Why Common Techniques to Stop a Dog Pooping in the House Could Make it Worse
Handling a dog pooping in the house is never easy, whether you come down to it in the morning, or return home from work or shopping to find it waiting for you.
Now, if you are dealing with a pup, that’s okay for a while, and the same applies to an ill or old dog, but when it occurs on a consistent basis, it can suggest a different kind of problem altogether.
Ineffectual Strategies to Stop Dog Pooping
There’s a variety of accepted approaches that may be used when a dog poops in the house, but ironically two of the most commonly used are probably the least effective, and could even make things worse.
The first is to make an enormous fuss and bellow at your dog and scold them to show you are angry with their bad behaviour. But while shouting at your dog could make you feel better, this approach can backfire and essentially make your dog likelier to do it again for the attention they get! That is because some dogs would instead rather have your attention, even if you’re cross, than no attention at all.
The other approach is to rub their noses in it to teach them a lesson. But given what dogs are quite willing to sniff at and even eat, I can’t see this is much of a punishment. This strategy is also unlikely to work if they had done it several hours earlier as a dog lives in the present, so if you come home one or two hours after the event and rub his nose in it, he’s unlikely to relate it to the fact that he should not have done it in the first place.
So Why Is Your Dog Pooping in the House And What Do You Have To Do?
After you disqualify age problems or poor health reasons, we need to look back to a dog’s nature to understand why it could be occuring.
It’s known that dogs will scent mark their territory. In natural settings this is typically done by the leader of the pack for two reasons. The 1st is to scare off possible trespassers and the second’s to give their own pack members a way to find their way back to the den. Remember, dogs use their sense of smell far more than folk so this is an effective system in nature, but is not appreciated in our world!
You might find that the most common place that your dog poops is at a main door to the house, because that’s where you leave from and the external world comes in.
Separating Dog Anxiety From Attention Seeking
Some dogs will poop in the house for the attention they get, despite the fact that it is not going to be positive. They are most likely to do it where you can see them, so the most effective way to react is to take no notice to the dog when it occurs. Don’t look at them directly, or speak to them. Instead put them out of the room where it has happened and clear up without making any fuss. If your dog gets no attention for this behaviour they’ll after a while stop.
However , if your dog only poops when they’re left alone, this points towards separation anxiety in dogs as the cause. Fundamentally, in your dogs panic at not knowing where you have gone, the best they can do is scent mark the house as they’d do in the wild, in the hope you are going to be able to sniff your way back to the den.
Separation anxiety can be more complicated to address than attention seeking behavior, but if you believe this is what’s driving your dog’s behaviour, a good de-sensitisation training programme and lots of patience will stop this occuring. Anxious dogs especially benefit from you being leader of the pack, so find out how you can do that too.
Author Venice Marriott first learnt about dog anxiety with her own rescue dog Sherlock, and has been learning about the effect of anxiety and the most effective methods to reduce it ever since. Get more information on how to stop your dog pooping in the house when you vist her blog.
