Loosing his 'house broke' training

    • Puppy

    Loosing his 'house broke' training

    Bailey is 1/2 Shih Tzu, 1/4 Lhasa, 1/4 poodle, 24 pounds, and is 7 years old. He was neutered at 3 months and was totally house broke. Now he will  (every 3-4 days) deficate in the house, so far no urinating. We take him out morning and evening.  We tried 3 times a day.  He use to tell us if he needed to go out more often (during day or night). This has happened minutes after we come in.  We are home when this happens. Even in the same room. We have not caught him in the act. But, quickly smell within minutes, and have scolded him. He acts totally indifferent. I should add, when we take him out, he does both.

    We have a small pen (3' X 6';) that we put him in. He will usually urinate in 30 seconds, and 2-3 minutes to deficate. Normally he will bark before he deficates. When he finishes I bring him in and give him praise and a treat.

    When he was given his last rabbies and distemper shot, the vet assistant gave them one after the other. When I brought him home, he would have shaking episodes and need to be held. He also would be laying on the floor and jump up and turn around like he had been kicked. The shaking has almost stopped (only when he is nervous) but his jolting happens several times a day.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Any change in potty habits needs to be addressed by a vet.  A 7 year old dog who has been house trained all along is not going to suddenly start pooping inside unless there is a real issue.

    Scolding, by the way, is generally pretty useless.  Dogs have a far different view of poop than we do....they see it as GOOD stuff, really valuable stuff and if you scold he'll just start hiding it better.  I think what I would do is a simple "eh eh, we go OUTSIDE to go potty", or whatever you call the act of eliminating, and then TAKE him and the poop in a paper towel and put BOTH where you want him to go.

    But, yeah, do make an appointment for a vet check.  The after affects of the vaccine are concerning too.