Dog Health Questions: How to stop my indoor dog from pooping by the door?

My 2 and a half year old dog who was perfectly potty trained for a couple years has started to poop by the front door after I got my carpet cleaned. He's a small dog, trained to poop on dog pads for years, and all of a sudden he picked up this habit. When this would happen before I would show him where his dog pad was, and praise him when he went where he was supposed to go. Fine, everything worked. But now it's not having the same effect. He doesn't care. This has been going on now for 2 months! I live in an apartment, so I tried crate training him but he barked while I was gone and I got a notice from the office that the next time I'll get kicked out. I've lost patience, he's 2.5 years old, not a puppy, when I come home he runs straight to his traveling crate so he knows he does wrong. If this doesn't get fixed soon, he'll be on petfinder next. HELP please!

Thanks.

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Recommended Answer:
"If this doesn't get fixed soon, he'll be on petfinder next".

REALLY.

You train your dog to "go" inside. On a peepad, whatever. Its still *inside*. And you're going to get rid of him for doing what you taught him to do?

Keep training the dog. Its not his fault that you spend more time worrying about your carpet then you do training him. Get a dog-walker to come by halfway through the day to let him out if that is what needs to be done. You are committed to this dog, and don't think for one second that it is acceptable to burden a shelter with your 'problem'. This untrained dog is no ones problem but your own.

Dog Training - Tips For Consistency

• That sure would be a shame to get rid of a family member because you didn't want to stick out his training.
  
  Try limiting his access to a single room with a potty pad. BTW, this is a great reason why pads should never be used.
  
  ADDED: Let me get this straight; you solved the problem by putting pads next to the door and its not good enough? The dog can't have two spots? What's the difference? If he had 5 spots at least its not on the carpet. And whats more, you blame the dog and then threaten to get rid of him because of your ignorance. You're a piece of work.


• well get dog pads aand put a lot of them in front of the door.


• take him outside, he might want to go outside


• do you have a family member friend or neighbor that can take him out during the day?
  take him out for a long walk before you leave and don't leave him any food or water out till you get home.
  can you make a trip home at lunch?


• try not leaving food down while you are gone. Feed the dog first thing in the morning, wait a half an hour, then walk it or let it out into the yard so it can do it's duty. The dog is trying to tell you something. Maybe you are gone too long. It is using poop as an attention getting devise perhaps. Or you could spend a weekend training the dog to his crate properly.Feed it , take it out play with him, and confine it to the crate. Pretend you are going out, when he starts to bark or whine, come back into the apartment and do not yell, but tell him to be quiet. When he is , give him a very small treat. then leave again. When he barks, throw the door open, say "hi" to him. Sit by him and talk for a minute and leave again. you may have to do this five or six times for him to get the hint that you are coming back and he doesn't have to bark. But he will. When you can stay outside the door for 10 minutes at a time without his barking, you are on the right track. After you spend a couple of hours training him, take him out of the crate, put him directly on his leash and take him outside to do his duty. You might even leave him in the crate while you are at home doing housekeeping. Let him sit in it, not as a punishment, but as a treat. Give him treats while you do things around the house and he is in the crate You should repeat this performance on Sunday, Crate him, leave, come back, praise him, leave, come back, walk him. He should get the message. So by monday, you can leave him for much longer times because he knows you will come back.


• Oooo myyy LORD!
  
  I FULLY agree with Ty and Hello Sunshine!! You want people who tell it like it is to get it together??! Well I hate to tell you this little MIss, but they're RIGHT.
  
  You taught your dog to eliminate INSIDE. And he's doing exactly what you've taught him to do... it's not his fault you're clueless when it comes to the proper way to housetrain your dog. He's AT the door! What more of a bigger hint can he possibly give you??
  
  There are ways around this, and putting YOUR problem on someone else is NOT the answer.
  
  Don't feed him in the morning, and only feed him 2 hrs. before bedtime. And place those stupid pads everywhere, seeing as that is all he knows. Solved.


• My chihuahuas are piddlepad trained. The only time they ever "miss" is if I've forgotten to change the piddle pad in a timely manner. They don't want to walk in it anymore than I do.
  
  Have you tried putting a piddlepad by the door where he goes? If so does he go on it? Or pick a new spot. If he goes on it, that's great and can be worked with. If not, he's being spiteful for some reason and you need to figure out why he's unhappy.
  
  Ok, if he is going on the pad by the door. That's great, means he's simply become confused for whatever reason. Leave the pad there for a week or so, changing as necessary, but always putting it back in the same spot. Once he's become accustomed to going on the pad there, you can start moving it. Every 2-3 days, you pick up the icky pad, throw it away, replace with a new one, only you move it about 2-3 feet closer to the old pad. He should follow the pad, pooing on it at will. If he doesn't, put it back, and try again. Be sure to clean any misses thoroughly. If he does follow it, continue slowly moving it towards the old pad, until they are side by side, and you can just put one down.
  
  My female chihuahua, as a pup was determined to potty at the end of the hall, this is how I got her to use the piddlepad in the bathroom that I put down for my male. It took about 2 weeks. Alot less stressful for both of us than other potty training methods I've heard of, and tried before.
  
  Edit: Forgot to mention, his pooing by the door makes me think he's not used to being left alone, and isn't happy about it. If that's the case, it's not a matter of "oops I forgot where to go" but another problem all together. All I can recommend to this, is try and make up the lost time he feels he missed out on while you were gone. When he's happy again, he'll stop this nonsense.
  
  Good luck! And if you have a chihuahua, it's most likely him being pissy, as opposed to him simply having forgotten. I have two, they can be a handful.


• "when I come home he runs straight to his traveling crate so he knows he does wrong."
  
  Why do people think that a dog cowering or running away when the owner comes home means the dog knows he/she has done something wrong? What it means is that the dog has been conditioned to associated you coming home with a negative consequence and he wants to get away. All that really shows is that the dog is afraid of you.
  
  There are many reasons that the dog may be going on the carpet. In my experience with pee-pads the dog can often start to associate other things on the floor with pee-pads and start urinating/defecating on these things. The simple fact is that it is a lapse in training that has resulted in the situation you have now and this is something you have to correct.