I've had my rescue Lurcher (Joe) for 10 years (he's now 11) and been blessed to have relatively no problems. However, last year I was pregnant and gave birth in June. He's absolutely fine with the baby and she thinks he's amazing (he's a Lurcher so doesn't move much so whenever he does do something she's mesmerized by him!). Working part time, my husband and I share child care duties which means there's hardly a time when there's no-one at home but on the oddoccasion we do go out there's now always a present left my Joe! At first it was scratching on the bedroom door trying to get on our bed but now he's poohing in the hallway

Is he incontinent (although he's always been for his daily romp through the forest and then let in the garden before we go out. . .) or is this his way of saying he's not happy being left home alone?

What should I do? Any help would be greatly appreciated

Hi,Indy and Joe.
I am not a dog trainer so,I maybe wrong but when I read about scratching on doors or present left in the house when your family go out,I kind of suspect if your dog "Joe" has separation anxiety issue??

Separation anxiety dog usually urinate or poop when being left out in the house.

If this was the case, you can put Joe in one room and you walk out the room, then 5 seconds later you pop back in with praise and gradually make longer "alone time " for Joe and as a goal he can wait alone with no problem when you actually go out and come back home. Clicker training is great way to teach.

and dog usually don't do their business in where they sleep so,why not crate him? If you can,you can make him tired,then crate him and go out. I find my Corgi sleeping while we are out in the crate. I usually take her out as soon as we back home and she is fine.we also don't crate her too too long though.

Yes, you might want to consider crate training your dog. Since you said that there are only seldom occasions where you leave your dog alone, crate training might work. Let him do his thing before you leave and then place him in his crate.

If you do decide to crate train, which I recommend, make sure you get a crate that is the right size. If it is to big Joe will just poop in it anyway then go sit on the other side. To small, then obviously it will just be uncomfortable.
Keep us posted!