Suddenly pooing in the house....

[higsywigsy]

Dear all - we have a much loved 1 yr old boy called Scooby who has been perfectly well behaved since he was house trained at 4 months. However, over the last week he has taken to pooing on our landing every night.
There has been no change in his routine at all, and no major stressors I can think of.
Does anyone have any advice please about this?
Many thanks in advance

[Oscar 12345]

Hi Rachel, can you give us a bit more info re: what times are you feeding Scooby and does he eat anything between the last meal and bedtime. What time is he going out to toilet and what are his toilet habits? Is he wormed or do you get him checked for worms? Would be helpful to build up a bit more of a picture of your little boy.

[mikegoodson1]

I have a one year old mini Schnauzer girl and although she is house trained, I'm convinced that given the chance, in the night, she may do 'something' inside the house. What we have started doing, is shutting her in our bedroom (along with our three year old mini Schnauzer), so what she tends to do, if she needs to go out, Is scratch the door. This wakes me up and hence I let her out in the garden. I know it's not an ideal solution but I would rather do the half-asleep walk downstairs to let her out, than clean something up before heading off to work!

Would that work for you? Or isn't it practical?

I'm sure the other question would be around why Scooby is going in the house, presumably you are taking him outside (or letting him out) before bedtime for him to sort himself out? Has his diet changed? Have there been any changes in your household that could have unsettled him?

[higsywigsy]

Hi thanks for your replies. We’ve changed his food to Lily’s kitchen prob just before this started happening. He eats at early around 7am then again at 6/7pm. He always goes in the garden before bedtime, and I try to take him on a walk as well - but invariably there are no poos when I take him out. Don’t think keeping him in our bedroom would work unfortunately as Scooby never lets us know when he needs the loo!

[Oscar 12345]

At 1 year old Otto was walked at 7.30am fed at 9am walked either before dinner which he had at 5.30pm or after depending on whether it was dark. He invariably went to toilet on both walks or on rare occasions I had to take him for a longer walk before bed he would do it then. He is now fed raw and pretty much only wants to go in the morning. It is important that Scooby gets in to a good pooing routine and sounds like he should be going to toilet before or after his dinner to ensure that he doesn't want to go in the night. So I would either feed a little earlier in the evening say 5.30 pm and then take him for a good walk around 7pm or take on a good walk just prior to his dinner but if he does not go on either of those walks then another walk before bed and if he still doesn't go I would probably crate by my bed at night until I have the routine sorted.

[zeta1454]

If you think that the change to Lily's Kitchen food happened just before this started, is it possible that the food is passing through Scooby at a different rate or affecting his digestive system differently so he now needs to go later at night?

If the food is a different type or contains ingredients that were not in his previous food, it may be the reason for the issue. Lily's Kitchen is a good brand of food so no need to change necessarily but it might be worth considering feeding earlier (or later ?) to see if you can catch the optimum time for when Scooby needs to go. Do you know how soon after going to bed this is happening - is it within an hour or two or is it happening early morning before you get up?

This is just another thought when I saw your mention of the food change.

[julio_dublin]

Hi,

I've been a lurker here for quite a while but registered today so that I could post about a very similar issue with my miniature (Julio, male, 19 months). So apologies to pile in, but there's no point having 2 threads with almost identical issues. Julio is fully housetrained - never had any issues - but he is crated at night in our living room as I don't particularly want him wandering about the house when I'm asleep (personal preference).

About a month ago he began pooing in his crate at night and burying it under his mattress. The stool seemed a bit loose so at first I put it down to him having a tummy upset. After a couple of days the stool had returned to normal, but he was still creating a nightly mess. He doesn't bark when it happens (I'm a heavy sleeper but my wife is a very light sleeper). We resolved the issue by switching him from a 30 inch to a 24 inch crate. He took to the new crate fine, still has enough room, happily crates himself day and night when he's feeling tired, etc. And we've had a month or so if issue-free nights until this morning...

I came downstairs this morning to discover that he had soiled in the crate, then (as you'd expect) done everything he could to remove the offending material from the crate. He had also vomited, which is new, but the stool was normal (not loose at all).

I'm now tempted to no longer crate him at night time but instead contain him in the kitchen because a) it's a lot easier to clean up any mess and b) he doesn't have to get himself covered in poop and/or suffer through being in such close proximity. But if he's already eliminating at night in his crate, I'm pretty sure that he would just take advantage of the extra space he has to put some distance between him and the mess if he needs to go, not to mention allowing him to develop the habit of going indoors.

Any advise is much appreciated. Thanks.

[zeta1454]

Hi Mark - no problem adding your post to this thread which does make sense, of course.

With sudden unexplained changes in behaviour, it can be worth just having Julio checked at the vet to be sure there is no health issue involved. However, if everything else seems normal and he is well in himself, it would still be useful to find out why Julio is doing this as, just as you found with the smaller crate, unless you can get to the root of why he has started poo-ing during the night, any changes to his environment may not make any difference.

I can suggest a few things here but they are just random thoughts as the only time we have had a dog poo-ing in their crate or indoors at night it has been due to either not going before they went to bed or to being unwell.

When Julio first started doing this had anything at all changed in his routine: any family changes, work times changed, food changed including amounts fed or treats given, anything different in where he was walked or when, had anything happened around that time at all which may have caused him anxiety? Had he received any medications, chemical treatments? Also is he definitely doing a poo before going to bed?

This could be an anxiety issue - is there anything happening outside the house at night that might startle Julio? Sometimes animal or bird noises at night, close to the house can set off a dog barking or, depending on their temperament, may scare them if they do not know what it is and cannot get away or investigate. Human noises - car engines, motorbike revving up, farm machinery can all be possible anxiety triggers. Sleep is the time when the brain processes everything that has happened in the past day or days and this is the same for people and dogs. Certain things that are not in themselves scary may become so in dreaming as information is processed - a new place visited may trigger fears in dreams of being lost, attacked, unable to find family / friends. Nighttime bed wetting in children is often due to nightmares from this kind of brain activity.

Although many dogs do settle just fine sleeping outside a crate and are usually unlikely to wander about if they are ready to sleep at night, it doesn't help in this case necessarily to solve the issue of why he is poo-ing (unless Julio has become anxious about being confined for some reason) and some dogs actually prefer the comfort of a crate which can seem a place of safety so may not help in Julio's case.

I can understand why you would want to let him out though in terms of hygiene and cleanliness so, as an interim measure, you could perhaps try putting up a playpen type enclosure around the open crate, at night, so Julio can eliminate outside his crate but can also sleep in it and does not wander / poo randomly in your kitchen.

If you are certain that there is no physical health issue involved, I would try to make sure that Julio has had a poo before he goes to bed, allow him a bit more space so he can go outside his bed area, see if you can think of anything that either might trigger anxiety at night or anything that has happened during the day. It is certainly puzzling as it is very rare for a housetrained dog to suddenly, regularly start eliminating in his bed without a very specific trigger - it is just trying to work out what that is!

Good luck with resolving this and do let us know how you get on.

[Oscar 12345]

Hope you can sort this.

Just some thoughts to add to Leigh's advice. Could it be internal parasites? I would do a wormcount to rule out worms. Baby monitors are really good to check up on pets when they are not sleeping near you. I realise you might have to stay awake but it would tell you if something is waking him and scaring him but it could inform you on what is going on. Good luck.