[mathman]

Hi all,

This is my first post to any of the i-love-dogs forums, so I guess a brief intro is in order prior to launching into my question.

I am an IT consultant and mathematician from Melbourne, Australia. Although I am a dog lover, I currently do not have my own dog due to my current rental situation, although I am trying to change this.

A good friend of mine has a shih-tzu poodle cross (a shoodle) that is 1.5 years old. From time to time, my friend has to travel for his work and is away for a few days at a time. When this happens, I go and stay at his place and look after the dog. The dog and I are great pals and we have bonded together really nicely (but he still knows who his master is !).

This dog has a nasty habit though, and that is from time-to-time he defecates in the house. The timing and placement of his "dumps" makes me almost certain that his problem is behavioral rather than biological (he's been well house-trained).

The "timing" always occurs after he has had a lot of attention, and then all of a sudden he either gets left out of things, or he knows he is going to be left alone for a while. An example of when the former occurs is when my friend's kids pour attention on him for a while, but then turn their attention to playing video games. An example of the latter occurred one time when I was in the shower getting ready to go out (and he knew it).

The "placement" is always on a stretch of brand new carpet !

It's almost as if he is being spiteful when his human companions are not giving him attention. It's also been suggested to me that it is in the breeding of these dogs, apparently shih-tzus come from a line of dogs that many generations ago were treated like royalty in Asia.

Anyway, my friend punishes him fairly harshly by putting him outside and blocking the doggy flap in the back door so he can't get back in. This doesn't seem to deter him though.

Could anyone suggest an alternative means of discouraging this behavior ?

thanks,
Andrew J Fortune,
Melbourne,
Australia

[Lara's mom]

First, hello and welcome!

About the pooping, some dogs take more time to train than others. My border collie X was trained within a couple of days. With my shorty JRT it has been a "struggle." Any sort of "harsh" punishment usually gets you the opposite result from what you want. Harsh just doesn't work, at least in my experience.

I've always tried to "ignore the bad and reward the good". That has worked for me. However, there are a lot of very knowledgeable people in this forum. They may be able to give you better advice.

Timing is also a factor. After eating, the dog will need to poop. Could it be that the dog isn't getting outside enough?

[mathman]

Thanks for replying, Lara's Mom.

I should mention that the dog normally poops in his designated spot outside, and that when he poops inside, it is mere inches away from the doggy flap. So, it still somehow seems "deliberate".

[german sheep]

hi mathman,

lol what a nice little dog.
Yes one could say it has to do with a form of revolt.
This little rebellion has too much! He has so much that he is manipulating the human to his rules. lol

Anyway, my friend punishes him fairly harshly by putting him outside and blocking the doggy flap in the back door so he can't get back in. This doesn't seem to deter him though

this is no solution but the owner MUST want to change something, regardless how fine your thinking is.
But when you change things and you friend does it the old way the poor dog has to find out what is wrong and what is right and because of that its behaviour would get worse.
As result you would maybe get stress with your friend. Please ask him first if he is willing to change something, then it is ok to say somthing to your case.

LG
gs