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I have a 10 pound Shih Tzu who has been trained to use a wee wee pad on a crate tray as her potty. She does not like to get her feet dirty and will go next to the pad once in a while if I didn't notice it needed changing (I change it between 3 to 4 times a day)but this is very infrequent.

Lately though, she has been pooing in the dining room which is 3 feet from her pad. Not all the time, but frequently enough. She is given a time-out when this happens. She knows because she will put her ears and head down and go into her crate (she is never locked in her crate, but gated in a small area) I thought maybe it was because she thought the pad was dirty but she even did it with a new one.

I should also mention that she has a problem with eating her poo on occasion. I will smell her breath before giving her a special treat for pooing. She gets really excited and happy when she gets praise and a treat. We will find the poo in her bed and know she was eating it so I will withhold treats and give her a timeout. (Of course, there are the times she is kissing my face before I find that she ate some...or how I know she ate some. YUCK!!) I wondered if this had something to do with the dining room potty but she doesn't seem to eat the poo from there. AND it's not all the time.

I was thinking of blocking off the dining room to see if the cycle could be broken. I clean it up with Petastic enzymes so no lingering smell. I try to watch her to catch her before it happens but because she doesn't have to ask to go, I'm not always there for it. Any other suggestions?
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Dee and Ayla

>>I have a 10 pound Shih Tzu who has been trained to use a wee wee pad on a crate tray as her potty. She does not like to get her feet dirty and will go next to the pad once in a while if I didn't notice it needed changing (I change it between 3 to 4 times a day)but this is very infrequent.
>>
>>Lately though, she has been pooing in the dining room which is 3 feet from her pad. Not all the time, but frequently enough. She is given a time-out when this happens. She knows because she will put her ears and head down and go into her crate (she is never locked in her crate, but gated in a small area) I thought maybe it was because she thought the pad was dirty but she even did it with a new one.
>>
>>I should also mention that she has a problem with eating her poo on occasion. I will smell her breath before giving her a special treat for pooing. She gets really excited and happy when she gets praise and a treat. We will find the poo in her bed and know she was eating it so I will withhold treats and give her a timeout. (Of course, there are the times she is kissing my face before I find that she ate some...or how I know she ate some. YUCK!!) I wondered if this had something to do with the dining room potty but she doesn't seem to eat the poo from there. AND it's not all the time.
>>
>>I was thinking of blocking off the dining room to see if the cycle could be broken. I clean it up with Petastic enzymes so no lingering smell. I try to watch her to catch her before it happens but because she doesn't have to ask to go, I'm not always there for it. Any other suggestions?
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>>Dee and Ayla

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Indoor potty locations often result in dogs who are never completely housetrained. She doesn't actually "know she has done wrong"--this is submissive dog behavior because she knows you are mad. It doesn't help the training process, and in fact it interferes with training. Eating the poop is common, too. If you must use an indoor potty location, you may never be able to give your dog the run of the house.

You can find how-to instructions on housetraining at the link below my signature. If you want to continue the indoor thing, you might find the information on the Purina site helpful. I think it's www.doglitter.com.

The popularity of indoor locations for dogs to eliminate is causing a massive epidemic of dogs failing in their housetraining. It is tragic, considering how many of them lose their homes over it. Owners have been seriously misled by companies selling these products, giving the impression that litter box training for dogs is the same as cats. It's not. Cats have the instinct for it, but dogs do not.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

Kathy,
Do you think that for some dogs it just clicks? My mom has a min pin and she never has accidents in the house. Most of the time she goes outside. But my mother does have a potty box for her in the bathroom. If no one is home Jessie will use it. Just wondering if my mom got lucky.

>>Kathy,
>>Do you think that for some dogs it just clicks? My mom has a min pin and she never has accidents in the house. Most of the time she goes outside. But my mother does have a potty box for her in the bathroom. If no one is home Jessie will use it. Just wondering if my mom got lucky.

>>>>>>>>>>>

Maybe, Jaime, or maybe the situation that throws her habits out of whack just hasn't come up yet. It also has to do with how much house freedom a dog has, how the house is laid out, a bunch of things. Often the dog does well for a year or so, and then problems start. By that time it's too late to lay an early foundation of using the outdoors.

It's a plus for your mother's dog to have two substrates, too, indoors and out. That is ideal, since many dogs for various reasons do have to use papers as very young puppies. If you include the outdoors from as early an age as possible, it remains an option later. If you don't keep a dog stuck exclusively pottying indoors for more than a matter of weeks, chances for full housetraining are better.

And it also depends on how people go about it, how much they upset the dog in the name of housetraining. When there is punishment or any fear associated with housetraining, it greatly complicates the process and in many cases ruins it completely. Sounds like your mom has a lot of dog sense.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

Ayla is over a year old. She has full run of the house and will hold it all night or if she does not have access to a pad. If she is on the second floor, she will give little barks at the stairs to let me know she has to go.

This poo problem is a recent occurance. Less then 2 weeks. It doesn't happen every time she poos. For example, she poos twice a day; maybe in the morning she will go on the pad, then at night in the dining room. Couple days she will go on the pad, then surprise me in the dining room the next morning.
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Dee and Ayla

I gated off the dining room and watched while she went. When she was finished, she ran away from the pad. When I looked, the poo was....3 feet away from the pad in the kitchen. I knew she did it where she was suppose to because I saw her. So what was it? She will sometimes chew my hair in the morning before I am fully awake. The hair was breaking after the fact, as she was running through the dining room.

Now I feel bad for giving her a time out.
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Dee and Ayla