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toilet Training promlems

20 9:46:46

Question

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Yes he is netured but he does not sleep alone ,my eight yr old boxer sleeps in another bed in the same room . He also howls in the morning if he hears any movment upstairs. Noreen...

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I have a labador cross dog ,he is one years old and has been getting on fine mostly with toilet training. But for the last two mths every night he will mess the kitchen area. I have cut his food down to one cup only at night and he goes out before he goes to bed.I watch him go to make sure he does his toilet and he does. but every morning its the same thing. Would you have sugestion . thanking You Noreen.
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I see many similar questions. It sounds to me like the dog is doing it deliberately to protest being left alone. That is at odds with the conventional wisdom. However, many dogs don't seem to have read the parts about avoiding fouling their sleeping area. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/ Here are some other things you need to be doing to take over as top dog, http://www.dogbreedinfo.com./topdogrules.htm The top dog has the right to leave the lower status one confined when it isn't around. Neutering, if not already, isno cure all, but goes a long ways to reducing challenges to your status.  

Answer
You could try a crate.  It is only natural that a dog resists its crate at first.  What the dog
wants more than anything else is to be others, you, anyone else in the
household, and any other pets.    The
only real solution is to crate the dog when you aren't around.  The dog may be
happier in its den than loose in the house.  It relaxes, it feels safe in its
den.  It rests, the body slows down reducing the need for water and relieving
its self.  Dogs that have been crated all along do very well.  Many of them
will rest in their crates even when the door is open.  I think the plastic
ones give the dog more of a safe, enclosed den feeling.  Metal ones can be put
in a corner or covered with something the dog can't pull in and chew.  Select
a crate just big enough for the full grown dog to stretch out in.

Leave it some toys.  Perhaps a Kong filled with peanut butter.  Don't leave
anything in the crate the dog might chew up.  It will do fine without even any
bedding.  

A dog that has not been crated since it was little, may take some work.
Start out just putting its toys and treats in the crate.  Praise it for going
in.  Feed it in the crate.  This is also an easy way to maintain order at
feeding time for more than one dog.

The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy.  Very few houses even have a
safe room.  How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing
else?  Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else.  In addition
to destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have
intestinal  blockage from the pieces.  I had a friend that left her dog in a
"safe" room.  It ate a hole in the floor covering.  The safe rooms fail to
give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires.  Nor
do they restrict activity extending the time the dog can go without relieving
itself.