Star messing in the house

[sugarkane74]

Not sure if this is the right place to discuss and ask for advice but here goes.

About 3 times in the last week or 2 Star has messed (poo'd) in my stepdaughter bedroom, she did it this morning. Hubby lets her out the back when he gets up then lets her come up to our bedroom while I'm still in bed.

This morning she was on the bed while I was asleep and wee'd on my hubbys side of the bed while i slept.

We've no idea why she is doing this now and I keep thinking maybe it's coz she knows I'm pregnant and doesn't like it or if if has something to do with her SM or as hubby says she's just being a naughty dirty dog.
Has anyone had anything similiar?? It's not like she's doing it every time she needs to go and seems to happen when it's wet weather but as this is England not much I can change about that. She's normally really good but don't know if something has triggered it off or if she is just being naughty.
She's not gonna be allowed upstairs for the forseeable future but am worried as in 2/3 weeks time our baby will be here and really don't want to have to be worrying about the dog messing in the house while there is so much other stuff going on.

[sarahso]

im not sure if this is the same thing, but we have similar problems with Thor our akita.

He will mess in my sons room if he gets the chance to go upstairs, i think & have been advised that this is a pure dominance thing between Thor and my son, he thinks he is higher in the pack than my son.

Thor also used to do it when we had dogs in on foster, he used to mess right in front of the tv, this would stop after a couple of days.

be thankful its only cavy pooh your picking up not akita!

[Karlin]

oooh, am not a fan of dominance theories -- see the post recently on dominance, also Ian Dunbar, in this section -- I think these theories lead to problem training approaches that typically make problems worse (though sometimes better -- simply becaue often the advice is to better train the dog and limit access to the places that cause problems... ).. Dunbar though would argue strongly that dogs are not planning to take over the house and outrank people, especially not children -- they just do not think this way (and clearly understand humans are not dogs in their pack. My dogs do not try to outrank the four cats nor do they fight with them for rank positions which surely they would do if they seriously saw everything living in the house as part of a giant mxed-species pack... ).

However peeing on beds is VERY common -- simply because there are rich smells there from sleeping people and dogs like to mark on such smells. Many animals also love to wee or poop on such a nice soft surface. The best solution is management -- to simply keep doors closed or a babygate in place and limit access. I have cats who have also peed in beds. Very, very very common.

When any animal starts to pee or poo in unexpected places inside be sure to get them to a vet first -- this is often a sign of illness, like a urinary tract infection (which can also affect pooping in unwanted places). Sudden and odd toiletting problems are almost always in my experience with dogs and rescues, a medical problem. Could be the SM; maybe pain isn't adequately controlled? Sounds like perhaps also she needs to be taken out and to be sure she has gone in the morning before being allowed into beds. Most dogs are not happy at having to go inside once housetrained so I'd be looking into possible medical issues first. She isn't being naughty -- she simply has to go and either cannot hold herself or feels she needs to go inside for some other reason. Naughtiness implies she knows this is wrong and is deliberately doing it -- which they just do not do.

[sarahso]

oooh, am not a fan of dominance theories -- see the post recently on dominance, also Ian Dunbar, in this section -- I think these theories lead to problem training approaches that typically make problems worse (though sometimes better -- simply becaue often the advice is to better train the dog and limit access to the places that cause problems... ).. Dunbar though would argue strongly that dogs are not planning to take over the house and outrank people, especially not children -- they just do not think this way (and clearly understand humans are not dogs in their pack. My dogs do not try to outrank the four cats nor do they fight with them for rank positions which surely they would do if they seriously saw everything living in the house as part of a giant mxed-species pack... ).

i will have a read of that!

there are so many different thoughts & ideas with training. im open to all that helps me learn! - as long as its kind training i might add!
i do limit the rooms the dogs are allowed in - though poppy always manages to worm her way upstairs onto our bed! the other two have never been allowed upstairs unless invited and the doors are left open at night and they dont even try!

will take a look at that post!

sorry for hijacking post!

[lorebringer]

When we first got my Cav boy he would pee on all the beds, both human and dog. This was managed by not giving him the chance to do it (ie. keeping out of bedrooms) and washing the dogs beds with bio washing powder as soon as possible after the pee was done. Slowly, he stopped going for a pee in the dog beds, and his toilet training improved greatly, so we decided to allow him up to the bedrooms again - no peeing on other beds, jsut on our bed (lovely).

He didn't squat (hasn't quite gotten cocking the leg yet!) just sat or lay on the bed and did a pee. We were at our wits end becuase it started to become more frequent, no matter what we did. Eventually I called a trainer who works witht eh charity I foster for (Dogs in Distress). She told me to feed him on the bed becuase dogs will sometimes pee/poo where they sleep (it's a smell thing) but will never, without a doubt, do anything where they eat. We did this for about a week and it worked very well... until we had a string of peeings. We finally figured out that it was certain fabrics that he seemed to like peeing on. So, in combo with feeding him on the bed we stopped using certain sheets and covers, blankets etc. This worked a dream!

I asked the trainer what the story was with the fabric solution and she said it has to do with learned behaviour - somehow, and somewhere, he had learned that it was ok to pee on certain textures (the same theory is applied when we bring young pups out to pee in the grass - they associate peeing with the texture of grass) and by removing these he shouldn't go anymore. We have only had one pee on our bed since we discovered this so we are now happy campers all round! (as opposed to "up to our eyes in washing" campers!)

Btw, we no longer feed him on the bed. We only did this for about a week/10 days but it was enought to get the message across.