2 year old dog unhousetrained in new house? Help!

catembi

catembi

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Please help me with this! I have two Rotties, Max who’s 2 and Milly who’s 7. In my last house, they lived in the kitchen until it was refurbished, then in a stable, but trotting about on the yard most of the time. Both v clean in house and stable. They went into kennels for 9 months as I sold my property and had several purchases fall through. It was an informal kennels where they were kept together in a stable and the person’s house, and loose on the yard. Also very clean.

We moved just over 2 weeks ago. The dogs are mostly in the garden room...square conservatory like area with sliding doors on all four sides opening onto living room, kitchen and outside. I leave the doors to the house open a crack to encourage air flow, but even then it can get warm due to all the glass so if we’re going out, we allow access to the kitchen which is large and cool. They are allowed in the rest of the house if we’re about, spend a lot of time trotting about outside and are not left for that long as o/h is retired.

Anyway, they are 100% clean in the conservatory but Max has wee’d in the kitchen when left. Def a boy dog wee as on the side of a (wipeable) chair. He has also wee’d on a moving box of things and the bare wall of the corridor when I was pottering and he was free to wander in the house. He had been trotting about outside with me within 5 minutes so definitely wasn’t desperate.

This morning, I was woken up by Milly trotting up and down the corridor leading to my bedroom, whimpering. I got up to see what she wanted, and she was trying to tell me that Max had done a vast poo outside the bedroom door. It was definitely him and not her as I recognise their poos. It was also 100% firm and healthy (sorry, TMI) so he wasn’t ill. They also shouldn’t have been out of the conservatory but they are very strong and must have widened the air flow gap enough to get through.

So now what do I do? On encountering a wee in the house, up until now I have asked him ‘who did that?’ and told him off. Then cleaned up v thoroughly to remove the smell. I need to get this sorted over winter...they will need to be allowed access to the kitchen once it starts warming up. The conservatory is more of a garden room as it is under the house roof but it would still be too warm in summer.

Max was neutered at 6 months. He has always been so clean, so this behaviour is an unpleasant surprise and I am not sure how to stop it. 😥😥I am totally sure that it’s him, not Milly, and also sure that he isn’t ill. *sighs*
 
I imagine he is just insecure and you may need to revert to puppy controls for a bit. Make sure you clean up really well using non bio powder or something and let him out more often than necessary.
There is no point for telling him off for doing it when you find it, if I see mine about to go though (where they shouldn't) I make a lot of noise and hustle them out.
 
What Clodagh said. Bit of stress. Don't add more stress, just start as you would from the beginning.
If you think of how stressful a house move is for us, imagine how it can be for a dog.
It's not enough to pretend you aren't grumpy and telling him off after the event (the link will be long broken) will make him more sneaky.
 
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H’mm, I do understand your point. But sometimes he’s been running around outside for ages, then follows me into the house and wees on something... He honestly does NOT need to go, has had hours to relieve himself, and indeed could go back out through the open door if he felt the urge.

If he was entire, I’d be advising myself to neuter him, but he isn’t!
 
OMG, this started when the electric fence went up for Summer’s paddock, right outside the door to the garden room! But it doesn’t explain why he chose to do a poo outside my bedroom door in the night when he should have waited til morning.

He needs a lot of encouragement to go up the field with me now the fence is up...but he can (and does) go around the front where there is lots of room and no fence.
 
Another one who says go back to treating him like a puppy, it will be stress related, there have been big changes.
This morning one of the dogs ( not mine) where I live has cooked his leg in the hall, I did not see him do it and it's not a big wee so I doubt he was desperate but it did not catch him in the act to shoo him out so I just keep quiet and clear up.
I have had a dog in the past that would hide wees and poos, entirely my own fault and he did it till he went senile, even on a walk he would not toilet on a lead as it was too close to a person.
 
I bet he's scared of the fence. He'll be much more sensitive to the current/pulse than a human.

Protest pees and poos in or near beds (theirs or yours) are really not unusual. Dogs are non verbal and he's trying to tell you he's not happy with something.
 
Poor lad sounds really stressed, which isn’t surprising given the past few months for him. Dogs are always more sensitive to change than bitches in my experience - he needs some love, time and understanding :)
 
PSA: There is around a five second period where a dog links an action it makes, with a consequence or a reward.
If you correct a dog for something it's done hours ago, the dog will invariably make the wrong link.
If you tell him off and he happens to be looking at a pair of shoes at the time, for example, he might associate the punishment with that pair of shoes.
Or with pooing where you can find it. Who knows. We don't know what they are thinking about at the point of the telling off.
Anyone who says their dog understood a correction hours after it did something undesirable, is just lucky.

Edited to add, just read your first post back and that's quite a lot of upheaval for a young dog. For a lot of his life he's been living somewhere else/on someone else's property.
Also bear in mind how stressful a refurb will be with all that noise and workmen coming in and out, especially for a guarding breed.
There's no point in asking him who did it, he doesn't understand.
 
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He probably pood outside your bedroom door because he is not comfortable pooing outside. He would maybe have done a poo before going to bed but is not happy to do that so became desperate in the night.
Maybe he came to your sleeping area to try and wake you -I have had dogs that stare at the door to the outside when they need to go out but make no noise- dogs don't think like we do so he may not realise that making a noise will wake you to let him out or maybe he has made that link but does not want to go outside and that is possibly due to the fence?
I had one dog who peed on the electric fence so got a shock so he bit the fence- poor lad but he got wise and was confident so over tine just learnt to duck low enough, I have had others who get one shock and you could shut them in a field with electric fence and they would not be brave enough to get out and then others who just never touch it or go near it, they are all very different.
The bottom line is there will be a reason for his behaviour and however frustrating it is for you telling him off will not help.
Treat him with kid gloves and help him realise outside is still a safe place to toilet.
 
when me moved last time my old dog was really out of sorts for at least 6 months. He was older mind you but he still found the whole thing very stressful, easy to forget how things can affect them because your average dog does generally cope with so much :) but the new assualt of smells etc alone is a big deal for them.
 
It's possible that he has peed against the electric fence soon after it went up, new territory he will likely be scent marking like mad, I imagine getting a zap in your bits whilst peeing would leave a pretty lasting impression! Add into that the insecurity/upheaval of moving and kennels and you can see his point not wanting to toilet anywhere near the fence. Hope it resolves itself soon
 
^^^ That too.

I know a GSD neutered around the same age, he's huge, immature, sensitive and takes longer to recover from stress/a bad experience than I'd expect from a dog of his age and breed.

Hopefully OP you have a bit more info to work on, with building him back up to full confidence.
Give him a bit of time and try to think 'dog' :)
 
The vets said 6 months was right! Who are you supposed to believe...?! I wonder myself if it was right, though. Kane was neutered at 3 just before I got him, by the rescue, but then he always had aggression issues with other dogs, even when he was almost too doddery to stand up. Whereas Max is still puppyish and I would say hasn’t matured properly.
 
I wouldn't stay with a vet who neutered a baby puppy to be brutally honest :(
Neutered so young he will never truly mature and will probably always be very puppyish.
But it's good info to have to inform your future training and handling.
 
while neutered very young it isn't relevant to the current issues which are related to the stress of the house move compounded by an owner who is doing all the wrong actions - treat him like a puppy again, only chastise if you catch in the act and only then to get him outside - praise for going outside.
try some anti -anxiety plug ins e.g. dap or pet remedy and watch him like a hawk - it doesnt matter if he has just been out, take him out regularly again and ideally teach a 'go toilet' command if you haven't already.
At 2 he has had a massive amount of change and a lot of outdoor living so be patient, don't treat it as a ' misbehaviour' of the dog - just of the owner not catching the signals - he isn't doing it on purpose.
 
I would try those plug-in things that should make the dogs feel more comfortable. If you want to leave the dogs in one room overnight but leave the door open, could you put a baby gate across the doorway? Or do you think he would respond well to a crate, where he would know he was in his own space? Our Rotts absolutely love the crate and often choose to sleep in there during the day, with the door wide open.
 
Both my Rotties went backwards when I worked away for a couplde of weeks. I think they just don't do well with change. We treated them as before, ie lots of praise when doing stuff outside, lots of outside time with observation, etc. It's worked reasonably well, with just the occasional accident.
 
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