything but them, wood is his particular favourite, esp the side boards, and the new mat I just bought to wipe our feet on, thats already been destroyed.

Both my neighbours work all day and there not really anyone around that I can ask to pop in on him, there might be soon as I have friends moving in near me but they will most likely be working all day aswell.

He doesnt get left for long very often, maybe thats the problem, the majority of the time either myself or karen is about, but 1 week out of 5 he gets left for a long time alone, maybe hes just so used to us being around all the time that when we are not he gets anxious.

When we come home and find a mess he gets ignored, put outside so he doesnt see us cleaning it up and then let back in. I cant ever stay angry at him for more than 10-20 mins cause he pulls all sorts of faces and sucks up big time, I think he knows hes done wrong but cant help himself, hes such a soppy bugger.

I might experiment with putting his food in a play ball and giving it him when I go out tomorrow, that should keep him occupied for an hour at least, I wonder if I leave the radio on that might help...

restrcit his area of movement, perhaps in a crate or similar.
they rarely do it in their beds!

saying it that, mine were walked this morning this morning and fed, then decided to leave me a pracel in the conservatory. it's a good job i wasn't having peanut butter on toast at the time.

have you tried using a large crate, as dogs don't mess in their own space , you could try leaving the radio on too
or having a professional dogwalker

If you know that the long period is only 1 week in 5 could you arrange for a dogwalker during this week to spend a little bit of time with him half way through the period.

If you are leaving him for more than 5 hrs that is a long time to leave him in a crate during the day as suggested by some others.

Do you reward when he does his business outside? One of mine is reluctant to do wee and poo outside it is one or the other. It used to take ages with me standing outside encouraging her to go. With treats and praise also a cue word she can now do it. We say wee wee's here. They both get told at the door in a excited voice so they know what is coming. Out they go if Tilly only does one thing she get's told the word again and we point back at the garden she has now learnt that this means to go back and finish off once she has done it she gets a treat. She has now learnt it is far more rewarding to go outside as she gets a reward and praise rather than being ignored and put away from us when she messes inside. We used to have mess inside before we did this.

If he is messing at night he may not have learnt to hold it or doesn't even see why. A dog can go for a night without messing so it sounds like he just needs to learn to do it. You could try a crate for night times though as long as he can move about, it would encourage him to hold it for a longer period. It could be anxiety at being away from you at night give him something that smells of you in the crate or in his bed. Try a DAP diffuser to help him stay calm and something quietly in the background like a radio on with talking.

When you are at home with him regularly encourage him to go out with your cue word and treat get him used to where he should do his business and how good it is to do things outside i had a young dog a yr old and she was not at all trained and we needed to this every hour at first very repetitive but it worked.

When we get home the dogs go straight out and all we say is wee wee's no other interaction with them. Once they have done business they get rewarded and once all is quiet and they are calm we have a cuddle.

He is young and i am sure it will get better.

Hi

I have a dog crate where my Ben sleeps, it's an XL that i got off the forum, it's about 3 x his size so he has plenty of room & he hasn't had one accident, I think most vets reccommend them as a training aid, (i may be wrong as im new to this myself)

Good luck & let us know how you get on xx

I have a large crate you are more than welcome to borrow if you would like to give it a try.

I put all his food in his play ball today and left it with him when I went to work, Karen got home to no mess :)

Going to monitor him over the next few days!

Good thinking we have a play ball today and it keeps our lad occuiped for ages, maybe he is just bored. Also i have used big kongs in the past filled with kong spray. I also used to leave the radio on for my troublesome girl and that did seem to help. I had it on in the other room with the door closed so that is sounded like people talking quietly. I also recorded them on my laptop so i could see what was happening and when. She used to mess straight away so i knew it was anxiety so we could deal with it in the right way.

Good news so far, touch wood, hes been lasting, and he must have been bursting yesterday when I got home cause he flew past me out of the door straight on ot the grass for a wee!!!

So things are looking alot better now using the radio and the food ball!

that's great Benneh!

It's a lot less stressful for everyone concerned when they start to cotton on isn't it :)

Yay thats great news i hope you are starting to be able to enjoy it a bit more. And isn't it lovely when things start to go right x