12 year old shih tzu has forgotten house training - Answered by N. Kitching
MY 12 1/2 yr old shihtzu has recently (since mid last year) started pooping in the house when we are out. The problem has gotten progressively worse, to the point that we can be sure to have a proze waiting for us, even if we go out for a short while (1/2 hour). We have tried retraining him. No luck. He is good during the day, scratching on the door to go out. He does this several times a day but only makes a small squirt of urine and on some days, poops. On other days, we can't get him to poop when he is outside unless he is walked on a leash for several blocks. On other days, we can't get him to poop outside at all. But he will surely poop inside when we leave him alone for a bit. When we go out, we lock him into the laundry room, which is reasonably spacious for a 12 lb dog. We have tried putting him in his cage/crate to try to re-train him with crate training. It is not too big for him. He poops in in and gets it everywhere! It's easier to clean up if we don't put him in the cage. Today when we went out, he pooped on the laundry room florr and walked in it and had it all over the place! He was house trained at about 10 months old in a very focused regimen and has had few issues up until last year. He would NEVER have the problems he is having now. We are out of ideas, at our wit's end.
Any suggestions?
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