Well, hello there and welcome to another episode of the fixing
separation anxiety podcast.
Welcome to the fixing separation anxiety podcast.
Where it's all about healing your dog,
regaining your freedom and getting your life back on track.
And now here's your host,
Julie Naismith.
This week's topic.
Well, it's not so much of a topic as it is
a question.
The question is,
why does he own me do it when I'm out,
you got one of those dogs?
Do you know what I mean?
You go out,
you leave your perfectly house trained dog and you come back
only to find that he's left you a little present on
the carpet.
My does he do that?
How frustrating is it?
He seems like a hundred percent house trained.
You have worked and worked on,
worked on it.
Maybe he's a puppy who's like six months old and he
hasn't had an accident inside for months,
or maybe he's an adult dog and you've had him for
years, never had a problem with house training.
And all of a sudden you're getting these little surprises when
you return home.
Well, if this is you,
and if it sounds like your situation,
you really need to get to the bottom of what's going
on. So you can put an end to if it's a
problem behavior.
So you can treat it.
If it's medical,
now this is really important because if your dog has been
house trained and a hundred percent cast iron reliable for years,
then the very first thing I would do in that situation
is talk to your vet to make sure there's nothing medical
going on.
Okay. So if you've ruled out medical,
then we've got behavioral.
So let's talk about what that could be.
Well, if he's getting up to all this stuff,
doing accidents and I'm leaving little presents for you when you're
out, it can definitely seem like he's being sneaky or he's
somehow being defined or challenging.
But you've got to know that this is not what motivates
him to do this when you're out,
this is not what's going on.
He's not mad at you.
He's not trying to get back to you for going out.
So what is going on?
Well, number one,
the first thing that it could be,
it's very important that we look into this.
It could be that he's anxious.
So one of the telltale signs of an anxious dog,
dog who has separation anxiety,
one of the telltale signs is that they soil the house
when you leave,
but they don't do it at any other time.
It's only when you leave.
So that's important to remember if it's only when you leave
and he's doing it while you're gone,
is he anxious?
And how do you know it's anxiety?
Well, first off set up a camera,
have a look at his body language.
Does he look fearful?
Does he look stressed out?
Does he go panicking?
Does he look terrified?
Look at the body language and then do a check on
anything else.
Are your neighbors hearing barking?
Can you see any signs of chewing or scratching?
Do you see any of those behaviors when you leave him
and video him,
you really want to look at the picture in the round.
Now it could be that he is anxious when you leave
him. And the only thing he's doing is soiling.
I think some people get confused.
When I talk about the signs of separation anxiety,
they sort of think that their dog has to be displaying
all of these or most of these.
I'll get people saying to me,
well, I don't think it's separation anxiety 'cause all he's doing
is barking or I'm pretty sure he's fine because he chooses
and he destroys,
but he's not,
you know,
whining and barking and vocalizing.
Where the separation anxiety dog,
you don't have to have a ton of different things going
on for there to be an indication that he's anxious.
So don't go running down a checklist of stuff,
adding it up and working out if you get 10 out
of 10,
even just one thing going on can be a sign that
he's anxious.
So for your dog,
there could be nothing else going on.
It could just be that they soil when you go out,
that could be enough to tell you that he's anxious,
but I need you to check that there's nothing else going
on with the house training.
Be absolutely certain that he is only having accidents when he's
alone. Make sure that he's not sneaking off to a spare
room or to a basement having really good thing can do
some really good about whether he might be doing this when
you're not around,
not just when you're out.
See the difference?
So that leads me to point number two is he may
have developed a habit of not wanting to go in front
of you.
So it's not really about being anxious about being left.
It's actually anxiety about going to the loo in front of
you. Some dogs develop this condition,
which we call reverse house training.
So basically they've learned instead of learning to go in front
of you,
when you're house training them,
they actually learned that it's not safe to go in front
of you.
They end up being really uncomfortable going in the garden or
the yard or going on a walk and they wait for
you to be out of the way before they go.
So that could be you've gone out the house or it
could be you're just in another room.
That's why I say have a really good check around the
house. Make sure you're not seeing any other accidents elsewhere and
he's just sneaking off to do it.
So how would you know if it is this thing going
on, where he's just got really uncomfortable going in front of
you? Or like I say,
see if there's any other accidents in the house,
but also do you take your dog out and find that
he won't go to the loo?
He won't go for potty break when you're there.
He just kind of stands in the garden or the yard
looking at ya and nothing happens,
but you know,
he wants to go and then you wait and wait and
wait. Soon as you turn back to go in the house,
or as soon as you're back in the house and in
a different room from him,
he goes,
that's a really clear sign that he's got uncomfortable going in
front of you.
Now, why on earth would he do that?
Why on earth would you take your dog out in the
war? He's desperate for pee,
why on earth would he not go for a pee?
It doesn't make any sense.
Well, here's the thing.
Dogs who have accidents in the house can frustrate us,
can't they?
It's human nature.
When we see a puddle on the floor or a pile
of poo on our favorite carpet,
it's human nature to get,
even if we don't get cross with them,
get angry with them directly.
It's hard not to feel angry.
And so what can happen is he can learn that going
in front of you is a bad idea.
This is especially the case if you do do what people
tell you is a good thing and you punish them.
Now, people will tell you,
you need to punish your dog when they have accidents,
it's not true.
It doesn't help.
And it leads to this condition where they don't want to
go in front of you because instead of learning where to
go, he learns that going in front of you is dangerous
and he ain't going to do it.
So in the past,
if you've ever scolded him or punished him or just got
angry in front of him for going inside,
he might've decided that it's really,
really not safe to go in front of you.
So he's going to go where you can't see him.
And that could be either you going out or you're going
into another room.
So a dog who goes when you leave him,
the dog is soils a house when you leave him but
doesn't soil at any other time,
we're trying to work out,
is he doing that because he doesn't want to go in
front of you or is he doing it because he's anxious.
It could actually be the third thing,
which is he just isn't fully house trained.
But if it's one or two,
then we need to take some action.
If it's three or we need to take some action too,
which is we get really,
really focused on the house training.
So if the soiling is unrelated to separation anxiety,
if it's related to anxiety about going to the leery in
front of you,
or if it's just house training that's gone a mess that's
come undone.
Then you need to get really,
really tight on the house training.
So you go back to basics,
you're going to manage him.
You're going to keep your eye on him every single minute
that you're around.
So you prevent accidents.
And I know it's going to be a pain in the
first instance,
but it's worth it.
You've got to stop him going indoors.
You've got to,
because every time he goes in doors,
the relief of going indoors is a massive reward and he's
going to keep doing it.
Okay? So you have to stop it.
And how do you stop it?
You do not take your eyes off him when he is
full. And Dunbar says,
treat an accident in the house as a disaster.
Think of it as being a disaster,
and that can help you with your vigilance.
So every time he goes inside,
it is nothing less than a disaster.
So manage,
manage, manage,
do not let him out of your sight when he is
full. Number two,
when he goes outside,
you need to go with him as you have been doing,
but you need to get into the habit of rewarding really
generously. If he's not going in front of you,
reward him for sniffing,
reward him for doing anything that leads up to peeing or
pooping. You might need to give him a little bit of
a break from you standing over him hovering,
hovering over him and making him feel freaked because he doesn't
like going in front of you.
Now, if you've got the situation where he just will not
go in front of you,
take him out to the yard,
take him out to the garden,
turn your back,
but be vigilant.
And as soon as he goes,
he thinks you're not watching,
but you are.
And you're going to go and you're going to praise the
heck out of him.
And you're going to have a massive chicken party.
It's going to be the most amazing thing.
You're going to have to do a lot to recover his,
to get his faith in you back that he can go
in front of you and it's safe.
Okay? So make sure you have a massive chicken party as
I call it every time he goes outside where you want
him to go.
So after you've done step one and two,
no free time when he's full.
Step one,
manage him manage him managing him so you don't have any
accidents, accompany him outside.
Number two,
when he goes outside,
massive, massive party.
Once you've done that for about three weeks,
you can loosen up the management and you can start to
interrupt him when you do find him having an accident.
And so after a few weeks of no accidents,
you're going to see a massive change.
And once you've got that solid dog who now is comfortable
going in front of you on the walk or in the
garden, the dog who knows it's just not the right thing
to do to go inside and is massively incentivized to go
outside. Once you've got that going,
he can start to have more freedom.
All right.
So quick recap.
If you're really stuck on the reverse house training,
you are going to need to tether him to you.
You're going to need to crate him.
He's going to need constant supervision.
So even more than the dog,
that's just have a,
had a house training blocks.
Like I said,
the praise and reward has got to be spectacular.
He needs to unlearn that going in front of you is
dangerous and he needs to start learning that it's fun and
it's safe.
So make sure when your dog does stop having these accidents
in the house,
make sure we do the check.
Could it be anxiety?
The signs of that might be other things going on at
the same time,
chewing, destroying body language,
get your camera on him,
see what's going on.
So number one,
could it be anxiety?
Number two,
could it be that he doesn't want to go in front
of you or his house training has just lapsed.
If it's number one,
where he has the anxiety about being home alone and that's
causing the house soiling,
then you're going to tackle the separation anxiety.
If it's number two,
you're going to focus on changing how he feels about going
in front of you and tighten up his house training generally.
Okay. So two very different courses of action depending on what's
going on with your dog.
And don't forget whatever you do.
If it's a sudden onset of a house training issue in
an older dog,
definitely have a chat with your vet,
really important that you do that.
All right.
I hope that's been helpful.
It's a such a tricky topic.
Remember, he's not doing it because he's mad with you for
going out.
He's not doing it because he's bad.
And that look on his face when you come back,
that's not guilt,
more than likely it's fear.
So if this is going on with your dog,
you can definitely,
definitely tackle it.
Get to the root of the problem,
address his anxiety.
So without the house training issue,
if it's a house training issue and almost an upwards.
All right,
thanks again for listening.
And I will see you online soon.
Bye for now.
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