I have a 6.5-year-old male dog who won’t poop at home. He has the habit of pooping only when he’s outside, which is becoming a problem. If he could develop the habit of pooping at home, it would make life much easier for me.
There isn’t a single proper place where I can take him out to poop. There are houses and farms everywhere, and if the land is vacant, it’s full of tall grasses, bushes, and possibly snakes. This means there are no safe places to take him.
People complain even if he poops 100 meters away from their home. I have no other option, and it’s causing me stress. Sometimes, I wish I never had a dog because of the potential conflicts with others.
I hope there are some ways to help him learn to poop at home.
Start by using a cue word when your dog is actually going to the toilet, regardless of where it is. While he’s doing it, repeat this word over and over. As soon as he finishes, give him a few small pieces of something he really loves, like roast chicken, sausage, or cheese. Do this for about a week.
After a week, take him out to your own garden at the time you know he needs to go. Use the cue word you’ve been saying, just once. If he has learned to associate that word with toileting, he will go in order to get his reward. If he hasn’t, go back to step one for a bit longer. Don’t say the cue word more than once because that teaches dogs that complying when you ask is not actually expected, which is not what you want.
Keep rewarding him for toileting on cue. After a week or two, you can start to fade the reward to his normal food.
Use a plastic bag to pick up his toilet and dispose of it at home, or take a little spade and bury or dump it away somewhere acceptable. Then folks have nothing to be furious about.
No matter how much others protest, as long as you keep your dog on a leash outdoors and pick up their excrement, they will be wrong. Don’t waste your energy arguing back. Just keep walking. Dogs require walks, as previously indicated. It’s not just about their natural demands; it’s also about activity. Not to add that using the bathroom in the house is inherently unsanitary. (Most dogs dislike going to the bathroom where they consider “home” anyway.) This is the first time I’ve seen someone complain about their dog being properly toilet trained!
Instead of trying to retrain your dog, you could try this:
Carry some newspaper and a plastic bag whenever you take your dog for a walk. As soon as your dog crouches to poop, put the newspaper underneath him. Let him poop on the newspaper, then fold it up and put it in the plastic bag.
This way, no one can say that the poop ever touched the ground! If someone says something to you, you can just ignore them because they have nothing to complain about. Don’t answer them, just walk away with your dog’s poop neatly in a plastic bag!
Like the others, I’m assuming that when you say “poop at home,” you mean in the backyard, not within the house. Yes, he can be trained that it is acceptable to poop in your yard, but it will take some time. You must encourage him, and when he does defecate in your yard, give him plenty of treats and praise. Keep doing this consistently, and he’ll quickly equate going into your yard with getting really excellent stuff.
Even urine is not permitted. It is impossible to find an empty space outside. I’m fine with dogs defecating in the yard or garden, however the space is limited.
It might be difficult for me to hold a dog leash in one hand and a spade in the other.
If you seek a solution, you will find it. Many individuals have utilized Joanne’s method to teach their dogs to urinate on command. People in my community expect the road to be dirty, so I taught my dogs to use the restroom on the side of the road. Of course, I carry bags with me to pick up solid waste. I have a clothing with enormous pockets, so I keep everything I need in one of them. Foul items are doubly packed in plastic bags before being placed in a pocket. Having everything in a pocket frees up both hands to hold the leash.
In the UK, some locations require pick-up, while others have a ‘flick with a stick’ policy.
One of my pet peeves is “biodegradable” poo bags. The majority aren’t truly biodegradable. They require an aerobic environment to decompose, and most end up in landfills, which are anaerobic environments. However, those that do break down only produce microplastics, which are harmful to the environment.
So, in regions where there is little risk of it being stomped on, I am more likely to flick or leave it, for the sake of the environment.
However, returning to the OP’s point, if people are likely to complain, it should surely be addressed.
I always, without fail, pick up my dogs’ poop in urban areas or near where anyone lives.
But not when I’m out in the desert away from people. If we’re talking about environmental damage, plastic bags are far more harmful than a little dog poop here and there, some of which gets eaten by wildlife anyway.
Using a piece of newspaper is a good idea because it changes that issue. However, you still have to get that folded-up newspaper back home, so you’re probably using a plastic bag for that. If you fold it up nicely, though, you can reuse the same plastic bag many times.
I’ve done this, and it could solve the OP’s problem because nothing would even touch the ground, so no one could complain.