# Help getting dog to poop in yard



## moswell (May 23, 2011)

Hi all - first time poster here, largely because I'm so desperate I don't know what to do. I rescued a 1 year old male schipperke about a month ago. The dog was raised in a good home, they lived in an apartment and took the dog out on a leash every time for him to pee and poop.

Here's my problem: the dog (Drake) refuses to poop in my yard unless I take him out on a retractable leash far away from where I want him to do his business. This has gone on all month. 

Here's my setup: I have a tree pulley system between a tree and my back porch. If I let him out on that, he runs back and forth looking, sniffing, playing around, but he won't go. 

I'm sure he's not constipated because he'll happily go in the house if I'm not around and I added some pumpkin to his diet (I ended up having to buy a crate do ensure he doesn't go in the house when I'm at work). I take him out before I go to bed (say 11 at night), and then when I get up in the morning (around 8 am). He doesn't poop, so I put him in the kennel for a few hours and then let him out again at lunchtime (again, no poop). Then the same routine when I get home from work at the end of the day. At this point, he's usually gone about 18-24 hours without pooping. Each time I let him out for at least half an hour, if not longer. Usually what has happened is that he'll wander off into another room in the house and poop there (often while I'm cooking dinner and can't pay complete attention to him).

So here's what I've tried:

1. I'm now on vacation for two weeks, so I'm keeping him on a rope in the house within eyesight at all times to prevent any opportunity to poop in the house.

2. I've tried letting him out on the tree pulley and attaching the retractable leash to it, hoping that he'll find that closer to what he's used to and go. I've done this both with me constantly moving him around and with me at a distance.

3. I've tried building a small enclosure (about 14' x 8 ') to leave him in outside. He hates this.

4. I've tried the let him out for 5-10 minutes, bring him in and put in crate, try again in another 5-10 minutes, routine too. Doesn't work. I could do it for hours on end and he'd never poop.

I have got to get this figured out. I just can't take him for a walk every single time he needs to poop, and frankly, I don't want to walk him until he starts pooping in the yard, because I feel like I'm reinforcing his old habits if I let him poop on a walk (at which point, I've lost another two days in training because he'll hold it that long). 

He has other bad habits, but they're all ones I can eventually train out of him if I could just get the pooping in the yard worked out. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## doxiemommy (Dec 18, 2009)

You are doing the right thing by having him within eyesight at all times to prevent pooping in the house. In fact, that's the #1 tip for potty training. If you keep them in sight, you don't really give them the CHANCE to potty in the house! 

But, if he does have an accident, have you tried taking some of his poop and putting in your yard? Having his poop/scent in the yard could help encourage him to poop there.

Also, when you let him out to poop, try giving him a good 5 minute romp. If he runs around for 5 minutes or so it gets the bowels going, and might help him poop instead of holding it. That may mean you have to throw a ball for him, or play a bit, so he actually runs around....


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## moswell (May 23, 2011)

doxiemommy said:


> You are doing the right thing by having him within eyesight at all times to prevent pooping in the house. In fact, that's the #1 tip for potty training. If you keep them in sight, you don't really give them the CHANCE to potty in the house!
> 
> But, if he does have an accident, have you tried taking some of his poop and putting in your yard? Having his poop/scent in the yard could help encourage him to poop there.
> 
> Also, when you let him out to poop, try giving him a good 5 minute romp. If he runs around for 5 minutes or so it gets the bowels going, and might help him poop instead of holding it. That may mean you have to throw a ball for him, or play a bit, so he actually runs around....


Thanks for the comments. I've tried so many things I see I've forgotten to mention some of them! Yes, I've tried putting his poop in the yard. I even had my parents' dog come up for the weekend, hoping that the other dog would encourage him to mark his territory. 

I've also spent some time letting him run around in the yard - in the morning he tends to do that anyway, because I live near an elementary school and lots of kids and cars are going by first thing in the morning. 

I'm curious how people feel about my not taking him on a walk while I'm trying to fix this. It seems mean, but I just know that if he poops on his walk he'll never go in the yard. And I can't take him for a walk every day once I'm not on vacation anyway.

Also, he's not my first dog. I had a schipperke mix for thirteen years, so I'm familiar enough with the breed, and with dog training in general.


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## Northern_Inuit_Luv (Aug 26, 2009)

My last foster was like this and it drove me crazy. We did end up walking her a lot, she had favorite poop spots that were a couple of houses down. She would also be more tempted with other dogs poop in the area. Do you have any neighbors with dogs that you could (very strangely  ) ask for bags of poop? After a month or two, she was a little more comfortable to poop in the yard, but some days we would have to walk her back and forth on a leash to help get it to move out. I think it's just one of those things that's going to take time. No point in keeping it blocked up...if you can walk, then walk, but try to work on "heeling" and don't allow him to potty in other yards so he _has_ to go when you get back to your yard. I don't mean to drag the dog or make it stop once he's already started, but sort of "keep moving" so he doesn't have a chance to stiff and get comfortable until you are back at home.


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## FilleBelle (Aug 1, 2007)

I actually prefer that my dogs poo on their walks. Two walks a day, two poos a day. Neither of them appears to need more than that. I pick up a single piece of poo right when it comes out, throw it in the first alley dumpster I get to, and my yard is never messy.


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## moswell (May 23, 2011)

Anyone else? For various reasons, I really need him to learn this - walking will not always work for me.


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## Bones (Sep 11, 2009)

Depending on the time you have, I would grab a book and sit outside reading/watching him to see if he goes after a few hours. Also have you tried putting him out right after you feed him? In your place I would crate 100% when I can't watch him to ensure no wandering. Also when he leaves crate he should go outside to see if he goes before he comes in but his inside time will have to be 100% supervised if possible.

Edit: My dogs normally don't poo on walks because I hate picking it up unless we're out at the park. I've trained them to go in certain areas outside of my house/backyard.


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## Northern_Inuit_Luv (Aug 26, 2009)

moswell said:


> Anyone else? For various reasons, I really need him to learn this - walking will not always work for me.


No offense meant, but why get a dog if you can't walk it? It doesn't need to be a 2 hour walk, if he'll poo down the block then you might be out for 10 minutes. Walking your dog is basic dog care. Get up an extra 10 minutes early or do it first thing when you get home. It's annoying, but it sort of comes with the responsibility of taking care of a dependant. 

I won't profess to be the best owner in the world, but in my house if that's what a dog needs to properly function, then that's what a dog gets...regardless of if they are a perminant member of my house or just a foster.


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## moswell (May 23, 2011)

Northern_Inuit_Luv said:


> No offense meant, but why get a dog if you can't walk it? It doesn't need to be a 2 hour walk, if he'll poo down the block then you might be out for 10 minutes. Walking your dog is basic dog care. Get up an extra 10 minutes early or do it first thing when you get home. It's annoying, but it sort of comes with the responsibility of taking care of a dependant.
> 
> I won't profess to be the best owner in the world, but in my house if that's what a dog needs to properly function, then that's what a dog gets...regardless of if they are a perminant member of my house or just a foster.


Thanks for the lecture. I had a dog who lived quite well and happily for 13 years, I'm well aware of the responsibilities of taking care of a pet. That said, the pet must learn to adjust to the owner, not the other way around. I really don't think I'm asking for anything unreasonable here.

I do not have an extra 10 minutes in the morning - my body clock is hard-wired for being a night owl, but I work a day job. I struggle to get myself to bed before 3 am, despite the fact that I have to be at work by 9:30. That means I'm scraping for every spare minute of sleep I can get; an extra 10 minutes can make a huge difference. Since I'm unwilling to spend my life on sleeping pills, this is the way things go; the dog needs to do his business in the yard while I'm getting ready for work (as it is, I've been late to work every day since I got him). When I get home from work, I devote the majority of my time to training and playing with the dog, just as I did my previous dog. He will have a good life, and as I said, I really don't think I'm asking for him to do something unreasonable.


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## Northern_Inuit_Luv (Aug 26, 2009)

And he will adjust...it's just not going to happen overnight. All training that is done right takes babysteps. He doesn't necessarily NEED to poop in the morning. If he poops when you come home from work, that should be good enough as long as he's not having accidents in his crate. If he is having accidents in his crate, maybe consider getting a dog walker for the middle of the day to take him out since you can't do it in the morning. 

It usually takes dogs about 3 months to adjust to being in a new home (and for the people to adjust to the new dogs' mannerism). He may seem happy to you, but he's still learning the routine and still figuring out what's required of him. Last July we adopted out a dog and his owner just recently email us to tell us that for the first time, they were able to leave the dog crated when they went to work and they didn't come home to a mess in the crate. It took them a year of him only spending small amounts in the crate, but eventually they did succeed. That dog is very lucky to have found the home he did...not many would be willing to put in that much commitment.


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## doxiemommy (Dec 18, 2009)

moswell said:


> Thanks for the lecture. I had a dog who lived quite well and happily for 13 years, I'm well aware of the responsibilities of taking care of a pet. That said, the pet must learn to adjust to the owner, not the other way around. I really don't think I'm asking for anything unreasonable here.
> 
> I do not have an extra 10 minutes in the morning - my body clock is hard-wired for being a night owl, but I work a day job. I struggle to get myself to bed before 3 am, despite the fact that I have to be at work by 9:30. That means I'm scraping for every spare minute of sleep I can get; an extra 10 minutes can make a huge difference. Since I'm unwilling to spend my life on sleeping pills, this is the way things go; the dog needs to do his business in the yard while I'm getting ready for work (as it is, I've been late to work every day since I got him). When I get home from work, I devote the majority of my time to training and playing with the dog, just as I did my previous dog. He will have a good life, and as I said, I really don't think I'm asking for him to do something unreasonable.


This seems a bit defensive. YOU asked for the input. In your first post you mentioned that you can't/don't want to walk him every time he has to go. You mentioned that you didn't want to resort to walking him to get him to poop because you didn't want to reinforce his old behavior. So, no one really responded about how you need to walk him, they may have mentioned walking helps, or they walked their dogs to get them to poop, but no one called you on the carpet for it.

Then, a couple posts later, you, the OP asked for MORE input on you NOT walking him when you're trying to get him to poop in the yard : "I'm curious how people feel about my not taking him on a walk while fixing this". SO, Northern posted how she felt about you not walking him, and then you get all defensive. You asked several times for people to comment on the walking issue. Don't ask if you don't want people's honest opinion.

I personally have to agree that daily walks are an important part of a dog's life. The only exercise you mention is training and playing with him after work. That's not enough for a dog. Playing, even strenuous play, isn't the same as brisk exercise. I understand that you had another dog who had a good life. I just think you will find lots of people here who think daily walks is an important part of a good life.

Yes, the pet learns to adjust to the owner, but, for pete's sake, owners do need to do a few things to adapt to their pet. I mean, I have pets, and my life has changed since getting them, out of necessity. I would not take on a pet, and expect it to fit perfectly into my already established life. 
No, you're not doing anything unreasonable by wanting him to learn to poop in his own yard. BUT, I do think it's unreasonable not to give your dog a daily walk.


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