Adult dog pooping indoors

Baralis1

Our adult 8 year old staffie has started pooping and peeing indoors. He was let out to the back garden to go toilet this morning but showed no interest in going out. Yet when we came home after lunch, there was a big pile of poop on the living room carpet. Why has he started doing this and what can we do about this?

Jequ0n

Has there been a change in your home/ family? Is there any stress or tension?

Richie_Rich89

Does he seem unwell? Lethargic, and so on?

Cherry Blossom

A sudden loss of toilet training needs an immediate vet visit to determine if there is an underlying cause.

figleaf25

First off, I have to make this clear: never scold your dog for having accidents. It is not the dogs fault. A dog being stubborn, or purposefully evil and pooping indoors on purpose, is a dog who deserves a medal of some sort, because dogs do not have intentional thought like that.

It could be your dogs diet. A lot of the time, when I have clients come to me with pooping issues, it's because they are feeding a low quality kibble. More than one or two poops per day, means the dog is not on the proper diet. Just because a kibble is high quality doesn't mean it's right for the dog. There are dogs who thrive on lower quality kibble, and dogs who don't do well on certain higher quality kibble. I'd like to know what you feed?

shanos

My parent's three cocker spaniels (all brothers) started a bad habit of this recently and are also 8 years old. Two of them do not get on to the point where they fight each other so have to be separated all the time. They have visited the vet as they are old to check why they are pooing inside but personally I think it is attention seeking in their case and marking territory. My mother has little authority with them so they tend to do it when she is around the house. Recently I took care of them for a week while my parents were away and they didn't do it once inside all week!

Baralis1

There has been a change recently as he is actually my girlfriends dog and I have moved in. He gets on great with me and follows me everywhere.

He appears in perfect health and was recently checked. He eats his food but can be slow to eat it as he’s too busy running after us when we are home and also we have a bad habit of giving him tit bits from the table.

Personally I think it’s kind of attention-seeking. He is regular let out for toilet especially before we go anywhere but doesn’t always avail of it.

we both work although slightly staggered hours so he is alone for about 6 hours a day. He would be used to this though and probably longer before my arrival.

He is very fussy with food and will only eat a few brands which we stick to.

He has only pooed inside once and peed 2-3 times so it’s not a big problem yet

tk123

Dogs don’t go to the loo where they shouldn't for attention.. there’s lots of medical reasons it can happen though. Unless it was mentioned at the dogs last checkup/something the vet was aware of I’d be getting it checked out to be safe.

sillysmiles

Personally I think it’s kind of attention-seeking. He is regular let out for toilet especially before we go anywhere but doesn’t always avail of it.

As there has been a significant change in his home environment and if any medical issues have been ruled out, then you need to take him outside, rather than allowing him out and hoping he takes the opportunity. He doesn't know now is his chance for hours he is just trying to get back inside as quickly as possible rather than going to the loo. Is he not getting a walk in the morning before you are both going to work?

Baralis1

How do you tell a dog when he needs to go to the loo that you won’t be back for a while?

He’s let out for a run around an enclosed garden for 20 min in the morning and brought for a good walk in the evening. The incidents occurred at the weekend when we went somewhere during the day.

He’s been thoroughly checked recently, shows no signs of ill health and his poo is perfect.

it may just have been an isolated incident or series of incidents where he was caught out as we were coming and going a bit that weekend. He was allowed out and called to go do his business but maybe he ran back in without doing it. i guess we’ll just have to watch him more carefully in future

sillysmiles

I think instead of "allowing him out" you need to go out with him. That way you know if he's gone and he's not trying to get back in to the house without focussing on going to the loo.