Toilet training regression - HELP!

chewed

Hi, I have a 2 yr old terrier. She was fully toilet trained until very recently. We've always kept her in at nighttime, and she always waited until morning when we let her out into the back garden. If she was desparate at night time she would bark to be let out.

In the past few weeks we've noticed some strange beaviour. on numerous occasions she's gone up the stairs to my 7 yr old son's room and gone for a no.2 on his floor. This has happened a few times. And then on the last 3 nights she has done a no.2 on the kitchen floor. She doesn't appear to be sick in anyway and (not wanting to go into too much detail) her excrement is not runny!!

Any ideas on why this is suddenly happening?

My only ideas are that we keep her outside at night time or else put her into a cage at night in the kitchen - dogs will never dirty their own immediate space.

faceman

Without knowing you or your dog it would be hard to identify the issue from your post

My suggestion is to start closing the door of the room he sleeps in at night to avoid him roaming elsewhere. Also if he going in the room he sleeps in, considering 'fencing/caging' off his space at bed time he has less space to roam in

If it keeps up tho you should visit your vet

Whispered

Id say get a check up to be safe. For your peace of mind more than anything. Then think, has anything changed recently in your home or neighborhood? I've known at least 2 dogs who will dirty on purpose as a form of protest. :eek: dogs who would not usually do it. (NOTE: it may not be a form of protest but very very much seems that way)

I think crating might be the best option. It works well for us and it can be easy enough to train an older dog to take to it too.

chewed

Thanks for the posts guys. I'm going to give it one more night. If no joy in the morning I'll try crating her to see if I can break the habit.

faceman

Dont forget to post back to let us know how you get on.

chewed

faceman wrote: »

Dont forget to post back to let us know how you get on.

I tried her again in the kitchen for one more night, and she still went in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Last night I took out the cage and put her in there. She was happy in there all night and everything was clean this morning so I'm delighted! :pac:

I'm going to leave her in the cage for the next 7 nights and then try her again on her own.

I was really looking for a reason as to why a well trained dog would suddenly regress like that. She appears to be very healthy and things have been very normal in the house over the last few months.

Whispered

TBH if she's happy in the crate I'd continue using it. It's so handy when you are going visiting people and are bringing the dog.

If you are worried, you should really go to the vet, I don't know why a dog would revert to going to the toilet on the floor. Have you changed her food?

chewed

yeah, we may just do that, though the crate is a bit cumbersome in our kitchen!

You may have point about the food! We have changed her food recently. We used to give her dried food, but recently we've bought those pedigree chum sachets. We were worried because she didn't seem to eat much of the dried food. I wonder could that be too much for as she's a small dog? They're the sachets for Adult small breeds.

peasant

And there's the answer to your question ...the change of food is what's "wrong" with your dog.
That stuff from the sachets just goes through her a lot quicker than kibble ...plus there's more of it in volume.

If you want to stick with the sachets (I wouldn't) you'll have to feed her earlier in the day so that she can be "empty" when settling down for the night. Please don't continue to crate her while she's on the sachets ...forcing her to keep it in all night is just cruel

chewed

peasant wrote: »

And there's the answer to your question ...the change of food is what's "wrong" with your dog.
That stuff from the sachets just goes through her a lot quicker than kibble ...plus there's more of it in volume.

If you want to stick with the sachets (I wouldn't) you'll have to feed her earlier in the day so that she can be "empty" when settling down for the night. Please don't continue to crate her while she's on the sachets ...forcing her to keep it in all night is just cruel

With the sachets, we were feeding her first thing in the morning and then she would have a small amount of dried food. She is out in the back nearly all of the day plus a walk in the evening so she has time to relieve herself.

But I think I will stop doing this now and force her back onto the dried food again.

Thanks for the advice.

star-pants

I too would suggest the dried food, it's so much better for them.
If she's hungry she'll eat it, it also makes for better eh.. poos seemingly.

chewed

Hi Everyone. Well we managed to sort out the No.2 problem with our terrier. A combination of dried food (which we've stuck to now) and temporary stay in a cage.

But over the last 2-3 weeks we've noticed that she is now urinating on the kitchen floor during the night! This never used to happen since she was toilet trained. I make sure she's put out last thing at night to go to the toilet, so I'm at a loss as to why this is suddenly happening. Normally she would bark if she was desperate to use the toilet during the night. This is now happening every 3rd night.

The only thing I can think of why she is doing this is that we left her in a boarding kennel for 1 week back in late August.

My only option now is to put her in a cage again for a week to see if this resolves the situation.

Does anyone have any other ideas? I'm thinking that maybe she has an infection, but she appears to be otherwise very healthy.

Whispered

I'd say vet first and foremost to rule out infection, it can be very painful for a dog I'd imagine.

Also, I'm not sure if the idea of crate/no crate/crate is a good one. The idea is not only to keep them confined, it needs to be a safe haven for them too, like a little bolt hole or their "cave". I'd recommend finding a spot and keeping it there indefinately instead of a basket. That way you wont have to put it up and take it down again. Of course if you don't have room what can you do, but if you do have the room, that what I'd suggest. You can get some brilliant looking ones too that's more of a feature than just a crate.

I know that the first instance of going on the floor was most likely the food, but now with this development I'd probably start to worry.If you have any feeling at all that she might have an infection, bring her to the vet and it might be best to mention about the previous problem too.

chewed

Thanks Helena. I think we might try the vet first and rule out any infections.