HELP!!!

He's not going to just 'stop' but you do need to find out WHY he is doing this.  He may be acting out, there may have been a change (diet, exercise level, the amount of time spent with him) etc.
 
Is he alone when he does this or is he left with a spouse/child and they aren't seeing his signals that he has to go out?
 
Why not crate him? 
 
When people say "if he doesn't stop this" I always get this mental picture of some dog saying in a bubble over his head 'Holy cow -- gee they're serious and I guess I'd better shape up!'
 
He's a dog -- he doesn't think that way and I'd bet you big $$ HE thinks what HE is doing is logical.  He's given you four years of his life (his best years incidentally) -- please be open-minded to try to figure out what is *causing* this and how is best to help him.
 
I'm not 'yelling' at you -- just trying to get beyond the tone of your post to what the truth is (and you may not have meant it that way at all -- I'm just trying to communicate is all).  Do some serious thinking about when this started and how it was handled.
 
You can't point to a pile of crap that the dog deposited there 5 hours ago and say "BAD DOG".  First of all -- yep, that's his and he did it ... but he completely identifies with his waste and telling him 'Bad Dog' doesn't tell him the thing you REALLY mean.
 
You aren't saying your poop makes you bad (which is how the dog is gonna 'hear' that and understand it).  What you are REALLY saying is "You picked a crummy place to leave that -- you're supposed to do that OUTside, not in!  Your decision was bad!"
 
Now you can't say that many words to a dog -- you have to retrain them.  You 'move' their waste back outside (paper towel -- it works well).  Take the dog on leash outside, point to it and say "HERE ... not in the house!"
 
You restrain them while you're gone -- literally fix it so he can't screw up. 
 
it's not unfair -- it's FAR more 'fair' to restrain a dog so they can't screw up while you're gone than to get rid of them.  I don't have a clue how you feel about crating but again, I'm just communicating.
 
Let us know more in depth what the situation is and what efforts you've made to try to change this please?

If I didn't have a small child crawling on the floor it wouldn't be such a big deal to me. Nothing has changed around our house. He gets the same amount of attention as he always has. We go for a walk in the morning and a jog at night.

If he were to have an accident after I was away from the house for more than an hour or so, I would be more understanding. But when I go out to check the mail and come back and he has pooped on the floor, i get very frustrated. Right now it isn't possible for someone to be home with him at all times. My husband is currently deployed, so it is just me to run the house and all the errands. I try to break them up over the week, but with a sick baby, some days we need to be gone for more than an hour.

We have tried crate training him, but he will physically rip the crate apart. And everytime he has ripped a crate apart, he has gotten injured in the process. He is a very strong dog. And it rips my heart apart to think about getting rid of him, but I need to think about the health of my daughter.

I have had the dog examined by our vet to see if there is anything physically wrong that would cause him to do this. But the vet found nothing wrong with him. We feed him the best food that we can find.

I have tried moving the poop outside and showing him where he should go, but that isn't working. I am not sure if I should just start walking outside, waiting a minute and then coming back in and praising him for not pooing on the floor.

With dogs that I have had in the past, they would always have a spot in the house that they would always soil. But this dog doesn't have "his spot" he will go anywhere. I have tried confining him to the laundry room, but when I do that, he will scratch at the door and damage it.

If you have any advice it would be much appreciated.

are you giving him anything to do when you crate him??
Kongs work great. Stuff them with treats or put peanut butter in it and freeze it (I'd even do plain yogurt if your dog likes that). It's safe to give and it might keep him busy.

When you were crate training him, did you only put him in the crate when you left to go somewhere, or were you ever just putting him the crate while you were there and perhaps tried leaving the room?


I know that you have the health of your daughter to think of, but crate training (like any training) can take time.

Have you ever taken him to obedience classes?

He's not having ANY other behaviorial issues that you know of? Perhaps acting nervous or skiddish around anyone?

Is he neutered?

Sorry, I'm trying to ask as many questions as possible.

He is neutered. I have spent years working with him. He got his Canine Good Citizen award last year. He has been trained like crazy!!! I am not sure if he is acting out because my husband is gone. He is my dog, and I am the one that does all the walking and playing with him. But that is the only thing that I can think of that is different. I have tried giving him different toys and kongs filled with different things. We tried crate training for about a year, but we were buying new crates every week or so because he would rip them apart. My husband would rather not have him in a crate while we are gone incase of someone breaking in to the house, but if I can get him to stay in a crate I would do it. When we first started crate training him we would put him in there and leave the room for a minute and then come back and praise like crazy and let him out and then do it again and gradually build up time. But anything more than an hour and he would get restless and tear it apart.

I have a feeling you said a mouthful when you said your husband was 'deployed' -- CHANGE.  In a big way, too.  Sounds to me like this dog has decided he gets your attention when he poops.  So you have to change that.
 
and if you've had a sick baby, and all things rest on your shoulders (I'm more than a little familiar with the military scenario).
 
Not every crate is made for a pit.  You absolutely can't put a pit in a Wal-mart crate, nor can you usually use a vari-kennel.  But they DO make crates strong enough for a pit, but you do have to do training while you do it.  Since you ARE home a good deal you can do that.
 
Crating needs to be done at small intervals -- much like what you describe (and DO what you described as well -- a 2 pronged approach to this --both to give the dog **attention** when he does NOT poop and positive attention when he successfully completes 1/5 of ONE second in the crate -- FINE!
 
You start small, and you work up.  At times when you put him in the crate don't leave at all, but rather bring your lunch and the baby's into the same room- and hand feed the dog some of his kibble thru the wires of the crate (definitely a wire crate for this dog with at least two latches on the crate door AND a metal pan).  In other words you don't want the dog to pair being crated ALWAYS with you leaving.  But rather -- FOOD is a good thot.  Take his dinner and mix it with a bit of canned food, shove it in a Kong and plug the hole with more wet food and FREEZE it.  Starting now he gets all his food IN his crate.  (the crate in the bedroom is the best place actually -- so you might want to put down a sheet of plastic UNDER the crate just in case there is a spill.
 
In addition to the above, my guess is also the dog's probably had a bit of change physically -- a dog doesn't usually have the ability to POOP any old time it wants to.  My guess is the dog is anticipating when you go out thinking "oh I gotta go" and then when you leave without him it's on his mind so he goes. 
 
You may have to change your schedule enough so that you take the dog out *before* you go out.
 
Are you walking this dog every time?  Can you give him more outside time some way -- a kennel run probably isn't an option (but boy would it be a good thing for this dog)  and I wouldn't want you to leave this dog chained, but putting the dog on a leash outside while you go get the mail might simplify a LOT of things.  So might taking the dog with you when you do short hops.
 
My guess is this dog is perhaps quite bonded to your husband?  How do you generally feel about how much the dog respects you?  Have you ever tried "Nothing In Life Is Free"??  That would be my other suggestion -- that can completely re-establish the relationship  -- I have a feeling this dog is 'demanding' attention and he gets attention, all be it NEGATIVE attention, when he poops but it's attention. 
 
If you go to Google and cut/paste in the following you will get a lot of hits:
 
"Nothing In Life Is Free" dog training
 
You'll get a lot of different but very similar helps -- it's difficult to implement at first because we don't realize how often we actually 'give in' to the dog at first.  But it's a great thing to implement even with a baby around -- the dog has to see the baby as an alpha as well. 
 
And speaking of that -- is there any possibility that the dog is choosing places your daughter has set in her diaper??
 

See? Callie is awesome, Randi.
Now the sappy pit bull owner in me is going to come out.
PLEASE stick around here and even join [linkhttp://www.pitbullforum.com]the pit bull forums right here.[/link] They can probably suggest to you what crates have worked for their dogs.
You'll get help and various other things to try and fix this problem. I do not know much about training and dealing with this type of problem. But I can say to you, PLEASE don't get rid of him. Try everything everyone suggests until you find something that works. Pit bulls are SOOOO hard to rehome.

I also agree that it HAS GOT TO be something to do with your husband not being there.

Big question not answered -- is he neutered?  (if not probably your husband doesn't want him to be but he will be impossible to re-home responsibly otherwise and this could SOOOOO be a marking issue!!)  Get that done first (and they have to have a vet on base housing I'd think, right?)

He was neutered at 4 months. We bought him from a guy that was training him to be a fighter, but Bounty is not aggressive in anyway, so the guy was going to use him to train other dogs (by putting a muzzle on him and letting another dog go at him). Because we knew he probably would be IMPOSSIBLE to train if he wasn't neutered given the circumstaces, we had him neutered ASAP.

He and my husband aren't that bonded actually. Bounty and I have been joined at the hip since we got him. For years I brought him with me to work. I understand that Bounty misses my husband, but in the past year, my husband has been gone just as much as he has been home and Bounty never acted up this way before.

I would love to take him with me when I run errands. But most of the errands that I run are on a military base and they ticket you for leaving a dog unattended in the car.

I really don't want to get rid of him! That would break my heart. (We lost 2 dogs in a matter of 2 days last year and he is the only one I have left)

The kennels that we have bought in the past weren't your run of the mill kennels. We bought the ones that were designed for strong dogs. But Bounty can get them apart in 2 seconds. I will try a new kennel and try getting him acclimated to it with me in the room.

I just realized that this whole thing started when I had to bring my daughter to a specialist and needed to board Bounty over night. This was the first time that he has been boarded in years. We generally try to take him on all trips with us. But given the circumstances, I couldn't bring him with this time. We were just relocated a couple months ago and I haven't found anyone that I trust to watch Bounty for me (other than this awsome boarding facility). Could it be that he is anxious that we are leaving him again because of the boarding? The people at the facility said that he was fine while he was there and didn't show any signs of stress when he came home (he ate normally and didn't lick his feet like he does when he is stressed).

Before you embark in any serious behavior mod, please do take Bounty to the vet. There are organic reasons for this kind of behavior in a previously trained dog and I'd want to rule those out before embarking on a big retraining project.

I took him to the vet a week ago to rule out any physical problems that could be causing it. The vet couldn't find anything that would be causing it to happen. The vet gave him a clean bill of health and stated that he was in great shape and look very very good.

I am hoping that it has something to do with him becoming anxious when I leave because of the recent boarding. That way with some work he will realize that when we leave the house that we will be returning shortly.

This may be your problem. 

You are not understanding.  You are frustrated.  And now you are considering removing him from the only home that he has known.

Dogs pick up on such things.

He associates pooping with these feelings.

 He doesn't want to poop when you are around. So, he waits until you leave.

Maybe it started with an accident and you scolded him, became upset, made a big deal out of it?

ORIGINAL: Randi596
 

If he were to have an accident after I was away from the house for more than an hour or so, I would be more understanding. But when I go out to check the mail and come back and he has pooped on the floor, i get very frustrated.

I try not to show him that I am frustrated. I don't scolled him for accidents after the fact. I don't want him to associate me coming home to me being angry with him. I simply put him in another room (generally him poops in the living room or kitchen, so I put him in the laundry room where his bed and food are) and clean up the mess, take a minute to calm down, and let him back out into the rest of the house. I can tell when I walk in the house that he knows he has done something wrong and I don't want to add to that by making him scared of me.

Every time you leave the house, even if you just go to the mailbox, crate him.

If you go to the car, crate. If you go to the trashcan, crate. If you get the mail, crate.

That's the best thing you can do. And at this point, it sounds like your only option.