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By David Candline, Dachsisle Kennels
Your new dog is good-natured, enjoys attention, but has a problem of sneaking off to poop somewhere indoors instead of outside. The family is growing intolerant of this activity. The pup is given many opportunities throughout the day to relieve himself (herself) outside, but despite all, still poops in the house.
To begin with, you probably praised your pup whenever he did his thing outside. You are probably not praising him anymore, because you have begun to take it for granted. Meanwhile, the pup has discovered that he captures quite a bit of your attention when “he does it in the house.” Well, attention is what he craves, so guess what? He increases the number of times he poops indoors and lo-and-behold, he gets more attention!
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Everyone who is with the pup when he poops or pees outside should praise him lavishly and have treats in their pockets to reward him.
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You should teach him to pee and poop on command, so that you can get him to attend to both functions when required. Do this by giving him a one-word command for each function. Say the magic words every time you see him in the act and outdoors. In the beginning, you will give the command just as soon as he is in the act, and then when he has finished, you praise and reward lavishly. Keep this up until you can prompt him to poop and pee “on cue”. The advantage of cueing his toilet behavior is that he is unlikely to engage in a cued behavior in the house where there is no reward given for the activity.
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Put your pup under close scrutiny when in the house to eliminate his chance of sneaking off to poop in a corner. This can be achieved if each person volunteers a certain amount of time to be the pup’s supervisor. The supervisor will stay with the pup wherever he goes and will especially keep a sharp eye out to make sure he does not get a chance to pee or poop indoors. If he tries, scooping him up quickly, rush him outside, and observe steps one and two.
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The fourth strategy is unbelievable! If your puppy manages to poop inside, you will do nothing at all. You will not even utter a discouraging word. This reaction is to ensure that the dog gets diminished attention for in-house lapses. Do clean up out of his sight too, so that he sees no consequence whatsoever for the undesirable behavior. I recommend “Nature’s Miracle” for clean up as it is an enzymatic cleaner removing the odor at its source.
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Everyone in the house should understand and commit to this four-part plan. That means agreeing on the two commands you will use to “cue” urination and defecation, carrying treats ready to praise and reward “good” behavior, and understanding why supervision is important for a little while. Finally, explaining and understanding why you ignore a mistake is really important.
One of the best books on dog training, dolphin training and human training is Don’t Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor.
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