Doggie problems

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igloo

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Our 1 year old golden retriever has started a nasty habit of fouling her kennel in the last few weeks. We've wormed her but still does it. We've also left her kennel door open at night, and secured her with a very long leash so she can access the garden to relieve herself if needed (whilst not going off wandering the nearby fields during the night..). However, she doesnt bother to make it to the grass, and does her No.2's on the patio instead.

Mrs Igloo is extremely annoyed with her as we have very young children and cleaning up the unhygenic mess is very time consuming :(

We had her spayed about 3-4 months ago and had concerns at the time that the procedure might prevent her 'fully maturing' as an adult dog, but went ahead regardless on the balance of various advice received. She is quite disobedient (compared with other retriever we've owned) and is pushing our patience to the limit. Her diet is regular Red Mills working dog nuts, with pasta or potato skin mixed in. On occasion some wet tinned food too.

All comment appreciated
 
Not everyone will agree with this but it does work. A dog will not (usually) foul her own bed. If you contain her, the american term is "crating" then she will wait until she is let out. By letting her have access to the garden you are giving her opportunity to foul her bed and then move away from the mess.

As you're using a kennel with a door, you could make her bed up in there- use fresh blankets so there is no residue smell she associates with toilet.Let her out regularly and take her to the place you want her to "go". Don't shout or punish and if needs be, reduce her sleeping space by placing something in the crate. Reward and lavish with praise when she goes where she is supposed to.

A year old wouldn't be considered too young to be spayed but I have heard that they mentally stay the age they were at when it's done.

Argos do a see through metal cage in different sizes, we used this for our boxer as he took to fouling indoors when he first came to stay. He uses it to this day as his bed.
 
Do you take her out to walk and 'do her business' every day? Dogs are very fond of routine and I used to have a similar prob with my dog until I took him out twice a day. Now he wouldn't dream of doing it in the garden and will actually hold on until he gets out. Needless to say I use a pooper scooper to pick up after him.

If she's disobedient it also sounds like she might be under-excercised as young dogs have loads of energy
 
MelF said:
Do you take her out to walk and 'do her business' every day? Dogs are very fond of routine and I used to have a similar prob with my dog until I took him out twice a day. Now he wouldn't dream of doing it in the garden and will actually hold on until he gets out. Needless to say I use a pooper scooper to pick up after him.

If she's disobedient it also sounds like she might be under-excercised as young dogs have loads of energy
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Sounds to me like this is your answer.
 
MelF said:
If she's disobedient it also sounds like she might be under-excercised as young dogs have loads of energy
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Agree and agree with crating also.

You probably had an elderly retriever for years and have forgotten how much energy young dogs have.

My dog is 3 now and would drive me nuts if not walked daily with a run and some ball chasing thrown in....great for wearing them out.
 
All your comments are appreciated, thanks a lot.

She does get regular exercise and as we live in the country she is 'socialising' lots during the day with neighbours dogs in nearby fields, which can be rigourous! My wife walks her every day but juggling three young children means the dog doesn't get all the attention our previous dog got, if you know what i mean.

As for the crating, the whole episode started inside the kennel when she was fouling her blanket. We went through several of them and then removed them as we thought it was no longer hygenic or safe with the children playing outside. I should also mention that she was toilet trained indoors and slept in the utility room until she was moved out to her kennel.
 
igloo said:
I should also mention that she was toilet trained indoors and slept in the utility room until she was moved out to her kennel.
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If she gets enough excercise then I think this might be the problem really. As was mentioned above dogs love routine and chances are she is put out by being 'put out'.
 
igloo said:
Her diet is regular Red Mills working dog nuts, with pasta or potato skin mixed in. On occasion some wet tinned food too.

All comment appreciated
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Just be careful also of the food she is getting. Would you consider her a "working dog". It may be making her more hyper. You could try switch to a normal type adult food and see does this change her general behaviour.

Retrievers love company so she could be missing being more part of the family either and is nervous / lonely outside at night.
 
exercise, exercise, exercise... oh, and cut down the carbs. Out lab piles on the pounds if she's fed spuds etc..

Taker her swimming if you can.. they love the water.

A big energetic dog like that needs to burn off energy. It makes a world of difference to them.
 
This is what has always worked for us...you need to catch her in the act and when she's done stick her nose in the poo and shout NO. As I said, it has always worked for us.
 
Firefly - I've heard of that approach but I'm not too keen on 'staking out' her kennel at night waiting to catch her mid-poo!

Vernon - that might be a good option to change the type of nuts. will give it a go.
 
Firefly said:
This is what has always worked for us...you need to catch her in the act and when she's done stick her nose in the poo and shout NO. As I said, it has always worked for us.
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There's more humane ways of training that that. That method was discredited a long time ago
 
Firefly said:
This is what has always worked for us...you need to catch her in the act and when she's done stick her nose in the poo and shout NO. As I said, it has always worked for us.
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That's is foul and unnecessary, the best (and i'd guess most accepted) method is to bring them outside straight away if they start to, or do their business inside, and loads of praise etc when done inside.

OP maybe as others have suggested long walks and staying out until she has done her business, loads of praise and then hopefully she may get into a routine that walk=doing her business outside. Our two will routinely relieve themselves within the first five minutes of any walk.
 
A brief update:

For the past week i've made more effort with the dog to walk her in evening and let her back into the living room for company for an hour or two before bedtime. Since doing so I'm glad to report that she has not had any more episodes of fouling inside or directly outside her kennel. :)

In meantime, we had her at the vet for check-up and she told us to stop using Red Mills Worker food (too much protein in it). She recommended Hills prescription food - she would do as its €68 a bag!! Anyway we'll give it a go for a few weeks and probably revert to a cheaper product but with less protein.
 
That's great to know, delighted she seems happier! Seems like she was indeed 'acting out' a little.
 
Totally unnecessary. I have never had to toilet train a dog by sticking their nose into it.
OP - glad to hear she is doing well.
 
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