WARNING: This post is about poop.
I wrote about pee in a previous blog post Anything Vertical. Consider this yet another dose of reality blogging.
Outside in her yard, English Bulldog Harriet sniffs and circles and grunts and squats, then abruptly rethinks the coordinates. Or maybe she gets distracted. Or decides she really doesn’t have to go. Or forgets what she is doing.
Whatever the case, she doesn’t complete the transaction outdoors. Inside, however, her business is hastily deposited under the dining room table. On the rug. Again.
Yard debris is Chocolate Lab Cooper’s snack smorgasbord. Twigs, mulch, acorns, the odd gum wrapper or apple core, and his own poop. Fresh, frozen, day-old, flattened by the lawn mower – he’s not picky.
Pekingese Freda is not a happy camper when her owner closes the bathroom door to take a shower. Freda leaves a Tootsie Roll-sized piece of her displeasure just outside the door. Once, when Freda’s owner had a male guest stay the night, Freda delivered her comments on her owner’s bed.
Diego is a 6 month old Great Pyrenees terrified of his own poop. His owner yelled at him after finding a pile on the kitchen floor and now Diego surreptitiously eliminates behind the living room sofa, then runs and hides.
So, are these housebreaking issues or marking issues?
If your puppy or dog is truly confused about where the canine restroom is, then it’s a housebreaking issue. For advice on the basics of potty training your dog, see:
If your dog seems to be making a statement about your place in the social hierarchy of your family, then it could be a marking issue. Dogs will mark with their pee and/or their poop. Boy dogs do it, so do girl dogs, and even dogs that are spayed or neutered will do it.
This is a more complicated problem as well as a frustrating – and messy – one. Sometimes following the same guidelines for housebreaking can help get your dog back on track.
For help with coprophagia, or stool eating, click HERE to read VetInfo’s suggestions.
And of course, always check with your veterinarian to be sure that your dog’s poop problems are not related to a physical ailment or disease.
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