Pooing in the house over-night

[Cath]

I could do with picking your brains please people.

Jessie is a 4ish year old "beddie-whippet" ie mongrel who has been with us for 2 years now. From day one she has been spotlessly clean in the house and if she is ill and does make a mess she is mortified and goes and hides. She is the most nervous of our pack; if you were to raise your voice, even to one of the other dogs, she hides in her crate or under the table.

When the nice weather was here the back door was open all day and all evening. When it turned cold and rainy about 10 days ago it was back to being closed and the dogs go out when they ask or when OH goes out for a smoke (about every hour to hour and a half).

Since the change in weather, Jess has started poo-ing in the lounge overnight where they sleep. (Sorry too say this but I know it's her as I recognise the poo ). She is perfectly healthy and the poo is "normal".

At first we thought it was an accident, then we thought she was "forgetting" to go when they went out before bed, now I'm starting to think she has just decided that it's ok. In the past when she's been caught short she, out of all of our pack, has been great at barking for us to come down. Jon and I are light sleepers so it only takes one bark. One night OH came down at 2am for a drink and she had poo'd- I know she hadn't barked as I was still awake and working upstairs. It's been every night for the past few nights

We do have a command for toileting "GARDEN". She toilets happily in the garden.
They are put out several times after tea.
Last night we put Jess out for an extra GARDEN on or her own, as she gets distracted by the others.
She only outside toilets on a long walk, and that's not practical on an evening
She knows it is wrong, without us saying anything. We do tell her off, but can't go to far as she'd easily be terrified.
She uses a crate which she loves but we got the crate for Benji-poopie and it is probably too small to leave her in overnight (she can only just stand up in it)- but I may have to try it overnight tonight to see if she will bark when she needs to go

She's been vet checked and is healthy and happy

Any ideas?

Anyone had similar experience?

It's really getting OH down now. He's the first down on a morning and it's not nice to be met with poo everywhere

[Emma]

We've had this with Den and Dot on separate occasions. We didn't get to the bottom of why they did it, but we got Dot out of the habit by giving her a short walk before bed, which we only had to do for three nights (I know you can't do a long walk just before bed ) and put a jingly charm on Den's collar to wake us when he got up, and let him out.

I thought perhaps as they stopped as suddenly as they started, it might have been a sensitive tum and they couldn't hold it in.

Have you changed her diet even a little bit?

I hope you get it sorted, there's nothing worse to start the day

Emma x

[Cath]

Hi Emma,

That what is so strange. Nothing at all has changed except the door being open and then not (because it turned cold and wet suddenly). I had thought about a late night walk BUT Jon and I both have health problems that mean neither of us is physically capable of walking hounds on an evening

Thanks
C
X

[nataliesian]

Hi Cath, Im not sure how big she is but we have a large crate here ( we used to use it for MAK and you know how big he is ;0) that you could borrow if that would help ?

[gilli176]

i would say a crate for a couple of nights just to break the habbit

[Rachel and Daisy]

Cath, I would also go back to basics re rewarding her and praising her for when she goes outside. I would err away from punishing any "mistakes" as unless you actually catch her mid act, it is absolutely pointless. They will not associate the telling off with the act of pooing, rather just get nervous about you being unpredictably angry, esp if you say she is a nervy girlie anyway it is likely to do more harm than good. I would stick to positive reinforcement of the correct behaviour - hope that makes sense.

[andywillow]

What time do they have their evening meal Cath? We had this some years ago with our oldies who decided to poo every night so we fed them much later and it stopped.

[jodav]

Lots of good advice given already and I really do empathise - it's a trend that you urgently want to reverse! I tend to work back to when everything was normal and then go over what happened next ie the weather was hot, the door was open - did anything different happen in the garden in the hot weather that you remember? I spent the night on the sofa once when Paddy had started pooing in the lounge - think it was because he was unwell, but I needed to break the habit and it did work Also use a special cleaner to eliminate the smell to deter going back to the same spot. Is there any chance of longer walks during the day to do all the toileting then? Hope the situation resolves quickly for you.

Jo

[Cath]

Thanks everyone.

They get fed at 4pm (prompt thanks to Bob ;D) and breakfast is at 8am. We usually head to bed between 8 and 9pm and are up between 4 and 5am. They have about 2 hours of walks during the day.

I am going to stay up late tonight and pop her in her crate about 11pm. OH will get up about 4am so she won't be caged for too long. The theory is that she will either be fine, she will need to poo and bark, as she won't like soiling her space, or she will mess her crate but the carpet will be ok.

If that doesn't work we can think about changing meal times but with 4 dogs, and Bob's stomach, that is easier said than done.

Cath
X

[clairehope]

My two went from being completely clean to poo-ing in the house at night. Totally know what you mean about it being a poor way to start the day! Having read threads on here I tried everything suggested, but nothing worked for one reason or another. When we went camping I noticed that they didn't do it once and hoped the habit had been broken, but we got back home and straight back to poo everywhere from both of them.

So I taught them to walk up the stairs and now they sleep in my room. They have never pooed in the room, if they are ill they wake me up to take them out. I know sleeping in the room is not going to be the answer for everyone, but maybe something about how that makes them feel 'part of the pack' could be replicated? Good luck!

[Cath]

Update: she's been crated the past two nights and no poo I stayed up late and OH got up super early the first night, so she was crated for 4 hours, and she was fine. Last night was normal bedtime and she was happy enough in her crate and clean again.

We'll try another few days of crating her and then let her kip on teh couches with the others

(PS They sleep downstairs as 4 dogs and 2 cats who all snore is a bit much in our room with a snoring OH ;D)

[skelly1200]

I do sympathise Cath, Luka our 20 month old started to do the odd poo in the kitchen overnight. He is fed @ 11.00am and 6.00pm. He is put out for toileting just after 10.00pm. We moved his bedding from the lounge into the hallway for 3 nights and he stopped. We leave the bedroom door open so he can usually hear us and maybe he feels safer. I am also a light sleeper so when he moves around 5.30am I go down and let him out,, the other 2 don't tend to move from their sofa's unless their desperate to go.

[Cath]

Just to finish this off.....

we went back to basics with toiletting and crated her for 4 nights and she has been clean for the past week.

Long may it continue

[Nettie]

Well done Cath, good news indeed.