His poop is becoming a really big problem

[Husky90]

Firstly, hello, I am a new user to this forum and I am seeking help towards this issue, don't judge the topic title, read what I have to say and then hopefully you can help me fix this problem. :S

I have a male golden retriever, his name is buddy and he is about 2 years and a bit. He is a small dog, but he's growing up and maturing. I got him at about the age of 8 months so he's been with me for about 1 year and a half. Now, I had very little knowledge of house training dogs at that time, so I read a few books, search forums and found a lot of help, within about 4-5 months he was house trained and continued to do his waste in his usual spot, a small section beside our garage.

Now since I live in the Middle east, our homes are very different to other culture types, I have a back yard but it does not have any grass patches or anything, it's simply concrete with a few exceptional sections to grow flowers and other plants. So we decided to move his pooping area there instead of such a clogged space, a long time ago.

This can become potentially a very large problem since, concrete can leave some marks when the waste is cleaned up, so our backyard is regularly cleaned and hosed with water.

Since he poops anywhere in this concrete back yard, it can create a very uncomfortable atmosphere, since that section of the house is usually very dirty and waste is almost always present, I am the middle brother of a family of 5, and I tend to clean his waste mostly, not out of chores, it's just a matter of me feeling uncomfortable and I like to help around a lot.

I take my dog on walks every day and I keep him in shape and when we're out he's always peeing and marking his territory but that's not the issue, sometimes IF I'm lucky and he hasn't pooped all day, he will poop outside.

So what I REALLY need from you guys is to help me out, Is there ANY way, that I can get my dog to understand that the soil area in my backyard is the section for pooping? or that the regular walks that we take should give him the full opportunity to take a poop?

I always praise him when we are walking and he does his business but usually when we are out and I am walking him it's like he's in a different world and doesn't respond to me at all.

P.S.

When I was housetraining him at a young age, I'd leave newspapers in that small area and I would wait for him to do his business, when he would, I'd praise him, so I tried placing newspapers all over the concrete area, two newspapers were occupied with his waste, so I cleaned it up, the next day, he had pooped somewhere else on the concrete, despite that there were newspapers EVERYWHERE, practically.

I'm really sorry for talking so much, Thank you guys for your time

Much help would be appreciated.

- Hussam Zaghal

 

[Buddy'sParents]

Hmm. I've never had to train an adult before, so I have no idea how likely this is to help. But this is what I would try, seeing as though it worked with my dogs when they were pups.

Put him on a leash. Take him out to do his business and when he does it, call it whatever and praise him. For instance, our dogs are trained to pee and poop on command and we use the words, piddles and poopers. OK, stop laughing now.

As soon as they start to go, label the action, piddles, pee, whatever you want to call it treat the dog and praise. Do the same for both elimination processes. Continue doing this. Do this on walks and in your yard.

Oops, I think I skipped a step... if you're in your yard, stand in an area, so that you are in the middle of the area he is allowed to go in and give him the full reign of the leash in that area. You stand in one spot and he is allowed to go as far as the leash lets him.

I really don't know how likely this is to work with an adult dog. But it's something to try. We have some great knowledgeable people and I'm sure they will have some great ideas. Good luck and welcome to the forums!

 

[Husky90]

Hey there, Firstly thank you for your response and warm welcome

Now you say I should label the action he's doing, do you mean that while he is peeing for example, I should look at him and see "pee, pee, pee" continuously until he finishes etc..?

My dog is trained, he is housebroken and can control his bladder, the only thing I fear is that our backyard might have become his number 1 pooping spot then pooping during walks, but in the contrary I want him to poop more on his walks.

The other strange thing with this is that his poops during the day are very random, so I can never know when he will want to poop for me to take him for a walk. I usually take him after dinner and he does it sometimes, I just took him for a walk and he pooped on the park area outside, so I'm happy there, but I arrived home, left him outside for a few minutes, I came back to check on him and I found some poop on the back yard. WHY?!

I just want to know, why his main preferance is out back yard rather than going outside, he really loves grass so he's enthusiastic but we have no grass on our backyard so why is he so hesitant?

Could it be that he is punishing me or getting back at me for keeping him outside?

During a specific month my dad made a new household rule that he would have to be kept outside the house most of the times and he could occasionaly be bought into the household for an hour or such but has to be taken out in the end.

Throughout this rule, I noticed that he would always bang on the door like he wanted in so badly..

Maybe this is a cause of this issue?

Help me here :S

 

[Buddy'sParents]

Hmm. I am so not a professional.

As far as the labeling, I would just say it once, like "good piddles" or whatever...

I've found that my dogs are likely to eliminate after some exercise. Is there any type of schedule that he's on? And I hardly think he's "getting back" at you.

 

[Chaoslillith]

Let me clarify. Your English is excellent but I just want to make sure I am clear.

He is housebroken and is going outside in the backyard. However you want him to go on the walks more instead of in the backyard due to cleaning issues?

I would suggest taking him on walks more if possible. Like every two hours, when you take him out do the same type of training you did to get him housebroken. Take him to the same area outside of the house every time and make that his potty area. You can choose to label the action, Go potty and when he goes he gets rewarded. Since the idea of getting him to go in one area seems to have worked pretty well before use it for training him to go outside.

Remember though that if you want him to only eliminate on walks it will take him awhile to understand that he is no longer allowed to go in the backyard.

If you want him to poop in ONE spot only in the backyard, take him on the leash to that spot and only allow him to poop there. If you take him outside every two hours or so to that spot, stand there with him for 15 minutes and he poops there praise him like crazy. Leave the poop there for a bit for the area to get the scent into it then clean it up later. Repeat process until he gets it.

 

[Husky90]

Let me clarify. Your English is excellent but I just want to make sure I am clear.

He is housebroken and is going outside in the backyard. However you want him to go on the walks more instead of in the backyard due to cleaning issues?

I would suggest taking him on walks more if possible. Like every two hours, when you take him out do the same type of training you did to get him housebroken. Take him to the same area outside of the house every time and make that his potty area. You can choose to label the action, Go potty and when he goes he gets rewarded. Since the idea of getting him to go in one area seems to have worked pretty well before use it for training him to go outside.

Remember though that if you want him to only eliminate on walks it will take him awhile to understand that he is no longer allowed to go in the backyard.

If you want him to poop in ONE spot only in the backyard, take him on the leash to that spot and only allow him to poop there. If you take him outside every two hours or so to that spot, stand there with him for 15 minutes and he poops there praise him like crazy. Leave the poop there for a bit for the area to get the scent into it then clean it up later. Repeat process until he gets it.

Wow, thank you so much, that clarifies everything, yes your question was correct, that is exactly what I am looking for, it's mainly about hygiene issues.

Thank you so much for your support, I understand what needs to be done and I will follow it. Once again, thank you Chaoslillith and Buddysparents you have helped me a lot

I will post back for any news and if I have any more questions.

Thanks

 

[lizzybeth727]

During a specific month my dad made a new household rule that he would have to be kept outside the house most of the times and he could occasionaly be bought into the household for an hour or such but has to be taken out in the end.

Throughout this rule, I noticed that he would always bang on the door like he wanted in so badly..

Maybe this is a cause of this issue?

I agree, he's not doing this because he's getting back at you. He is, though, banging on the door because he wants in. Dogs are very social and have a hard time being outside by themselves.

 

[Husky90]

Just one moer thing to add, it's quite strange of my dog but, I seem to notice that despite the fact that he's fed once in the morning at 9:00AM and once again at night 7:00PM all his poops seem to be very random, it's a strange thing.

My mum tried to create a schedule of some sort detailing the times where he needs to go, so she monitored him during the first day and the second day, it was completely different despite his feeding times staying similar.

This is really strange to me, this morning I woke up and I found 2 poops outside our yard, so I asked my brother and he said that he had just pooped those about 1 hour ago, but meh, I don't know.

I'll take into account what you guys said and I'll work on walking him every 2 hours or so to make things clear.

Are there any other tips or methods I should know about?