How can I stop our 18 month old female dog peeing and pooping in the house indiscriminately?

Asked by rexpresso (922

) September 12th, 2011

We have an 18 month old female labrador and she pees and poops all over.

Poop has been more rare for a while but seems to have returned in full vigor.

Just today she peed in the house three or four times.

She goes out three times a day, often in long walks.

I don’t live with the family, so I’m not involved in her education.

It’s often said that dogs are a reflection of their owners, well, my mom can sometimes act the love-you-hate-you type and I suspect that goes on the dog too.

She doesn’t seem submissive at all to me (I read that submissive dogs tend to eliminate out of deference, so to speak), but she definitely is the very excitable type. That said, I do not see a clear connection between her elimination events and any prior excitement or anything of note really.

It’s just like randomly we go around the house and it’s ‘oh shit she did it again’.

Then everybody is pissed and nobody knows what to do anymore, apparently.

I feel like the education has been the best possible, she even went to a puppy school.

But the problem persists and I wonder if it’s going to subside.

I would like your feedback on this and by the way, feel free to shoot non-orthodox ideas for medications that could help. I know this might shock some, but honestly, I’d rather the dog be medicated with whatever works, than herself being subject to this messy situation. I mean, sometimes they punish her, sometimes they ignore. And the dog is subject to the moods of the family (parents and two brothers) and I don’t think it will be easy to deal with the family moods. So medication is a path I’m willing to present to them.

By the way, the vet says everything is fine. But everytime she’s locked in the place where she sleeps after peeing on the floor and cries, whatever that means for a dog, I’m annoyed, and I don’t think everything is alright.

Thanks everyone.

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7 Answers

Sounds like she needs to go out more than three times a day.
Have you considered crate training?

ANef_is_Enuf (26839

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You need to look in to crate training. But, as with anything, the results will only equal the effort put in. I will guarantee that the problem is not with the dog, but with the individuals doing the “training”. And there is no medication that’s going to replace training.

syz (35938

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Syz took the words right out of my mouth. The problem is with the owners.

Dogs are like children and in their training and discipline CONSISTENCY is the key.

Without that you’ve got the potential for an extremely confused and neurotic dog.

They’re fortunate it’s a lab (which is not an aggressive breed) as inconsistency can also cause potential aggression issues.

I would suggest buying them a good dog training book. Two I would recommend are books by Brian Kilcommon or any of the training books/videos by the Monks of New Skete.

Both have a long time excellent reputation. But if they aren’t going to read the book and apply it consistently, you should seriously consider finding the dog a good home.

Buttonstc (27605

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Hey, sounds like my dog. He kept peeing on the carpet all of a sudden when for years he had never had a problem. Bring her to the vet, thats what we sis with my dog. Turns out he had an infection or these crystals in his pee. He got put on antibiotics and now he is fine

If it doesnt seem to be medical…it could just be that your dog really needs some training.

mcsnazzy (434

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House training a dog takes a commitment to actually train it. As stated above, crate training helps but you need to be able to consistently reward the dog for eliminating outdoors.

tranquilsea (17775

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Don’t know if this will help right now, but through a series of happy events, we’ve got our dog to pee and poop on command. First, she only goes out a certain door to do her potty. There’s no fun time out there; it’s just for #1 and #2 and we repeat “go potty”...“go potty” until she does. When that happens, we praise her immediately and say, “Good dog! Go potty!”

When we walk her we always go out the other door. Now she will only pee and poop on command.

snowberry (27649

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Now she started to pee on her bed. Nobody knows what to do anymore. Exams are okay. Vet says it’s her personality. She’s quite crazy indeed…

rexpresso (922

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