hi there,
Our 20-month old rhodesian ridgeback pees and poos in the house. She knows she shouldn't do it and often eats the poo. She is perfectly capable of holding it and is so excited when we come home from work or get up in the morning and she's been clean and dry. She goes, at least for a pee, every time we let her out and she is walked two or three times a day and nearly always goes when she's out. However, doing her business in the house has got much worse over the last few days - we have been at home over Christmas and it seems to be every time we go out. Yesterday evening she had her tea and a walk. I then let her out in the garden a couple of hours later then went out to a neighbours. My husband arrived home 15 minutes later to two pees and a poo. Having mopped up, he also came out and we both arrived home a couple of hours after that to two poos (one of which had been eaten) and three pees. This morning, having left her downstairs in the kitchen last night, the kitchen floor was awash.
I don't think it's anything like a bladder infection - she can hold on when she wants to. It's as if she's doing it on purpose.
We were going to start going out of the house then coming back at varying times (30 seconds to a few hours later) to see if that would fool her into thinking it was OK for us to be out and that we'd be coming back anytime. Is this a good idea or will it make things worse?
When there's paper down she'll go on the paper and seems to think it's there for her to go on whether she needs to or not. I mop the floor with a pet neutraliser, oxy and/ or biological washing liquid - sometimes I'll mop three or four times in one go with a variety of stuff to get rid of any lingering smell - is there anything else I can try?
I've also tried feeding her where she's been but that doesn't seem to bother her and hasn't made any difference.
Re eating the poo - we tried adding in courgette to her food which did stop her for a while. They're now out of season - is there anything else we can add in to her food to put her off eating the poo? She also loves sheep, cow and horse muck when we're out walking and fox muck is a real treat. We do tell her off for this and try to distract her, but it's not always easy as she is so quick!
We are particularly frustrated because our last dog never went in the house at all and wouldn't go until she was outside - even when she was in boarding kennels - so this is really getting us down.
Any suggestions gratefully received!
