Toilet training

Species: dog | Category: behaviour | Submitted: 21-Sep-07 12:14PM | viewed 3956 times

Violetta asks about Benjy (dog - Jack Russell Cross, M) (age 0 years, 10 months):

My 9 month old dog is still not toilet trained. We live in flats and I take him out as much as possible, he will generally urinate outside but usually does his poos back upstairs. He mainly does this when we shut him in the hallway whilst we have dinner, at night and after his morning walk whilst I get ready for work. I really don't know what to do about this and it is really getting me down. Help!

Samantha says: It does sound like a difficult problem. Firstly consider if your dog has any problems with his faeces- are they loose or runny? Does he have problems with constipation? If so get these problems sorted out first- he may benefit from a visit to the vet or change of diet if these things are a problem. Feeding a good quality diet which is highly digestible may also decrease the fecal volume- which might help.

Your dog is also still quite young and may not be able to control his urges too well- one of my own dogs was not fully house trained until he was a year old when I lived in a flat. This was because he suffered from bowel problems anyway and he did not have good access to a garden at the times he needed it. I know how difficult it can be.

Try to time his walks so that he is most likely to need to defecate while he is outside. It sounds as if he needs to go in the morning and evening/night and not too much during the day. If this is the case it may be related to his feeding times. Do you feed him after his walks? Often the act of eating will make defecation more likely so always feed him before his walks. He might need to go out first thing in the morning- when he is likely to need to urinate, then come back to have breakfast, after which he could be taken for his main walk before you go to work. Likewise if you feed him early in the evening and then take him out for a couple of walks just after feeding and before you go to bed. It is just a suggestion, but if you try to work things out with his timings of eating and walking it may help.

The other thing to consider is if anything has happened which would make him frightened or nervous of defecating outside. It could be something as simple as a car backfiring and scaring him once when he was passing faeces outside- often dogs are scared of really strange things- just like children can be.

If nothing seems to be working it would be worth finding a good animal behaviourist in your area who will be able to take a detailed history and hopefully help to overcome these difficulties. Do it sooner rather than later because the longer these problems go on the more difficult they are to sort out generally.

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