How Do I Train Him To Poop

[seeh2o]

We are supposed to have "the storm of the century" this week and it's supposed to rain hard most of the week. I do walk them in the rain, but it may not be safe with mudslides and trees down in the park. I need to teach him how to poop before I leave the house. Does anyone have any success stories they can share with me?

 

Carl is a boy who will poop like a crazy man when we walk, but isn't so inclined to do so at home in the morning if we don't walk. For example, I didn't walk them this morning, but had to go out for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I tried to get him to poop (I've tried to train him, giving him praise and a cookie when he poops in the yard on the rare occasion it happens and when we are on walks), but he wouldn't. He will go out and pee before I leave the house. So, I get a call from the neighbor that he has been crying off and on for an hour. Why? Because he needed to poop. I got home about 5 min. after she called and could hear him as I walked up to the house. He went out in the yard and pooped about 5 min. after I got home.

[Guest SillyIzzysMom]

maybe you can make him walk around inside enough and then take him out? If it's the walking for 30 minutes that gets him going, that might help? jog him back and forth for awhile inside then take him out? Or, just set your alarm and feed him an hour or two early--hopefully getting to the "I gotta go NOW" stage before you leave for work so you can just let him out? I know it's not ideal, but I can remember hearing thunder storms approaching and jumping out of bed to feed mine early enough that they have time to eat and go out and do their business before the big storms hit

Good luck

[Batmom]

Some good advice above. A bit of activity helps get the bowels moving. Will he chase a toy in the yard, or run back and forth a bit if you call him from one side, then the other?

[Chicocat]

One thing I've found that works -- allow enough time for a second time out in the yard in the mornig. Some dogs just aren't ready on that first pee trip.

[GeorgeofNE]

I'm chucking over "can't walk," just because I have NO OPTIONS, ever. So to me there really isn't "can't walk" weather--but I do understand there are days when you need to get things moving quickly!

 

 

My last dog was a very, very smart mixed breed, and he actually understood "let's go potty" and most times would respond! What I did was every time he pooped, I said the words a LOT, "good potty," "nice potty" etc. and gave him a treat. I NEVER said those words unless he pooped. He was smart enough to understand. George? Let's just be kind and say he is not!

 

But I keep to a very rigid schedule time wise so that he KNOWS when he is going to be able to poop, and he seems to time it right.

 

I must say, he has never once pooped in the house except when he was first adopted and had explosive diarrhea AND a happy tail in the crate all in one day! Took me four hours to clean that mess up!!!

[seeh2o]

Thanks for the good suggestions, this is a problem I've never encountered and I've had dogs all my life! I have been working with him and trying to associate the word "poopy" with positive things. When he poops he gets lots of praise and a cookie. The thing is, these occasions are almost exclusively when we are walking, though I do it on my days off if I don't walk them and see him pooping in the yard. I said it to him yesterday out in the yard to get him to poop before I left for 2 hours and all he did was get real excited and look at my hand!

 

When we had a storm like this in '97 it wasn't so much "can't walk weather" as it was can't walk because of a mudslide! There was literally no walking anyone - human or animal - because of a mudslide that came down on the walkway where I live (about 25 feet from my front door) and the walkway is the only way to and from my house. We (me and my neighbors) couldn't even get out to our cars on the street. It took several of us shoveling it in the rain to cut a path through for residents to walk! I had to stay home from work because the road to my house through the park was closed due to mudslides and trees down across the road and the other direction there was so much flooding I wasn't going to be able to make it home! I'm just hoping the neighbors up the hill from me don't end up in my bedroom!