Need a bit of advice if poss...

[Silver Lining]

Hi

Has been a while since i posted, but been busy reading everyone else's questions !

Maddie is doing great, she has just had her 2nd season ( first was June / July last year followed by a phantom pregnancy in August ), but i now find myself with a problem i can't seem to solve

She has started to not go out in the evening before bed for the toilet - we always had our ritual of going into the garden together before bed and she did her business, now i end up in the garden and she watches me from the door, before turning away and getting into her crate, despite me calling her. If she manages to somehow get out of the front door she goes in a specific spot in the front garden immediately ( even if she has just been in the back garden and done nothing ) and will happily trot back in having been for a wee. In the mornings the back door is open for over an hour ( whatever the weather ) while i get sorted, then she is on her own from 8.15 until after lunch - for the past few days i have come home to a mess every day where she has obviously not gone in the garden. She never messes so i'm not understanding this reluctance and constant messing. Obviously at 11pm i don't really envisage myself out the front in my pj's ... i can only really get away with that out the back !

Any ideas ? I thought maybe the wind and rain was putting her off, but she will happily go for a walk in it all so it's not that.. Just no idea how to solve it.

[Gazelle1000]

Can you not take her for a short walk as appose to the garden

The smells out and about may make her go

Just a thought!!

[Naj]

Get her into the habit of peeing on cue. And it could well be the weather. Why would she go out from her warm dry house into the cold & wet without the incentive of going for a walk when she can just do her stuff in the house? You don't seem to mind, from her point of view, because you let her break the nightly ritual rather than insisting that she come out & do her business. You really want to get her into the ritual of going with you at set times & then she can mooch about for her hour in the mornings with you knowing that she had been. Also, if you haven't done so already get some stuff from the vets or a pet shop specially for cleaning where she messes in the house otherwise it will act as a trigger for her to go there again.

Naj

[Judy]

If she is happy to go out the front then something has upset her out the back. Suggest you take her out front in the evening before you get ready for bed, not ideal but a first step. Then, as Naj suggests, when she is out walking put emptying on cue by saying "toilet" or "be quick" or whatever you prefer as she is going then reward, work forwards so that you say it just as she is about to go so that it looks like she is doing it to order - watch carefully, you'll see when she is making ready. Dogs usually cotton on to this one quickly.

As for the mornings, can you take her for a quick walk instead of letting her mooch around on her own? Just until she is performing to order either that or spend time wandering the back garden with her on a lead until she goes - she is probably very uncomfortable about going indoors so it shouldn't take long. Perhaps play with her out the back so that she gets over whatever is making her reluctant to go out there. Bitches can be funny after a season, getting a bit precious but I don't think it will take her very long to get over her little problem if she has been in a routine of emptying outside before. One of mine decided she wasn't going in the garden last thing recently, I put her lead on and wandered round the garden with her until she performed, it took two nights for her to revert to normal.

As for cleaning up indoors, biological washing powder or liquid will do the job.

[munstyman]

As above, I agree with Judy that something has probably spooked her, about the back garden, I wouldn't get to hung up in analysing what, as you may never find out. I would ask is it darker out back than out front?
I also agree with Naj, that a routine and toileting on cue is a very useful thing to have trained even if you rarely have to use it. The other thing is that like a child, dogs tend to think in the moment. Ask any parent going for a day trip out with the kids in the car. You ask the child do you want to go to the toilet? No. Are you sure? yes. Five minutes down the road the first thing you hear from the back seat `I want to go to the toilet' Sometimes you just have to `run the tap' and make them go.
And going for three out of three, Gazelle1000 also makes a valid point in that a little exercise also stimulates the urge to toilet, not ideal before bed time but I always exercise my dogs before going out to work and make sure they've emptied. Any accidents after usually indicates something wrong has been consumed.

[Silver Lining]

Thank you all - i know it was probably a daft / mundane question..

Yes munstyman it is darker out back than the front, and i think there could be a couple of reasons as to why she may be spooked ( thinking about it ) i am between 2 houses who have "stuff" in their gardens and with all the winds there have been lots of flapping from bags and things rolling around, there is also a new cat on the block and there has been fighting on my back fence with the resident tom cat - despite the door being open she won't venture out.
She will come out into the garden with me when i get on her level and call to her, but she'll come and sniff, walk a bit and then trot back to her crate. She has a command for the toilet and it's "paper" as that is what i used when she was young, she knows that when the TV is turned off and i say "paper then bed" she is up and in the kitchen in her bed waiting for me to come in- it's a command i use every night with her regardless.

I have to say i was more worried with this season, she seemed very stressed and did a lot of pacing, which has made me seriously think about whether i put her through another one as they have both seemed "difficult" for her. I did also want to ask if it was normal to have seasons that close together ? This one happened 5 months after her phantom pregnancy and 6 months after her first season. I didn't like watching her like that and took a lot to settle her down of an evening.

[munstyman]

I don't think its a mundane or daft question, one thing I've learnt is for every one person that asks a question, there are probably ten or more waiting for the answer
After being attacked by a neighbours dog in my garden, my last dog, big and brave as he was, started to show signs of wariness went sent out for the last toilet visit. ( slow to venture out and very quick to come back in ) This seemed to be worse during the dark winter months and when the wind was blowing away from the door into the garden, so no scent was available for him to assess `lurking monsters' just around the corner.
After acquiring some of those cheap solar lights and placing them around the garden, especially in likely monster lurking places, he seemed far more relaxed and confident.
Some seasons do mess with a bitches head and can make them `extra' sensitive and clingy, but a six month season is the norm. I'm not sure about the `paper and bed' thing I might be reading more into it, but whilst I talk to my dogs in conversation mode a lot of the time in the house, I still give instructions and commands as separate, distinct words, so paper would be given on opening the door, and bed on coming back in. ( Just covering all bases though )