# Dog won't pee anywhere but backyard



## mrquizzical

Hello all,

I have a 7-month old female Lab that will not pee or poop anywhere but our backyard. When we take her on walks, she won't go potty; she'll wait until we get home. Where this has become a problem is when we take her away from home for several hours, e.g., to a relative's house. We'll take her out to go potty, several times, but she will hold it for hours in obvious discomfort until she has an accident. At first we thought she just didn't like being on a leash when she goes, but we've taken her to the off-leash dog park, with plenty of room to move away from us, and she still will hold it until we get home. By the way, she has been this way since the first day we got her. We love our pup and want to take her with us on trips, but we really can't until we get this resolved. Any ideas would be appreciated! 

Thanks,

mrq


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## MegaMuttMom

Our dog was the same way when we got him. I know it sounds crazy but, when we went to our vacation house the first time, we brought poop with us. My husband had the idea. Well, it worked. My husband put the poop where we wanted him to go, and Cherokee went to sniff the poop and we told him go pee, go poo, and much to my amazement, he did! I think it is hard because my dog is so submissive he doesn't think any other territory is his to claim. As he has grown confidence through obedience training and lots of socialization, he has started marking on our walks in the woods. Occasionally he will even poop. Last night my husband came home from a leash walk and Cherokee peed for the first time on a leash walk. He is one and a half and he's been with us for a year and this was his first pee on a leash walk. Funny the things we celebrate.


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## mrquizzical

MegaMuttMom, thanks for the encouragement! I'll definitely try your suggestion, and nice to know there might be light at the end of the tunnel!


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## Elana55

My first question is, have you *ever* caught her going in the house and punished her for going indoors (even ONE time can be enough)? The second part of the question is, do you lavishly praise her for going in the back yard? 

If she has been punished for going indoors, and rewarded for going in the backyard, she is AFRAID to go anywhere BUT the back yard. She knows only this: "The back yard is safe and I can get relief and rewards," NOT "It is unsafe to go to the bathroom in the house and everywhere outside is safe." 

If you have punished her for going in the house this is the results.. and this is why punishment in dogs doesn't work well. They do not make the association with punishment the way we do AND dogs don't generalize their lessons!!! What they learn in one place they may have to learn all over again somewhere else. 

The other problem is that IF she is ever punished in the back yard (and it may have nothing to do with going to the bathroom.. it might be for something else when she has a full bladder) she may START to to go in the house again (because by punishment she has been taught that now NO WHERE is safe). 

IF you have *never* punished her for going in the house, but only praised her for the back yard, then it is just that dogs don't generalize. You may have to transport some of her pee to give her the idea. You may have to do this anyway. 

The other thing is to take her some place else for a LONG time so she HAS to go and then when she does praise her to the stars.


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## mrquizzical

Thanks for the input. We have never punished the dog for peeing inside. In fact, we had very good luck with crate training and so the number of inside accidents was very minimal. At any rate, we don't punish the dog, and she has been praised elaborately for going outside. We'll try transporting some pee...if we can catch some...


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## MegaMuttMom

You don't need to catch the poop  I had to catch pee for a urine sample and I used a ladle. He is so shy about peeing I only got a little because he stopped when I got it under him then he knocked my hand when he lowered his leg. Very tricky to get a pee sample........


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## Renoman

Some dogs are just like that. Reno was the same way until he was 7-8 months old. He would not go anywhere but his own yard. 

Eventually, as he got more and more accustomed to going places with me, he slowly started being able to go in other places. 

Be patient, she may grow out of this with time.


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