dog poop

Question
Hi,
I have an eight year old staffordshire terrier/mix breed.
She was abandoned at approx. 8 months old and was lost in the woods for a few months before I found her.  She is a very friendly dog and tries hard to please me.  When I found her I already had 3 dogs so she became the 4th and they all had fun.  Recently all three dogs have died with one thing or another, mostly old age.  The last one to go, had put to sleep because of a lung tumor.  Anyway, I took him to the vet. and now my terrier can't figure out what happened to him or another dog that had died a month earlier.  She has stopped going to the bathroom in the yard and she appears to be holding back.  I think she thinks if she goes to the bathroom she will be taken away, like I did with the Lab when I took him in the car to be put to sleep and he didn't come back.  She is really confused about going to the bathroom.  I can take her off in the car to somewhere else and walk her and she will go, but we have a big back yard and that is where she should go.  She will walk around the yard not to go thru it.
She will urinate a little.  She won't go near the spot that the lab used.  I know she feels that if she goes to the bathroom she will be taken away.  She is very
insecure from being lost in the woods as a puppy.  I dunno
if you know anything about this or can help?
Thank you for your time.
connie

Answer
Connie -

While your dog is clearly in mourning and confused, she is not literally thinking that she will be taken away if she potties in a certainly place.  Dogs are very intuitive and smart, but they just don't have the logic skills to take it to that extent.

Many dogs will not potty over a spot used by another dog and pottying in specific places is an important form of communication between dogs.  We often joke about dogs leaving "pee mail" for each other in neighborhoods.  

I have a couple of suggestions, one of which may sound crazy.

The nutsy sounding one is for you to figure out a manner tolerable to you for some on your urine to make it onto the ground (in a couple of spots) in your back yard.  I have had fosters who would not potty in the back yard and I had no idea why so I just tried it... and it worked like a dream.

She sees you as part of her "pack" and she may just need a little reassurance that she's not the only pack member left pottying in the yard.

Another thought was getting either some of the puppy pads or the little scented post they sell to encourage puppies to potty in certain places and put them in your back yard.  They put something one those that smell of urine to the dogs and it encourages them to go in those places.

I do think that you really need to keep on top of this since she can make herself quite ill by holding back.  In fact you may want to consider having a vet take a look at her to make sure she's not sick to start with.  A urinary tract infection is quite painful and can make a dog hold back.

She sure can use some extra time and attention during this transition time.

Thank you for loving her enough to notice these things. Many people don't love their dogs enough to do so....

-Beth