Cocker Spaniel Toilet Training....

barnumdog

We have 2 Cocker Spaniels, 1 male 2 years old, 1 female 18 months old. We got the female one to keep him company as he did howl all day when he was first left home alone.
We have increasingly having problems with the male dog with him relieving himself in the house while we are at work. I take the dogs for a quick walk round the block before work and hopefully they will perform so to speak with a proper walk after work. Recently he has been leaving a present (a no.2) shortly after we leave for work (10 mins). I have set an internet camera up to catch the offender!
If we put him in the garden before work (or anytime really), he seems to have serious issues about not wanting to perform and will sniff around as if ready and can't wait to get back into the house. The dogs are left for usually about 3 to 4 hours at the most we have either a dog walker coming in or the mother in law pops up to let them out.
The female dog, although if we stretch the 3to 4 hour rule, doesn't have issues with performing on command or doing it in the house, its just the male dog!
Over christmas we reintroduced puppy style toilet training with treats on being a good boy, but this doesn't seem to be having much effect.

Anyone any tips, advice....

Person_one

Did you watch the TV programme on a few days ago called 'the secret life of dogs' or similar?

It showed a lot of dogs getting very stressed out when left alone, and one of the symptoms of this was defecating in the house a very short time after being left.

I'd recommend watching the programme (I think it was ITV) and then doing some reading up on separation anxiety and methods for helping him to cope when left. I suspect this is nothing to do with toilet training and all about stress, if it only ever happens when you're gone.

barnumdog

I think I saw the first program some months ago, and my OH has suggested this may be the problem, but this doesn't explain his unwillingness to do anything when given the chance in the garden or on walks.
He does seem fairly content sleeping on the sofa all day, no more howling, but does jump up every now and again presumably when both dogs hear a car outside or something that they may think is one of us returning.
I could do with a whole suite of internet cameras to find out!

krlyr

I would think about how easy you would find it to 'go' on command. You could maybe empty your bladder if it was partially full, but your post suggests it's just a 'no. 2' you're having left for you - could you poo on demand?

I imagine he's not interested in trying to have a poo as he doesn't need one - and in this weather I know my two are eager to get back in ASAP during pee breaks.

However, if he's suffering separation issues, he will then experience stress even as you start to get ready, and the stress of you leaving probably causes him to relieve himself - again, think of yourself, if you've been nervous about something before you may well have felt the need to empty your bowels just from the jitters!

I would continue to treat him for separation issues and see if the issue resolves itself. Maybe keep up with the camera to see how he is behaving - I could see the improvements when dealing with seperation issues with one of mine.

I would perhaps also consider changing his meal times - could you maybe leave him with a Kong of food, to both tackle the stress (licking and chewing relieves stress in a dog, making a Kong ideal for this situation if there's no resource guarding problems) and also mean he has a relatively empty bowel when you leave him (and as the Kong will take longer to eat, it should mean his bowel takes a little longer to reach that stage!). I would also maybe look at the food you feed, and consider changing to something with higher digestibility to reduce the amount of poo his body is producing too (my raw fed dogs produce small, compact poos - not saying you have to go the whole hog and raw-feed, but consider the amount of fillers in your food - is it high in cereals, soy, beet, by-products?)

Maybe look at the pre-work walks too. If it's not stress, maybe the walk (perhaps combined with feeding times) is just enough to move his poo up his bowels - but he's not quite ready to 'go' on his walk or back home. Maybe he's then finding the exercise has moved things on enough that he feels the need to poo indoors shortly after. You could try lengthening the walk if possible, or maybe the same length but a bit earlier so he has time to do his business in the garden?

You could also try teaching him a toileting command. I'd carry treats in a treatbag on you and when you do catch him pooing in the garden, praise and reward him at the same time as introducing a cue word, e.g. 'go potty', 'do your business' or so on. Over time you should be able to phase the rewards out, and use the words as a prompt for him to do his thing (if he's physically ready to!)

ka7e

I have a 5 year-old Sheltie b1tch who will not perform in our garden. I'm sure it stems from me shouting "No!" at her when she came in from the garden and wee'ed on the living room carpet when she was 8 months old. She then decided that all "home ground" was out of bounds" for toileting. My 18 month-old dog has no problems using the garden.

barnumdog

Thanks for the advice, I think we will have to deal with the separation issue, they are both a soft as anything and can be very clingy, following us around the house constantly!

We do and always have raw feed the dogs, so luckily the accident is easily cleaned up!. We usually feed them around 5pm and they have treats when we leave them (currently these treats are veg, as they are on diets as they are a little tubby at the minute!)

I think he may have issues with going in the garden and maybe we will have to use a new word instead of 'have a wee' as this sometimes make him more determined to get indoors.
We must have done something in the past that makes him dread that sound.
I may have to start getting up earlier to make the walk a little longer, difficult in the winter but no pain no gain as they say!

Person_one

He may well associate being put in the garden and told to have a wee with being left alone, if one always follows the other!

krlyr

Mine are raw-fed too, one thing I found really helped my girl with separation issues was leaving her a Kong when we left. I had already worked up to freezing them - their raw mince or meat chunks fit in quite well, so I prepare several (have a cheap source of Kongs through work so I have a week's worth for both dogs!) and pop in the freezer. Come time to leave for work, each dog gets a Kong (failing that, it's a frozen block of mince or a big meat chunk) and head straight to their beds to eat. It's become part of her routine, and she's stopped pacing around worrying about me leaving now.

If you decide to give it a try, and they haven't had frozen Kongs before, I would work up to it slowly. If it's too difficult, he may not be likely to bother with it, Kiki wouldn't in her worst state (a stressed dog won't have an appetite)

I would wonder if having it all as one evening meal could be contributing - having smaller, more frequent meals could prevent it all being ready to come out the other end in one go. I feed mine twice a day - their breakfast Kong is any time between 7.30 and 11ish (my starting hours vary and OH's complete working hours vary each day) and then dinner around 5-6pm. They'll often poo at their last toilet break of the evening (around 10-12pm) and usually when let out in the evenings, but they don't always need to on their morning pee break.

krlyr

Nicole Wilde does a good book on separation issues, it certainly helped me
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leave-Seperation-Anxiety-Nicole-Wilde/dp/0981722733